Aug 26, 2009 6:00 pm US/Pacific
S.C. Gov. Sanford Staying Put After Calls To Quit
Mark Sanford Tells Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's Thanks, But No Thanks
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ―
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South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford fields questions from the media outside of a side entrance of the S.C. Statehouse following a special meeting with his Cabinet on June, 26, 2009.
Davis Turner/Getty Images
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he appreciates the lieutenant governor's offer to take over, but he plans to stay in office.
Sanford said Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's call for him to resign hours earlier was almost like "heaven on earth." Sanford's June admission to an affair with an Argentine woman has led to questions about the legality of his travel on state and commercial planes.
But he says the people of South Carolina want to move past the scandals. He says he will not be railroaded out of office and thinks he can still do important things for South Carolina in the last 16 months of his term.
Bauer says that if Sanford steps down, he will renew his offer to stay out of the 2010 gubernatorial race. Sanford's term ends in January 2011.
Sanford has come under scrutiny since he returned from a nearly weeklong disappearance in June to admit he had been in Argentina visiting his mistress. His staff had been led to believe he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.
In a series of investigations since the governor told The Associated Press his mistress was his soul mate, the AP has found Sanford used state plans for personal and political trips, which state law prohibits. He also failed to disclose trips on private plans that ethics officials say should have been made public in campaign and ethics filings.
An AP investigation in July showed the governor took pricey flights on commercial airlines for overseas trips despite a law requiring state employees to use lowest-cost travel. A state senator investigating those flights has said six of them broke the law and the state attorney general has called for an ethics probe.
The governor says he has done nothing wrong and claims the AP has mischaracterized his flights on private planes. He says he flew in more expensive seats on commercial flights because he needed to be well rested on economic development trips, which other governors have done. His office also has claimed the law restricting such use is no longer valid.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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