By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | The state’s political barometer won’t release any new findings ahead of the Nov. 3 election, according to Scott Huffmon, who heads the Winthrop Poll.
The poll typically comes out several times a year, and almost always has results leading up to any big election. Its last results were released Feb. 21, ahead of South Carolina’s Fe. 29 Democratic Presidential Preference Primary, which predicted a strong win for Vice President Joe Biden in the state.
Huffmon said it’s “a first” that the poll will not come out before the general election. The polls have been running since 2007. He said the poll is another victim of the coronavirus pandemic. As other contract polls for government entities were pushed back, the money and the time for a political poll for the general election was unavailable. The polling team is working at one-third of typical capacity amid the pandemic, he said.
It would have been Winthrop’s first formal election poll since it received an A/B rating from FiveThirtyEight with 100 percent of races called correctly.
“Believe me, I am as peeved as anyone … A lot of bad luck collided,” Huffmon said. He finished the conversation with: “This too shall pass.”
In other news:
State high court says no to private school vouchers. The S.C. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Gov. Henry McMaster’s allocation of $32 million in federal funding for one-time tuition grants for students to attend private schools violated the state’s constitution (specifically, Article XI, Section 4). McMaster shot back in a statement this week that the ruling “jeopardized” millions in CARES Act money allocated by the General Assembly to the state’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), many of which are private. The ruling did not mention the governor’s stalled allocation of $2.4 million to HBCUs for technology updates nor the General Assembly’s Cares Act allocation.
Hurricanes and flooding labeled top domestic threats. Hurricanes and flooding, two natural disasters South Carolina experiences with some frequency, were labeled among top domestic threats in an Oct. 6 Department of Homeland Security Threat Assessment report. The threats were listed in the 26-page report along with Russian cyber threats and social media influence, the coronavirus pandemic’s threat to the national economy and violent extremists from within the United States. This week, the FBI busted an anti-government group’s plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But back to the hurricanes and floods (because that’s in the news, too, with Louisiana getting hammered yet again): “These disasters pose a significant threat to human health and safety, property, critical infrastructure, and homeland security while subjecting the nation to frequent periods of insecurity, disruption, and economic loss.”
Teen birth rate decreases, but state still high on national list. Fewer South Carolina teens, ages 15 to 19, gave birth in 2019 when compared with 2018, continuing a trend where the state’s teen birth rate has dropped 49 percent since 2010 and 71 percent decline since 1991, according to Fact Forward, formerly the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. While the overall rate decreased by 1.8 percent from 2018 to 2019, Black teenage girls gave birth at a higher frequency in that time period, an increase of 1.8 percent. The state currently ranks 11th in the nation for its teen birth rate.
S.C. poet laureate resigns lifetime post. Marjory Wentworth has resigned from her position as South Carolina’s poet laureate after 17 years. In a letter dated Sept. 28 informing McMaster, Wentworth noted her resignation was effective Oct. 1. Wentworth, who was appointed to the position for life by former Gov. Mark Sanford in 2003, left the position with the hope that the state legislature would make the position revolving among many poets in the state, instead of a lifetime appointment. Read more here.
Harrison continues to harry Graham. The race between U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison is now a “toss up,” according to The Cook Political Report. Read more.
S.C. reports 3,311 dead so far in pandemic. While some highway signs around the state have urged drivers to buckle up and not drive under the influence (there have been 751 traffic deaths so far this year), S.C. officials reported Thursday that at least 3,311 South Carolinians have died from COVID-19 since March. Read more. South Carolina could see an additional 500 deaths by the end of the month. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have predicted the national death toll could rise to 233,000 by the end of the month. Follow safety guidelines: Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Avoid large groups.
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