The Brack Report

By Andy Brack

For three years, Gov. Mark Sanford has been the bulletproof kid. Despite some public relations blunders with pigs and horses, and a continuing spat with members of the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Sanford has kept a popular profile with voters across the state.

While he has accomplished little during the past three legislative sessions (no real restructuring; no real income tax cut; no school vouchers), he remains popular. But there are signs that the image is tarnishing, Democrats say.

Some recent events play into the hands of Democrats as potential hard-hitting negative ads in the coming 2006 re-election campaign:

• Credit rating loss. Now that the state has lost its AAA credit rating from one Wall Street firm, Democrats see vulnerability on economic issues for the governor.

While Sanford and lawmakers point fingers at each other, the Standard and Poor’s credit rating agency pointed to the state’s recent lackluster record on job creation and its record of having one of the nation’s top unemployment rates. Governors often want to take credit for creating jobs, but then they have to take the blame when things go awry.

• Free trips. Recent news reveals the governor took $6,000 in free trips from private interests, and 27 lawmakers and constitutional officers accepted almost $50,000 in free travel.

Such cozying up to corporate bigwigs could cause problems for Sanford and others. In other state election campaigns, free trips and perks have led to populist negative ads that were effective against incumbents.

• Santee Cooper report. While the governor and his team support a Senate subcommittee’s report on the state electric utility, voters will be reminded by Democrats that the report was authored by members of Sanford’s own party. It will be used as an example of internal meddling.

Furthermore, Sanford got caught between different versions of the truth by saying that he did not order a look into privatizing the utility when records show his office and appointees to the Santee Cooper board did just that.

• Education. The governor’s big agenda item, using public funds to use tax credits for people to send their kids to private schools (a fancy end-run that is really a school voucher proposal) died a public death this year.

While it likely will come up next year, Democrats will use the issue to hammer Sanford over what they characterize as his commitment to using public funds to pay for private education instead of supporting public education outright. Again, an effective ad can be made to put Sanford in a bad light.

“People expect their governor to move the state forward, to make education better and to create jobs,” says state Democratic Party Executive Director Lachlan McIntosh. “Sanford didn’t seem to get that memo.”

And while Democrats are putting issue bullets in their belt to use against the governor next November, Sanford still has the advantage—millions of dollars in cached campaign cash as Democrats struggle to raise money.

But maybe the governor, who has not seemed eager to step into the media spotlight lately, has gotten the message that he needs to work on his image.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the S.C. Statehouse Report (www.statehousereport.com), a forecast of business developments in the South Carolina Legislature and state government. E-mail him at brack@statehousereport.com.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122