COLUMBIA, S.C. – Mitt Romney had it all – money, looks, organization, endorsements and a seasoned staff.

But he still couldn’t crack South Carolina. There was something about the former Massachusetts governor that turned off Palmetto State voters.

He couldn’t connect with them, no matter how hard he tried.

“He came across as a luxury-car salesman,” said Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen, a Republican.

Romney spent about $280,000 a week to make his name known across South Carolina.

That was $3 million last year, in South Carolina alone. He still flopped.

Realizing he couldn’t win here, Romney fled South Carolina last week with no plans to return. He hopped a plane to Nevada to claim his caucus win there Saturday.

The way South Carolinians saw it, Romney was ceding the state to three rivals -Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Romney made a mistake earlier in the month when he pulled all of his money out of South Carolina to go campaigning in Michigan, said Clemson University professor Dave Woodard.

“His timing was just terrible,” said Woodard, a Republican. “It couldn’t have been worse. What Romney was saying was, ‘I really don’t care about South Carolina.'”

“He left us at the altar.”

Romney’s campaign never did catch fire here. After a brief period leading in S.C. polls last fall, he lost steam, slumping to third, fourth or fifth in the polls.

Why? Three reasons.

Romney is from Massachusetts, automatically making him suspect in South Carolina. Voters here don’t trust politicians from the home of Teddy Kennedy, Mike Dukakis and John Kerry.

Voters also questioned Romney’s conservative credentials. His flip-flopping on key social issues – abortion and gay rights – caused S.C. voters to wonder about his claims of being a conservative.

Among S.C. voters who told exit pollsters Saturday the main reason they voted for a candidate was because he “says what he believes,” Romney finished last among the five candidates who actively campaigned here.

Romney’s Mormon faith also hurt him among evangelical voters in the Republican primary. Many Southern Baptists, who comprise the largest denomination in the state, see Mormonism as a cult. Romney ran fourth among S.C. voters who identified themselves in exit polls as born-again or evangelical Christians.

However, Thigpen rejects the notion that Romney lost South Carolina because of his faith.

“It wasn’t his faith,” he said. “It was his phonyism.”


Romney’s decision to pack up to Nevada and its caucus were an attempt to build on his lone primary victory, in Michigan. Romney also won Wyoming’s little-watched caucus.

His departure from South Carolina served to lower expectations for him here, even though he started to advertise again in the primary’s days and made a get-out-the-vote effort.

The other high-profile Republican candidates decided to ignore Nevada in favor of South Carolina with its history of creating and demolishing Republican hopefuls.

For Romney, Nevada presented a particular opportunity. His faith was an asset in that state with its large Mormon population.

One in four Nevada caucus-goers was Mormon; 95 percent supported Romney, according to entrance polls there.

Romney aides have attributed their candidate’s Iowa caucus loss to suspicion about his faith among evangelicals, who rallied behind Huckabee, a Baptist preacher.

Thigpen said Romney made a wise decision to travel to Nevada.

“Why kick a dead horse?” he asked, referring to South Carolina. “Why waste your money on something that doesn’t look promising?”

But in essentially declaring that South Carolina didn’t count, Romney missed a chance to prove he can be a winning candidate nationwide.

South Carolina is “a test-tube state,” said Chip Felker, a Greenville-based Republican consultant. “If you win here, you have shown you can win elsewhere.”

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(c) 2008, The State (Columbia, S.C.).

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): MITT ROMNEY

AP-NY-01-19-08 2148EST