Gov. Haley Addresses Questions About Her Previous Job

Gov. Nikki Haley says she was only doing the same thing every other member of the Lexington County legislative delegation was doing in pushing for a heart center at Lexington Medical Center, not doing something special for her employer.

While Haley was a state representative, she was hired as a fundraiser for the Lexington Medical Center Foundation. The hospital was trying to get state approval from the Department of Health and Environmental Control to start a heart center.

Emails between Haley and her boss, Lexington Medical CEO Mike Biediger, raise the question of whether Haley was using her position as a lawmaker to try to influence the DHEC vote.

In an email on the day the DHEC board was going to vote on Lexington Medical's request, Haley wrote to Biediger, "I will be unable to make the DHEC mtg this morning. Please let me know how the vote goes today. My fingers are crossed."

Biediger replies later, "Our amendment didn't pass this morning. I'll tell you more about it when I see you."

A hospital spokeswoman says the hospital never asked Haley to attend a DHEC meeting.

News Channel 7 asked Haley what she would say to someone who thinks the emails could indicate she was going to the board meeting to try to use her position as a lawmaker to help her employer.

She said all of the members of the House and Senate from Lexington County were working to get the heart center approved. "He (Biediger) let every delegation member know that that meeting was that next day, as he always did. He always informed us of what was going on and when it was going on. And he always just let us know informatively and some members went and some didn't. I couldn't be there that day," she says.

She has said previously she worked hard to avoid any conflicts of interest while she was a House member and worked for Lexington Medical Center.

She also addressed questions about her application and pay for that job. Her application lists her salary at her parents' clothing store as $125,000 a year, but her tax return for that year shows she made only $22,000.

She says she never put $125,000 on the application and never told anyone that she made that much. While another part of the application has her signature, the part that has her salary history has only her typed name.

But the hospital says it would be difficult for someone else to have added that because they would have to know her work and salary history, Social Security number and other personal information to be able to access the online application. There would also be a password or security question.

Gov. Haley said Monday, "There was no password. The password was where I graduated from high school."

Lexington Medical Center's heart center was eventually approved in 2010.