S.C. governor will not appoint "placeholder" senator

Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., announced today that she will not fill South Carolina's soon-to-be vacant Senate seat with a "placeholder", someone to keep the seat warm until 2014, when the election to fill the seat is scheduled. In a statement, she said she "rejects" the idea of appointing someone to serve for only two years, indicating that whoever she chooses will be the party's nominee for the 2014 race.

"[W]hile I am an avid supporter of term limits, I do not want the effectiveness of our state's new U.S. Senator to be undermined by the fact that he or she will automatically be leaving the office such a very short time after assuming it," Haley wrote in a statement.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. announced last week that he would vacate his seat at the end of the year to run the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has been mentioned as a top contender to replace DeMint but Scott's spokesman Sean Smith denied any knowledge of the process. Smith said the congressman "has not heard from the Governor, and remain focused on the fiscal cliff."

If appointed, Scott would be the only African-American serving in the Senate and he would be the first Republican African-American senator since Edward Brooke, R-Mass., lost re-election in 1978.