CHARLESTON, S.C. - Jerry and Tina Glover arrived at their polling place at West Ashley Middle School yesterday morning with their two young sons and a bad case of his-and-hers indecision.
After long conversations at home and at the Sunday school of their evangelical church about whether to support John McCain or Mike Huckabee, the couple split ways and made up their minds individually in the privacy of separate voting booths. Their first question after having cast ballots: "Who'd you vote for?"
"I thought he would say McCain and he thought I would say Huckabee," said Tina.
In the end, the Turner household split the other way. Tina, a 42-year-old stay-at-home mother, voted for McCain. Jerry, a 38-year-old engineer who works at a US Marines command center, picked Huckabee. She loves electability; he went straight for a candidate who projects his religious beliefs.
"We like them both, so we're comfortable with either one winning," Jerry said.
McCain's victory over Huckabee in a close but collegial race muddled many of the longstanding splits among South Carolina Republicans, who have selected the party's eventual nominee in every primary since 1980.
For McCain, triumph in South Carolina offered redemption in a state where he was decisively beaten by George W. Bush in a 2000 primary marred by allegations of dirty politics, derailing the Arizona senator's first run for the presidency.
"It took us a while, but what's eight years among friends?" McCain said to supporters gathered for a victory party at the Citadel, where he emerged to the theme from "Rocky."
This year, despite preparing for an anticipated flood of attacks, McCain faced little more than a trickle of malicious phone calls and fliers that aides said misrepresented his wartime record and his position on abortion.
"By 2000 standards, it was pretty tame," said Mark McKinnon, media adviser to McCain. "It was still a very tough contest, but it was a respectful one."
In his concession speech in Columbia, Huckabee saluted McCain for having participated in a "civil and a good and decent campaign."
Indeed, primary day arrived and passed with little of the rancor and few of the shenanigans for which South Carolina politics has become famous. Dour weather and limited candidate resources conspired even to keep visible door-knocking and sign-waving to a minimum in the state's largest cities. Statewide turnout was significantly lower than in 2000.
Exit polls suggested that McCain won among veterans and independents, while Huckabee carried self-identified evangelicals and conservatives - although none by overwhelming margins. The blocs' parochial concerns were overwhelmed by interest in economic issues, which according to exit polls also dominated voters' attention in Tuesday's primary in Michigan.
In both states, Huckabee ran on an anti-elitist message targeted at working-class Republicans, while McCain promoted a supply-side platform that would adjust the tax code to help corporations and upper-income households.
Huckabee said he was not put off by the weather as he greeted voters at a community center in a suburban neighborhood in North Columbia. His supporters lived up to the Postal Service motto, Huckabee cracked: Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow would keep them from the polls.
As South Carolinians went to the polls, former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee vowed to continue his presidential bid regardless of the result and was vague last night about his future plans. Thompson made an afternoon appearance a gun show in an auditorium outside Columbia, greeting passersby as he navigated the narrow aisles displaying hunting scopes and high-tech shotguns.
"When are you and Huckabee going to team up?" one well-wisher asked as Thompson gripped his hand.
"We are teamed up," Thompson quipped. "We're teamed up beating on each other."
The two Southerners in the race fought hard to win over evangelical voters, who exit polls indicated constituted over half of the electorate. Thompson attempted to portray Huckabee - a genial, quick-witted Baptist minister - as a liberal in conservative clothing, highlighting Huckabee's relatively progressive positions on immigration and the environment.
It was precisely that outlook that drew Michael Francis's vote after his 18th birthday. A Huckabee volunteer, Francis said he was won over by the candidate's interest in education and global warming, which he said set him apart from other Republicans on the ballot.
Thompson ended up narrowly holding onto third place over former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who hastily departed the state on Thursday to campaign in Nevada, where he easily won yesterday's caucus.
Thompson spoke to supporters last night without saying whether he would stay in the race. If he does remain, he could continue to siphon the votes of more conservative voters from Huckabee, who might have defeated McCain in South Carolina without Thompson running.
Former mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City spent little time in the state, focused his attention on Florida, home of the next Republican contest in nine days.
The move by Romney and Giuliani to bypass South Carolina left David Espie, a 50-year-old from Wildwood near Columbia, disappointed. "It was up for grabs, and nobody came to take it," said his wife Deanna, 48, observing that their upscale, solidly Republican town should have been fertile turf for the party's candidates. "I think Romney should have done much better."
Both voted for Huckabee, drawn to his message of economic populism and personal charisma. Huckabee was truly a "compassionate conservative - not like we got with George Bush," he said.
