Nikki Haley Assailed For Port Hypocrisy

Democrats blistered S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley for showing up at a press conference with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden this week in support of government funding for the Port of Charleston.

And with good reason …

“Nikki Haley raised the bar on her own personal record on hypocrisy talking about the Port in Charleston today – and that’s saying a lot,” said Kaye Koonce, the S.C. Democratic Party’s first vice chair. “Now that the cameras are on, Nikki Haley suddenly cares about deepening the Port of Charleston but when push came to shove, she sold us out for 20 pieces of silver.”

Koonce is referring to Haley’s infamous “Savannah River Sellout,” in which she betrayed South Carolina’s economic interests in exchange for  campaign cash and a prime time speaking slot at the 2012 Republican National Convention (courtesy of Georgia Ports Authority chairman Alec Poitevant).

“Nikki Haley gave the competitive edge to Savannah in order to raise money for her reelection campaign,” Koonce said.

After promising to do a better job competing against Georgia, Haley instead hand-delivered a major competitive advantage to its government-run port. Not only did her decision aid Georgia’s taxpayer-funded port expansion plans (and diminish Charleston’s competitiveness), it killed off any chance for a public-private port facility in Jasper County, S.C. – home to the last remaining deepwater port location on the Eastern Seaboard.

In other words rather than letting the private sector create jobs in her own state, Haley obligated her state’s taxpayers to subsidize a government-run port expansion in a competing state.

And this woman campaigned as a “Tea Partier?”

Haley’s sellout was unanimously rebuked by the S.C. General Assembly and overturned by the S.C. Supreme Court – but the damage was done.