Updated below

Results for the Spartanburg, South Carolina Straw Poll are starting to come in. Here are the tallies thanks to South Carolina ‘08:

Top 5 with 71 of 74 precincts Reporting (AP 10:40 p.m.)

Giuliani 123 votes
Hunter 110 votes
McCain 86 votes
Brownback 68 votes
Romney 59 votes

SC08 also provided a link to The Hotline’s preview and the what this all means for each candidate.

Check back for more updates and analysis.

Updated 3/1/07, 8:56pm [by Matt Ortega]: According to The State, anonymous mailings were sent around criticizing former Governor Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts) on the eve of the straw poll.

A second piece was sent via electronic mail from the address “upstaterepublican@gmail.com.” It said it was from “Martin W.” and attacked Romney’s faith.

The e-mail is headlined: “Mitt Romney has a family secret he doesn’t want you to know.”

It says: “Those dark suspicions you hide deep inside yourself about Mormonism are trying to tell you something. Trust your instincts! æ.æ.æ. The light of truth will burn through the smoke and mirrors of Mitt Romney’s movie star looks and crafty words!”

The e-mail includes a copy of a recent Associated Press story about how Romney’s ancestors practiced polygamy.

South Carolina’s The Shot political website has more. SCHotline has pieces attacking former Governor Mike Huckabee. (Does the anonymous mailer have a vendetta against Governors?)

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Presumed Republican Nominee John McCain is set to sow up the nomination after the large block of early primaries in early February. It remains to be seen how well he’ll do in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He’s going to have a hard time converting conservative activists in Iowa. He was against federal funding for ethanol, (an important issue to Republicans in Iowa), he voted against the original Bush tax-cuts which hurts him among the anti-government activists in eastern Iowa and he has issues with core religious rights activists dating back to his agents of intolerance speech.

In New Hampshire he’ll face Giuliani and Obama who look to split the majority of the coveted independent votes in the state. In 2000 McCain only won in New Hampshire because he was able to swamp independent voters to his side.

In South Carolina McCain’s problems from 2000 haven’t gone away:

Once a loser here, Republican Sen. John McCain desperately wants to avoid the same fate in this Southern state’s primary – a shellacking that marked the beginning of the end of his first presidential campaign.

The Arizona senator who ran six years ago against party favorite George W. Bush now is positioning himself as the establishment candidate and building a campaign he hopes will ensure victory in South Carolina, mindful that the state’s GOP primary winners have always become the nominee.

…..

“We’re programmed to hate McCain,” explained Lisa Manini Sox, executive director of the state Senate Republican caucus. She couldn’t pinpoint a reason for her opposition but cast doubt on whether she could be “deprogrammed.” Added Katrina Shealy, the treasurer of the Lexington County GOP: “He’s explosive. He’s the Howard Dean of the Republican Party.“

We should stipulate that I think McCain can win in South Carolina. He’s already moved significantly to the right to shore up his flank, a move that’s hurt him among the general electorate, and he’ll continue to move further to the right because his greatest opposition in the Republican primary is to his right. McCain’s quieter overtures in South Carolina will be interesting to watch.

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Spartanburg County Republicans will hold a straw poll on March 1 — exactly two months from today — and party leaders estimate 1,500 to 2,000 turnout.

County party calendar can be found here for details when they are made available.

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