GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – And the race is on! The US presidential race, at least the Republican Party side of it, is now gearing up, with Mitt Romney’s early wins eclipsed this weekend by a powerful showing by Newt Gingrich in S Carolina. The Gingrich win comes on the heels of heavy media coverage of his ex-wife’s claim that he suggested they have a “modern” marriage, where he would have relations with other women. She said no and they divorced, she says, but the candidate, now re-married, says not so. He appears to have turned the S Carolina vote in his favour at the start of a televised debate when he snapped at the TV journalist for starting off a presidential debate with a question about his personal life.

Gingrich had 41 percent of the vote and Romney 27 percent in the S Carolina primary, with 95 percent of votes reported, according to agencies. All eyes are now on the Florida primary 31 January, but S Carolina was significant for a number of reasons. It means that each of the first three primaries had a different winner (Romney was thought to have won Iowa by a slim 8 votes, but the final tally, announced last week, showed him losing to Rick Santorum by 34 votes).

Bloomberg notes that “since the 1980 election, every Republican candidate who won the South Carolina primary has gone on to capture the party nomination. Nearly $9 million was spent on ads by the campaigns and their allies in South Carolina, according to data from New York- based Kantar Media’s CMAG.”

Links to other sites: Bloomberg, CBS News, Reuters

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