Vincent Sheheen’s Nadir

>>>”Let’s start with money – the lifeblood of any political undertaking – which is clearly flowing into the coffers of incumbent Gov. Nikki Haley (RINO-Lexington) at a dizzying clip. At last count, Haley enjoyed a whopping 3-to-1 cash advantage over Sheheen….”

Haley outraised Sheheen last quarter, but not by all that much. And Sheheen outraised Haley the quarter before that. Sure, she has a 3-to-1 advantage in terms of cash on-hand, but that’s because it’s a heck of a lot easier to raise money for your reelection campaign when you’re a sitting governor with national fundraising reach.

Sheheen had no problem raising the necessary money to run a serious campaign in 2010, and he won’t have trouble raising it this time either. He’s still got nearly an entire year.

>>>”…(T)hanks to a critical tactical error on the part of her Democratic rival all her campaign has to do is follow a simple script over the next few months to cruise to victory. What are we referring to? Sheheen’s categorically bone-headed decision to embrace U.S. President Barack Obama’s Medicaid expansion in South Carolina.”

Credible polls showed a majority of South Carolinians were in favor of the Medicaid expansion.

>>>”In fact Medicaid enrollment in South Carolina will grow by a whopping 16 percent in fiscal year 2014-15 – triple the projected rate of growth in the current fiscal year. And while Haley never misses an opportunity to rail on Obama, the reality is South Carolina’s Medicaid population is growing much faster than the Medicaid populations in other states (including Obamacare states). In fact according to Kaiser Health News, South Carolina’s 16 percent Medicaid growth rate is larger than the 12 percent average increase in states which approved Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.”

The “whopping 16%” growth as compared to the previous year is because of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is going into effect, spurring to people sign up for health insurance and making it possible to enroll in Medicaid online. Millions of dollars have been spent on publicity to get people to sign up. So they’re signing up. Step one in screening those signing up is to see if they’re eligible for Medicaid. Many of them are. Hence the huge jump in sign-ups.

As for the rate being higher than states that approved Medicaid expansion, South Carolina is a very poor state. Most of the Obama-winning/ACA-supporting states don’t have anywhere near the levels of poverty we have. More poor people = more Medicaid eligibility and more sign-ups.