New voters in S.C. could help Obama

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Former Democratic National Committee chairman Don Fowler isn't ready to bet money on Barack Obama winning the Palmetto State in the Nov. 4 presidential election.

But Fowler, chairman of Columbia-based Fowler Communications, said a confluence of factors makes it possible that this stronghold of Deep South conservatism could fall from the ranks of the GOP for the first time since Jimmy Carter in 1976 and for only the second since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

His arguments include:

• More Democrats turned out for their presidential primary in January than Republicans did for theirs, 529,000 to 443,000, according to South Carolina Election Commission figures. That has never happened before, according to commission spokesman Chris Whitmire.

• The Obama campaign, energized by an overwhelming victory in the state primary, has been very active in registering new voters here. Even with a purge of 300,000 inactive voters from the rolls last fall, the total number of voters registered in the state grew by 2.2%, including a 2.6% increase in non-white voters, and more than 20,000 new young voters, according to the Election Commission.

• Obama campaigned heavily in South Carolina, which held the first primary in the South. He drew big crowds, particularly of young people. About 29,000 people came to see him with Oprah Winfrey in Columbia.

Although John McCain won the state's Republican primary, Fowler said the Arizona senator was criticized by many GOP voters as too liberal on such issues as immigration.

That perception has been altered by McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to run as vice president, said former governor Jim Edwards, who was elected in 1974 and was the first Republican governor of South Carolina since Reconstruction.

Edwards supported Mitt Romney during the primary, and he said he was disappointed when McCain didn't pick the former Massachusetts governor as his running mate.

Still, Edwards said he thinks McCain "knocked a home run" when he chose Palin as his running mate.