Nikki Haley is rightly proud that, after a two-year battle in which she took considerable risk taking on the powers that be in the House, that body passed her bill requiring roll-call votes.
There’s just one ironic little fun-fact-to-know about that passage: Nikki herself was not present for the roll-call vote on roll-call voting.
Really.
Anyway, here’s the release her campaign put out yesterday touting her triumph:
Haley’s Bill Requiring All Legislators to Vote on The Record Passes the House
Friends –
I wanted to quickly share some great news.
After a two year battle to get legislators to vote on the record – and after being punished by House leadership for her fight – Nikki’s Spending Accountability Act, requiring all legislators to be accountable to the people they serve, passed the House today.
Below is the campaign’s press release, with comments from Nikki:
###Nikki Haley released the following statement on the House’ passage of H.3047, the Spending Accountability Act:Columbia, SC – “Today is a great day for the voters and taxpayers of South Carolina. Almost two full years ago, I introduced this bill because our legislators were voting anonymously more than 90% of the time and the citizens of our state could not see the spending habits of their elected officials,” Haley said. “The House has now voted – unanimously – to make it permanent law that every single vote will be on the record, and I couldn’t be more proud to have helped bring this historic change about.”
“Getting to this point has not been easy, and those of us who fought have the scars to prove it, but at the end of the day the House has now recognized that legislative votes belong to the people, not to elected officials, and that is a huge win for South Carolina,” Haley continued.
“I would like to thank my colleagues in the House who saw the importance of making their votes transparent to the people they serve, and specifically thank Rep. Nathan Ballentine, the only Member who fought with me on this bill from the very beginning. I urge the senate to follow our lead in passing this bill, and to do so quickly,” Haley finished.
Chad Walldorf, Chairman of SC Club for Growth, commented on the passage of Haley’s bill. “Today’s passage of stronger on the record voting requirements is a hard-fought victory for South Carolina taxpayers,” Walldorf said. “In particular, Rep. Nikki Haley’s diligence in passing the legislation shows her commitment to transparency and accountability – two principles we need more of in Columbia. She deserves huge credit for shaking up the way things have been done for too long.”
“Now, more than ever, the people need to see exactly what their elected officials are doing,” said Talbert Black, State Coordinator for the Campaign for Liberty. “This has been a long struggle, and it’s not over yet, but what happened today is a huge step forward in terms of getting South Carolina taxpayers the kind of government we deserve.”
H.3047 will now move to the South Carolina Senate.
###
I had already known about the vote, though, from the Twitter messages I had received all day — the ones flying out of the State House noting that Nikki had missed the vote.
This was acknowledged in the journal with this notation:
RECORD FOR VOTINGI was temporarily out of the Chamber during the vote on H. 3047. If I had been present, I would have voted in favor of the Bill.
Rep. Nikki Haley
I’m sure she was disappointed not to be there…
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“temporarily out of the Chamber during the vote on H. 3047. If I had been present, I would have voted in favor of the Bill.”
Did they sneak it in on her or what? Kind of a lame tweet…
Brad – not to be the perennially pro-Nikki voice on your pages, but you’re a little closer to the subject matter here and I thought might be able to provide some clarity. Is this really a moment of irony? Or did the forces at the top who’ve opposed this all along pull a fast one to embarrass her with precisely this types of irony-laden headline?
A certain SC blogger who’s had a tendency to be sympathetic to her efforts relayed a floor conversation that would indicate she wanted to be there, but that the leadership had no desire to let that happen. Sounds plausible. Nor can I imagine Haley scheduling an event in Greenville if she thought a vote on her signature issue was going to be coming up. She seems a little more together than all that.
Actually, it’s just the piling on that I’ve seen around the state that makes me wonder if there wasn’t more to it than just a simple screwup. Though it certainly could have been…
thanks from Myrtle Beach (and we ought to get a beverage or something next time you’re this way, if you still have time for us slow-media types)
Robert, you could be right. I’m going to see if I can get ahold of Nikki and ask her about that. I tried responding to that release with a question, but didn’t hear back.
I’ll try to call her tomorrow…
And hopefully when you learn that the vote was purposely scheduled while Ms. Haley was out of town, you’ll recognize who did it and understand that the person who runs the Senate and his cronies are what’s wrong with this state. I believe you named him as one of the people you’d be most willing to work for.
I have to say I agree with you, Doug. The Powers-That-Be in the Legislature are too powerful. There is no independent judiciary (see the Segars-Andrews case, among others) and the Governor is toothless, which is usually not a good thing. Now they are apparently embarrassing their colleagues who step out of line.