Nikki Haley Receives $25,000 at New Jersey Fundraiser

Governor Nikki Haley received a check for $25,000 at a New Jersey fundraiser on Wednesday, September 28 in Bridgewater, New Jersey.  The event, sponsored for Haley's benefit, was hosted by the New Jersey Republican Indian Committee and Mayor Anna Little, a Tea Party candidate for Congress in New Jersey's 6th Congressional District.  Event organizers had expressed the hope that any proceeds left over after the contribution to Haley would benefit their own organizations.

Nikki Haley with Mayor Anna Little

Little, the Mayor of Highlands, New Jersey, stated that the sponsors did not pay for Haley's transportation to and from New Jersey and when asked if Haley's check was paid to Haley or a campaign committee, refused any additional comment.  She would also not indicate whether Haley flew to New Jersey on the state plane and/or was accompanied by state provided security officers.  

Yesterday we called the Governor's press secretary, Rob Godfrey, to ask about her out-of-state travel, but our call has not been returned. Sunlit Uplands will be submitting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests pertaining to the Governor's trip to New Jersey.

We'd like to hear from our readers about this story.    Mayor Little lectured us on the wonderful job Governor Haley is doing for us here in South Carolina.  Do you think it is appropriate for our salaried Governor to be spending her time traveling about the country double-dipping and raising personal and/or campaign funds, even if expenses for transportation and security are reimbursed?

Update:  The above photographs of the Nikki Haley fundraiser in New Jersey were pulled from among many on this FaceBook page.

Governor Nikki Haley: 'You Pay, You Play'

Board Appointees Provided Personal Flights

From The Post and Courier

By Jim Davenport (AP)

COLUMBIA — Donors that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appointed to state boards have also allowed her to use their airplanes for travel valued at more than $5,300, according to an analysis on Friday by The Associated Press.

The governor’s spokesman said the travel will be disclosed on ethics and campaign reports.

Donors who provided flights included Allen Amsler, chairman of the Department of Health and Environmental Control Commission. On Monday, Haley credited Amsler with helping Boeing Co. complete its assembly facility in North Charleston six months early. However, no one close to handling DHEC’s permits with Boeing knew of Amsler’s involvement in speeding approval for the project after Haley appointed him March.

Was Nikki Haley Actually Working for Newt Gingrich?

Gov. Nikki Haley endorsed Mitt Romney prior to being unanimously rebuked by both houses of the SC Legislature for her Savannah River sellout.

From Charleston City Paper

By Dwayne Green

If you were a campaign strategist for Newt Gingrich, you could not have wished for a better outcome than what occurred in the recent South Carolina primary. Weeks before the election, Mitt Romney seemed like he had a virtual lock on the GOP nomination, consistently leading Gingrich and others in preliminary polling. In addition to having sizeable advantages in funding and organization, the Romney team also captured the early endorsement of Gov. Nikki Haley.

But somehow, in the days before the election, Gingrich vaulted past Romney and actually bested his opponent by 12 percentage points on Primary Day. One might be excused for wondering what the Romney campaign did that was so wrong that led to this demoralizing loss — or what the Gingrich campaign did that was so right.

A Conservative's Crusade Against Governor Nikki Haley

 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.

Grifters for "Ethics Reform" - Nikki Haley's Assault on Senator Bright

Governor Nikki Haley came to the Upstate this past week to bash Spartanburg's fiscal and social conservative State Senator, Lee Bright, for his refusal to sign-on to the fraudulently misnamed "Ethics Reform" legislation. 

Nikki Haley as an advocate for ethics reform is a bit like Barack Hussein Obama pushing the cause for small, frugal and accountable government or the League of Prostitutes for Purity.  Politics is the second oldest profession, but Haley's assault on Senator Bright is audacious, even for her.

Senator Bright made clear that he would not support so-called "ethics reform" legislation until he could get a vote on the nullification of Obamacare.  As a principled conservative he is also right to oppose this misnamed, retrograde legislation because it does anything but advance ethical, transparent and good government in our state.  In fact, it would shield legislators from criminal prosecution for ethical violations.  The Spartanburg TEA Party has summarized here what they have aptly called a "crap bill."

Perhaps Haley's assault on Senator Bright is just the Establishment's first strike on a solid conservative with a real chance of defeating Senator Lindsey Graham next year in a GOP primary.  If that was her intent, we expect Boss Connelly, choreographer of the recent state GOP infomercial, and Curtis Loftis, Mitt Romney's SC chairman,  will be following in her wake.

