Haley avoids backlash against Sanford, surges in latest poll

Before the affair, Sanford was rarely shy about butting heads with the state legislature. His often confrontational style may have been best-illustrated when he appeared at a press conference in 2004 with two live pigs in his arms, one nicknamed “Pork” and the other “Barrel,” to protest the state House of Representatives’ efforts the previous day to override his 106 budget vetoes.

Haley’s rhetoric suggests she would do things differently than Sanford.

“One of the things Haley has tried to do on the campaign trail is to reassure people that she will work with others, even when they disagree with her,” Vinson said.

Economically, Sanford and Haley have similar policy ideas. Both are self-confessed penny-pinchers and believers in limited government. Haley says that she looks at government as an accountant.

Even before getting her bachelor’s degree from Clemson is in accounting, she claims to have helped keep the books for her parents’ small business. After working as an accounting supervisor in Charlotte, N.C., she returned to the family business.

Haley speaks often about cutting wasteful government spending and dealing with the budget deficit, which has long been an ideal of Sanford.

“It’s not gonna be fun, and it’s not gonna be easy. We’re going to have to make some hard decisions,” Haley said at a recent event. “I will go to each agency and say, ‘What do we need?’ We will start at zero and go from there.”

With or without Sanford, polls show Haley is getting along just fine.