ETHICS: Governor eager to state his case

Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday he is looking forward to presenting his side of the story regarding 37 ethics allegations the State Ethics Commission released on Monday.

Sanford spoke to reporters moments before his lunchtime address to the Charleston Rotary Club, and noted that about half of the allegations involve his use of first-class and business-class airline tickets.

"We sure didn't think we were breaking the law because every governor for the past 30 years, every head of the Commerce Department for 30 years, senior level staff at the Department of Commerce, members of the General Assembly on the House and the Senate side, have used business-class tickets on international economic development trips," Sanford said.

"There is a rest of the story for all of these other. We look forward to laying that out," he said. "We're, I guess, pleased that this first part is over. What we wanted to do is to get to the bottom line. ... I think one way or the other, it's going to be behind us fairly shortly."

Sanford said he has researched the eight other governors who have been impeached and removed from office in the United States, and he noted that all faced major charges.

"If you look at using a business-class ticket as grounds on which to impeach, it would certainly be new grounds," he said.

Sanford, who received a standing ovation from the Rotarians, appeared to enjoy being among friends as he walked from table to table, borrowing a dollar bill as a prop and questioning audience members by name on their knowledge of state constitutional officers.

He said he hopes to pull off a few "rifle shots" in his final year, mostly around restructuring state government. He said he hopes the Legislature will agree to dissolve the state Budget and Control Board and transfer its powers to a Department of Administration under the next governor's cabinet.

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He also said he hopes restructuring bills will pass that would let voters decide if the governor and lieutenant governor should run on the same ticket instead of separately. He added that he hopes the Legislature will approve spending controls and reform the state's Employment Security Commission.

He urged the audience to get involved if they felt strongly about seeing such changes.

"Where we go from here depends not on what I do next, not on what the House does next or the Senate does next, but what y'all do next," he said.

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or rbehre@postandcourier.com.