ELECTIONS 2014: New Nikki Haley ad accuses Vincent Sheheen of failing to back Boeing
Republican Gov. Nikki Haley launched her 2014 campaign's first television ad attacking Democratic challenger Vincent Sheheen.
The Haley ad says Sheheen, a state senator from Camden, was silent when the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against aircraft maker Boeing for opening a new 787 jet manufacturing facility in South Carolina, a right-to-work state, rather in Washington state where union have a strong presence. The North Charleston plant was the largest economic-development project in state history.
The governor has opposed unions coming into South Carolina, saying they hurt business growth. The ad says of the NLRB complaint that, "Nikki Haley fought for us and won."
But the NLRB dropped the complaint in 2011 at the request of the union representing Boeing workers in Washington state after the company gave them wage hikes and promised more production work.
The ad says the Democratic senator did nothing about the NLRB complaint because unions donated to "liberal Vince Sheheen." He has received a handful of contributions from unions, according to state ethics records.
Sheheen campaign manager Andrew Whalen noted that Haley missed the vote to approve state economic incentives to attract Boeing when she was a representative from Lexington and "only showed up when she could advance her personal ambition and political agenda."
"Once again, Nikki Haley proves she is unable to be honest with the public," Whalen said.
Haley has said she missed the vote during a special session because of a previous engagement and would have voted yes to the incentives.
Haley's four previous ads in her 2014 campaign have highlighted her accomplishments during her first term and did not include references to Sheheen, whom she beat by 4.5 percentage points in 2010.
The Republican Governors Association has aired ads attacking Sheheen's support for accepting the first years of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and work defending criminals as an attorney.
Sheheen's campaign has run three ads, all of which hit either Haley's handling of the S.C. Department of Revenue hacking or the deaths of children who had contact with the Department of Social Services. His latest ad started last week.
The Democratic Governors Association also ran an anti-Haley ad on the DSS issue.
Polls show Haley with an edge in the rematch with margins ranging from 3 percent to 17 percent.
This story was originally published September 9, 2014 at 8:58 AM with the headline "ELECTIONS 2014: New Nikki Haley ad accuses Vincent Sheheen of failing to back Boeing."