FitsNews.com - Graham's Lead Slips To Single Digits

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FitsNews.com - Graham's Lead Slips To Single Digits

Despite enjoying the most lopsided financial advantage we've ever seen in a race at this level (a $4 million war chest to his opponents' $983), U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham leads political unknown Bob Conley by just nine points, according to a Rasmussen poll conducted last week.

Graham gets 50% of the vote (including just 76% of the GOP vote) compared to Conley's 41% - a huge shift from previous polling that showed Graham enjoying a 20-point lead against the virtually unknown commercial pilot.

Conley, who has angered many Democrats by adopting fiscally-conservative positions on spending and limited government, has somehow managed to cut Graham's lead in half over the past three months, despite having no money and virtually zero name ID across the state.

"If those numbers are accurate, then the anti-Republican, anti-incumbent sentiment is something that Republicans in less red parts of the country should certainly start taking notice of," said Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon, who had heard of the results of the poll but had yet to examine its methodology.

"All things being equal, somebody with $4 million should be further ahead," Huffmon said, noting that he wanted to check the poll's sampling of voters to determine whether or not party affiliation and other factors had been properly weighted.

Conley, who has built his support by criss-crossing the state and speaking to both Republican and Democratic audiences, was thrilled with the results.

"These numbers indicate what we knew when we started this race, which is that the people of South Carolina are upset with the way things are going in Washington, and they're particularly upset with Lindsey Olin Graham," Conley said. "It's time for a change and a positive direction."

Conley added that the infusion of even a relatively small amount of cash into his campaign could position Democrats for a dramatic upset.

"This is a completely volunteer, completely grassroots organization," he said. "If we had half a million in the bank tomorrow, we'd be smoking."

If you're as disbelieving as we were initially about Conley's chances, click here to access the Rasmussen Reports poll.

Incidentally, we thought it would be interesting to compare these candidates' war chests with their current polling support, and we discovered that based on their most recent filings, Conley has $30 for every percentage point of support he's earned compared to Graham, who has $80,000 for each percentage point of support that he's getting.

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