Our campaign manager, Luke Byars, just sent out this response to the latest negative attack from Nikki Haley.

Dear Friends,

South Carolina is facing record breaking unemployment. Over 270,000 of our fellow citizens are out of work.  We are in the midst of the greatest
economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Across our State people are
suffering.

Fortunately, Republican Gresham Barrett has a plan.

Last month, he introduced a specific detailed jobs plan to put South
Carolina back to work.  He believes we need comprehensive tax reform so
that our tax system is both fairer and flatter. He believes that we should
restructure the Department of Commerce to recruit new jobs to our State and
he has proposed an initiative to match up 40,000 open and available
positions with South Carolinians who just need a little on the job
training. This is a doable plan and one that has gained rave reviews all
across the State in recent weeks.

Unfortunately, Nikki Haley has no plan to address our State’s job crisis
and has since resorted to attacking Gresham Barrett, all the while not
telling the truth about her own record.

On January 28th, in a televised debate in Charleston, Ms. Haley directly
attacked all three other GOP candidates on the stage suggesting they all
supported President Obama’s stimulus plan. On February 12th she penned a
guest column in the Greenville News repeating the false accusation, and
today her campaign sent out a blast email again attacking Gresham.

These underhanded dirty attacks must come to an end. For someone who talks about good government, Nikki Haley is embodying all that is wrong with
politics today.

Here’s the truth…

#1 – The attacks are NOT TRUE.  Gresham Barrett, along with EVERY OTHER
REPUBLICAN, voted against President Obama’s failed Stimulus plan. Click here to see the actual roll call vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 13, 2009.

#2 – Nikki Haley is only trying to hide her own record.  Nikki Haley
says she has ALWAYS opposed President Obama’s stimulus bill, but the
truth is that she was the ONLY GOP CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR TO VOTE FOR IT. Yes, she voted for it.  See the copy of the House Journal provided in this blog which clearly shows her vote to add Obama’s Stimulus to the State
budget.

#3 – Nikki Haley wants you to believe that Gresham Barrett is not a
conservative.  Again, the record does not lie.  Gresham is rated the most
conservative Congressman from the State of South Carolina by the National
Journal and the American Conservative Union.  In fact, just this week
Gresham received an “A” rating and the top award, “Friend of the
Taxpayer,“ from the National Taxpayers Union. Additionally, Gresham has
voted against President Obama more than any other Congressman except for
one.

The fact is Gresham Barrett is a true conservative, and you can believe
me… I know; I was Senator Jim DeMint’s State Director for the past 5
years.

It is obvious that Ms. Haley’s campaign is not gaining much traction and
that she has resorted to negative and false attacks against Gresham
Barrett.  This is wrong and must be answered immediately.  As Gresham’s
campaign manager I will try to respond to negative attacks and
misrepresentations as quickly as possible.

You can help by calling Nikki Haley at (803) 834-7065 and let her know you
want her to stop the untrue negative attacks and begin to focus on the real
jobs crisis that exists in our State.

Sincerely,

Luke Byars
Barrett for Governor
Campaign Manager