Nikki Haley
Here's a switch: 2010 gubernatorial candidate
Nikki Haley on Friday became one of the few public officials in South Carolina to come out and call on embattled Gov.
Mark Sanford NOT to resign.
In doing so, Haley, a state representative, not only backed up Sanford, whom she has aligned herself with based on their shared fiscal conservatism, but also took a swipe at potential 2010 primary rival, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who would ascend to the governor's mansion if Sanford steps down.
"I have major concerns about ... the direction our government could take under the Lieutenant Governor should Governor Sanford resign," Haley said in a statement. "As elected officials our actions must be in the best interests of the state - not in the interests of settling long-held political scores - and it is my sincere belief that South Carolina cannot afford to go back to the good-ole-boy system that so badly serves the taxpayers and undermines our government."
Bauer has earned a bit of a playboy image in South Carolina thanks in part to his bachelorhood, a penchant for speeding, and an airplane crash in 2006.
Haley's dig at Bauer is just another sign of the splintering in the South Carolina Republican party as it struggles to handle the fall-out from Sanford's revelation Wednesday that he had an affair with a woman in Argentina and had gone down there to visit while his staff told reporters he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. State officials, Republican as well as Democrat, have begun calling for Sanford's resignation, but thus far the two-term Republican governor has insisted he is staying on.
Bauer would be the biggest beneficiary if Sanford resigns, gaining a year and a half of incumbency and a leg up on what is likely to be a crowded 2010 primary field for governor. Others looking to succeed Sanford, who is term limited, are U.S. Rep. J. Gresham Barrett, state Sen. Larry Grooms and Brent Nelsen, chairman of the political science department at Furman University in Greenville.State Attorney General Henry McMaster is another likely candidate.
Sanford has managed to alienate many in the state Republican party through his battles with the GOP-dominated legislature and his hard-line policy stances, and Haley was one of his few remaining allies. None of the leading candidates are close to Sanford, and Haley had hoped to be dubbed his heir apparent. Since the news of his infidelity broke, she has tried to distance herself from the governor's wrongdoing while still associating herself with his political and social ideals. It is a tricky balancing act.
But while being dubbed his successor of choice no longer seems a wise political calculus, keeping Bauer out of the governor's seat most certainly is.
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Comments
Typical knee-jerk rightwing Republican. Only in her backwards world could Nikki Haley believe that her cuddling up to Mark Sanford will ease her into the governor's mansion. Does South Carolina really need yet another out-of-touch Republican that even the state's conservative GOP doesn't care for? Then again, they've already supported the ultimate in out-of-touch politicians: Jim DeMint.
Posted by: mag_amberson
| June 26, 2009 11:27 PM
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