ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS 160-PLUS FUNDRAISERS, MANY SANFORD SUPPORTERS

If Attorney General Henry McMaster decides to run for governor next year, he will have the strongest financial organization of any candidate — more than 160 fundraisers and advisers, according to The State.

And there is no doubt they will be ready to hit the ground running, if they haven’t already.

The list of folks backing McMaster’s likely gubernatorial bid comprises a who’s who of top Republican fundraisers in South Carolina.

Many, like S.C. Ports Authority board member Bill Stern and Colonial Life chief executive Gayle Averyt were instrumental in electing and re-electing the current governor, Mark Sanford.

“The list speaks for itself,” Stern said. “We’ve assembled a good group of business leaders.”

Most notably, The State wrote, “the list of fundraisers and advisers suggests Sanford will not be able to rally his supporters behind a single candidate.”

That could be terrible news for newly-announced candidate Nikki Haley, whose only hope at becoming a serious contender rests in strong support from Sanford.

And the McMaster team hasn’t let the bad economy get in the way of raising money. The attorney general had raised more than $1 million as of the April 15 quarterly report.