Can former S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford pull off an improbable political comeback and reclaim the U.S. House seat he held from 1995-2001?
Possibly …
Sources familiar with the “Luv Guv’s” recent polling data tell FITS there is a “clear path to victory” for the former three-term Congressman/ two-term governor – although they acknowledge that a Republican runoff election represents a “danger zone” for the scandal-scarred politician. In South Carolina, if no candidate receives more than fifty percent of the vote in a primary election, the top two finishers face each other in a runoff two weeks later.
With a whopping sixteen GOP candidates seeking the first district seat vacated earlier this year by newly appointed U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, it’s highly unlikely any candidate will win on the first vote – scheduled for March 19. That means the top two vote getters would face each other on April 2.
According to our sources, Sanford’s negatives are in the “low thirties” among Republican primary voters in the South Carolina first congressional district – which is obviously better than his recent statewide showing (polls taken in December showed the governor’s statewide favorability rating among GOP voters at 39 percent, with 44 percent saying they had an unfavorable impression of him).
Yeah … not good.
Also, assuming Sanford wins the nomination would his victory turn a safe Republican seat into a toss-up?
For those of you who have suppressed the memories, Sanford dramatically confessed to having extramarital affair at a rambling press conference at the S.C. State House in June 2009. He then compounded his problem by perpetually oversharing about his feelings for his lover (now fiancee) Maria Belen Chapur – and he nearly lost his job as a result of an ensuing ethics investigation into his travel practices. Among other abuses, Sanford failed to report dozens of private flights, obtained improper upgrades to first class seats on numerous state trips and misused the state plane for personal and political purposes.
Additionally, Sanford’s Commerce Department spent tax dollars on a 2008 South American “economic development” trip during which the governor had a romantic rendezvous with Chapur. Sanford ended up paying $74,000 in fines associated with his various violations – and was censured by state lawmakers – but he avoided impeachment.
There are a couple of key questions which will likely determine Sanford’s fate in this race …
First, how much higher can his negatives be driven? In other words do people already know everything there is to loathe about him – rendering future negative attacks less effective than they otherwise might be?
Second, which of the sixteen candidates will have enough cash to blast Sanford while simultaneously working to build up their own name identification within the district? And what role will third party groups play in that process?
Sources tell FITS the campaigns of S.C. Sen. Larry Grooms and local businessman/ economics professor Teddy Turner (son of media mogul Ted Turner) are the most likely to deploy assets against Sanford.
Supporters of the former governor say they are not concerned about making the runoff election – or winning a general election against a Democratic candidate.
That makes April 2 – the date of a likely GOP runoff election – Mark Sanford’s big day.
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41 comments
“Supporters of the former governor say they are not concerned about making the runoff election – or winning a general election against a Democratic candidate.”
Did both of his supporters state this?
I like your avatar and screen name very much, CNSYD. I just with we could agree on something. Politics and football are not likely topics. Religion perhaps. I hope you will rejoice with me the death of one John Sununu – I do not care to spell his name corrrectly – whenever that day comes.
No fan of his either. What is the source of your dislike?
I hold him responsible, at least in part, for the closure of the “Navy Yard” due to his influence with George H W Bush and the BRAC.
Sc is friendly ground to unstable, unreliable and hypocritical politicians.
I can’t wait to see Sanford praying with the rest of the delegation. That will set Twitter OFF!!!
Would not April 1st have been a better Election Day.
yes the perfect day
He has name ID and more campaign cash on hand than anyone else, those two items alone secure him a place in the runoff in such a crowded field of nobodies and has beens.
Remember Sanford was a nobody back in 1994 and he won the election. You can never tell if one of the 16 candidates can make a dramatic rise to the top and beat an old pro.
Sanford was a gad fly while in Congress. Ask people who met with him in Washington.
