McCain’s choice to skip the county conventions in South Carolina are really starting to hurt him. First it was a state Representative who had endorsed McCain but voted for Romney in the Horry County straw poll - and said he may switch his endorsement in the future. He was confused as to why McCain wasn’t there, which was a good question - Romney had attended the same dinner earlier in the day as McCain and still managed to make it down to South Carolina.

Now, there’s a local endorser who actually has jumped ship over to Camp Romney, in part because of McCain’s absence:

Saluda County Sheriff Jason Booth jumped to Romney’s campaign on Wednesday, and other party officials have questioned the candidate skipping their county conventions. McCain’s campaign had no immediate comment on Booth’s switch.

Welcome to the team, Sheriff Booth! McCain’s South Carolina organization is in danger right now, and by the time he makes it down there to re-kick off his campaign at the end of this month, he will have missed at least 20 more county conventions and straw polls.

And here’s the latest straw poll result from McCormick County’s convention this evening:

Romney - 35%
Cox - 19%
Giuliani - 16%
McCain - 13%
F Thompson - 8%
Newt - 3%
Undecided - 5%

Labels: John McCain, poll, Polls, south carolina