Leaders of South Carolina’s Republican Party voted Thursday to ask Gov. Mark Sanford to resign, joining an increasing number of GOP officials upset with the governor’s June vanishing act to see his mistress and questions about his travel while in office.
“While the governor served the state well by focusing on core values and principals that are critical to the Republican Party, what’s transpired after June 24th has no longer permitted him or provided us an opportunity move forward,” GOP Chairwoman Karen Floyd said after the decision.
Thirty-one of the 46 party leaders voted to ask him to step down. The party issued a reprimand in June, but made the more serious move after a majority of Republican legislators asked him to step down Wednesday.
Governor spokesman Ben Fox said the Republican leaders are entitled to their opinions but the rest of the story still needs to be told.
“We’d respectfully and repeatedly insist that working South Carolinians are ready to move beyond this political circus and media-driven distraction,” Fox said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Sanford lashed out at lawmakers and accused officials of attempting to establish a “kangaroo court” by cutting short an ethics probe of his travel that may influence whether the Legislature tries to fire him.
But the director of the State Ethics Commission and a lawmaker publicly criticized by the governor both said Sanford misconstrued their statements and failed to understand the process.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I have no understanding of why he is doing a lot of things,” said Rep. Bill Sandifer, R-Seneca.
Sanford has been under severe scrutiny since he returned from Argentina in June after a mysterious, five-day absence from the state and then revealed he had been involved in a yearlong affair. Ensuing investigations by a state senator and The Associated Press have called into question whether he has used state planes for official business; used required, lowest-cost airfare for commercial flights paid by the state; and properly disclosed his use of private planes.
Sanford, a two-term Republican facing his final 16 months in office, repeatedly has apologized for the affair, but has yet to explain how he was to be reached in case of emergency while in Argentina. He’s also said his travel is being unfairly scrutinized by his political foes and contends he used aircraft the same way as his predecessors.
During a news conference, the governor and his attorney said they had learned that some lawmakers were trying to truncate the state ethics investigation and get an early look at its findings.
“If you go this route, what you’re doing is you’re setting up a kangaroo court wherein you practically ought to base the whole thing on media headlines — with all due respect to media headlines — or you ought to just base it on political opponents’ accusations,” the governor said.
Many lawmakers are awaiting the results of the official probe; others believe Sanford’s unannounced absence from the state is enough for an impeachment proceeding.
The executive director of the state Ethics Commission, Herb Hayden, confirmed he met with a lawmaker who launched his own investigation of the governor, but he said he only did so to make sure there would be no accusations later that the commission overlooked something.
Hayden said Sanford’s case will be handled like any other. “As far as input by legislators, there has been absolutely zero input,” he said.
