Howie Carr just had a SC political insider on his show [I didn’t catch the name] who said a liberal Republican state senator named Knotts, who dislikes Sanford and has been leading the attack against him, is an ex-cop. He didn’t delineate exactly how Knotts found out Sanford was out of state/country, but Knotts is definitely the outer. Fwiw.
Jake Knotts isn’t a liberal. He’s the longtime former sheriff of Lexington County, SC (the western suburbs of Columbia, the state capital) who, after he left his sheriff-for-life gig, ran for State Senate from Lexington County and won handily. He is a fairly conservative Republican, but like most of the rest of the General Assembly in SC, he loves him some pork (and I don’t mean barbeque).
It’s hard to overstate the arrogance and entitlement of the General Assembly in South Carolina. They still meddle in local affairs to an extent I’ve never seen in the other states I’ve lived in (VA and NC). Up until the 1970s, they effectively held veto power over many functions of local government until a “Home Rule” act was finally passed that freed cities and counties from their bonds. Even so, there are still hundreds of special districts, things like water districts, fire districts, park districts, etc., whose boards are appointed not by localities, but by the state representatives and senators for that area. The executive branch in SC is very weak compared to most other states.
The Republican bigwigs in the General Assembly don’t like Sanford. He’s fought them as hard as he could on pork-barrel spending since he took office. He’s gone over their heads to the people several times to put pressure on them. Right now, I’ll bet, if you drive by the corner of Assembly and Gervais where the Statehouse is, you can hear the sound of the knives being sharpened. This is going to be their payback.
}:-)4