AP Interview: Sanford's 2nd term to have slimmer agenda

Source: http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/16394215.htm

JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford has his second term agenda slimmed down enough to fit on a business card as he heads into a busy couple of weeks with his second inauguration and the Legislature returning to Columbia.

Sanford says he ran for second term because "we wanted to get more done on restructuring, on tax reform, on improving the business soil conditions, and DUI and worker's comp - a lot of different things."

But many of Sanford's ideas boil down to the same theme - keeping the state operating within its financial means.

Sanford will have other things keeping him busy the rest of this month, like deciding who stays and goes in his 14-member Cabinet. The past few weeks, the governor has been tied up preparing his executive budget. And now the emphasis is on Wednesday's inaugural and his fifth State-of-the-State address the next week.

The governor said he has no regrets about a first term where he earned national notice for toting squirming piglets to the doors outside the House's chamber to protest rapid-fire budget veto overrides.

Sanford said he had worked for months with leaders in the House to repay an unconstitutional deficit and his vetoes would have freed up cash to do that. But House leadership didn't go along and that isn't remembered or reported, Sanford said.

"One, there was an eight-month lead-up to it. Two, there was a constitutional issue at the core of what was going on and three was it worked," said Sanford, who noted he warned then-House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, that he would have no choice other using "some colorful way" to bring attention to the issue.

A few days after the pig episode, the Senate addressed the deficit, Sanford said.

"Had not that level of attention been brought to that matter, it would not have been dealt with," Sanford said.

The constant stories written about how the governor and General Assembly are at odds undermines his ability to use the office as a bully pulpit, Sanford said.

"What you can't have is every time we play the last card - which is going out to the people - then it's immediately cast as, 'Oops. The guy can't get along," Sanford said.

That can "substantially curtail the strength of the executive branch in any debate. Period," Sanford said.

This week, Republican House Speaker Bobby Harrell took offense when Sanford pointed out in his $6.5 billion budget this week that legislators hadn't kept a promise to keep spending in check last year.

The reaction to a phrase in a 350-plus page document made a "mountain out of mole hill," Sanford said.

Anyone may be able to find some offense in the budget, he said. "Give me a break."

The governor said he also has heard people mentioning him as a 2008 presidential candidate.

"It's been flattering and incredibly kind of these different folks," he said. "No doubt, the conservative base of the party is still looking for somebody."

Sanford said while says he'll continue to talk to people making pitches, "I have no intention of running for president or vice president or anything else."

One thing Sanford does know as he gets ready for four more years as governor is his life won't be getting back to normal. "I don't know that normalcy goes with this particular chapter of life we're in," he said.

But Sanford says his sons do like a few things, like on Wednesday, "they get yanked out of school because Daddy's getting sworn in as a governor again" and they get to spend some time with cousins, the governor said.


Joyce Comments: No need to be coy Governor Sanford -- jump in the presidential race! You are the dark horse the primary needs that the country and the Republican party are looking for.