Smoky Mountains Sunrise
Showing posts with label Reconstruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reconstruction. Show all posts

Saturday, December 17, 2011

A Conservative's Crusade Against Governor Nikki Haley

 Citizen Rainey

John Rainey has made some enemies in Columbia by calling Nikki Haley “the most corrupt person to occupy the Governor’s Mansion since Reconstruction."  Photo: Sean Rayford

By Corey Hutchins

John Rainey is wearing a coat and tie as he slowly strides across the grass of his 17-acre estate — called Fox Watch Farm — just outside the small South Carolina town of Camden. Two big German Shepherds follow him through an English garden that surorunds a gazebo near a horse barn. Rainey, who turned 70 last month, is a tall man. For years, he has loomed large in S.C. Republican spheres of influence; he is responsible for recruiting Mark Sanford to run for governor in 2002. But lately, the longtime Republican fundraiser and powerbroker has caught attention in certain circles for something else: his one-man mission to discredit the state's new governor, Sanford's hand-picked successor, Nikki Haley.