SC

Nikki Haley’s Political Consultants Are Pissed

S.C. GOVERNOR THROWS LONGTIME ADVISORS A CURVEBALL … This was not “the plan” for S.C. governor Nikki Haley … Having tried and failed to take out Donald Trump in the 2016 GOP primary – and having tried and failed to take out powerful S.C. Senate president Hugh Leatherman four months later –…

S.C. GOVERNOR THROWS LONGTIME ADVISORS A CURVEBALL …

This was not “the plan” for S.C. governor Nikki Haley

Having tried and failed to take out Donald Trump in the 2016 GOP primary – and having tried and failed to take out powerful S.C. Senate president Hugh Leatherman four months later – Haley was supposed to ride out her second term as a lame duck at home.  And be on the “outside looking in” nationally.

Her vaunted “national star” had shone its last, it seemed …

The one bright spot?  Despite her bad bets, Haley remained in line to take over the Republican Governors Association (RGA) – meaning her political advisors were poised to rake in tons of cash running GOP gubernatorial races across the country.

Not anymore …

Now that Haley has said she will accept Trump’s nomination to become United States’ ambassador to the United Nations – her advisors are officially S.O.L.

Wait … isn’t Haley’s new job (assuming she survives the vetting) vastly more influential than the chairmanship of a partisan governors’ group?

Absolutely … for Haley.

For those seeking to make money off of her, though, it is a dead end.

“Running the RGA is a license to print money,” one Republican consultant told us. “Ambassador to the UN?  There’s no money to be made there – and if you try you’re going to wind up getting yourself into a lot of trouble.”

In fact, public frustration with “pay-to-play” government is at an all-time high following the myriad scandals involving former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

That means there will be more of a microscope on self-serving behavior now than ever before.

“It’s a great day for Nikki Haley – but a terrible day for her political clingers,” one veteran Washington, D.C. operative told us.

Chief among those “clingers?”  Liberal GOP pollster/ consultant Jon Lerner and longtime Haley confidant Tim Pearson, her former chief of staff and two-time campaign manager (and the guy whose sealed divorce case could make some news in the weeks to come).

(Banner via Travis Bell Photography)

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