Not Stepping Down

Gov. Mark Sanford opened Monday’s meeting of the state Budget and Control Board by saying that John Rainey, a businessman who first approached Sanford about eight years ago and encouraged him to run for governor, had dinner with the Sanfords Sunday night and said, “I got it. You’ve apologized. You need to get on with governance.“

But Sanford told the board, “If you’ve disappointed folks as I have, I don’t think you can outdo it.“ So he then apologized personally to each member of the board.

After the meeting, he confirmed to reporters that he almost quit after announcing that he had been unfaithful to his wife. “Initially, my reaction was to resign,“ he said. But then he heard from a number of friends who encouraged him not to.

He said, “What is the message that I would send to my four boys, my and Jenny’s four boys, on life? Is it you fall and that’s the end of the story? Or do you begin the process of getting back up, of rebuilding life, trust, all that goes with it? To be human is to, on occasion, fall flat on your face. I’ve done it in the most public of circles. The question now is, what do I learn from it and what do others learn from it?“ 

He said going through such a public fall would make him a much more forgiving person, a much humbler person and a much less judgmental person.

One of the friends supporting Sanford is Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is godfather to the Sanfords’ youngest son. Sen. Graham told reporters Monday, “It would be in the best interest of South Carolina, in my opinion, to try and allow Governor Sanford to try and finish out his term. But he’s got some damage to repair with his family, with the people of South Carolina and I’m willing to allow him to do that and I think he can.“

The speculation about whether Sanford would resign has created a lot of political intrigue. If he did resign, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer would serve the final 18 months of Sanford’s term. But Bauer is considering his own run for governor in 2010, so a Sanford resignation would give Bauer an advantage as the incumbent.

Because of that, there were reports that Bauer told state lawmakers that, if Sanford would resign, Bauer would serve only the remainder of the current term and would not run in 2010. Therefore, Sanford’s resignation wouldn’t influence the 2010 race. But Bauer told News Channel 7 that he has not told any lawmakers that he would not run and would serve only the remainder of Sanford’s term. “Yes, I have considered doing that,“ he said. “Somebody else mentioned that.“ But he denies talking to lawmakers about it.

Bauer says the 2010 race “should not be in his (Sanford’s) decision making. He needs to decide, can he patch his family life together and can he run the state effectively and get economic development moving forward in South Carolina? If the answer is yes, he needs to get back to work and we need to support him.“

But Sanford’s decision not to resign left some lawmakers disappointed, including Columbia Democrat Rep. Todd Rutherford. “We already know that if he were any other state employee he would be fired. That is state policy. You cannot be gone that long without good reason. He should have been fired. The only way for him to be fired is for him to currently resign. Impeachment at this point does not seem to be an option,“ Rutherford says.

He says he’s not focused on what the governor was doing while in Argentina, only that he left the state for six days without leaving anyone in charge, without letting his staff know where he was or giving them a way to contact him.