In An Unsettling Year For The S.C. GOP, Jenny Sanford Steps Forward

No, said Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina. I wasn't hiking on the Appalachian Trail, as I told my staff to say when I was missing for a week last June. I was having an affair with my mistress in Argentina.

You lie, yelled Joe Wilson, the Republican representative from South Carolina's Second Congressional District, when President Obama, in an address to a Joint Session of Congress last September, said that no Democratic health-care proposal would cover illegal immigrants.

Two instances where South Carolina Republicans found themselves, willingly or not, on the front pages of every newspaper in the country. The party's reputation took another hit last month when two GOP county chairmen wrote an article in the Orangeburg Times and Democrat comparing Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) fiscal prudence to that of "Jews who are wealthy." DeMint himself said the comments of the two, Edwin Merwin of the Bamberg Co. GOP and James Ulmer of the Orangeburg Co. GOP were "thoughtless and hurtful." Here's the quote:

There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves. By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation's pennies and trying to preserve our country's wealth and our economy's viability to give all an opportunity to succeed.

Whether it was anti-Semitism or just stupid stereotyping, it was just the latest embarrassment for a state party that has become a force in national politics the past three decades.

Here's some political news from the Palmetto State GOP that hasn't led to a retraction or an explanation: First Lady Jenny Sanford, who won near-universal admiration for her refusal to "stand by her man" in the wake of her husband's sex scandal — she and her four kids moved out of the governor's mansion — has made an endorsement in next year's Republican primary to succeed her term-limited husband. She is backing state Rep. Nikki Haley, a former Mark Sanford ally who has broken with the gov in the wake of his scandal. Jenny Sanford calls Haley "principled, conservative, tough and smart."

This is an endorsement that could make a difference, says Furman University political scientist Danielle Vinson: "Some folks are questioning if (Haley's) a credible candidate, but Jenny Sanford carries some weight. It sends a signal (to Sanford supporters) that you might not be wasting your vote."

But Haley — in a position not unlike other female candidates — badly trails her rivals in raising money. According to John O'Connor of The State newspaper, she has about $278,000 cash on hand, well behind the money frontrunners, U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett and state Attorney General Henry McMaster, who have more than $1 million each on hand, and less than two other Republican candidates, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and state Sen. Larry Grooms. And the battle for money could limit the effectiveness of Jenny Sanford's endorsement, says consultant Chip Felkel:

It's great, it's a high-profile endorsement, but does it translate into fundraising?

The State's O'Connor also notes that S.C. "has among the fewest elected women in the country."