Sanford just the latest South Carolina politician in trouble

Governor Mark Sanford's odd and unexplained disappearance in June got a lot of national attention just because it was so unusual. He left the state without telling anyone and without a way to contact him. His wife even said she didn't know where he was, while his staff thought he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. But when he returned and explained that he had disappeared to Argentina to visit his mistress, the admission left even his close friends dumbfounded.

It also generated even more media attention than his disappearance had, with international news outlets getting involved because his mistress is in Argentina.

But the Sanford affair is the just the latest in a long line of South Carolina political scandals. Just two years ago, then-state treasurer Thomas Ravenel was indicted on federal charges of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute. Gov. Sanford suspended him from office. Ravenel later resigned, pleaded guilty and served 10 months in prison.

Former comptroller general and lieutenant governor Earle Morris is still in state prison on securities fraud charges. He was the chairman of Carolina Investors when it went bankrupt, taking about $275 million from thousands of South Carolinians.

Then-state agriculture commissioner Charles Sharpe was indicted in 2004 on charges of extortion and lying to a federal officer in connection with a cockfighting ring. He pleaded guilty in 2005, admitting to taking $10,000 in exchange for helping a group involved in cockfighting avoid legal trouble.

And in the early 1990s, ten percent of the state legislature was indicted on bribery, racketeering or drug charges in an FBI sting that was dubbed "Operation Lost Trust." The name aptly describes what that scandal and many others have done to the public's view of politicians.

"I think, in general, the morals and ethics of politicians need to be improved," says Bill Thompson of Columbia.

And Carl Jones' reaction when he heard about Sanford's affair? “That’s exactly what I thought—there’s another one that screwed up!"

All the headlines, and punchlines, associated with Gov. Sanford highlight one way the scandal affects the state and its citizens. Kira Campbell of Lexington says, “I definitely feel like we’re just a joke now because of our governor.”

But Dr. Robert Oldendick, executive director of the Institute for Public Service and Policy Research at the University of South Carolina, says Sanford couldn't do much to hurt public opinon about politicians. "Most people were shocked by these revelations," he says. "And so it has an impact on their approval of him and how they might think of his tenure in office. But in terms of their overall measure of support (for politicians in general), it's at a low level already. We can't go much lower."

He's written books on public opinion and is an Associate Editor of "Public Opinion Quarterly". He says only 4 or 5 percent of people say they trust government all the time. The erosion really started in the 1970s with Watergate and President Richard Nixon's resignation.

And politicians have been involved in scandals since the founding of our country, but many of them didn't get the same attention they do now because of the speed and easy availability of information. A good example is Strom Thurmond's fathering of a child out of wedlock with his African-American housekeeper. It happened when Thurmond was 22 and the housekeeper was 16, but no one publicly acknowledged the fact until more than 75 years later when their daughter, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, came forward shortly after Thurmond's death.

"I think that there are always things like various kind of indiscretions, whether it be immoral behavior or illegal behavior," Dr. Oldendick says. "But because, as you well know, the nature of the news cycle has changed and because of the 24/7 cable outlets, because of the Internet and blogs, everything kind of gets magnified. Is there a lot more of this, in reality, than there was in the past? Maybe a little bit, but not much. There's always been this kind of activity."