Mark Sanford Polls: A Phoenix Rising?

When Mark Sanford said he was going to run for Congress, nearly the entire political and media apparatus thought it was some kind of joke or Andy Kaufman style performance art piece. That the former Governor who disappeared entirely for six days to head to Argentina to continue an extramarital affair, got censured by the legislature, and paid the largest ethics fine, $70,000, in South Carolina history would be able to mount a political comeback for anything larger then dogcatcher was considered insane.

Yet here we are today and Mark Sanford has somehow persevered. He won a Republican primary that had 15 other challengers. And he has had a meteoric rise in polls for the general election election.

Back in late April Sanford was down in the polls 9 points, trailing his challenger Elizabeth Colbert Busch, 41%-50%. It seemed quite hopeless, as new revelations had emerged that he had trespassed on his former wife’s, Jenny Sanford, property.

Sanford refused to lie down and die however, campaigning as hard as he could to make up the deficit. Astoundingly it managed to work, with Sanford making up enough ground for the polls to be 47%-46% Sanford/Colbert Busch, an amazing turnaround and statistical dead heat when the margin of error is taken into account.

The only question remains is whether this political comeback will be dream that Sanford will awake from tonight or his new reality. Only the final vote count will be tell.