We can well understand Governor Haley's personal interest in shielding corrupt politicians from criminal prosecution, but the people of South Carolina should not be fooled by Nikki Haley, the most ethically challenged of all South Carolina politicians.

Responses to Sunlit Uplands' Endorsements

We received some excellent comments in response to our post, The Right Leadership for South Carolina's Future, in which we endorsed candidates in four statewide races -- Henry McMaster for Governor, Bill Connor for Lieutenant Governor, Alan Wilson for Attorney General, and Mick Zais for State Superintendent of Education.

To better clarify our thoughts about these candidates, we thought we would share several of these comments and our responses:

On the Governor's Race

Ellen said...

Daniel, I like this post very much. Like you, I believe that a candidate's character and conduct in private life do matter in choosing who to vote for. So I am in a difficult situation in regards to the Governor's race.

Over the past week or two with all that has happened in that race...well for one Henry McMaster has gone from being my fourth place choice to my second place. I cannot now see myself casting a ballot for either Barrett or Bauer based on how they have allowed their campaigns to be conducted.

That brings me to Nikki Haley. She has been my first choice for Governor for a while now. Like I said, I believe character and a candidate's personal life do matter. But at this point I have Haley's repeated statements that the allegations from these men against her are not true, and that she has been 100% faithful throughout her marriage. And I have seen no evidence to suggest otherwise.

I guess I'm wondering, since you blogged on the issue of character and personal lives above--is it these allegations that soured you on Haley, or are you just attracted to McMaster for other reasons? For me, if it was true what a blogger and a lobbyist are alleging about Haley...well, then I probably would't vote for her. But at this point, I think it would be incredibly unfair of me to allow these allegations to change my vote since she vehemently denies them and asserts her faithfulness.

I hope I expressed myself well. I am just trying to figure out who to vote for and thought you might share some additional insight.

Daniel J. Cassidy said...

Dear Ellen,

Thank you for your question. I appreciate your comments and the opportunity to explain the considerations that went into my choices.

I had decided to support Henry McMaster before any allegations arose about Nikki Haley. She was and remains my second choice in the race. If anything, I was tempted to support Mrs. Haley BECAUSE of the opposition to her from the worst elements and staunchest defenders of South Carolina's political status quo. I doubt the truth of the allegations, but I have no doubt that they are motivated by a desire to derail her very successful campaign.

Obviously, my choices were also not influenced by the polls, and there could be runoffs in all four races in which I endorsed a candidate.

I believe that Henry McMaster is best prepared by experience, temperament and ability to lead South Carolina and bring about the Constitutional changes that South Carolina government needs. We need a state government run by a Governor and an appointed cabinet with far more authority and power to implement needed change, and which is accountable to the electorate for results. Currently, we have a state run by a cabal of legislative leaders without any transparency or accountability whatsoever.

Like Governor Sanford, Mrs. Haley stands for all the right reforms; but like Governor Sanford, I fear that she would face implacable resistance from legislative leaders and would be unable to work with the General Assembly to implement those reforms and get anything done.

I believe that Henry McMaster recognizes the systemic problems we face and is better prepared to work with legislators and rally public opinion to bring about needed change.

If a runoff gives us a choice between Nikki Haley and Henry McMaster, South Carolinians will have two superb candidates from which to choose.

On the State Superintendent for Education Race

John Holmgren said...

Elizabeth Moffly vs. Mick Zais
SC Superintendent of Education candidates

I listened with interest Tuesday, May 25th, in Florence to Mick Zais’ recount of his exploits over the years. While impressive, it occurs that they are irrelevant to the task at hand. The position of Superintendent of Education deals exclusively with SC public education of K – 12 children.

Mr. Zais’ history has been in the military, where one leads by command; at the college level, where the student has already demonstrated motivation; and in the private sector, where admission is, by definition, selective. Certainly not in the hoi poloi of K-12!

Further, he offers only his resume. I failed to hear his plan to improve SC education. His pitch is that if you are hiring a football coach you would want to hire a successful one. True. But, given that analogy, why hire a swimming coach to coach football?

By contrast, Elizabeth Moffly’s entire experience in education has been in K-12. She is a first-hand student of the subject, its problems and issues.

