Politics, apologies helping keep SC gov in office

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Gov. Mark Sanford has found a way to cling to office, but holding on has had more to do with politics than heartfelt apologies.

Fellow Republicans voted to censure the governor, in part because some said if Sanford were to step down, the move would splinter the GOP because it might help his replacement, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, in the 2010 campaign for governor.

Sanford is barred from seeking another term, and he has campaigned hard to keep his current job, giving hours of heartfelt apologies and tearful confessions of his affair with an Argentine woman.

Politics have more to do with raising the likelihood he can stay, party insiders and observers said, including those that have been the most vocal in saying Sanford must go.

“This is not a redemptive act of grace by these wonderful political people,“ said Furman University political scientist Donald Aiesi.

He said Sanford has likely survived.

“Politics is playing a huge part in the process,“ said Glenn McCall, a Republican National Committee member. “I think people are being calculated.“

McCall should know. He was the higheset GOP party officials to call for Sanford to resign and had even planned a Statehouse rally. But the during a state GOP executive committe meeting Monday, the party could only muster enough votes for a censure of Sanford and McCall said it was time to move on.

Democrats, who hold little clout in the state, instead will hold a rally to urge the governor to step down.

It’s been three weeks since Sanford, a father of four boys, disappeared over Father’s Day weekend to rendezvous with his mistress in Argentina. He returned to confess the affair, then gave more details about his relationship in hours of interviews with The Associated Press. He called Maria Belen Chapur his “soul mate,“ he asked first lady Jenny Sanford for permission to visit her and said he wanted to fall back in love with the first lady.

The revelations prompted most of the state Senate Republicans to call for Sanford to step down. They’re holding to that position, said Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens. But it’s clear Sanford’s not budging and the House leaders that wield an impeachment threat are mum until they see concrete reports that Sanford broke the law, Martin noted. “I think that has as much as anything quelled further comment by colleagues in the House.“

Dan Herren, state committeeman for Greenville County, got a call from Sanford last Thursday. Herren said Sanford prefaced his apologies by saying: “I’m not calling you to ask you to vote one way or the other.“

“He got philosophical at times,“ Herren said. “He was really taking the time to try to express what to say,“ Herren said of the 20-minute conversation, which included long pauses by the governor. “I think it was therapeutic to him to a degree.“

Another committeeman, Jordan Bryngelson, received an apology and questions about what grassroots Republicans were saying. Bryngelson told him people were taking a wait-and-see approach. “I’ve heard very few people in my county actually calling for his resignation,“ Bryngelson said. “It doesn’t make sense for him to resign.“

A second call wasn’t much different, but Bryngelson did tell the governor people thought he had talked too much about the affair.

“I think he is sort of playing a political campaign,“ said Thad Beyle, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill political scientist and expert on governors. It amounts to Sanford trying to save himself.

Aiesi, the political observer, used a surfing metaphor that Sanford, who rode waves along South Carolina’s coast as a kid, would appreciate. The resignation calls have crested, he said.

“You catch a wave at the crest,“ Aiesi said. “You either ride it or you don’t,“
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Associated Press writer Seanna Adcox contributed to this story.