Republican gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley released thousands of legislative e-mails that contain constituent requests, encouraging words and newsletters, but show the Lexington state representative conducted very little legislative business on her State House account.
The e-mails, dating to April 1, were the latest volley over transparency and open government in the governor's race, where Democratic opponent Vincent Sheheen has tried to usurp Haley's signature issue.
Sheheen released his legislative e-mails, copies of his hard drives and campaign receipts two weeks ago in response to identical open records requests The State sent to both campaigns. Haley released her e-mails, but said she would not release any other documents or allow reporters to review her state-issued computer hard drives. A hard drive keeps a permanent record of e-mails.
The Haley campaign emphasized she is exempt from state open records laws as a lawmaker, and all compliance is voluntary. Sheheen's campaign asked what Haley is hiding.
"I think 10,000 sheets of paper is a lot," Haley said, referring to the volume of e-mails in defending the decision not to match Sheheen's disclosure. "I'm comfortable with how transparent we have been. I'm not going to get into this tit for tat about whether that's enough sheets of paper."
Trav Robertson, Sheheen's campaign manager, said Haley is not leading by example.
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