Politics

South Carolina Democratic gubernatorial nominee Vincent Sheheen has a lot of work to do to build name recognition across the state. He received a boost Wednesday when the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce endorsed him instead of Republican Nikki Haley. Chamber president and CEO Otis Rawl says the Chamber believes Sheheen can work well with lawmakers. And it doesn't hurt that Sheheen and Governor Mark Sanford are not political allies.

It should be relatively easy to vote in today's runoff elections in North and South Carolina. Turnout in North Carolina's May 4th primary was only about 14 percent. The head of Mecklenburg county's elections board, Michael Dickerson, expects voter tallies to be even smaller. "I'll be surprised if you see a 2 or 3 percent turnout." Not too good, but it's also not quite as bad as it sounds. For one, there's only one statewide runoff - the Democratic race for U.S. Senate between Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Greene is a no-show at today's protest hearing of his victory over Vic Rawl in South Carolina 's primary last week. South Carolina 's Democratic Executive Committee is now hearing Rawl's challenge of the election results. The Rawl campaign says it's received numerous complaints of voting irregularities, and believes there are problems with the state's electronic voting machines. A spokesman for South Carolina 's elections commission says there's nothing wrong with the machines.

South Carolina Democratic leaders are scratching their heads and trying frantically to undo the results of this week's U.S. Senate primary. Democratic voters on Tuesday chose an unemployed veteran with no political experience to challenge Republican U.S. Senator Jim DeMint. 32-year old Alvin Greene did not run an organized campaign or report raising any money. But he still got nearly 60 percent of the vote against a well-known Charleston attorney.

South Carolina was one of twelve states to hold primary elections on Tuesday. But the state's race for governor captured national headlines because of a heated four-way Republican race that featured allegations of extra-marital affairs. Voters narrowed their choice to two last night: State lawmaker Nikki Haley and Congressman Gresham Barrett will face a run-off in two weeks. WFAE's Scott Graf spoke with Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon about the primary and the run-off.