Dec. 29, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) — It was a year of firsts.

Now, as 2011 unfolds, South Carolinians will learn what difference those firsts will make. Or do they matter at all, when there is no money?

First woman. State Rep. Nikki Haley, R-Lexington, in November was elected South Carolina’s first woman and first nonwhite governor ever, a post she will assume next month. Haley ? a protege of controversial outgoing Gov. Mark Sanford ? immediately will face deficits of $264 million in state agencies that report to the governor, including Medicaid and prison spending. Then, she must work with legislators to mold a plan to address a projected shortfall of an additional $800 million for the state’s budget year that begins July 1.

Key question: Can Haley ? who ran for office saying that being Republican wasn’t enough, South Carolina needed more conservatives ? get along with the more pragmatic GOP-controlled Legislature to accomplish more than Sanford did in eight years? Helping attract more jobs to the state would help.

First black Republican. State Rep. Tim Scott, R-Charleston, was elected to Congress, representing the 1st Congressional District. Scott, the first black Republican the state has sent to Congress since Reconstruction, and Haley represent the new, more-diverse face of the S.C. GOP.

Key question: Scott already has struck a high profile in Washington. But whether that higher profile will benefit the state, with the federal government also facing massive budget woes, remains to seen. Voters rejected two long-tenured congressmen, Democrat John Spratt in the 5th District and Republican Bob Inglis in the 4th. The 3rd District also has a new congressman, meaning four of the state’s six congressmen will be freshmen, costing the state political clout. (Only one S.C. Democrat remains in Congress: U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of Columbia.)

First clean sweep. The election of former Newberry College president and retired Brig. Gen. Mick Zais as state superintendent of education gave the GOP ? which already controlled the S.C. House and S.C. Senate ? control of every statewide elected office for the first time in state history.

Key question: The GOP’s dirty little secret is that it is not one political party, but an amalgamation of Upstate social conservatives, now-Tea Party-infused fiscal conservatives, Lowcountry libertarians and government-has-a-role pragmatists. Can they all get along? The election of a new state chairman to succeed retiring state party chairman Karen Floyd could give an early indication.

First Tea Party heartthrob. U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., emerged as the Tea Party’s favorite in 2010, opposing, for example, earmarks, which make up about $20 billion of a $1 trillion-plus federal deficit. The GOP’s hard-right turn even affected U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had built a reputation as a pragmatist. By year’s end, however, Graham clearly was reading the writing on the wall, moving right to oppose positions he previously had championed, such as the Dream Act.

Key question: What will all the rightward movement mean to the 2012 S.C. GOP presidential campaign? The Republican candidates will debate in the Upstate in the spring, and the state’s first-in-the-South primary will be in February 2012. The endorsement of Haley ? who was buoyed by support from former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ? will be much sought. But DeMint could be the real kingmaker.

First black mayor. Lost beneath the red tidal wave, the city of Columbia elected its first African-American mayor, Democrat Steve Benjamin, last spring. A Democrat ? Mayor-for-life Joe Riley ? also leads Charleston. But ? with the exception of Riley ? S.C. Democrats increasingly are an endangered species outside Richland County and the state’s rural, poor, minority counties.

Key question: After a half-century-long fall from power, can S.C. Democrats, who also will elect a new state party chairman, reinvent themselves as a viable political party? Or would they ? and the state ? be better off joining the Republican Party en masse and moderating some of its more right-wing stances?

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