Moreover, she offers a very specific, detailed and practical 4-plank initiative to improve our children’s educational experience and slow the terrible high school drop-out rate. It can be seen at her web site, www.VoteMoffly.com. For those interested in improving the schooling of South Carolina youth, it is well worth reading and absorbing.

Ms. Moffly’s passion is intensely focused on the quality of K-12 education. Additionally, she does not view the position as a staging area for a run for Governor or any other political position.

I encourage you to reconsider your endorsement for Zais, and instead vote for Elizabeth Moffly for Superintendent of Education in the Republican primary on June 8th.

John Holmgren
Charleston

Daniel J. Cassidy said...

Thank you, Mr. Holmgren, I appreciate your taking time to share your thoughts on the candidates for Superintendent of Education.

I believe that the greatest impetus to improving public schools and strengthening accountability to parents for results, would be to give parents in the worst schools the opportunity to walk away from them. When dollars follow the child to schools chosen by parents, schools will be motivated to end the culture of failure. Currently, failure often leads to even more money.

Several months ago I sent an E-mail to Mrs. Moffly asking if she supported tuition tax credits or vouchers. I could not get a straight answer from her. I asked again, "yes or no" whether she supports real school choice. I got another evasive response.

Massive amounts of money and decades of tinkering with the system have left us with schools that are mediocre at best, and from which approximately half of South Carolina students fail to graduate.

Based on Mrs. Moffly's refusal to say whether or not she supports tuition tax credits and vouchers, I assume she wants to do more tinkering with the command and control system. It will not work, and I will not support a candidate who can't or won't answer a basic question about her policy positions.

Nikki Haley Promotes Nikki Haley in Taxpayer Funded State Tour

Gov. Nikki Haley toured the state this week to push her plan for tax relief. Top state legislators said the tour was a diversion to distract from bad press in recent months. “Sometimes in politics, you want to change the conversation,” said House Speaker Bobby Harrell.

Nikki Haley has come under fire for using the state plane to jet around the state to promote a tax plan.  Problem is, she has no plan.  In typical Haley fashion, she is attempting to divert attention from her own performance as Governor.  She might have been more convincing had she jetted around Georgia and explained what she has done for them.

Renee Dudley reports in The Post and Courier on Haley's latest, transparent attempt to distract attention from her corruption and failures.

Mosteller: Haley Puts GOP Principles at Risk

From The State
By Cyndi C. Mosteller

Vincent Sheheen’s opening words on his first TV ad, “South Carolina is at a crossroads,” are one intersection over from our state’s political realities. In the governor’s race, it is the state Republican Party that finds itself uncomfortably driven to the crossroads. With a 55 percent win in the last gubernatorial election and seven of eight constitutional offices, Republican, conservative and tea party voters together hold mathematical strength to elect our next governor. In a nation led by Barack Obama and a state led by Mark Sanford, this decision has never been more critical or more complicated.

Since the June 2009 Sanford-Chapur expose, our state’s reputation has been tarnished by a leader compromised. A decade earlier, Congressman Mark Sanford stood for Bill Clinton’s resignation on the Lewinsky affair, declaring that “it would be much better for the country and for him personally” to resign. Unfortunately, a lack of shame is often the closest companion to lack of honor, and both leaders held tight their power of title, even after having lost the power of principle. With Nikki Haley, Republicans might be approaching that unfamiliar crossroads where victory of title and victory of principle are more perpendicular than parallel.

As former vice chairman of the state Republican Party, my political hemoglobin runs iron-strong red. I’m down the line for Republicans Alan Wilson, Mick Zais and Tim Scott — not just for their stands, but for their character. In contrast, facts and allegations regarding Mrs. Haley raise valid questions in many a Republican conscience.

Though running on a platform of transparency and accountability, Mrs. Haley has not paid her taxes by April 15 for the past five years, and has not even filed them by the end of her extension in three of those years — years she served in our General Assembly. And Mrs. Haley’s company, where she was the accountant, incurred three liens for withholding and income taxes not paid until 19 months past due. Yet Mrs. Haley continues to campaign on such statements as: “I know I’m the right person to go into this next position because I’m an accountant, who knows what it means to stretch a dollar.”