He was not favored to win the Governor’s against apopular Lt. Gov., Bob Peeler. Had Bob Peeler not stepped on his dick (literally) in an affair, with campaign worker and next door neighbor Donna Gulledge. He may have beat Sanford.
Just like Peeler his actions, after being found out, have been those of a low IQ slug, sliming it’s way into a cesspool of fresh manure.
Sanford and Peeler claim Maria and Donna went after them like a maggot in a turd. neither can take blame for their own failingss and missteps.
Like John Edwards and all of the others of their ilk, they should slime their way back to their cesspool and accept their self imposed fate.
Enough of Sanford, after all, he was instrumental in strapping this State with Nikki Haley!
As far as those women going after he and Bob Peeler, the statement should have been, “Maria and Donna went after these two like a maggot in a fresh corpse”. A political corpse seems to fir the two of them and if you’d seen them lately, they bring new meaning to term, “The walking dead!”
It took lots of jenny’s money for him to come out of nowhere. Does someone else have that much to spend?
From your mouth to God’s ears, Carrie. We’ve heard enough of Sanford and his expectations. Let’s hear more from the other candidates!
Pnfc-yes let’s hear from other candidates. Sanford has been on the go since he announced his candidacy. His facebook says alot which shows he is very very interested in our government and the debt situation. The other candidates have not come forward so it’s hard to know if they really know how the government works. We need knowledgeable people right now as the situation is scary.
first district voters: is this state enough of a laughing stock already or will you add fuel to the fire? Please, save us from Sanfraud.
Charleston gave up any right to be snooty, decades ago. Bobby Harrell, Chip Limehouse, Thomas Ravenel, that Ford guy, Sanford. Geez, Louise, the list goes on and on.l
Lance,
Ford and Sanford don’t count as they are native born. Charleston is still “snooty” in that regard.
OOPS. That should have read “not native born”.
CNSYD, how about the people who elected these non-natives? Ya gotta figure most of the voters are native. They fell for that lying, cheating coward Sanford like he was a Moultrie. Many generations of fetal alcohol syndrome have turned Charlestonians mega stupid.
Lance, to start with many voters in this whole state have been conditioned to believe that a R candidate is ALWAYS better than a D candidate. They don’t look any further. The first time around Sanford was unknown other than he was a R and his wife was funding him. There should not have been a second term as he screwed his own district over and over during his first term.
Wow, dickheads DO return from the dead, don’ they? I’d support even a village idiot before I would support him.
This man is a narcissist, with hubris (overweening pride) at toxic levels.
“support even a village idiot” Another Dem. voter.
I don’t give a damn about what you liberal assholes say about my man, Mark Sanford, he will win! That’s why you liberals blast him so much like your do our beautiful Indian governess, Nikki Haley, cause you know damn well she will win if she runs. By the way, narcissism and adultery never put a dent in billy clinton’s armor nor will in Mark Sanford’s. Nuff said.
Not a liberal by any means, but the guy is troubled. We’ll leave it at that.
Well if he were to win, he’ll likely keep the braggart-douchery under wraps for the first several weeks, using his best humble and repentant God’s servant schtick for the duped constituency.
However, when alone with Chapur he’ll be mixing biblical passages, King David likenesses, prior talk of his Oval office aspirations, and discussions of his linear rise to greatness as befits his C-Street tutelage, to fuel his bedroom fires. Oy, will she be able to stand it?
Don’t forget THE ORBS! You know he’ll talk about THE ORBS!
Anybody else expect to see FITS ‘evolve’ from dis-beleif and ridicule over Sanford…to now promoting him (w/ alleged polling numbers) as a legitmate candidate…
I’ll STRONGLY oppose Sanford (even more now) because FITS’ manipulating the vote is DISGUSTING…
FILTHY “consultants,” or Garbage Men, are the Disease of public service…
Sanford fooled us before…but if you put that slimey Piece of $#!* back in office, you are as grotesque as he, and his fake, carpetbagging wife, are…
The only clear path to victory he has is liberal cross over mischief votes. Most Republicans down here would vote for Colbert’s big sister over Sanford if those are our two choices. I’m leaning between Turner, Nash, and Grooms. I will vote against Sanford and Moffly in any election.
