Tomorrow’s Republican gubernatorial runoff in South Carolina will easily be the most-watched result of the night — not necessarily because there is tremendous suspense about the outcome, but because it ends one of the most dramatic and dirty races of the cycle.
In the June 8 first-round primary, state Rep. Nikki Haley came in first with 49%, just short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. She was followed by Congressman Gresham Barrett in a distant second with 22%, state Attorney General Henry McMaster with 17%, and Lt. Gov. André Bauer with 12%.
The race was interesting from the get-go, with four Republicans competing to succeed scandal-plagued Gov. Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford, whose administration and potential presidential campaign were both destroyed a year ago after it was revealed that he’d had an extra-marital affair with a woman in Argentina. Then things got even more interesting, with personal accusations lobbed against Haley.
The dirt that’s been flung against Haley included two different accusations of extra-marital affairs, and even a racist attack against her and about her family’s religion. (She is of Indian Sikh background, and converted to Christianity in adulthood.)
CNN asked Haley whether the mud-slinging has helped her. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. You know, what I can tell you is, that we — while they, the negative campaigners tried to distract us, it only made me more focused, and more confident, and more determined to make sure we got our message out to the people of this state. And what it showed was, that the people rose above it, and said we’re not gonna allow the negative campaigning, and they turned around and made their decisions based on that.”
A Haley victory could have a tremendous impact on the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, as she would be a governor of a key primary state whose politics are closely identified with the Tea Party movement. Indeed, she’s already received $42,000 in contributions from Mitt Romney and his various campaign PACs, and also has the strong support of Sarah Palin.
So stay tuned for tomorrow’s result.
