<div id="subtitle">Months after affair disclosed, SC governor virtually marooned in fight to stay in office</div><div><p>Republican Gov. Mark Sanford is no stranger to going it alone — and nearly three months after calling his mistress his "soul mate," he's been virtually marooned.</p><p>Since his unannounced, five-day visit in June with his Argentine mistress, there has been a growing chorus of state political leaders calling for him to resign.</p><p>While he initially seemed on track to weather the storm, the affair, his wife's struggles to save their marriage — and subsequent reports that call into question his use of state, private and commercial planes — are stirring up talk that the Legislature when it reconvenes in January is almost certain to vote to impeach him.</p><p>Just this past week, the leaders of the state Republican Party and 61 of 72 GOP House members who will deal with impeachment called on him to resign. The party and legislators say too many distractions continue to stem from the sordid saga.</p><p>"Critical problems facing our state have been neglected, while you devote significant time and effort to defending yourself," state party Chairwoman Karen Floyd said in a letter to the governor. "When we badly need to focus on job creation, economic development and other reforms, your actions have led to an atmosphere that makes it impossible for you to advance our state in a positive manner."</p><p>Sanford has apologized for the affair but contends scrutiny of his travel is coming from political foes and media unfairly holding him to different standards than his predecessors. He's taken his case to the Internet, radio shows and numerous community groups and has given no indication he will leave office.</p><p>"I've come very close to it on several occasions, but it's not where I am now," Sanford told members of a leadership forum Friday. "You know, God can make lemonade out of lemons. God can use imperfect people."</p><p>Early on, after the governor's revelations about his mistress, most influential state Republicans said Sanford should be given space to focus on his marriage — and few insisted he leave office. In some quarters, there also were concerns about passing the reins to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who is a Republican but is elected separately and has expressed an interest in running for governor in 2010. But concerns about the political domino effect — and the fellow Republicans whom Sanford has spent the better part of two terms alienating — weren't a factor as the GOP hashed their call for Sanford to resign.</p><p>The Sanfords have said they are working on their marriage, but his wife has moved with their four sons from the official residence in Columbia to the family's coastal home. Meanwhile, the AP has reported on the governor's use of pricey tickets on commercial flights despite rules requiring lowest-cost travel, use of state planes for personal and political trips, and failing to disclose private plane flights on ethics and campaign finance forms.</p><p>"People are walking up to me asking me: 'When are you going to do something about this?'" House Speaker Bobby Harrell, a Charleston Republican, said earlier this week.</p><p>A State Ethics Commission investigation into the flights is ongoing, and a state senator who conducted his own review of the commercial flights contends the governor broke the law. The probe should be completed before November.</p><p>The increasing calls for Sanford to resign cite the ongoing ethics probe and many lawmakers say they will wait for its results — potentially months away — before deciding whether to impeach Sanford. The next regular Legislative session is to begin in January.</p><p>Sanford calls it a political circus. Danielle Vinson, a Furman University political scientist, agrees. "It all seems just sort of manufactured right now because we're waiting on the Ethics Commission," Vinson said. Legislators are only acting now because "they're starting to see the public doesn't have a real appetite for an impeachment process."</p><p>But Sanford needs to learn to lay low rather than hitting the road almost daily to apologize and blame legislators for a moribund agenda, Vinson said. "If I were him I really would quit trying so hard: just keep your head down, do your job," she said.</p><p>Sanford for his two terms often has clashed with members of his own party, decrying some as fiscally irresponsible and "Republicans in name only." In the months before his revelation of an extramarital affair, Sanford unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Republicans who control the Legislature from using federal stimulus money for state schools.</p><p>Political observers say the governor, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits, put himself in a spot with few friends to weather the fight of his life.</p><p>"It's a good case study of why politicians shouldn't be happy to be loners: then you don't really have a lot to fall back on," Vinson said.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=58569897&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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