GREENVILLE, S.C. ? Nikki Haley?s attempt to boost Mitt Romney is threatening her own support here at home.
Romney?s campaign is using the South Carolina governor?s endorsement to build his acceptance among the tea party base that?s never been comfortable with his candidacy, especially in a state where Newt Gingrich has been running even stronger than elsewhere.
Continue ReadingBut the people in that base who propelled Haley to the governor?s mansion last year see the endorsement of the more moderate Romney as abandoning them ? and giving them another reason to turn away from a governor whose approval rating has dropped to 34.6 percent.
Immediately after Haley announced her support Friday morning on ?Fox and Friends,? her Facebook page lit up with accusations that the first-term governor was selling out her principles. Rush Limbaugh followed with a blistering broadside against her on his radio show Friday, leading a charge of conservatives nationally, in addition to locally, who accused her of selling out.
Tea party leaders in the state suggested that Haley will pay for Friday?s move with a primary in 2014 ? provided she doesn?t win herself a spot on the ticket or another post in a Romney administration, as tea partiers and Republican operatives say must be the explanation for the decision.
?The overwhelming sense that I get from talking to people is deep betrayal,? said Karen Martin, the founder and organizer of the Spartanburg tea party, who has not endorsed a candidate. ?She?s not going to be able to come back from this with the tea party. If there?s anybody credible who will run against her, I believe the tea party will support them whole-heartedly.?
Martin predicted that Haley will face trouble even before then in trying to push through a governing agenda that?s already put her at odds with her former colleagues in the GOP-controlled legislature.
?She?s just lost her credibility,? she said. ?Anything that she tries to propose, most people in the past might not have looked too carefully at her, believing that she is a credible conservative. We?ve given her a pass on a few things, but that won?t happen any more.?
Limbaugh mocked the Haley endorsement, saying that it was more about her ambition than about conservative principles.
?Don?t misunderstand this,? Limbaugh said. ?Of course she has a choice, but she really doesn?t have a choice, given her aspirations. It just means that we?ve got a lot of work to do.?
Haley, though, insists she?s not worried.
Speaking to POLITICO after helping Romney draw more than the 425 people to a firehouse here on a rainy afternoon ? a rare event when the former Massachusetts governor has drawn an overflow crowd at a campaign stop ? Haley said she believed the tea partiers now upset would eventually see the wisdom of her decision.
?I have a great respect for the members of the tea party and what I know is all South Carolinians make the decision that?s best for them,? Haley said, between signing autographs at the event. ?And so that?s what I did today.?
There may be reason to be less concerned. Scott Huffmon, the director of the Winthrop Poll here, said Haley has already lost much of her tea party support, and that the percentage of South Carolina Republicans who identify themselves as tea partiers has shrunk since she surprised the state GOP establishment and won the 2010 primary for governor.
?It?s no longer a driving force, but it?s still a relevant force,? Huffmon said. ?She?s had a few things that have caused tea party support to not necessarily disappear, but not be as unified and excited to be behind her as it was in 2010. So her endorsement is by no means saying this is what the tea party has done.?
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