Jim Geraghty: Nikki Haley Still Flying Like a Comet

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National Reviews Jim Geraghty says Will Folks' allegations designed to derail Nikki Haley's campaign could end up being a non-factor:

Three weeks ago, South Carolina state representative Nikki Haley was one of the Republican party’s brightest rising stars: the first Indian-American GOP state legislator in the country, a reformer who demonstrated a willingness to take on her own party over accountability, and a surprise front-running gubernatorial candidate. A November victory would make her instantly a subject of presidential-ticket talk for either 2012 or 2016.

Today, more than a week after a bombshell accusation of an affair that made national headlines . . . she’s in pretty much the same spot.

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Two weeks before the primary, and shortly after former Alaska governor Sarah Palin attended a rally for Haley at the state capitol, Haley’s campaign hit the kind of bump that every campaign manager dreads: Will Folks, a former spokesman for South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, former consultant to Haley, and blogger, declared he had had, before his marriage, an “inappropriate physical relationship” with the candidate.


Folks is an unusual character, even by South Carolina standards. He was charged with domestic battery in 2005; he pled guilty while insisting he was innocent, discussing the charges in an op-ed in The State newspaper. Before the public claim of the affair, his website offered a parody interview that quickly turned bizarre, with a faux-Folks telling faux-Haley “Shut your mouth, don’t you know I beat up women? Like, all the time?” to canned laughter. Then there’s the less-than-reassuring characterization that Folks “shrugs off accusations that he is paid to publish certain stories.”

Haley denied the affair. Folks’s initial post indicated he would not be making additional comments about the relationship, but it quickly became clear that he intended to post regular teasing updates, often remarking how everyone in the state wanted to know the details of his claim. Yet after a week of infuriating posts, neither he nor any other publication has shown something that definitively refutes Haley’s denials; the state has been left waiting for a smoking gun.

Folks began his original post by claiming that “within the last forty-eight hours several pieces of information which purportedly document a prior physical relationship between myself and Rep. Haley have begun to be leaked slowly, piece by piece, to members of the mainstream media. I am told that at least one story based upon this information will be published this week.” But more than a week after his claim, no publication has come forward with any evidence documenting that physical relationship. Folks himself has released phone records indicating a great number of calls between the two, including some lengthy late-night calls, but after-hours calls between a candidate and a consultant don’t really prove the “inappropriate physical relationship” he alleged. South Carolina’s largest newspaper, Columbia-based The State, flatly concludes: “Folks has not provided proof.”

According to Geraghty, for now, at least, the unsupported allegations against Nikki Haley don't seem to be a factor for South Carolina's voters. She has held on to double-digit leads in the polls, including one which was conducted after Folks made his wild claim. Her lead in that one was a still-commanding 11 points. The SC Republican primary takes place next Tuesday.

- JP