And what of the sexual allegations? They are so removed from core Republican values that if it weren’t for Mark Sanford, we could never imagine them possibly being true — nor imagine that any candidate would consider himself or herself worthy of governing if they were. When former Sanford press secretary Will Folks asserted “an inappropriate physical relationship with Nikki,” released more than 60 damage-control texts made to Haley’s campaign and published a detailed log of late night-calls with Mrs. Haley, she called them “categorically and totally false” and insisted, “I have been 100 percent faithful to my husband throughout our 13 years of marriage.” That denial drew an unequivocal “that is not true” from Republican lobbyist Larry Marchant, who said he had sex with Mrs. Haley and “I know in my heart it happened, and she knows in her heart it happened.”

But what do We the People know? We know:

1. Someone here is lying big to 2.5 million registered voters of South Carolina.

2. If, as founding father Gouverneur Morris wrote President-elect Washington, “the exercise of authority depends on personal character,” then the competency of a Haley governorship would be compromised should these allegations be true.

3. If an informed electorate is essential to a democratic republic, then South Carolinians have every right to know if a candidate asking for their sacred vote is worthy of their sacred trust.

As a Republican woman, I concur with the admonition from Clemson political scientist David Woodard, who told the July meeting of the Greenville Republican Women’s Club: “I think the most dangerous thing is that these accusations about her personal life need to be addressed in some way. …To get women into elected office in South Carolina, we cannot afford any shred of scandal in our first statewide elected female governor. … I think she has some problems of transparency.”

Now what do We the People do? We respectfully and resolutely call for transparency. Mr. Folks, Mr. Marchant and Mrs. Haley should sign by sworn oath to the veracity of their respective public statements. Any additional mechanisms available to them for making the truth transparent should be employed without delay. And others who may have corroborating information one way or the other should have the courage to send it forward now.

In response to a question on “marital fidelity while in political office” at the Palmetto Family Council forum, Mrs. Haley responded: “You are being held to a higher standard. … You’re a role model to everybody that follows you.” On the campaign trail, pro-life Democratic candidate Vincent Sheheen has repeatedly said “we need a governor we can trust.”

With both statements, I couldn’t agree more.

Ms. Mosteller is former first vice chairman of the S.C. Republican Party and former chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party. She is a Sanford appointee to the S.C. Commission on Higher Education and has appeared numerous times as a conservative guest on ABC’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Reach her at cyndimosteller@bellsouth.net.

National View: S.C. Governor, GOP Activist Clash

John Rainey

South Carolina politics never fails to amuse.

A recent ethics imbroglio between Republican Gov. Nikki Haley and GOP activist John Rainey is a case in point.

The squabble would be of passing provincial interest if Haley weren’t a rising star often mentioned on lists of potential vice presidential candidates.

And had she not called Rainey, a nationally recognized philanthropist and community bridge-builder, a “racist, sexist bigot.”

Such charges deserve clarification and context.

Nikki Haley

Haley made the remarks during a state House Ethics Committee hearing that was prompted by a complaint Rainey filed alleging that Haley had lobbied illegally while she was a legislator. Haley has been cleared of any wrongdoing and there’s no need to re-litigate here, though Rainey promises that the issue is not dead.

Meanwhile, her invectives toward Rainey, though perhaps understandable given an exchange between them (about which more anon), are contradicted by his record. Rainey is anything but racist, sexist or bigoted.

Read the rest of this entry at the Duluth News Tribune >>

Nikki Haley Takes 20 Point Lead

The Haley campaign announced today that their candidate's lead has grown to more than 20 points over her nearest rival.

An independent poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, shows Haley leads at 39%, with the other three contenders grappling for traction in the teens:

Nikki Haley - 39%

Henry McMaster - 18%

Gresham Barrett - 16%

Andre Bauer - 13%

The Haley campaign has also released the following new tv ad which started running statewide this morning.

The Humility of Greatness vs Grabbing for All You Can Get

To those who accuse us of blind partisanship, we would suggest that the highest praise this blog has ever paid to an American politician was to President Harry S Truman.  Truman loved the Constitution, read history and had a profound understanding of how a citizen in a republic, raised to leadership, should behave.

As President, Truman made some of the most momentous decisions of the twentieth century.  Truman also paid for all of his own travel expenses, vacations and food, and when he completed the job he was given to do, he and his wife got in their own car and drove themselves home to Independence, Missouri.  No Secret Service followed them, nor did the Secret Service pay them tens of thousands of dollars in rent each month for the privilege of protecting them.  Truman refused lucrative corporate and board positions saying "You don't want me, you want the Office of President of the United States, and that doesn't belong to me."

