Citizen Rainey
 |
| John Rainey has made some enemies in Columbia by calling Nikki Haley “the most corrupt person to occupy the Governor’s Mansion since Reconstruction." Photo: Sean Rayford |
From the Charleston City Paper
By Corey Hutchins
John Rainey is wearing a coat and tie as he slowly strides across the grass of his 17-acre estate — called Fox Watch Farm — just outside the small South Carolina town of Camden. Two big German Shepherds follow him through an English garden that surorunds a gazebo near a horse barn. Rainey, who turned 70 last month, is a tall man. For years, he has loomed large in S.C. Republican spheres of influence; he is responsible for recruiting Mark Sanford to run for governor in 2002. But lately, the longtime Republican fundraiser and powerbroker has caught attention in certain circles for something else: his one-man mission to discredit the state's new governor, Sanford's hand-picked successor, Nikki Haley.
