McMaster campaign zeroes in on Bauer
The all-but-announced campaign for governor by Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster has been busy in the past several days, trying its best to score a preemptive critical hit on Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer. It’s consisted of blog comments, tweets, blog posts and pushing information on reporters.
Earlier, McMaster aide Trey Walker, who rarely (as in damn near ever) posts anything not related to the Attorney General, tweeted that Bauer ascending to governor in the event of Gov. Mark Sanford‘s resignation would be a “catastrophe.” That tweet, reported here on Friday, made it into Sunday’s New York Times:
Mr. McMaster is a client of Richard M. Quinn, one of the state’s powerful political consultants, who said the attorney general took his official responsibility too seriously to act in a political way. But Mr. McMaster’s staff did not stay totally above the fray. In a late-night Twitter message, Trey Walker, a McMaster aide, suggested that Democrats would “love to run against” Mr. Bauer. He then said Mr. Bauer should not be permitted to take over the governorship: “Cannot allow a disaster to be replaced with catastrophe.”
Rival Republican political aides pointed to the message as evidence that Mr. McMaster’s decision not to investigate Mr. Sanford was in his own interests, because an investigation could hasten a resignation.
Mr. Walker said he stood by his comments but was speaking as a longtime political operative, not as a representative of Mr. McMaster.
We don’t know why RQ&A associates have such a history of screwing up in ways like this, but it’s not too hard to call Walker’s response to the question total bullshit.
We can add to this the post made on RQ&A blog The Palmetto Scoop in which firm associate Adam Fogle makes the seriously bizarre claim that Senate Republican Caucus director Wesley Donehue and consultant/blogger Will Folks are both working on behalf of Bauer, in one way or another. Fogle even said that Donehue had a lot to gain from Bauer becoming governor, which doesn’t make sense to us, since he is operating U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett‘s campaign Web site. Also, it would seem that Folks would gain more from a victory by Rep. Nikki Haley in next year’s primary, since he has a prior relationship with her and runs in the same political circles as she does.
Let’s not forget the ads from the 2006 Mike Campbell campaign that were leaked to Politico last week, in yet another attempt to damage Bauer a year away from the primary. Our opinion on that particular move is easily summed up by Bauer consultant Chris LaCivita, who said in the piece that the staffers leaking the ads “are more interested in waging cheap political attacks than focusing on the people of South Carolina in a time of true crisis speaks volumes. And the fact that they are sending out ads that never aired demonstrates a pathetic level of desperation.”
This is the second time McMaster’s people have been pushing hits on primary opponents, with the last being on Barrett. It’s very interesting that both the Bauer and Barrett operations have been quiet thus far (LaCivita’s leaked email the only exception), keeping their powder dry and letting the nascent McMaster operation flail about in the darkness, when no one but political insiders are paying attention.
What’s so absurd is that nothing needed to be done, at all. Sanford has never given any indication that he will step down, and the Attorney General’s public statements have been pretty par for the course for someone in his position. If the people working for McMaster had held back, he would be looking pretty good right now. As it stands, he looks foolish for trying to stay above the fray while his charges behave like middle schoolers in search of their next prank.