We have thought a lot about Harry Truman on the heals of our current President's vacation looting sprees and Governor Nikki Haley calling a reporter "a little girl" for daring to write:

Haley, who captured the governor's office preaching fiscal restraint, spent the (taxpayers') cash so she, her husband and the rest of the state's contingent could stay in five-star hotels; sip cocktails at the Paris Ritz; dine on what an invitation touted as "delicious French cuisine" at a swanky rooftop restaurant; and rub elbows with the U.S. Ambassador to France at his official residence near the French presidential palace. 

The South Carolina group also threw a soiree at the Hotel de Talleyrand, a historic Parisian townhouse where they feted foreign employers in hopes they'd set up shop in South Carolina. The Department of Commerce billed the $25,000 event as a "networking opportunity for members of the South Carolina delegation."

"It was a great party," Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt said in an interview last week. 

Expenses from the trip still are being submitted, Hitt said. The $127,000 figure represents spending only by the Commerce Department, which covered many but not all of Haley's expenses, he said.

It probably gave Nikki Haley a moment of satisfaction to denigrate the reporter who wrote about her extravagant trip to Paris, but she actually did the voters of South Carolina a favor.  Had Haley not made the cutting remark, revealing her lack of class, most voters would be unaware of her five star wining and dining at their expense.

Harry Truman had the kind of hard won wisdom that most South Carolinians, indeed most Americans appreciate.  He once observed that you can determine the measure of a person by the point at which things begin to go to their head.  Truman never forgot where he came from, nor the fact that he was the public's servant, not its master.

And one last Truman quote that better reflects current state and national leadership than it does his: 

"My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"

White House Heaps Praise on Haley After SOTU Response

Nikki Haley, Obama's Useful Idiot

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s (R) response to President Obama’s State of the Union address won her praise from the very place she was tasked with criticizing: the White House. 

“I have a lot of admiration for the governor,” White House chief of staff Denis McDonough told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. “I think some of the things she has done over the last year are remarkable.”

Haley’s response to Obama’s annual address was unusual in that it took a veiled shot at her own party’s presidential front-runner, Donald Trump. 

“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” she said. “We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.”

Those comments echoed Obama’s speech, in which he rejected Trump’s doom-and-gloom message. Obama said at times of great change, America has never given in to “those who told us to fear the future” or promised “to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control.”

“She was willing to do something a lot of other leading Republicans have been unwilling to do, which is to actually articulate a commitment for American values that some leading Republican presidential candidates are speaking out against," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. “Her willingness to stand up and speak out against that took some courage and was it rather conspicuous.” 

But they also raised the ire of many on the right, including conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who said the governor — the child of Indian immigrants — should be “deported” for her remarks. 

Trump himself took a shot at Haley, who admitted in a Wednesday morning interview her comments were aimed at the billionaire real estate mogul. 

Read more at The Hill >>

 

Tricky Nikki's Appointment as UN Ambassador

President-Elect Trump with South Carolina Lt. Governor Henry McMaster - A team to make America and South Carolina great again!

For my friends outside of South Carolina who may not understand the appointment of Nikki Haley as United States UN Ambassador -- a woman to whom the President-Elect owes NOTHING -- this is more a maneuver to reward South Carolina Lt. Governor Henry McMaster, a popular leader to whom the President-Elect owes a great deal.

Nikki Haley is a powerless and disliked Governor who has attempted to achieve national recognition by betraying the people of her own state and conservative principles. She is an opportunist and has no future in South Carolina whatsoever, and her success to date has depended on the same factor which helps elect Lindsey Graham to the United States Senate. Democrat voters have known that they are unlikely to obtain anything closer to one of their own and have therefore cast their votes for the RINO candidate.

Lt. Governor Henry McMaster, on the other hand, is a popular figure who will be a well-respected, popular Governor. He was also the most prominent elected official in South Carolina to support the President-Elect in South Carolina's "first in the South" Republican primary. Trump's win here was the first in what became an unbroken and unprecedented string of victories throughout Dixie.

