Haley makes S.C. history By Jim Davenport - The Associated Press
COLUMBIA -- Nikki Haley on Tuesday became South Carolina's first Republican woman nominated for governor.
Her win came as she rode the public backlash against the state's notoriously rough-and-tumble politics and with the backing of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and popular former South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford. In her three House terms, she has been known as a close ally of Gov. Mark Sanford and a boat-rocker who sparred with leadership.
It was a winning mix in a year where tea party activists and GOP conservatives are anxious to reshape the Republican Party. Tuesday night, preliminary results showed Haley leading with 63 percent of the votes to 37 percent for U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett.
Despite obstacles, SC gov candidate's star rises
Accusations of infidelity couldn't sink Nikki Haley. An alliance with the state's disgraced governor couldn't do it either. She's an Indian-American in a state not known for embracing women and minority candidates? No problem. Just months ago, Haley, 38, was an obscure state lawmaker. Now she's the odds-on favorite to become the state's first female governor, helped by an anti-establishment message that has endeared her to conservatives and tea party voters. Along the way, she has drawn comparisons to her party's most public female personality, 2008 vice presidential candidate and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who endorsed her in May. Now she'll face Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen to succeed term-limited Gov. Mark Sanford.
"I'm incredibly humbled by the support shown to me by the people of South Carolina. I look forward to the weeks, months, and years we have ahead of us, as we continue the movement to return South Carolina's government to its people. It's a new day in our state, and I am very blessed to be a part of it," Haley said in a statement shortly after being declared the winner.
Sheheen said, "Voters of this state are presented with a very stark choice they have to make.
"We present very different alternatives in how to move forward."
Haley, a Bamberg native and daughter of Indian immigrants, was to celebrate the victory at the State Museum not far from a room at the museum housing Civil War relics and a few blocks from the Confederate flag fluttering at the Statehouse grounds.
Haley was hit with unsubstantiated allegations by a Columbia blogger and a lobbyist that she'd had affairs with them.
The married mother of two categorically denied the claims and said they came from her opponents. Then, state Sen. Jake Knotts was reprimanded by GOP leaders earlier this month after he referred to Haley with the derogatory term "raghead," saying: "We've got a raghead in Washington, we don't need a raghead in the Statehouse."
Haley brushed aside the aspersions and handily beat three men in the primary, but fell 4,800 votes shy of winning the nomination outright on June 8.
While she failed to gain a majority she picked up traction among influential Republicans and stressed a return to conservative basics instead of blind faith in the Republican label.
While Barrett had persistently raised more money than Haley, he finished the June 8 primary a distant second at 22 percent and said he'd accept divine intervention to close that 27 percent deficit in the runoff.
While Barrett had been angling for months for a runoff berth with any other candidate, Barrett campaign manager Luke Byars said they ended up with a contest no one expected and gap that couldn't be overcome.
"It's very difficult to do that when you're faced with an electorate out there being told by the national press corps and everyone else that the race is over," Byars said.
Haley allies early this year put up ads criticizing Barrett for supporting the Bush administration's federal bank bailout in 2008.
It had been a sore spot for Barrett, who was booed at a tea party rally last year for that vote, and Barrett's opponents seized on the issue.
"Even thought he's one of most conservative members of Congress - he was a member of Congress.
"And this year it's tough to be a member of Congress running for anything - even re-election," Byars said.
Haley's victory in South Carolina's bruising GOP primary assures her a place on the national political scene.
Like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who immediately touched off presidential talk when he won his state's governorship, Haley's primary victory sets off talk of a possible vice presidential campaign in 2012.
As an Indian-American woman from an early primary state, she would bring a combination of diversity and conservatism that many in the GOP have been seeking
Read more: www.thesunnews.com/2010/0...istory.html#ixzz0rgY2WwX9
