REX DEMOCRAT FRONTRUNNER IN RASMUSSEN SURVEY, 49% AGAINST SANFORD IMPEACHMENT

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster is best positioned to win the race to become the next governor, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released Saturday, while nearly half of the state would prefer that current Gov. Mark Sanford not be impeached.

The telephone survey, conducted of 500 likely voters on Dec. 2, gave McMaster a 39 percent to 32 percent lead over State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, the Democrat frontrunner in the poll. Rex was losing to Congressman Gresham Barrett by six points.

McMaster and Barrett both did better against State Sen. Vincent Sheheen (D-Kershaw), each holding a nearly two-to-one advantage.

Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who had the highest name ID of all candidates, also had the highest negatives. Of those polled, 21 percent had a very unfavorable opinion of Bauer compared to only 7 percent for McMaster and 4 percent for Barrett.

And that showed in Bauer’s head-to-head against the top two Democrats. Bauer had only a ten point lead on Sheheen and trailed Rex by 1 percent.

But nearly 30 percent of voters will still undecided — something that is largely due to Sanford.

With Sanford’s marital infidelities, ethics violations and possible impeachment dominating the news, there has been little focus placed on the governor’s race.

That’s why Rex’s position in the poll isn’t a complete surprise.

He is the only Democrat to hold statewide office, which gives him the edge early in the race. Sheheen’s significant financial lead should allow him to chip away at Rex’s lead if the Sanford scandal fades long enough for the candidates to campaign.

And voters are split on whether or not to move past Sanford’s problems.

Rasmussen reported on Friday that 49 percent of South Carolinians polled said Sanford should not be impeached. Only 36 percent said the governor should be impeached and 14 percent were undecided.

Forty-one percent would like to see Sanford resign and 42 percent think he should finish out his term, which runs through January 2011.

As for who will replace Sanford, the poll indicates that we could see . And that’s something McMaster’s campaign said they would welcome a race against Rex.

“[W]ith the election nearly a year away and with such a large number of undecided voters, it’s too early to suggest that Jim Rex or any other Democratic candidate will run a close race with McMaster,” said McMaster strategist Richard Quinn in a statement. “And with the abysmal job Jim Rex is doing as Superintendent of Education, we welcome a comparison with the record of success Henry McMaster has achieved as Attorney General.”

Quinn said that Rasmussen was a highly respected pollster, but that internal data showed McMaster with an even stronger lead. He also noted that a large percentage of undecided voters would likely break Republican in the general election.

“Using history as a guide, in South Carolina, independent voters typically end up voting 70-75 percent Republican,” Quinn said. “That is very likely to happen again in November 2010. South Carolina is still a very strong Republican state.”