Posted on 03/02/2009 7:47:37 AM PST by rabscuttle385
South Carolina governor Mark Sanfords sober conservatism.
BY MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY
Mark Sanford is easy to overlook. If Republicans need a champion in the Obama era, there are more colorful candidates than the South Carolina governor. He doesnt play electric bass, or to the Religious Right, like Mike Huckabee. He has made no attempt to rewrite the GOPs almost forgotten small-government playbook like Minnesotas Tim Pawlenty or Louisianas Bobby Jindal. Though he is popular, Sanford seems incapable of playing a red-meat populist like Sarah Palin. He looks plain, his philosophy is old, and he has an elegiac demeanor that seems incompatible with electoral politics.
But unlike many other Republican politicians of his stature, Sanford recognizes that there are limits to ambition, that government treasuries are not bottomless, and that no ideology can captain the globe. If the promise of hope in the form of bailouts fails to revive the American economy, Mark Sanford will be the GOPs most dangerous man in 2012.
In recent weeks, he has become the unofficial spokesman against Obamas trillion-dollar economic stimulus plan. Other Republican governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger beg for more federal subsidies, but Sanford has threatened to decline large portions of the bailout, preferring not to bridle South Carolinians with the accompanying obligations. While cables talking heads shout at him, he somberly quotes Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek. He worries aloud that the bailouts represent a crisis of American civilization.
But Sanfords stringent free-market philosophy was born in experience before it was matured by theory. His father Marshall was a successful heart surgeon in southwest Florida, but strained to teach his sons thrift and hard work. That meant laboring on the familys summer property, a farm in Beaufort, South Carolina. His big intent with the farm was teaching us how to work. We thought as we were bailing hay in August that our next meal depended on us getting that hay in. It did not. But we didnt know any better as kids, Sanford says.
This education didnt end with summer. When the family returned to Floridas scorching Septembers, Sanford recalls, Everybody slept in Mom and Dads room so wed only run one air-conditioning unit. My brothers on the floor, my sister on the window seat. In retrospect, how totally weird. The guys a heart surgeon. He could certainly afford to spring for another air-conditioning unit. But the lesson took. As governor, Sanford has refused to use the air conditioning in the governors mansion in Columbia.
Though he describes his childhood as happy, Sanfords adolescence was touched by tragedy. When he was a junior in high school, his father was diagnosed with Lou Gehrigs disease. When he died five years later, the Sanford family buried him under a pair of oak trees overlooking a river, according to his wishes. Mark built the casket. He says,
You hammer the nails closed, you carry it out there in the back of the pickup to a certain part of the farm. You lower the thing down there. You and your brothers do it on your own, and then grab shovels. We say a little prayer, fill the grave, walk back up to the house. It was an intensely personal experience that really hit home for me: you aint taking any of this stuff with you.
Those oak trees have cast a long shadow over Sanford. When hes asked about his ambitions, he refers to this time of his life, as if the driving force in his career is an awareness of his own mortality.
After graduating from Furman University with a BA in business, Sanford got his MBA from the University of Virginia. He worked at Goldman Sachs briefly and met his wife Jenny Sullivan in 1989 in the Hamptons. She is the granddaughter of Bolton Sullivan, the founder of the Skil Corporation, a successful toolmaker. The couple returned to South Carolina, and Mark established himself in real estate, making millions and traveling around the state.
While the Sanfords personal wealth doesnt equal that of the Romneys or Kerrys, their financial security plays a role in Sanfords approach to politics. My kids next meal isnt dependent on whether I stay in politics, he says. The rarest of all commodities in the world of politics is independence. Yet what is desperately needed in politics is more independence.
Sanford made the unusual decision to have his wife run his first congressional campaign. He jokes that the price was right, but adds that he was looking long term: We were going to live in South Carolina the rest of our lives. In the heat of a campaign I didnt want some political guy saying, Do this, when it was really contrary to things I believed and thought. She knew what I believed, so it seemed like a no-brainer for me. Jenny has managed his campaigns ever since. Will Folks, Sanfords former spokesman and now gadfly editor of Fitsnews.com, says, The legend is true. It really was Jenny and a bunch of kids working in his basement. She is driven, maybe even more than he is.
As part of the Gingrich Revolution in 1994, Sanford pledged to serve just three terms. His explanation for the self-imposed limit reveals the two sides of his personality, the brainiac and the bumpkin. He says, The beta is the correlation between an individual stock and the market as a whole. Term limits change the beta of a political decision. Some politicians look at a single political decision and say, Man, this could affect my career for the rest of my life. But with term limits, if it only affects you for the next two years, its not a life-changing event.
Naturally, Sanford compiled a strikingly different record from many of his fellow revolutionaries. He regularly found himself grouped with Ron Paul and a few other staunch conservatives like Steve Largent and Tom Coburn on the losing end of lopsided votes. I remember the leadership would come and say, This stuff is okay during the campaign, but we have to govern, and I thought it was govern toward a specific end, not just govern to govern, Sanford recalls.
