Time to Play Nice, Governor

There’s a joke that’s been going around the area lately. We’ve heard it in a variety of forms, but the general idea goes something like this:

Gov. Haley endorsed Mitt Romney in the primary. That sure worked out well. She pushed hard for voter ID and immigration reform. The Justice Department nixed both of those. Haley encouraged DHEC to reconsider dredging for the Savannah Port. The legislature is now doing its best to undo that move. Boy, really hope the governor doesn’t get behind I-73.

No matter who’s in office there will always be jokes at their expense. Nobody’s perfect. But this joke highlights a phenomenon that’s become more clear in recent weeks and months: Nikki Haley is losing what influence she had.

After being swept into the governor’s office on a boisterous tea party wave, the governor hasn’t been shy about picking fights, with unions, with the federal government and notably with her own state legislature. At first, she seemed likely to enjoy a much closer relationship with the members of the General Assembly than her predecessor. But after a year of such confrontations, the outcomes have increasingly favored Haley’s opponents, and the state is growing tired of such antics. The governor’s approval numbers are down, and fewer people are listening or taking her calls to arms seriously. Her prickly defensiveness may have something to do with that.

Haley hasn’t had an easy road. She’s the first female leader of a state that’s still very much a mens-only club at the top level. A thick skin and a willingness to push back when necessary are valuable traits for Haley to cultivate. The governor has now established herself as someone who can’t be pushed around. That was important if she wanted any respect in the rough and tumble world of S.C. politics. But now that she’s done that, it’s time to shift her tactics.

Many of Haley’s grand ideas are good ones that deserve to move forward, such as a Department of Administration, government and elections restructuring, wider tax policy reform and a more open government. Her combative attitude toward not only the legislature over the past year but anyone who dared question her, however, has overshadowed these goals. We do not suggest a compromise of her core principles, but merely a more cordial attitude toward those with honest concerns.

Politicians in Columbia are clearly ready for a change. On Tuesday, senators unanimously passed a measure that the House had also unanimously passed the week before, attempting to undo the decision by the Department of Health and Environmental Control allowing dredging in the Savannah River. It was a clear, united slap at Haley, who supported and encouraged the DHEC move. Senators who happened to be out of the room when the vote occurred went so far as to make sure that they were recorded in the Senate journal as wishing they had voted for it.

Writing on Twitter after the vote, Joel Sawyer, former spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, who had his own well-publicized splits with the legislature, was taken aback by the force of legislators’ message:

“I remember being on losing side of some really lopsided votes in Govs Office,” Sawyer wrote, “but this DHEC thing is unreal.”

This type of bad blood between the branches of our state government does little to help its residents. If Haley wishes to avoid future rebuffs, it’s time to work on her relationship with other state leaders. But whether she does that work really depends on her own goals as governor. If she’s hoping merely to make a name for herself with the idea of moving on to bigger things, these sorts of high-profile tussles will do the job nicely, although they may not produce much of use for the rest of the state. On the other hand, if she hopes to make real progress on some of her stated goals, a few lessons in compromise, humility and cooperation are in order. The choice is up to you, governor.