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Mark Sanford

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Marshall Clement "Mark" Sanford, Jr. (born May 28, 1960) is an American politician who has been Governor of South Carolina since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Contents

Biography

Sanford was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and moved with his family to the 3000 acre Coosaw Plantation near Beaufort, South Carolina before his senior year of high school. He received a bachelor's degree from Furman University, and an MBA from Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He moved with his family to Sullivan's Island, South Carolina in the early '90s. He has four boys with his wife Jenny.

He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, representing the Charleston-based 1st Congressional District, and served from 1995 to 2001. While in Congress, he was an advocate for Social Security privatization and restoring U.S. trade ties with Cuba.

In 2000, he chose not to run again, in accordance with his pledge not to serve more than three terms. He then ran for governor in 2002; he first defeated Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler in the Republican primary and then defeated the Democratic incumbent, Jim Hodges, in the general election, by a margin of 53% to 47%. In accordance with South Carolina law, Sanford was elected separately from the state's Republican lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer.

Sanford has had a contentious relationship with the South Carolina General Assembly, even though it is dominated by his party (which has controlled the body since 1995). On May 26, 2004, the Republican-led SC House of Representatives [overrode 105 of Sanford's 106 budget vetoes.] The following day [Sanford brought live pigs into the House chamber] as a visual protest against "pork projects." The pigs proved not to be housebroken.

Also, on June 13, 2006, he rejected the Assembly's entire budget. Had this stood, the state government would have shut down on July 1st. Sanford explained his veto as being the only way to get the cuts he desired, and that using his line veto would have been inadequate as well as impossible. However, in a special session the following day, both houses overwhelmingly ignored Sanford's reform call and overrode his veto, restoring their original budget (which indeed contained many reforms Sanford had previously called for).

Sanford professes to be a firm supporter of limited government, and many pundits have described his views as being libertarian in nature. There are several Internet-based groups trying to convince him to run for president in 2008. Most recently, he has embarked on an ambitious plan to reform methods of funding the state's public education system. This would include measures such as school vouchers, aimed at introducing competition into the school system as a means of spurring improvement. This would also allow for parents who wish for their children to be educated in a private or religious setting easier access at doing so. The plan, known as "Put Parents In Charge," would provide around $2,500 per child to parents who wished to withdraw their children from the State's public school and instead send them to religious and other private schools. Sanford has framed this plan as a necessary market-based reform. Sanford has also sought to reform the state's public college system. Schools such as Clemson University and the University of South Carolina have repeatedly increased tuition yearly, making them the costliest schools on average in the South. They claim these increases are necessary to encourage research projects and development due to the State Legislature not fully funding them. Sanford has criticized these schools as focusing too much on separately creating research institutions and not on educating the young adults of South Carolina. Sanford has suggested that they combine some programs as a means of curbing tuition increases. The schools did not respond positively to this, however, causing Sanford to remark that if they did not like the idea of changing then they could "go private."

Sanford's tenure has certainly not been free of controversy. For example, he was [criticized] for missing a budget debate, and he was criticized for [delays in signing a piece of domestic violence legislation], and he was [harshly criticized by the Greenville News] for not taking a proactive stance on domestic violence programs and legislation. [Recent polling] puts his approval ratings in the low 50s or high 40s. His latest approval rating, according to Survey USA, is 47% [link].

In November of 2005, Time named Sanford one of the three [worst governors in the country], citing a "thrift" that "has brought the state's economy to a standstill."

Mark Sanford won the June 13th, Republican Primary over Oscar Lovelace, a family physician from Prosperity with 65 percent of the vote to Lovelace's 35. His Democratic competition in the November elections will be state senator Tommy Moore, who won his respective Democratic primary.

External links

Statements

Campaign finance links

Congressional Records

External links

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