JUNE 18, 2010 – - The really bitter irony of the June 8 elections is that the angry people who voted for Nikki Haley as the GOP’s choice for governor are in for a big shock one day: Instead of being a change, she represents more of the same.

The hyper-ambitious Haley is little more than Mark Sanford in drag.

Like Sanford, she doesn’t get along with the legislature and, quite frankly, many lawmakers don’t trust her. She’s bickered with the House and Senate leadership over accountability and internal voting procedures as if she had the only solution to any problem. As governor, she’d have the same “my way or the highway” attitude that’s plugged up progress for the state for the last eight years. In a state that needs forward progress, Haley would offer little.

Like Sanford, Haley swallowed whole the libertarian notion by Washington insider Grover Norquist that government should be so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub. She doesn’t respect how government is the civilizing influence on society that allows us to live at more than a subsistence level.

Like Sanford, she’s got a lot of charm. She can twinkle and jab, smile and joust with the best of the media.

But unlike Sanford, she’s not got much substance. In a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, Haley offers no detailed plan to create jobs. Instead she talks about economic prosperity in a dozen lines on her Web site. Relying primarily on rhetoric, she’s riding a wave of Tea Party zeal inspired by that rocket scientist of a politician, Sarah Palin.

When our state needs real leadership that will bring in more jobs, solve a coming budget earthquake and try to get South Carolina off the bottom of lots of lists, Haley offers nothing more than fluffy lines to appease people who have seen the movie “Network” too many times. (“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”)

For example, she says South Carolina – with its Republican governor, Republican House and Republican Senate – needs to be conservative, not just Republican. Is she kidding? That South Carolina – the nation’s testing ground for any whacked out divisive policy that comes along from school vouchers to prolonged abortion waiting periods – is not conservative? What’s she smoking?

Here are some highlights from Haley’s thin record:

• Little real leadership. First elected to the S.C. House in 2004, Haley desperately wanted to be chair of the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee in late 2008. But her zeal for a leadership position backfired after continued tussling with House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who eventually reassigned her to the Education and Public Works Committee.   At the time, he noted she was “just pandering to voters and grabbing for headlines.”  (From February through May this year, Haley attended no meetings of the committee.)

• Opportunism. GOP runoff opponent Gresham Barrett highlights an “honest difference” with Haley in her budget votes.   According to Barrett’s Web site: “[Haley} voted for every state budget until she announced her campaign for governor – for a total of $2 billion in budget increases.”

• Opacity, not transparency. For all of Haley’s high-falutin’ appeals for transparency, she refused to release her legislative correspondence, including email, prior to the June 8 election. Why? Because she was trying to kill stories about much-denied allegations that she was involved in an extramarital affair. Also, according to Barrett’s site, she’s been unwilling to bring her income tax returns into the light of sunshine like many candidates do.

Nikki Haley may just win the June 22 runoff. If so, she’ll face more intense scrutiny in the months ahead. As she does, ask yourself these questions: Is this really the kind of person that you want running the state? Is this your best hope for South Carolina’s future?

Andy Brack writes a weekly column for StatehouseReport.com and is publisher of CharlestonCurrents.com.