Tom Ervin, a wealthy lawyer, self-styled “independent Republican” and wild card in South Carolina’s closely-contested gubernatorial race between incumbent Republican Nikki Haley and Democratic State Sen. Vincent Sheheen, recently upped the stakes in that three-cornered battle by purchasing an additional $500,000 in television advertising — and that’s on top of a recent $2 million advertising buy.
The 62-year-old Ervin, a Greenville attorney and radio station owner who once served in the South Carolina legislature and as a circuit court judge, entered the race relatively late, but will undoubtedly be a major factor in the rematch between Haley and Sheheen.
Haley, then a darling of the Tea Party movement, defeated Sheheen by a margin of 60,000 votes in 2010. Running on a joint Green-United Citizens Party ticket, Morgan B. Reeves, a colorful former Michigan State football star who played briefly for the NFL’s Baltimore Colts and the Detroit Lions, polled over 20,000 votes in that closer-than-expected race. Reeves is running again, but this time only under the United Citizens banner. The Libertarian Party’s Steve French is also in the hunt.
Having just completed a statewide listening tour, Ervin has been making the issue of ethics in government a major selling point in his campaign and has publicly faulted Haley for accepting gifts as governor. According to the Charleston Post and Courier, Haley has reported accepting $152,600 in gifts since taking office in January 2011
A poll released last Monday showed Ervin, who dropped out of the Republican primary to run as an independent, snaring eighteen percent of the vote against Haley and Sheheen. He had previously been polling in the low single digits.
Conducted by the American Research Group, the poll showed Haley leading Sheheen by ten points at this stage in the campaign.
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