South Carolina governor Henry McMaster’s rumored choice for lieutenant governor isn’t impressing several of his top donors. In fact the aging politician’s reported selection of Greenville, S.C. human resources executive Pamela Evette – which we’re told is being announced this week – has several of them seeing red.
“I’m furious,” one Upstate McMaster donor told us. “Choice sucks, timing sucks.”
Another prominent McMaster supporter told us they had no issue with the selection of Evette – but were shocked that word of the announcement leaked to the governor’s political opponents before it reached his top donors.
“I was told (who it was) by a lawmaker I know is opposing (McMaster),” the donor said. “When your enemies know more about your campaign’s biggest decisions than your bundlers, that’s a big problem.”
By far the most vocal opposition to Evette, though, came from a McMaster bundler who hails from the Midlands region of the Palmetto State.
“I think it’s horsesh*t,” the bundler told us. “What in the f*ck does someone nobody has ever heard of do for you? It’s embarrassing. Faced with an opportunity to do something real – to select a game-changer and right the ship of what can only be described as a chaotic, message-less campaign, they pick someone nobody has ever heard of that brings precisely zero to the table.”
Wow …
“I’m just beyond mad at this point,” the bundler added. “It’s almost to the level of throwing in the towel completely.”
The bundler echoed concerns about the McMaster campaign’s lack of notification.
“I never heard from the campaign,” the bundler said. “Hell, they’ve been having meetings at the mansion with people and leaving most of us out.”
Factionalism within the McMaster camp was spilling over on Monday afternoon. According to our sources, a late push was being made in the hopes of getting McMaster to reconsider his selection of Evette and replace her with former S.C. “Republican” party chairwoman Karen Floyd – who is said to covet the job.
In fact many GOP operatives have been led to believe Floyd is McMaster’s choice.
As we noted in our prior coverage, whomever McMaster chooses it won’t matter unless he wins the “Republican” nomination, which at the moment is far from a sure thing.
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