Bauer to Sanford: Time to hit the road, Mr. Governor.
By Matthew Shaer | 08.26.09
He could have been a contender in 2012.
Now it’s looking like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford might not even make it to the end of his term. On Wednesday morning, Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer called on Sanford to step down, urging Sanford to consider the well-being of the Palmetto State. Bauer, according to the Associated Press, reiterated his offer to back out of the 2010 gubernatorial race if Sanford leaves office now.
Bauer said rumors and discussion of Sanford’s impeachment could “dominate next year’s legislative session instead of issues like the economy and job creation.”
Bauer is the latest in a long line of Republican lawmakers urging Sanford’s exit. In late June, for instance, 10 state senators said they wanted the governor gone. And on July 6, the South Carolina Republican Party voted to censure Sanford. (The party never explicitly suggested he resign.)
Still, Sanford clung to his post, claiming that he despite his moral failings, he was still fit for political office. “If the good Lord’s going to make changes in your life, you’ve gotta stick around for the process,” Sanford said.
Sanford’s term as governor expires in January of 2011. “People need to take their personal, political considerations off the table and think about what’s best for the state,” a Bauer spokesman said in a statement yesterday.
It’s been a turbulent few months for Sanford, to put it lightly. In June, Sanford vanished without a trace from the public radar; aides assured the press he was only hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Wrong.
Instead, Sanford, a well-liked governor with a good shot at the GOP presidential nomination in ‘12, was dallying in South America with a longtime Argentinian lover. Worse yet: on at least a few occasions, Sanford had funded his affair with taxpayer dough. This from a guy who earned major plaudits from conservatives for his initial rejection of federal stimulus funds. (Forget the fact that he later accepted the bulk of that money anyway.)