Haley's role at the UN will be that of a TV news anchorwoman; she will read statements prepared by others in the White House and State Department and take the slings and arrows of a world community hostile to the United States. She will have no policy role and will be a place-filler until someone qualified can take the job, unless the Trump administration can extract the US from that enormous waste of money. Many of us will be grateful for an ingenious way to get Haley out of the state.

Now South Carolina will have a superb, new Governor who reflects conservative South Carolina values and will be an important ally to the Trump Administration in making America great again.

FedUp PAC Endorses Nikki Haley for Governor of South Carolina and Mike Lee for U.S. Senator in Utah in Tuesday's Run-off Republican Primaries

FedUp PAC announced it is endorsing Nikki Haley for governor in South Carolina and Mike Lee for U.S. senator in Utah in the June 22 run-off Republican primaries.

"In Nikki Haley and Mike Lee, we have two strong conservatives who the Republican establishment would prefer defeated," said Richard A. Viguerie, founder and Chairman of FedUp PAC.

"Americans understand that the path to losing our freedoms, economic strength, and military security was paved by establishment Republicans. We are now insisting on electing small-government constitutional conservatives who will shake things up," Viguerie said.

FedUp PAC is dedicated to the defense of the constitutional conservatism, the promotion of small, limited government, and the election of "boat-rocking" conservatives.

Senator Larry Grooms Cautions Nikki Haley

Senator Larry Grooms, a former candidate for the Republican South Carolina gubernatorial nomination, has sounded an important warning to Nikki Haley, who appears to be walking away from her pledge to reform South Carolina's dead-last educational system, and particularly her support for school choice.

We recognize that national attention can turn one's head, but a candidate who turns one's back on core issues and key constituencies may have a hard time getting those same people to the polls on election day.

Give educational choice to parents

By Sen. Larry Grooms

"While I breathe, I hope." It's one of South Carolina's mottoes, and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Like parents everywhere, I join South Carolina's parents in wanting the best for our children. We pin our hopes on God, on hard work, on belief in the goodness of America and South Carolina. And we hold out hope, hope against hope, for our political figures.

The most promising hope begins with a sound childhood education. That's why so many parents are now saying the Republican candidate for governor has let them down. They're disappointed that our candidate removed what is a key piece of the GOP's official platform. Instead she now says parental choice of schools - the freedom to choose schools - is not her focus.

Certainly the other pieces are there, and they are the right pieces - streamlining the bureaucracy, emphasizing vocational training, reforming our needlessly complex and wasteful funding formulas. But for thousands of parents the freedom to choose a different school means the freedom to at last see their children's best hopes embodied.

We can meet many of our most urgent social, political and economic challenges by first meeting our students' needs. A wonderful education not only promises opportunity, but can bring true freedom. Quality education opens minds. It's inherently liberating. It affords possibility, invites opportunity, equalizes playing fields and forever pays dividends.

There are far-reaching problems in our education system. Some blame a lack of money, but we spend $11,372 per child, per year on public education. Some say we need more management, but our state has 85 school districts with entrenched administrative bureaucracies. Still others point to inefficiencies, and here they have a point. Only 44 cents of each education dollar manage to reach the classroom for instruction.

There is even more disagreement about solutions, but our shortfalls are not for lack of trying. We've had the Education Finance Act (1977), the Education Improvement Act (1984), the Charter School Act (1996), the Education Accountability Act (1998), the Education Lottery Act (2001) and the Education and Economic Development Act (2005). All provided more money and more programming, as if growing the bureaucracy would solve things. And still, the gap between prosperous and poor, between urban and rural, between South Carolina's children and those in competing states, continues and grows.

Let's stop tinkering around the edges. Let's stop throwing money at the problem. Let us instead finally bring real relief, real reform, lasting and meaningful change.

School choice helps families afford independent and home school expenses and is a catalyst for serious reform. It saves public school money, reduces public school class size and directly addresses inequality by giving low- and middle-income families the choice that others already have. It also can let children into a great classroom where the curriculum and style match the learning style best suited for them.

Choice for parents doesn't depend on school districts to fix themselves. Parents' rightful voice in their children's education - in effect their children's freedom - is restored. Families, not bureaucrats, choose the best school for their sons and daughters.

If we're serious about quality in education, and equality in education, if we want schools that truly serve families and communities, then we must ensure that our leaders bring the only reform that is driven by families.

Rep. Nikki Haley has been an outspoken and eloquent advocate of meaningful education reform, and having worked with her, I know she's sincere. We're on the same team, and I want her to win. That's why I ask her to reconsider her education plan and restore parental choice to her platform.

