GOP's Lindsey Graham Out of Favor with Republicans Back Home South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has often occupied the Washington spotlight because of a reputation of being a Republican willing to cross the aisle in hyper-partisan times, and staking out a place on key issues like closing the detainee prison at Guantanamo, climate change and immigration.
But what may earn Graham the attention he gets in Washington is not doing much for him back home.
Last October, the Republican county committee in Charlestown voted to censure Graham for some of his policy positions and two other county committees had come close to doing so. Plus, Graham's vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor angered homestate conservatives.
Now, a Public Policy Polling survey conducted May 22-23 among Republicans finds that 57 percent saying they would support a more conservative alternative next time Graham comes up for re-election compared to 32 percent who will support him, with 11 percent undecided.
"It's a good thing for Lindsey Graham that he's not up for election again until 2014," said PPP's Dean Debnam. "This is not a good climate for Republicans who have attempted to be bipartisan to be running in."
Fifty-three percent considered Graham too liberal, 41 percent said his stands were about right and 6 percent regarded him as too conservative.
Forty-five percent disapproved of his overall performance compared to 40 percent who approved, with 14 percent undecided.
Conservatives comprised about three-quarters of the sample in the PPP poll.
