Nikki Haley on Government Reform

Offer "term limit pledge" to all candidates for Congress

HALEY: Absolutely. I mean, I have been a term limit proponent for as long as I can remember. The reality is that Congress has never going to vote for term limits, right? What we do instead is I will have a Haley term limit's pledge. And everyone, when they file for office, incumbent or otherwise, has the option to either sign the term limit pledge or not And then I'm going to put all of that out for you so that you know exactly which candidates are for it, and which candidates are not. And that way you are empowered with the information. And when we get enough of those individuals to sign the term limits pledge that get into Congress, then we will go and say, "it's time to vote on it and hold them to account on that." So, we'll do it from the outside, and I always think the best way to move reforms forward is when you work with the people to push it from the outside in and force Congress to do the right thing.

Take many federal programs and send them to the states

And then we're going to go and take as many federal programs as we can and send them down to the states. That will reduce the size of the federal government, but it will empower people on the ground. Think health care. Think welfare. Think education -- if we started doing that.

Clean up weaponized, politicized Department of Justice

HALEY: The first thing we're going to do is clean it up from the top and all of senior management. They have weaponized and put politics in the Department of Justice over years. That needs to end, that's not the role of the Department of Justice. Don't hide certain things, don't push out certain things. That's what people want from the Department of Justice. That's what they want from the intelligence agencies.

States passed election integrity laws which we needed

Signed law requiring politicians to disclose private income

Fought back attempts to block state voter ID law

Register all lobbyists; speed up FOIA

Lawmakers would disclose more sources of income, face stiffer fines and stop representing clients before some state commissions under new ethics rules suggested by a commission created by Gov. Nikki Haley. The governor's commission was led by former Attorneys General Henry McMaster and Travis Medlock. The suggestions included:
• Lobbyists register with the state Ethics Commission when going before any local government board or council. Now, they must register only for state government lobbying.
• Speeding response to time for Freedom of Information requests and lowering fees.
• Stopping legislators from representing clients before state boards and commissions if the lawmaker voted to appoint its members.

Full disclosure of campaign funding & fines for violators

The governor's commission, led by former Attorneys General Henry McMaster and Travis Medlock, recommends SC ethics reforms including:
• Raising the amounts of ethics violation fines.
• Lawmakers disclose all sources of income--public and private-- and reveal the amounts received from government agencies or businesses with government contracts tied to a public official. They also must disclose income of immediate family members. Legislators only must disclose government income.
• More narrowly defining a political committee so more of them will have to file details election spending reports and ending leadership political-action committees that allow unlimited contributions to candidates. The status of political committees is up in the air after courts shot down the state's definition as overly broad.

Legislative mission: get "voice votes" on the record

Unlike most states, S.C. had no constitutional or statutory requirement that legislation be passed with a roll-call vote. It was at that point that I discovered my mission: making it possible for the voters to know how their legislators voted.

Real-time online check registers for government spending

Term limits force real change in leadership

I believe that public officials go to Columbia or Washington with the best of intentions. But along the way people with energy & good ideas got broken. They were told not to step out of line. From business I was used to the idea that you put your most qualified, best people in positions of authority. Government didn't work that way. The people who got the plum assignments in the legislature were the people who had gone along with what the leadership told them to do. I didn't think that was right, and term limits would fix that. With only a certain amount of time to spend in government, legislators wouldn't have time to play the leadership's games. They would work harder at leaving a legacy of accomplishment and real change for the people rather than at satisfying the leadership.

Weakened governorship today set up in Reconstruction

Fought S.C. House leadership for roll-call voting

I almost laughed. Then I explained how the leadership had deliberately forced through the vote on an afternoon when they knew I wouldn't be there. Still, I said, "I applaud the general assembly for moving forward to make all its votes on the record."

I had fought for two-and-a-half years to get to that point. "I lost every position I held in the House in this fight to get legislators to vote on the record--long before there was a gubernatorial campaign," I said I felt my emotions begin to rise. I'm not going to get caught up in the fact that you're picking on the day that I wasn't there. The two-and-a-half year fight was the reason that the House overwhelmingly voted to have every single vote on the record."

Good old work replaces pork-barrel politics

Voter ID is a no-brainer to protect election integrity

We capped lawsuit damages; next tort reform is loser-pays

Require photo ID, and inspection of ID, in order to vote

• [When voting, a person must present photo ID and] a voting official shall compare the photograph contained on the ID and verify that the photograph is that of the person seeking to vote.
• For voting purposes, determining a person's domicile includes: income tax returns; legal residence tax assessment; address on driver's license; or legal and financial documents.
• If the voter cannot produce the identification as required, he may cast a provisional ballot that is counted only if the voter brings a valid photo identification before certification of the election.
• If a voter suffers from a reasonable impediment that prevents the elector from obtaining photograph identification, he may complete an affidavit under the penalty of perjury at the polling place.

Status:Bill passed Senate, 26-16-0; passed House 71-36-17; signed by Governor, May 18, 2011.

Endorsed as commonsense conservative "Mama Grizzly"

Nikki Haley has captured the nation's attention as an Indian American woman who's also a pro-family commonsense constitutional conservative eager to take back her country. She's a sister.

Strongly in favor of term limits at all levels of government