The Buzz: Gov. Nikki Haley’s gift haul smaller last year

Gov. Nikki Haley did not get as much in gifts and travel in 2014, while she was running for re-election, as she did in 2013.

Haley accepted $44,940 in gifts last year, down $614 from 2013, according to her economic disclosures. While the dollar value dropped slightly, it was the second-biggest haul during Haley’s first four-year term in office.

Haley received another $37,909 in flights and accommodations last year, a drop of 20 percent from 2013.

Ten donors contributed nearly $29,000 to pay for the governor’s suite at Clemson University football games. Eight of the donors contributed to her successful 2014 re-election campaign. Four are school trustees. Haley is a Clemson graduate.

The University of South Carolina provided the governor $310 in men’s and women’s basketball tickets.

Haley also received gifts from companies that received state financial incentives to come to South Carolina, including from:

▪  PTR Industries, a personalized semi-automatic rifle, $1,200

▪  Giti Tire, two marionette puppets and other unspecified gifts, $792

▪  Dayton Rogers Manufacturing Co., a Tiffany box, $540

▪  Nephron Pharmaceuticals executives, Bruno Mars concert ticket, $89.50

Even companies considering locating in the state gave the governor gifts.

Monster Moto, which chose Louisiana over South Carolina for a 287-employee plant last week, gave Haley a mini-motorbike and T-shirts worth $480 last year.

A pair of 2016 GOP presidential prospects also sent Haley sports-related gifts.

Former Gov. Rick Perry gave a miniature version of a trophy, valued at $100, that he wants Texas A&M and USC to swap in their annual football game.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker sent $100 in cheeses after USC beat Wisconsin in the 2014 Capital One Bowl. (The two governors had placed a friendly wager on the game’s outcome, and Haley won.)

Other notable gifts to Haley in 2014 included:

▪  $200 in memorabilia from Joan Jett, one of Haley’s favorite musicians, after they lunched in New York

▪  $1,100 in artwork and food from John Seibels Walker, who painted Haley’s official portrait

▪  $350 in accommodations from Dana Perino, a Fox News commentator and former White House press secretary

▪  $A 250 Tiffany pendant and necklace from the Dallas County Republican Party, which Haley addressed

▪  A $200 Tory Burch wallet from Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney’s wife, Kathleen

The Republican Governors Association, where Haley sits on the executive committee, provided the largest portion of her donated travel costs last year.

Haley received $21,004 in flights, meals and accommodations on trips to Washington, Aspen, Colo., and New York from the association.

Texas business executive Brint Ryan paid $5,171 to fly Haley to Florida, the day after she spoke to Dallas Republicans, so she could address a Club for Growth meeting. The small-government Club for Growth picked up the tab for another $2,063 in meals, accommodations and a flight.

The Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau also provided $3,732 in accommodations during separate visits to Wild Dunes and Daniel Island last year.

Hillary Clinton campaign rounding up staff

Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Democratic presidential primary operation in South Carolina is taking shape.

Less than a week after the former secretary of state announced her plans to run for the White House, campaign state director Clay Middleton, a former aide to U.S. Rep Jim Clyburn and S.C. political director in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, said he has added four directors to Clinton’s S.C. staff:

▪  Jalisa Washington, who has worked for the S.C. House and in government affairs, was named political director and will work with elected officials. She is the daughter of Richland County councilman Kelvin Washington.

▪  Carl Walz, who was Missouri state field director for Obama’s 2012 re-election and Southern field director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will head field work as organizing director.

▪  Stephanie Formas — deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., who worked for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign — will be communications director.

▪  Meagan Coffman, who worked for Clinton’s 2008 campaign and Obama’s 2012 campaign in New Hampshire, is the operations director.

How Haley backers killed her roads plan

Gov. Haley’s path to stop a newly passed roads plan hit potholes last week, created, in part, by lawmakers who defected to vote for a competing bill.

Wednesday’s 80-27 vote by the S.C. House on a $427 million roads-funding plan suggests the governor does not have enough support to sustain a veto. Haley needs a third of lawmakers to vote with her to crash the plan, which she says is too costly to taxpayers.

The seemingly veto-proof margin was delivered by a block of “yes” votes that came from lawmakers who also had sponsored a separate roads bill backed by Haley. Her proposal contained a larger income tax cut, but some legislators worried it would eat too much out of state coffers.

Twenty-four representatives, nearly 60 percent of the 41 sponsors of the Haley-backed proposal, voted for the competing roads bill that passed Wednesday, including a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in the state gas tax.

But there was a catch.

Most of the state representatives who sponsored Haley’s bill and then cast “yes” votes for the competing roads plan had hedged their bets. Those reps also had sponsored the winning bill, introduced by state Rep. Gary Simrill, R-York.

In a sign of just how badly lawmakers want to improve S.C. roads, six representatives who only sponsored the Haley-backed bill joined the majority in voting for Simrill’s bill last week.

They included House Majority Leader Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, and Haley allies — Reps. Ralph Norman, R-York, and Nathan Ballentine, R-Lexington.

Clyburn: I’m still here

Here it comes again: More speculation about U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in Congress, retiring after two-plus decades in Congress.

The latest chatter came from a Washington story last week that suggested Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver might be in line for a congressional leadership position if Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, steps away from Capitol Hill.

The idea was worth a bit of a chuckle to Buzz since Cleaver is 70, just four years younger than Clyburn.

Also, Clyburn has no plans of leaving.

“Congressman Clyburn has said time and time again that his retirement plans are nowhere in sight,” his spokeswoman Amanda Loveday said.

Tweets of the week

“South Carolina developed a genuine three-party system: Gubernatorial Republican Party, Legislative Republican Party and Democratic Party.”

— Former S.C. political consultant Wes Wolfe after last week’s S.C. House vote on a $427 million roads funding plan that Haley opposes

“Don’t get that wrong again or I will send Frank Underwood after you.”

— U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham to Conan O’Brien after the talk show host said the Seneca resident was from North Carolina

This story was originally published April 18, 2015 at 8:54 PM with the headline "The Buzz: Gov. Nikki Haley’s gift haul smaller last year."