To try and get an illustration of what we can expect from the election cycle in November, nearly 800 likely South Carolina voters were surveyed by Winthrop University.

Among the Winthrop Poll findings:

· Among likely voters, almost 25% of Democrats remain undecided in the Senate race. While 30.6% say they support Democrat Alvin Greene, 16.1% say they support Republican Jim DeMint, and 22.4% support Tom Clements, the Green Party candidate-but almost one-in-four Democrats have not yet made up their minds.

· Almost 73% of those polled disapprove of the way the U.S. Congress is handling its job.

· Senator Jim DeMint, who is frequently touted as a leading figure in the Republican Party, was identified by only 4% of Republican likely voters in SC as the leading voice for the national Republican Party. Among Democrats, he received less than 2% of the responses and among Independents, 4.5%. By comparison, Sarah Palin was named by 11.4% of all respondents, 13.7% of Democrats, 10.1% of Republicans, and 11.3% of Independents. Not sure/Can't think of anyone lead by a large margin among all respondents, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

· Among likely voters, almost 50% said they generally agreed with the principles of the Tea Party movement.

· Fifty-five percent of those polled think there should be more women in the SC Assembly than there are today.

· Almost 60% identify jobs/unemployment/economy/economic-financial crisis as the most important problem facing South Carolina today, followed by education, which was cited almost 20% of the time by all respondents, 21.3% of Democrats, 17.1% Republicans and 22.9% of Independents.

· When asked about the economic conditions in the country as a whole, Democrats and Republicans were almost diametrically opposed in their responses. Democrats: Getting better-62.6%/Getting worse-25.6%. Republicans: Getting better-27.1%/Getting worse-62.8%.

· Despite the recent oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast, almost 60 percent of likely voters polled approve of allowing off-shore drilling for oil off the coast of SC.

· A whopping 70% of those polled do not feel that K through 12 education in SC is currently being funded at adequate levels. Among Democrats, 84.4% feel that way, among Republicans, 62.5% do, and among Independents, 65.1% do.

The survey was taken taken between October 5 and October 10.