EXCLUSIVE: Gov. Haley on angering GOP lawmakers, 2016 prospects

Gov. Nikki Haley has no apologies for angering some of her fellow GOP lawmakers by calling them out for their votes against income-tax cuts and ethics reform, and their votes for legislative pay hikes and a bond bill.

The second-term Republican from Lexington said in an interview with The State last week that she is working for the people who elected her and trying to maintain party unity ahead of presidential and state legislative elections in 2016.

She also addressed what she would do she if she asked to consider a vice presidential nomination next year.

Here are excerpts of the interview:

On why she released a list of 20 GOP legislators who, she said, fought for taxpayers but included only those lawmakers who voted for all, not some, of her priorities ...

“These are not small things. I’ve never seen in my 41/2 years more significant votes ... than what I have seen in this one year. That’s what’s making me ... get loud is I’m seeing whatever is going on with leadership in the Legislature. It is going in a completely chaotic direction. I am trying to rein it back in. The fact I have to do this to my friends is what’s painful. ... At the end of the day, this is a lonely office. You want as many friends as you can. But this is a job that I was elected to do. I can’t let any of those (issues) go. Because if I let those go, then I am totally disobeying the job the voters elected me to, which is to educate them and inform them on anything that goes wrong in the State House.”

On being called combative ...

“No one likes to be called out. Nobody likes having their feelings hurt. But I didn’t make those votes for them. All I can do is educate the people I work for, which is not the people upstairs (from the governor’s office). It’s the people around the state. At a time when I am desperately trying to bring in more jobs and really trying to get our economy going, there’s nothing helpful about a legislative body that pushes pay raises, tax increases and debt increases and fights ethics reform. ... This is about a governor who’s extremely frustrated with the fact that we could have gotten a whole lot more done this year, and we didn’t because I had to fight my own people.”

On fighting for Republican Party unity ...

“... (W)hat made us great to start with has to be something that we stay very focused on and keep everybody in line. That’s just taking care of your family. That’s just making sure that you know everybody’s home. That’s not dividing. ... Those who voted the wrong way are preaching division. Those that voted the right way aren’t saying anything, and I think that’s very telling. Because those that are preaching division are those that are guilty and that have a conscious (decision) that says, ‘You know what, I did vote for a pay increase.’ They just don’t want the people who voted for them in to know that.”

On comparisons with U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, her predecessor in the governor’s office ...

“While I agreed on lot of his policies, I did not agree with the way he did things. He would never tell anybody what he was going to do before he did it. I tell everybody what I’m going to do before I do it.”

On her relationship with national political consultant Jon Lerner, who also worked with Sanford ...

“The beauty of Jon Lerner is that he’s never told me what to do or not to do. He takes what I want to do and then he just cleans it up if that makes sense. So he’s never said, ‘You can’t say that.’ He’s never said, ‘You can’t do that.’ His question always to me is, ‘OK, how do you want to handle this?’ I tell him and then he does it.”

On the possibility of her being a 2016 GOP vice presidential nominee ...

“Should someone want to come talk to me about (being vice president), yes, I’ll talk to them about it. But this is not something I think about. ... Never in a given day do I ever think about national politics, and that’s the truth. ... The personal side ... drives literally this entire decision. You have to look at the fact that my daughter is getting ready ... for college. I’ve got a little one who is going into high school. I’ve got parents that I take care of. They are not well. ... And then I have never left the fact that the people (S.C. voters) took a chance on me when they didn’t have to. They literally did not know what they were going to get, and then they turned around and re-elected me. There’s a heavy responsibility I feel with that. ... I am about finishing the job I started.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 7:33 PM with the headline "EXCLUSIVE: Gov. Haley on angering GOP lawmakers, 2016 prospects."