Whom we elect in SC is none of your business, Gov. Pawlenty

As you know, few things tick me off more than the nationalization of local politics. I even get on the case of politicians I like when they start acting like they want to influence the residents of OTHER states as to whom they should elect — especially since they almost always do so in behalf of those abominations, the two major political parties.

So it is that we are not amused at this latest small outrage:

I’m Gov. Pawlenty’s communications director… Watned to let you know
that today, Gov. Pawlenty’s Freedom First PAC will formally endorsing
and contributing to several South Carolina candidates in this fall’s
elections:

Governor – Haley – $3500
Senator – DeMint – $3000
SC-01 – Scott – $2000
SC-02 – Wilson – $2000
SC-03 – Duncan – $2000
SC-04 – Gowdy – $2000

As you probably know, Governor Pawlenty is currently in South
Carolina. Last night, he attended a fundraiser for the state GOP at
the home of GOP chairman Karen Floyd in Spartanburg with Nikki Haley.
(We posted a photo of the two of them on Gov. Pawlenty’s facebook
page.) This morning, he attended a fundraiser for Mick Mulvaney’s
congressional campaign in Rock Hill.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need an on-the-record
quote from me.
Thanks,
Alex

As I’m typing this, I can’t remember who the frick “Gov. Pawlenty” is, but let me guess before I Google it: He’s yet another Republican who thinks he’s got what it takes to be president, cozying up to South Carolina Republicans because of our early primary.

And the answer is… Yes, I was right! Of course, it’s not much of a guess. Even Mark Sanford was once in that fraternity, which shows you, anybody can get in.

At least he’s got a motive. But that doesn’t excuse it.

15 thoughts on “Whom we elect in SC is none of your business, Gov. Pawlenty”

  1. Brad

    I don’t know (I never had to learn that stuff because when I was at the paper I had Cindi Scoppe, who knew our ethics laws chapter and verse, and had strong opinions about every codicil), but I suspect we’re pretty loose about it.

    I just assumed when I saw this that he had his own PAC. But that’s just an assumption.

  3. Burl Burlingame

    My first thought, curiously, was that Nikki Haley should marry Haley Barber. So she could be Nikki Haley Barber. And he could be Mr. Nikki Haley Barber.

  4. Maude Lebowski

    I agree. I also believe that immigration law in AZ is none of our business either.

  5. Lynn

    South Carolina voters should reward those who seek to use us as pawns appropriately — with absolute disdain. That applies to basically everyone out-of-state who has endorsed Haley and the entire Sanford crowd.

  6. Ralph Hightower

    Senator Demint, the party of No, is also sticking his nose in other states where it doesn’t belong.

  8. Matt

    So I guess all the money and staff that Kerry and Edwards and Dean and Gephardt and Clinton and Obama and Richardson sent down here in the 2002 and 2006 cycles for Democrat candidates was bad too, right?

    I’m sure Sheheen will be getting his share from national Democrat pols looking to the future as well. Maybe not as much since there will be no 2012 Dem primary, but still, this is all par for the course in politics.

  9. Brad Warthen

    And Maude — you’re right about the Arizona thing up to a point, and the point is this: Immigration is a federal function, and therefore the business of all of us. We don’t need states free-lancing on it.

    Having an opinion about what the state of Arizona has already done on this FEDERAL issue is a far cry from trying to tell the people of Arizona whom they should be electing to represent them. That is truly, completely, up to them. Or should be.

  10. Brad

    Matt, I would be fascinated to hear about those contributions to which you refer. If they exist, yep, it’s a grave offense. But I don’t remember any such dynamic.

    And there’s a good reason for that — SC Democrats don’t want anything to do with national Democrats. They don’t want their endorsements, although I’m sure they’d want the money (if they could get it anonymously, which they can’t). The one exception might be Obama, who had more support here than and national Democrat in recent years.

    As much as I love to do equal-opportunity bashing (ask Bud; he hates it that I seldom criticize a Republican without citing equal sins by Democrats — such as when I hit Republicans for not giving Obama a chance, I always mention Bush Derangement Syndrome, which frankly I see as much the same disease) — I think that as far as South Carolinians being involved on either end of it, this is mostly a Republican phenomenon.

  12. bud

    That is truly, completely, up to them. Or should be.
    -Brad

    The final decision is up to the voters but the results of elections for the US House and Senate affect us all. I have no problem with liberal groups trying to take an active roll in elections regardless of where they hale from. A conservative idiot from Arizona is just as dangerous as a conservative idiot from South Carolina once he infiltrates Congress.

  13. martin

    I think Bud has a point.

    It’s not like Howard Rich pouring money into legislative candidates for a cause his home state doesn’t appear to care for.

    People like DeMint and Wilson hurt the whole country. And, Ben Nelson, too.

  14. Brad

    Yeah, there IS a hierarchy of objectionableness here. Interfering in another state’s relationship with its public schools is worse than interfering with whom they send to Congress.

    But both are bad. Whether the people of another state want a liberal, a conservative, or a one-eyed, left-handed fascist anarchist, isn’t up to us. We get to choose ours, and they get to choose theirs.

    And frankly, given what I’ve seen out of Washington the last few years, maybe one or two one-eyed, left-handed fascist anarchists would change the mix to where something good happened for a change…

  15. Matt

    Brad: the money from the national Dems that I talked about goes to the SCDP accounts. Every four years they operate the “Coordinated Campaign” and have accounts for that. At least in 2002 when you had a hot Senate race with Sanders vs. Graham and a presidential primary on the horizon, you had lots of money coming in from the leadership PAC’s of the presumptive presidential candidates (Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt, Dean, etc.) They also sent staffers down too. We used to joke that we’d see so many Massachusetts and DC plates at places like Salty Nut or whatever local watering hole these guys were hanging out at. I was doing politics for the GOP that year and even got to know John Kerry’s former bodyman who was in SC working for the SCDP.

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