SC itself is a quagmire of political corruption and expecting Haley to lead on “Ethics Reform” is like asking Barry Bonds to take the lead on steroids reform.

It would not all be surprising to see her lose in the next GOP primary-challengers are already lining up down here.

I will read the links and the court opinion and weigh in soon.

It’s likely due to runoff from communities that isn’t properly treated before flowing into the waterway. THEY should pay taxes to clean it up. It’s THEIR mess, they created it, let them clean it.

Same thing I would have done with the OWS protesters: We’re going to send you a bill to pay to clean up the mess you made.

If the fishermen want the bay cleaned up for their osyter beds, crabs, etc. – let them pay for it. You want to hold an arts festival in Norfolk or on the VA Beach waterfront – let them pay to organize and advertise it, not me. I don’t care how much business and tax revenue we supposedly get from it, private enterprise would do it if it was profitable to do so.

It was a battle worth fighting that didn’t get fought to the extent that it should have by Gov. Haley. This has tarnished her image very badly in their eyes.

Sometimes, politicians have an opportunity to self-correct when a situation occurs that causes them to lose voter confidence. I don’t know what options Gov. Haley might have at this point. If she has any options open to her at all, then she needs to act on it quickly.

http://operationlostvote.org/about/

http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/opinions/displayOpinion.cfm?caseNo=27120

Here are two examples.

Last legislative session we had the opportunity to dissolve the Budget and Control Board, an arcane board, only SC has this, which defuses power AND ACCOUNTABILITY between several govt branches. So everything can be explained to voters via finger pointing and no one takes responsibility for bad policy. The Governor did not show strong leadership, she was in favor of abolishing the B&CB and creating several OTHER boards so that her Executive branch could still take cover for not getting the work of the people done. The grassroots deem this a failure to lead and significantly a failure of what she campaigned on.

And did you know that the SC Supreme Court, which is appointed by our legislators, tossed 250 challengers off the ballot prior to our June primaries leaving almost every incumbent, from county councilman to state senator with no opposition for the November general election? This left SC voters, tens of thousands, county after county, precinct after precinct with no choice. Disenfranchised. The legislators had the opportunity to fix this situation, created by laws THEY PASSED (this particular law was a law Nikki sponsored when she was in the General Assembly). The legislators of course declined, the Supreme Court created law in making two sets of election threshold, one for incumbents, one for challengers. Again did you hear about this? No. Our Governor, who has a bully pulpit nationally when she wants to support a presidential candidate did NO national radio, NO national TV, and NO national print media letting other states and other Americans know that in her state, voters had their votes taken away in 2012.

Just yesterday, Peter Rothberg at The Nation called this the NUMBER ONE under-reported story of the summer.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169492/five-most-under-reported-stories-summer#

The people of South Carolina worked for 8 weeks and collected almost 300,000 signatures through the petition process to put 150 of the original 250 challengers back on the ballot for November. The people stood up for their right to choose who to vote for. The Governor attended fundraisers for Romney.

http://www.spartanburgteaparty.org/2012/08/20/operation-lost-vote-over-250000-petition-signatures-in-8-weeks/

So. Not so awesome from down here in SC.