by Wikipedia
After his recent runoff win, Mark Sanford may be manning the deck of his political campaign, but it seems he has no crew onboard. And no gas in the tank, either.
No one of foundation is standing behind him or publicly supporting him in his bid for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. The former governor has no positive record to project to voters, either.
For example, the only endorsements Sanford's received from persons who've worked with him in government are:
- Tom Davis, who was Sanford's chief of staff before being elected to his current role of state senator,
- Edie Rodgers, who only had one year of her term as state representative overlap with Sanford's as governor before she retired,
- Barbara Nielsen, who was an advisor to Sanford after she ended her term as Supt. of Education (which she served before Sanford took the governor's office), and
- Scott Richardson, a state senator from 2000 to 2007 until Sanford appointed him to be state insurance commissioner for $130,000 a year.
Thus, no one who ever worked with (instead of for) Sanford has offered an endorsement.
National media have taken note of these no-shows, too. Politico reported "Not a single member of the South Carolina congressional delegation has endorsed Sanford, an indication of his weak standing among his would-be Washington colleagues."
The reason he's not getting support could be that Sanford's never done anything to earn it.
When he last served in Congress, not one of the 44 bills he sponsored ever made it out of committee, for example.
That's a good thing, though, because 10 of Sanford's bills were attacks on Social Security. He wanted to let Wall Street handle those funds, where they'd immediately be subject to fees for brokers to collect, and where they'd have no insurance or guarantee. If Social Security had been handed over to private companies, imagine where seniors who retired in 2007 would have been -- practically broke, due to the stock market crash that began that year .
Sanford also accomplished nothing as governor. For example, instead of working with the State Assembly, he only tried to work against it, vetoing 106 budget bills in 2004 alone.
That might explain why Sanford is shy of endorsements, though; the Republican-led assembly overruled 105 of those 106 vetoes in less than 90 minutes that year. They also overruled hundreds of his other vetoes throughout his term as governor .
Releasing live pigs on the floor of the state House in "04 didn't help Sanford's reputation with his own party, either. Like Republican state Rep. Gary Simrill once told media, "(I)n politics, you cultivate friends and create enemies. Sanford has done more creating than cultivating."
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