Female choices for Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate: Nikki Haley

Possible vice presidential running mates for Mitt Romney include a few notable Republican women. Previously, Kelly Ayotte was reviewed in an article. The focus in this article is governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley.

Gov. Haley’s Facebook response (the capital letters are her own) to the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act: “South Carolina will NOT expand Medicaid, or participate in any health exchanges. We will not support Pres. Obama's tax increase or job killing agenda. I WILL do everything I can to get Mitt Romney elected and work to strengthen our Senate so that we can repeal this un-American policy aimed at moving our country in the wrong direction.”

Haley refers to Obama’s job-killing agenda, but then rejects funding to her own state that would produce infrastructure jobs. South Carolina’s $25 billion mortgage fraud settlement from the federal government will not go to the state Commerce Department to help lure companies to South Carolina if lawmakers uphold one of Gov. Nikki Haley’s 81 budget vetoes. During the legislative budget debate, House and Senate Republicans wanted to give $10 million of South Carolina’s $28.2 million settlement to the Department of Commerce’s “closing fund” -- which the department uses to build roads and water and sewer lines to lure large companies to come to South Carolina.

In statements made earlier this year, Haley made statements questioning whether Romney was conservative enough. At the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. on Apr. 5, CNSNews.com asked Haley, “What would you say to Republicans who feel that Mitt Romney is not conservative enough? There are questions about his conservative credentials, especially his social conservatism.”

Haley said, “Well, I can tell you from a personal front, those are some of the questions I asked him as well. You know, I asked him about family and he believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman.” And Haley said she is “strongly pro-life.”

Nikki Haley's positions on the issues:

Abortion and Stem Cell Research

Every life is blessed by God. (Nov 2010)

Budget and Economy

• It's time for truth in budgeting; & government spending cap. (Jan 2012)
• Supports the Cut-Cap-and-Balance Pledge. (Jan 2012)

Corporations

• Reduce red tape; time is money. (Jan 2011)
• Eliminate business taxes, starting with corporate income tax. (Nov 2010)

Energy and Oil

Supports off-shore drilling near South Carolina coast. (Jun 2010)

Foreign Policy

No stances on foreign policy and has not held a national office

Health Care

• Medicaid is a broken system; federal mandates cause problems. (Jan 2012)
• No government-run health exchanges; transparency instead. (Jan 2012)
• Let Medicaid buy generics for AIDS, cancer, & mental health. (Jan 2011)
• Cap punitive damages to limit medical costs. (Nov 2010)
• Loosen "one-size-fits-all" approach to Medicaid. (Jan 2011)

Immigration

Co-sponsored toughest standard of immigration enforcement. (Nov 2010)

Favored and signed off on a bill modeled after Arizona’s SB 1070 as soon as the Supreme Court validated it.

Job Creation

• Pledge that every citizen who wants a job, has a job. (Jan 2012)
• We pushed back & NLRB dropped its frivolous Boeing lawsuit. (Jan 2012)
• ReadySC: work force training; vocational & technical college. (Jan 2012)
• She loves that South Carolina is one of the least unionized states. (Jan 2012)
• No unemployment benefits for workers on strike. (Jan 2012)
• NLRB vs. Boeing is "direct attack on what America is". (Nov 2011)

Social Security and Tax Reform

Public service retirees: no COLA; no spiking; no double-dip. (Jan 2012)

• Flatten individual income tax from six brackets to three. (Jan 2012)
• 29 taxes out of 32 create little revenue but add bureaucracy. (Nov 2010)
• Supports the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. (Jan 2012) Since its rollout with the endorsement of President Reagan in 1986, the pledge has become de rigeur for Republicans seeking office.

Government reform

• South Carolina capped lawsuit damages; next tort reform is loser-pays. (Jan 2012)
• Endorsed as commonsense conservative "Mama Grizzly". (Nov 2010)
• Strongly in favor of term limits at all levels of government. (Nov 2010)

Nikki Haley is a conservative who has questioned Romney’s conservatism in the past. During this primary campaign for 2012 GOP presidential nomination, she pondered his positions that do not always square with the traditional, social conservative viewpoint, particularly views on gay “marriage,” the adoption of children by homosexuals, and his support for emergency contraceptive drugs in Massachusetts when he was governor there, among other issues. In addition, she lacks international experience in foreign policy, which is key for a Romney running mate.

Her appeal to moderates and centrists is questionable if not out of the question, and her ultra-social and fiscal conservatism would limit her abilility to attract the undecided and Independents. In a Gallup poll conducted in 2009, 41 percent of Independents characterized themselves as moderates and 36 percent conservatives, so the moderate vote is still considered the prize for both Republicans and Democrats. Therefore, Nikki Haley is unlikely to be in the running as a vice presidential candidate.

Article about Kelly Ayotte:

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12527983-female-choices-for-mitt-romenys-vice-presidential-running-mate-kelly-ayotte

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Resources

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/jul/06/gov-nikki-haley-issues-budget-vetoes/

http://standrews.patch.com/articles/haleys-medicaid-rejection-baffles-democrats-health-experts#photo-10559188

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/sc-gov-nikki-haley-defends-romney-pro-marriage-pro-life

http://www.ontheissues.org/Nikki_Haley.htm