But principle had its price. He was the lone vote against a bill to halt violence against women, claiming that it was unconstitutional. The first negative ad he faced in South Carolina claimed Sanford was soft on domestic violence.
He was unsurprised by the partys quick betrayal of conservative ideals: A lot of people walked in not clear about what they were about philosophically. And if you arent totally clear walking in, youre going to end up very fuzzy in a very short period of time.
Soon after he left Washington, Sanford sought to impose his clarity on Columbia. He faced a crowded Republican gubernatorial primary that included representatives from South Carolinas three largest political families. In a field of pious hucksters, self-styled Reaganite optimists, and other GOP mutants, Sanford stood out for his authenticity. He toned down the brainiac and played up his folksiness. He out-raised his opponents, pulling in over $100,000 a day at the height of the contest. Sanford bought more television time than his opponents and filled it with scenes of his four sons and pretty wife.
At the same time, he imposed pathologically tight control on the campaigns finances. Hed pick up change from the street during an event. If he found an index card in the garbage and saw that only one side of it had been used, he would explain to the staffer, This is how campaigns are lost, Folks says. Employees were sent to return supplies Sanford deemed too expensive or reimburse the campaign for their mistake. Even today, Sanford gets his hair cut at Supercutsand brings a coupon.
His record as governor is sound by conservative standards, but thin. He proposed a plan to eliminate the states income tax within 18 years, but abandoned the project when political compromise that involved an expanded property tax transgressed his ideology. He wont take 10 cents of something he dislikes for a dollar of something he loves, Folks says. But when staffers advised him to tacitly endorse primary challenges against the moderate GOP legislators who stymied his reformist agenda, Sanford played it safe and backed incumbents. There are limits even to his political will.
Sanfords most notable accomplishment as governor may be eliminating an illegal $155 million budget deficit that was hidden by his predecessor. When trying to find the last $16 million, legislators suggested that he had done enough. Sanford replied, Im sworn to uphold the Constitution. It doesnt say come close and declare victory. He then vetoed 106 pork projects to make up the deficit and was overruled on 105 of them. The next day, he took two piglets and an array of cameramen into the statehousehis first and probably last attempt at playing rabble rouser. I dont like using political instruments that blunt, he admits, but whats not remembered is that it worked.
Though he had endorsed John McCain in 2000, Sanford stayed out of the Republican contest in 2008. Two days before the primary, Sen. Lindsey Graham was dispatched to Sanfords office with a plea and an offer. Graham told Sanford that an endorsement from the popular governor could put McCain over the top in the key primary state. In return, he promised a spot on McCains veep shortlist. Sanford responded cooly, I dont need your help getting on the shortlist and declined.
Once the nomination was settled, Sanford wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed making the case for McCain. But when he was asked to defend McCains economic proposals by Wolf Blitzer, his smooth delivery degenerated into a stammering admission that he was stumped. The gaffe was used against him, but the clip is cited by libertarians as a point in Sanfords favor since for them there was no credible defense of McCains economics.
Sanfords conservative credentials compare favorably to anyone else mentioned as a 2012 presidential contender. He calls the public-education system a Soviet-style monopoly. He promoted school choice through tax rebates to avoid the appearance of government control. He passed a Castle doctrine bill that was supported by the NRA. He favors a law-and-order approach to immigration, but opposed REAL ID on civil liberties grounds. Though he avoids showy displays of piety, he is reliably pro-life.
But the governor edges closer to pure libertarianism at times. He rolls his eyes at the Columbia sheriffs departments zeal in investigating Michael Phelpss recreational pot use. And he criticizes Alan Greenspans management of the opaque Federal Reserve. If you take human nature out of a Fed, it might work, he explains. But you cant. You can have these wise men. But who wants to turn off the spigot at a party thats rolling?
He also deviates from the Republican line on foreign policy. In Congress, he opposed Clintons intervention in Kosovo. And he was one of only two Republicans to vote against the 1998 resolution to make regime change in Iraq the official policy of the United States. He says that it was a protest vote in which he tried to reassert the legislatures war-declaring powers. When asked about the invasion of Iraq, he extends his critique beyond the constitutional niceties. I dont believe in preemptive war, he says flatly. For us to hold the moral high ground in the world, our default position must be defensive.
Sanford has occasionally made political decisions that cut against his principles. He appointed Bill Stern, a prominent Republican fundraiser, to the board of South Carolinas Port Authority. But Stern and other Sanford appointees have refused to loosen total state control of the ports, even though most ports in America accept private-public partnerships. During Sanfords term, Charleston has dropped from fourth to seventh in the nation in port rankings and may soon lose its largest account. If Sanford had imposed his free-market philosophy on his appointees, Charleston would not be in danger of losing more jobs and private capital to competitors in Savannah and Norfolk.
