Good old boys never like being told they're about to be un-good olded

Coupla days ago I wondered if the GOP and its allies will close ranks behind Nikki Haley after the runoff.

I doubted it.

Ben Smith suggests I'm right:

Categories:

 
• South Carolina

Chamber vs. Haley

In a mark of how different state and national politics can be, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce really doesn't like Nikki Haley, seeing her as a challenge, in Mark Sanford's tradition, to a status quo that they don't mind all that much:

The state’s business community — led by the state Chamber — is raising some of the same concerns, and the confrontational tone of Haley’s latest ad has only raised the level of alarm.

“Those discussions have been had in regards to whether or not she can get along with the General Assembly,” Chamber President Otis Rawl said.

Haley has a widely acknowledged adversarial relationship with legislative leaders, Rawl said, and that “has led to discussions about whether she can accomplish the goals that we would like to see about expanding businesses ... or if she’s going to be as adversarial as Sanford was.”

That’s part of the reason why the group is backing Barrett — and why they could still choose to back state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, the Democratic nominee.

“Gresham had a more deliberate plan. ... He talked about specifics a lot more than the buzzwords of transparency and accountability that don’t mean much to our guys. What we want to know is: What do you do about the port? What are you going to do from a jobs training perspective?” Rawl said. “For our guys, when you start talking about transparency, there’s transparency right now. I know it’s about buzzwords, but that’s exactly what they are: buzzwords.”

Rawl takes issue with Haley’s latest TV ad, which attacks “an arrogant, unaccountable government.”

“It paraphrases that we’re not going to have the same type of government we had, and it’s those things that send the wrong message to the leadership. It also sends the wrong message to the business community, that we’re going to be fighting again with the Legislature,” Rawl said. “The last commercial, it says an awful lot.”