B.E.: Your testimony is music to my ears…
Good to see that the PEOPLE have sense…no matter what kind of CRAP FITS is trying to peddle…
Dear My little Bitch
Please ink some pieces for Gov. Moonbeam he needs all the help my money can’t buy.
Love
your baldheaded yankee lover
Howie Rich
Fuck a bunch of that shirking SOB
The reason Sanford has a chance?
The weakness of the field of course!
Limehouse?His antics in trying to seize control of the Aviation Authority are fresh in everyones mind.An arrogant ass,who actually has much to be modest about!
Grooms?Not the brightest bulb in the lighting system and admitted he had trouble reading.
Turner?Most Republicans think he is a Democrat!
Kuhn?Reputation for being “out there” haunts him.
Moffly?Says no cops in schools!This is the REPUBLICAN primary sweetheart!
Bostic?Last time he ran for something,he lost to a Democrat who lost to Alvin Greene!
McCoy?Baby Faced and has shown nothing in his one term in Columbia.
Nash?Dividing the Religious Right up with three or four others.
The Rest?A bunch of nobodies with no money(unlike the unknown Sanford in 1994)
From this perspective,one can see why Sanford might have a sly smile on his face
I agree with bucket at 10:49. This could become very embarrassing.
If Sanford wins will he and Chapur move into C-Street? They can take over DeMint’s room at the Washington Bunny Ranch.
Everyone I’ve spoken with is ADAMANT that they won’t support Sanford, most going so far as to say that they’ll “campaign against the som’bitch.” He sent out a letter to lots of people this week and asked people to share it with ten friends. Three friends got this letter and scribbled, “Vote against this man,” signed it and made copies and put them into the mail boxes of their neighbors. Sanford has lots of quiet people opposing him. I don’t know of anybody volunteering for him. Don’t know of anyone who would volunteer.
Does he have any idea of how repulsive he is to the people of SC???…
Or is he that tone deaf and stupid????
Or is this just a fun way (he thinks) to spend the money in his campaign coffers???
I can speculate….but I’d really love to know the truth, just as a study in human nature…
Maybe it’s the FINAL test to see if FITS (the grand pop culture, secular libertarian hope) has any influence whatsoever????…
Nobody is perfect or always tells the truth, and everyone has some bad habits. In this country, ethical behavior and smart behavior (two different attributes) probably have a “normal distribution” resembling a “bell curve.”
Someone has to fit in the “third standard deviation” of any bell curve. For the past 15 years, watching Sanford’s narcissistic and self-destructive behavior, along with his dishonesty (to the public, including his constituents, and his family), and disregard for his four young sons, he “rings the bell curve.”
I’ll restate: Enough of Sanford and his expectations, his PTL resurrection rhetoric for his hoped for duped constituency. He’s used it all before. As a C-Street minion, maybe this time he means it??? Is the word braggart-douchery offensive? Scratch the surface and Sanford has it in spades. Chapur must find it appealing as it no doubt fuels the bedroom fires.
Let’s hear more from the other candidates!
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
People in California vote for movie stars so Sanford might slide in there again.
I think what he’s really running for is God Almighty. People with his kind of ego are never satisfied until they have it all.
I got this text-message today:
Prize: venison sausage for best Mark Sanford joke at superbowl party tomorrow, my house. you can submit more than one joke.
As pointed out in my Feb. 1 New York Times op-ed piece, “A Nigerian Spring,” Gov. Sanford’s ancestors are from Nigeria. Researchers said:
“Oh, yeah,” one said. “Soon as I learned he’s Nigerian, I discounted everything he’d said as fraud.”
“Smart move,” agreed the other, nodding, “nothing good’s ever come out of that country. …”