As long Its not with a prostitute
A new poll has found that marital infidelity is far from damning for a politician in the eyes of the public.
Last night, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) pulled off the comeback of his career, winning his old congressional seat in the South Carolina 1st district special election.
Sanford despite a long political career and abundant name recognition had a lot working against him.
In 2010 it was discovered that the then-Governor was engaged in a long-standing affair with an Argentinian woman.
During the election, it eventually came out that Sanford had trespassed on his wife's property to watch the Super Bowl.
Still, Sanford was able to overcome these scandals and win the election. As it turns out, it helps that most people don't consider infidelity a reason to drop support for a candidate.
We and our polling partner SurveyMonkey whose Audience polling feature enjoyed outstanding success throughout the 2012 election developed a poll that tried to figure out what depravities a highly effective politician would have to do to make Americans stop supporting them.
The poll structure was simple. We mentioned certain crimes and moral lapses that a hypothetical "effective" congressional representative committed and asked them if they'd still support them.
The answers were surprising. For example, old-fashioned adultery isn't as politically damning as it once was. Only 28% of those polled said that would make them stop supporting the candidate:
POLL: Americans Are Pretty Cool With Their Politicians Cheating As Long As It's Not With A Prostitute - Business Insider
A new poll has found that marital infidelity is far from damning for a politician in the eyes of the public.
Last night, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) pulled off the comeback of his career, winning his old congressional seat in the South Carolina 1st district special election.
Sanford despite a long political career and abundant name recognition had a lot working against him.
In 2010 it was discovered that the then-Governor was engaged in a long-standing affair with an Argentinian woman.
During the election, it eventually came out that Sanford had trespassed on his wife's property to watch the Super Bowl.
Still, Sanford was able to overcome these scandals and win the election. As it turns out, it helps that most people don't consider infidelity a reason to drop support for a candidate.
We and our polling partner SurveyMonkey whose Audience polling feature enjoyed outstanding success throughout the 2012 election developed a poll that tried to figure out what depravities a highly effective politician would have to do to make Americans stop supporting them.
The poll structure was simple. We mentioned certain crimes and moral lapses that a hypothetical "effective" congressional representative committed and asked them if they'd still support them.
The answers were surprising. For example, old-fashioned adultery isn't as politically damning as it once was. Only 28% of those polled said that would make them stop supporting the candidate:
POLL: Americans Are Pretty Cool With Their Politicians Cheating As Long As It's Not With A Prostitute - Business Insider
