A new political poll indicates that the state’s 2010 gubernatorial candidates will have to step up their efforts to get more face time and get their political messages across to the voting public. A new Winthrop University poll shows that the public barely knows the eight candidates, four Republicans and four Democrats, running for governor of South Carolina. Winthrop Political Science professor Dr. Scott Huffmon conducted the poll. Huffmon wanted to measure the basic name recognition of the candidates without mentioning that they were running for governor. 65 percent of those polled were unfamiliar with the four Democratic candidates. Of the four GOP hopefuls, Lt Governor Andre Bauer was the only Republican candidate who was well known by nearly 50 percent of the persons polled. Huffmon says he was not surprised by the results.

“If the recognition numbers had been high, that would have absolutely shocked me. They weren’t. The fact is most people can’t name their own representative much less somebody else’s  representative who’s running for governor. That told me that I was on the right track.”

The Democratic candidates are State Senators Vincent Sheheen and Robert Ford, State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, and Columbia Attorney Dwight Drake. Along with Bauer, Congressman Gresham Barrett,  State Attorney General Henry McMaster, and State Representative Nikki Haley are running on the GOP side.

The telephone poll was conducted February 6.  A total of 21, 837 adults responded to the poll, which Huffmon says represented a cross section of citizens from across the state. “Anybody that has a working telephone, either land line or wireless, could have been called. It was absolute random sampling of the entire population, so it wasn’t  just Democrats and it wasn’t just Republicans. It just wasn’t likely voters or just registered voters although we did ask that. We start off by asking the approval disapproval questions because if you ask what’s the most important problem or what the economy is like first, it could taint their answers.”

The poll has a margin of sampling error of 3.4 percentage points.

Huffmon says research in Political Science has shown repeatedly that even in statewide elections people do not start tuning into an election and studying the candidates until much closer to the election. “If you look at turnout in gubernatorial primaries and how low that is, you have to imagine most people aren’t even paying enough attention to show up at the primaries, and an even smaller number is paying attention this far out from the election. Most people who are even planning to vote in the gubernatorial primaries really won’t start paying very close attention until a month and a half out.”

Huffmon says Winthrop will likely conducted another poll focusing on South Carolina in March or April.  He says two Subsequent polls later in the year will likely focus on the South as a region.

Huffman says during the polling process, persons were asked questions on various subjects and issues including the economy.  Huffmon says he was sadly surprised by the results from the subject he called “food insecurity” where people are asked whether in the last 12 months they had problems feeding their families or had problems providing their families nutritious meals. Huffman says 20 percent of the respondents said they would often or sometimes run out of food before the end of the month before they could afford to buy more.

“We all know about the people living in abject poverty, but this tabbed into those people living on the edge. Another 20-plus percent felt they couldn’t afford to buy everyone in their family a balanced meal because there wasn’t enough money. That something that we have to look hard at ourselves as a state, that it’s more than just people in abject poverty that are suffering.”