Survey: Leading GOP Voices Satisfied with Choices

There's been a lot of talk during this presidential campaign about how the current slate of Republican candidates is lacking that spark, that certain something needed to capture voters' imagination.

That's led to a whole lot of discussion about whether potential candidates such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might jump into the race.

But according to a survey of GOP leaders in South Carolina and two other early-voting states, influential conservatives appear to be satisfied with the candidates they have to choose from now.

Sixty-three percent of the 169 people responding to the Patch-Huffington Post Power Outsiders poll of Republican voters in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina said they are satisfied with the candidates now running for president, while just 36 percent say they want to see more candidates get into the race.

When asked who, if anyone, they would like to see enter the race, 31 percent of those polled mentioned Christie, 17 percent mentioned Ryan, 8 percent mentioned Palin, and 4 percent named Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Mitch Daniels. Nine percent mentioned someone else.

Here is the full story from the Huffington Post.

After candidates were very busy across the state last week, things have slowed down somewhat this week. Michele Bachmann will be in Charleston on Thursday to take part in a Rep. Tim Scott town hall meeting. Rick Santorum will be in Spartanburg on Friday.

Of course, everybody may just be holding their breath until Rep. Jim DeMint hosts his Labor Day forum with the all of the top candidates, except Mitt Romney.

The results come from the second in a series of weekly surveys looking to gauge what real Republicans think of the race for the GOP nomination. Each week, our local Patch editors will be asking influential South Carolina Carolina Republicans questions about the presidential campaign, and we'll report the results here.

We’re still looking to expand our list of influential members of both parties in New Hampshire. If you’d like to participate, email chris.winston@patch.com and we’ll connect you with the appropriate Patch reporter.