With time, money running out, SC often turns nasty

COLUMBIA, S.C. — In mail­boxes across South Car­olina in 2007, likely Repub­li­can vot­ers received a Christ­mas card signed by “The Rom­ney Fam­ily” with a quo­ta­tion from a 19th cen­tury Mor­mon leader sug­gest­ing God had sev­eral wives. Mitt Romney’s cam­paign, just a few weeks away from the 2008 pres­i­den­tial pri­mary in a state where evan­gel­i­cals look skep­ti­cally on the for­mer Mass­a­chu­setts governor’s Mor­mon faith, con­demned the bogus card as pol­i­tics at its worst. The sender never took credit. And it was just another anony­mous shot in the end­less vol­leys of nasty cam­paign­ing in South Carolina.