Let us free parents to choose and free children to learn. Let us free teachers from bureaucracies and free them to teach. In doing so, we liberate a new generation and give them the best freedom of all - the freedom to succeed.

Larry Grooms, a Republican, represents District 37, which includes portions of Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton and Dorchester counties. A small businessman, he and his wife have three sons who attend public schools.

Poll: Gov. Haley's Numbers Below Obama's

 Nikki Haley visiting New York during her ongoing national fundraising tour.

The number of South Carolinians who identify themselves as members of the tea party has fallen to less than 6 percent, and Gov. Nikki Haley’s approval ratings are lower than President Barack Obama’s, according to a poll of state residents released Wednesday.

The survey, taken Nov. 25 through Dec. 2 by Winthrop University, found that 5.7 percent of registered voters said they were members of the tea party, with 90.8 percent saying they weren’t.

The poll also showed that 48 percent of South Carolina residents approved of the job Obama is doing, while 38.3 percent approved of the way Haley is handling her job.

Read the rest of this entry at GreenvilleOnline.com 

Nikki Haley's Lies, Sweet Little Lies

Gov. Nikki Haley’s new memoir, “Can’t Is Not An Option,” is untruthful or twists many events, a half-dozen S.C. politicians said last week.

Members of Haley’s own Republican Party — including the speaker of the S.C. House and a former lieutenant governor — say allegations against them are “absolutely not true” and “not true at all.” Democrats, including Haley’s 2010 opponent in the governor’s race, describe the book as “fiction.”

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/04/15/3895387/sc-gov-haleys-memoir-makes-stuff.html#storylink=cpy

Read the rest of this entry >

Haley to Veto Anti-Dredging Bill Unanimously Passed

The unanimous votes by both houses of the South Carolina Legislature are well-deserved votes of  "no confidence" in the leadership of Governor Nikki Haley. 

From Bluffton Today

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's spokesman says she plans to veto a measure opposing her board's decision to allow Georgia to dredge the Savannah River and expand its port.

The measure viewed as a rebuke of the Republican governor is on its way to her desk following yet another unanimous vote.

The House voted 105-0 on Tuesday to approve a tweak the Senate made to the bill. The same chamber voted 111-0 two weeks ago.

The proposal is designed to help undo the Department of Health and Environmental Control's decision allowing Georgia to dredge the shared river.

The measure retroactively suspends the agency's ability to make dredging decisions. The Senate approved it 37-0 last week after inserting a clause specifying the suspension applies to the Savannah port project only.

Haley Raises Funds from Texas Insurance Industry Regulated by Former Appointee

A Texas newspaper reported on Wednesday that Governor Nikki Haley traveled to Texas in September to attend a fundraiser organized for her benefit by Eleanor Kitzman, former Executive Director of the South Carolina Budget and Control Board.  Kitzman left her $174,000-a-year post in Columbia after only six months when she was appointed Texas Insurance Commissioner by Governor Rick Perry.  Kitzman has overseen the highly regulated insurance industry for only three months.

The Texas Observer reports that most of the $35,000 raised by Haley from Texas donors in the last quarter has come from that state's insurance industry.  It also suggests that  "Kitzman’s Texas fundraising for Haley could be aimed at currying favor for Perry with the governor of a state with a January primary that could make or break Perry’s presidential run."  A copy of the E-mail invitation may be seen here.

As with her fundraising trip to New Jersey on September 28, Haley did not include the Texas fundraising junket on her official schedule.  

Who knew that a national shakedown tour for political contributions is what Haley had in mind when she promised greater investment in South Carolina?  If this is the "face of the new South," we'll take the old one, thank you very much.

Feds Expand Probe of Nikki Haley Finances

From FITSNews

A federal investigation into the finances of the Sikh Religious Society of South Carolina – the temple where S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s parents, Dr. Ajit S. “Doc” Randhawa and Raj Randhawa worship – has expanded to include the governor’s personal and campaign finances, multiple sources familiar with the ongoing probe tell FITS.

Specifically, agents are said to be investigating whether Haley and her husband, Michael, received improper payments from the temple – allegations which have revived lingering questions about discrepancies between the couple’s meager pre-gubernatorial income and the lavish lifestyle they enjoyed.

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