{"id":240,"date":"2008-01-10T14:49:54","date_gmt":"2008-01-10T14:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godometer\/2008\/01\/the-evangelical-view-from-sout.html"},"modified":"2008-01-10T14:49:54","modified_gmt":"2008-01-10T14:49:54","slug":"the-evangelical-view-from-sout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/01\/the-evangelical-view-from-sout.html","title":{"rendered":"The Evangelical View from South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"thompson4.jpg\"For a read on how the Republican candidates are faring among South Carolina evangelicals and in the state\u2019s conservative Christian leadership ranks, there are few better placed than Oran Smith, who heads the Columbia-based Palmetto Family Council<\/a>, a group associated with James Dobson\u2019s Focus on the Family<\/a>. The results so far out of Iowa and New Hampshire, Smith says, \u201cboosts Huckabee and McCain\u2019s chances here. The dirty little secret is that South Carolina, even though we\u2019re Southern and conservative, likes to get on the right bandwagon. We like to go with a winner.\u201d
\nThat\u2019s bad news for Fred Thompson, who placed third in Iowa and sixth in New Hampshire and is staking his campaign on a strong showing in South Carolina’s primary next Saturday. \u201cThompson got an initial boost from his announcement and he\u2019s done well in some of the debates, but I don\u2019t see him having any more of an advantage than the other candidates,\u201d says Smith, who doesn\u2019t make endorsements and won\u2019t disclose who he\u2019s supporting. \u201cHuckabee has some momentum and Romney has some momentum and I don\u2019t know I sense that same level of momentum with Thompson.\u201d
\nSmith, who worked for McCain\u2019s South Carolina consultant in 2000, says the Arizona senator has mended relations with many Palmetto State pastors since his first presidential race. In the last year and a half, McCain has addressed rallies in the state to promote abstinence and a state constitutional amendment to ban gay unions. \u201cWe put together an event with fundamentalist Baptist pastors in upstate and he told them he\u2019d been chairman of the marriage campaign in Arizona and that he\u2019d like to get to know them a little better because there was some bad blood when he ran for president,\u201d Smith recalls. \u201cAnd there was a coming together\u2026 word went out that McCain is not too bad a guy after all.\u201d
\nOrganizationally speaking, the Romney and Huckabee campaigns are in a different league in South Carolina\u2019s evangelical community than other campaigns. \u201cRomney knows where the votes are and has been flooding the state with values-themed mail.\u201d Smith says. \u201cHuckabee shows up at events that have already been organized, like pastors\u2019 retreats. All he has to do is spend a little gas money and he\u2019s got an opportunity to promote himself. The pastors enjoy hearing from him because he\u2019s one of them. The question is does that support come down to the next level?\u201d
\nSmith is guessing that it might, given Huckabee\u2019s showings in Iowa and New Hampshire. \u201cHuckabee is not seen as an evangelical candidate here, but as a candidate who won Iowa,\u201d he says. \u201cWe like to go with winners.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a read on how the Republican candidates are faring among South Carolina evangelicals and in the state\u2019s conservative Christian leadership ranks, there are few better placed than Oran Smith, who heads the Columbia-based Palmetto Family Council, a group associated with James Dobson\u2019s Focus on the Family. The results so far out of Iowa and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fred-thompson"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Evangelical View from South Carolina - God-O-Meter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godometer\/2008\/01\/the-evangelical-view-from-sout.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Evangelical View from South Carolina - God-O-Meter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a read on how the Republican candidates are faring among South Carolina evangelicals and in the state\u2019s conservative Christian leadership ranks, there are few better placed than Oran Smith, who heads the Columbia-based Palmetto Family Council, a group associated with James Dobson\u2019s Focus on the Family. 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