Representative Nikki Haley released the following statement in response to the House Republican Caucus letter requesting Governor Sanford’s resignation:

“Governor Sanford is first and foremost responsible for the ongoing scandal that has occupied so much attention in South Carolina for the past couple of months. But the leadership of the General Assembly is also stoking those fires and keeping the scandal going, and it is doing so for its own political purposes.

We can put the names of all 170 Members of the General Assembly on a list requesting the Governor resign, but at the end of the day there is only one person who will make that decision, and Governor Sanford has made it clear that he will not step down. So any further pressure in that direction is nothing more than political posturing, and that’s not what we as elected officials ought to be doing.

I have spent the summer traveling across this state, meeting with South Carolinians from all walks of life. They talk to me about the unemployment rate, economic development, and government spending at a rate they’ve never seen before. They talk about the future of their healthcare, about friends and neighbors who have lost jobs, and about their kids’ education.

The discussion we’re seeing play out in Columbia is the wrong one. Instead of this constant back-and-forth as to whether Governor Sanford should stay or go, those of us in elected office have a responsibility to focus on what we need to be doing for the people of our state and how we’re going to get that done. Not next month or after the next election, but starting today.

Through his own actions, Governor Sanford has become a badly flawed leader, and our state suffers because of it. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that his departure from office, and the resulting unchecked power of the General Assembly, would make things better. What would make things better is if everyone in the political process started acting like grown-ups, stopped the political posturing and media circus, and got on with the business of the people.

If and when the Governor, the Speaker, and the Majority Leader put together a letter that clearly lays out a positive agenda for the next year and a half, I’ll be the first to sign it. But that’s the only list I intend to attach my name to – a list that is for and about the people of South Carolina and not just another example of the long tradition of political gamesmanship that has held our state and its citizens down for far too long.”