And Sanfords penny-pinching, while appealing in an era of excess, occasionally defies all common sense. While he lived in Columbia as governor, the state classified his mansion on Sullivans Island as a second residence and taxed it at the higher rate of 6 percent as opposed to 4 percent for a primary residence. It was only a difference of $3,300, but Sanford fought the classification even though he was renting the house out at the time.
Candidates with national ambitions usually make haste to clear up potential scandals in their pasts. Early in George W. Bushs presidential run, his camp released a statement dealing with Mrs. Bushs 1963 car accident in which her boyfriend was killed. But Governor Sanfords team has failed to get ahead of a story that could become tabloid fodder. During Sanfords first gubernatorial campaign in 2002, an 8-year-old African-American girl wandered onto a Sanford family property on Ladys Island and drowned. A source close to the governor said she fell into a retaining pond. Her familys lawyer, Manning Smith, called it a pit. Other sources claim that Sanford, who owned a hydraulic excavator at the time, digs holes on his property to unwind. According to a source involved in the settlement, the governors insurance company paid the girls family around $300,000. During Sanfords second run, after rumors began to circulate, local newspapers and the AP looked into the incident, but havent reported it. South Carolina politicos speculate that if Sanfords national profile increases, The State will finally run its story. There had been no official comment until Sanfords spokesman, Joel Sawyer, told TAC, This was a tragic accident, and Governor Sanford did everything he could to do right by the family involved. He declined to elaborate.
Beyond his rare lapses in ideological or political judgment, Mark Sanford doesnt seem to have the charisma that conservatives say their message needs. He is awkward in the clubby world of politics. He can regale you with long stories details about a budget skirmish with the legislature, but he has almost nothing to say about USC basketball. He draws lessons from Ayn Rands work (She doesnt believe in the social compact really), but is unfamiliar with basic sports metaphors, claiming, We got the proposal to the 99-yard line.
Close legislative ally Gary Simrill admits, Hes not the morning in America type. But Sanfords appeal isnt about personality. For him, the imperial executive and the celebrity president are linked: It got to the point of absurdity with this election. Everybody put a lot of hopes and dreams in Obama. But our nation was founded by the rule of law, not by men. The governing style of movie stars, whether they call their opponents girly men or don flight suits for the cameras, led to the present crisis. Official Washington has no memory, demands largesse, and prizes optimism as its cardinal virtue. But Sanford is haunted by the past, tight with a checkbook, and worried about future. If he has any chance, its because he sounds a lot like the rest of us.
Sanfords most notable accomplishment as governor may be eliminating an illegal $155 million budget deficit that was hidden by his predecessor. When trying to find the last $16 million, legislators suggested that he had done enough. Sanford replied, Im sworn to uphold the Constitution. It doesnt say come close and declare victory.
*Ping!*
/mark
Very interesting profile.
I woud love to see a Sanford/Palin ticket in 2012. I saw him interviewed once where her name came up and it came across that he doesn’t like her. I wonder if that is true.
[Beyond his rare lapses in ideological or political judgment, Mark Sanford doesnt seem to have the charisma that conservatives say their message needs. ]
By 2012, Americans are going to be sick of snakeoil sold with charisma.
Hope for 2012?
Increasingly, I’m being drawn toward Sanford.
I’m wide open still. I like Sanford, Palin, Jindal(I’m not ruling him out because his speech sucked and the media savaged him) and and some others, but they are at the top of the list.
I was going to vote for McCain the RINO, because I knew how bad Obama would be. Palin, however activated me and spurred me on ton give financially and campaign.
Fair warning to GOP hierarchy on here...next election either is a conservative or I’m done.
Ping
I Like Sanford, I really do- unlike Palin and Jindal, he is very much the real deal- But I will not spare him (or you) the very same question I haunt the moderates with:
By his record, how can Sanford bring together the 3 pillars of Conservatism?
Ping
*
"Mark Sanford doesnt seem to have the charisma that conservatives say their message needs."
rut roh... I supported Fred Thompson so I KNOW how important bells and whistles are to many conservatives.
dittos
“unlike Palin and Jindal, he is very much the real deal”
Why aren’t they?
“But when staffers advised him to tacitly endorse primary challenges against the moderate GOP legislators who stymied his reformist agenda, Sanford played it safe and backed incumbents. There are limits even to his political will.”
Well that’s not good. RINOs and wimps and losers need to be primaried.
That aside Sanford would be excellent. As the best second term Governor he was the natural choice to run in 2008. (And Bush was not in 2000, I’m guessing Tommy Thompson was the best Veteran Governor, though his refusal to ever run for the Senate upsets me)
I look forward to choosing between Sanford and Palin and possibly other worthy candidates.
Why arent they?
Look at their records and tell me how they are. Take either one you'd like, actual record, actual quotes, and I will knock them right into moderate-town.
And unlike Sanford, who would be very hard to beat in two of three pillars, Pallin (especially) and Jindal go down in three out of three.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.