Governor-elect Nikki Haley on Hannity

California Voters Increasing in Diversity
Nearly 60% of California voters cast their ballots during this year’s gubernatorial election.  Though California always puts up big numbers compared to other states, this year was the state’s highest turnout for a Governor’s election.  Four years ago 56.2% of Registered Voters visited the Ballot Box.   “The race for governor and some Controversial propositions drew the highest number of people to the polls in five gubernatorial Elections,” said S...

Jerry Brown checking out midtown Sacramento apartments
By Bob Shallit [email protected] Gov.-elect Jerry Brown may become a midtown hipster. Brown - wearing a jogging suit - visited the loft apartment building at 1530 J Street on Wednesday morning, and reports are he and his wife, Anne Gust Brown , are considering it for their Sacramento home. We hear the state's soon-to-be first couple also are considering Sotiris Kolokotronis' eight-story condo complex at 1818 L St. The upscale J Street units sit on the third and fourth floors of a building t...

GOP Blogs Praise Haleys Staff Picks
S.C. Gov.-elect Nikki Haley’s decision to appoint a less-than-impressive cast of political operatives to key positions in her administration has been largely panned … although you wouldn’t know it from the scant attention her announcement got from the Mainstream Media. Or the effusive praise she’s now receiving from a trio of sympathetic GOP Bloggers. A collection of retreads from the offices of S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford and S.C. Attorney General Henry Mcmaster, Haley’...

Governor elect welcomes new school district superintendent
Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval greeted new Clark County Superintendent Dwight Jones on his first day of work Wednesday. Jones, the former education commissioner of Colorado, told the Governor elect that he's read his education plan. ...

SC Budget Board Doesn't Act On Medicaid Deficit
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina's Financial Oversight board has delayed taking action on more than $260 million in state agency Deficits that affect hundreds of thousands of the state's poor. The Budget and Control Board on Tuesday said it would take no action before January on a $228 million deficit in the Department of Health and Human Services' Medicaid program. The board also opted not to act on Deficits of $29 million and more than $7 million at the Department of Social Services and the De...

Gingrich headlining South Carolina GOP dinner
Washington (CNN) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is returning to South Carolina Thursday to headline the Spartanburg Republican Party's Bronze Elephant Dinner. Gingrich has appeared in the "First-in-the-South" presidential primary state repeatedly in the last year, most recently in October, when he hosted a crowded town hall in Greenville just before Election Day. The potential presidential contender gave an interview to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal ahead of Thursday's trip and spoke warm...

Mehdi Morshed To Retire In March
Morshed announced his decision in a letter sent today to Board Chairman Curt Pringle. The 72-year-old leading advocate for high speed rail projects across the country plans to step down March 31. Morshed wrote in the letter that the 2008 passage of a $9.95 billion bond to fund the project and the Obama Administration’s support for High-speed Rail assured him that the proposed 800-mile track linking Southern California to the Bay Area and Sacramento will become a reality. Morshed’s re...

Why doesnt Palin just endorse Rick Perry?
We are at the end of things. Again. It always happens just before the beginning. But in every turning, traditionalists fight against it. The Beatles land in New York, and the old school comforts the Rank and File: They will soon get on the plane again, go back where they came from and everything will be like it was in the peaceable kingdom. It never is. The Democrats have been plagued these past years with the Clinton reflex and the Republicans are today with the Bush reflex. But the Beatles h...

South Carolina agencies could run out of money
COLUMBIA — Three State Departments will have to wait until the new administration takes office before they know whether they can operate in the red. The Departments of Health and Human Services, Corrections and Social Services had asked the South Carolina Budget and Control Board to recognize their combined $268 million operating Deficits for this Fiscal Year. But the board voted instead to let that decision be determined after Gov.-elect Nikki Haley and her administration take office. The...

BILL QUICK likes the cut of Nikki Haleys jib.
BILL QUICK likes the cut of Nikki Haley’s jib. ...

More primary state activity
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum will visit Iowa from December 15th to the 16th, according to the Des Moines Register. He'll give a Speech on the 15th to the Quad-City Tea Party, and will also be meeting privately with Activists and Party Leaders. Santorum made previous stops to the first Caucus state in March and August. In the third-in-the-nation primary state, South Carolina, the gubernatorial transition is well under way. The Charleston Post and Courier reports today that Gov.-elect Ni...

Budget crisis: 3 agencies hope to run at deficits
Three state agencies will ask a state Budget panel today to run Deficits totaling $264 million. With the state facing a mountain of unprecedented financial woes, Gov.-elect Nikki Haley and the state’s congressional delegation met behind closed doors Monday and discussed some of those urgent Budget needs, including shortfalls for education and the state’s exploding Medicaid program. Haley, who organized the meeting, and the delegation left without a set strategy on solving the bud...

Haley meets with S.C. members of U.S. House, Senate
COLUMBIA -- South Carolina Gov.-elect Nikki Haley met Monday with the state's freshman-packed U.S. House delegation and its two Veteran U.S. senators as they agreed to work on key issues such as deepening Charleston's port and bailing out the state's schools. Haley met with freshman Reps. Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney and Tim Scott, along with Veteran Reps. Jim Clyburn and Joe Wilson and U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint. All are Republican except for Clyburn, who will be No. 3 i...

