The Republican gubernatorial rivals of state Rep. Nikki Haley used former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's endorsement of Haley as a chance to attack each other.
The campaigns of U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett and Attorney General Henry McMaster took potshots at each other. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer hit the campaign trail.
All four - Haley of Lexington, Barrett of Westminster, Bauer of Greenville and McMaster of Columbia - are trying to earn one of two spots in an expected run-off election two weeks after the June 8 primary.
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Palin's endorsements have been big news in races in New York, California and Arizona, where she backed the man who chose her as his vice presidential running mate, U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Friday was little different in Columbia, where about 1,000 people came out to the State House to see Palin support Haley.
Jeri Cabot, a political scientist with the College of Charleston, said the other GOP gubernatorial campaigns do not want to criticize someone with Palin's national profile.
"They don't really want to attack her," Cabot said. "Palin is her own game right now. She's calling her own shots."
Instead, Barrett poked at McMaster - who chaired McCain's successful 2008 S.C. campaign - for failing to win Palin's endorsement.
McMaster's camp fired back that Barrett was struggling to overcome his vote in favor of the Trouble Assets Relief Program, criticized by some as a bank bailout.
"This is also another significant setback for Congressman Barrett's campaign - like it would be for any candidate struggling to overcome voter outrage over his flip-flop vote in favor of the bank bailout," said spokesman Rob Godfrey.
Barrett's campaign noted McMaster failed to capitalize on his McCain-Palin '08 ties.
"This is a real gut punch to Henry McMaster," said Barrett spokesman B.J. Boling. "The bottom line is that the McMaster campaign is heartbroken over missing out on an endorsement they desperately wanted. It's just disappointing that they would take out their hard feelings on us."
McMaster campaign manager Trey Walker, who ran McCain's mid-Atlantic regional effort, said Palin routinely drew larger crowds than McCain on the campaign trail.
"The excitement and the energy has always been about Sarah Palin," Walker said. "And usually it's less about who she is endorsing or what she is there to do."
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