South Carolina's Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley is holding a double digit lead over her Democratic opponent, Vincent Sheheen. In the state's senatorial race, Republican Senator Jim DeMint has an even larger lead over his Democratic opponent, Alvin Greene. But SC Democrats do have the lead in pending felony charges and now financial investigations.

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According to the latest poll of likely voters, Ms. Haley is favored by 52% of voters and 40% favor Mr.Sheheen while 3% prefer some other candidate and 5% remain undecided. In the Senate race, Senator DeMint leads Mr. Greene 58% to 21%. (source) But Mr. Greene is leading all candidates in the all-important pending felony category. Still facing obscenity charges, his finances are now under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the 5th Circuit solicitor's office to see whether any laws have been broken in the way he has been representing his financial situation to the state court system.

The investigation stems from Mr. Greene's claim that he could not afford an attorney to defend him against the obscenity charges. As a result of that claim, he was provided with a lawyer at taxpayers' expense yet he was able to pay the $10,400 Democratic Party filing fee (in cash) to run for Senate.

In a possibly unfortunate turn of events for the candidate, a brand new law signed last week by South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R) requires banks to turn over to SLED basic information about account holders in cases of suspected financial wrongdoing. (source)

With Republicans holding such strong leads on all electoral fronts, the Greene investigation amounts to little more than a sideshow. But since some Democrats are trying to invalidate Mr. Greene's primary victory and some Republicans are demanding that, if Mr. Greene is not indigent, he should be forced to refund taxpayers for his legal fees; the sideshow might get more interesting than what's going on in the center ring.