Pence to raise money for South Carolina GOP
Kasie Hunt reports that Mike Pence is headed to South Carolina this Wednesday, where he'll team up with incoming Governor, Nikki Haley, for a state party Fundraiser. The event, hosted by the Business Roundtable, will cost attendees $5,000. Tickets to a reception after the fundraiser will cost $1,000 per couple, the source said. Also scheduled to be there: incoming Gov. Nikki Haley, whose Endorsement will be coveted come primary time. ...

Three operatives marked off our presidential list
They’re three of the state’s prime political pickups, but Tim Pearson, Rob Godfrey and Trey Walker are off the board. They will be sitting out the presidential race since they were snapped up by Gov.-elect Nikki Haley for her administration. Each guy is pretty smart and talented, which bodes well for Haley. Pearson, who will be her Chief of Staff, got it done as Campaign Manager when most people pegged Haley as a fourth-place finisher in the Republican gubernatorial primary. He took ...

Illinois Policy Institute takes fight against tax hike to the streets
The Illinois Policy Institute is holding a Press Conference and trying to engage voters in its efforts to prevent Governor Quinn from enacting a 33% income Tax Increase on Illinois Taxpayers in the coming year.  IPI CEO John Tillman will be speaking and educating Christmas shoppers about the governor’s plan outside the Chicago Theater on State Street at 9:30 this morning. According to an IPI study, if the governor’s plan were to pass it would mean the loss of $1,353 in personal ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger - In California, a school reclaimed
History is usually made by a small group of passionate people. On Dec. 7, history was made by a small group of parents in Compton, Calif. Their Children attend McKinley Elementary School - a school that has been defined as failing for the past 10 years. Using a new power known as the "parent trigger," which I fought for and State Legislators approved last year, these Compton parents banded together to demand change. The Legislation allows parents of Students at troubled schools to d...

Obama agenda: Down but certainly not out
Here's our write-up of the new NBC/WSJ poll: "After his party’s midterm losses and with the Unemployment Rate still hovering around 10 percent, President Barack Obama might be down. But he’s far from out — especially when it comes to his prospects for re-election in 2012." Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s: “Overall, the survey indicates that, for all the criticism the president is taking in Washington from Democratic leaders and liberal Activists, he is shift...

Lame Duck Paterson Wonders If Cuomo Can Do Anything
Governor Paterson, who has just a few more weeks until he leaves, was on the radio this morning and he discussed his successor, Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, "He's doing all the right things. He's saying all the right things. But I don't think one person can change the way government works right now ." He added, "Before everybody starts blaming him the way they blame me, I want everybody to stop before this governor comes into office and assess what is actually the capacity." Contact the autho...

Dillon: Hickenlooper taps Pug Ryan's brews for inauguration
Pug Ryan's Steakhouse and Brewery in Dillon announced that Governor-Elect John Hickenlooper's inaugural dinner and ball will feature two of Pug Ryan's award-winning beers: Morning Wood Wheat and Pali Pilsner. Pug's Ryan's brewery is one of 12 Colorado breweries which will have beer featured at the event. Hickenlooper visited Dillon this summer while campaigning for the governor's office and had the opportunity to taste the award-winning brews at Pug Ryan's. Hickenlooper owned several restaurants...

A portrait in Cuomoland
A striking feature of Andrew Cuomo's campaigns has been his tight, personal control, the sense that nobody can speak for the campaign, or have an independent profile, other than the Candidate himself. Capital New York's profile today of Drew Zambelli, Cuomo's pollster and a rare Political Consultant who's gone out of his way not to get written about, is representative: According to the offici...

Mike Pence back to South Carolina for fundraiser - Kasie Hunt
Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is set to headline a high-dollar Fundraiser in South Carolina with Gov.-elect Nikki Haley. Pence, who’s weighing a White House bid, will appear at the Wednesday night Fundraiser for the South Carolina Republican Party in Columbia, a source close to the state party told Politico. The event, hosted by the Business Roundtable, will cost attendees $5,000. Tickets to a reception after the Fundraiser will cost $1,000 per couple, the source said. Continue Reading Text...

SC Revenue Department Director Resigning
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- State Revenue Department director Ray Stevens is resigning to take a job at a Law Firm. Stevens' announcement Tuesday comes as Gov.-elect Nikki Haley begins filling her Cabinet. Gov. Mark Sanford appointed the 58-year-old Stevens to run the state's Tax Agency in 2006. Stevens had served for 10 years as an administrative law judge before being tapped to run the Revenue Department. Stevens will join the Columbia office of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on Jan. 1 to work wit...

Pence 2012 watch?
Politico's Kasie Hunt reports that Mike Pence will head to South Carolina this week for a high dollar Fundraiser with South Carolina Gov.-elect Nikki Haley: Pence, who’s weighing a White House bid, will appear at the Wednesday night Fundraiser for the South Carolina Republican Party in Columbia, a source close to the state party told POLITICO. The event, hosted by the Business Roundtable, will cost attendees $5,000. Tickets to a reception after the Fundraiser will cost $1,000 per couple,...

CalPERS lawsuit shows need for strict ethics rules
There are plenty of reasons why an independent examiner has just recommended stricter Ethics Rules for managers of the $218.8 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System. Here's one of the best: According to a suit filed by state Attorney General Jerry Brown, back in 2007, CalPERS Board Member-turned-investment broker Alfred Villalobos took one of the Pension Fund's senior investment officers on a Private Jet ride to New York to attend a Museum of Modern Art Fundraiser honoring a cl...