June 25, 2009: Mark Sanford resigns as Governor of South Carolina, over a sex scandal. Except, this time, it wasn't really about the sex. It was about dereliction of duty.
He grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and went to high school in Beaufort on the South Carolina coast between Charleston and Savannah. He got degrees from South Carolina's Furman University and the University of Virginia, reached the rank of Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and founded a real estate firm. He married Jennifer Sullivan, an investment banker, and they had 4 sons.
In 1994, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from a Charleston-based district, finishing 2nd in the Republican Primary, and then winning the runoff. Re-elected in 1996 and 1998, he was a part of Speaker Newt Gingrich's conservative "revolution." He had promised to be a "citizen legislator," and to serve no more than 3 terms, and kept that promise, refusing to run again in 2000.
The libertarian Cato Institute ranked him as the most fiscally conservative member of Congress. The National Taxpayers Union and the American Conservative Union gave him some of their highest ratings. But he angered some people by voting against some overwhelmingly popular items, including improvements for Charleston's U.S. Navy base, and a bill to preserve sites linked to the Underground Railroad -- thus reminding us that he was a white politician from South Carolina, the 1st State to secede from the Union in the run-up to the Civil War.
In 2002, he was elected Governor. Despite a contentious relationship with the State legislature, he was re-elected in 2006, because, well, he was a white conservative Republican in South Carolina. Except, on Election Day, he went to vote in the wrong place: His driver's license listed his residence as the State capital of Columbia, and he was actually living in the Governor's Mansion; but his official voter registration had him living elsewhere, and he had to go there to vote. He didn't actually break the law, he just made a mistake, and told the State media, "I hope everybody else out there is as determined to vote as I was today."
For a while, that mistake was what he was best known for. He should have remained so lucky.
From June 18 until June 24, 2009, the whereabouts of Sanford were unknown to the public, his wife, and the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for the Governor. The mystery surrounding Sanford's whereabouts garnered nationwide news coverage. Lieutenant Governor André Bauer announced that he could not "take lightly" that Sanford's staff had not communicated with him "for more than four days, and that no one, including his own family, knows his whereabouts."
Before his disappearance, Sanford told his staff that he would be "hiking on the Old Appalachian Trail." While he was gone, he did not answer 15 cell phone calls from his chief of staff. He also failed to call his family on Father's Day.
On the MSNBC show Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Olbermann addressed the absurdity of the hiking excuse: "Had this better be the truth? Because, if this is a cover story, my God, what did he actually do?"
On June 24, Sanford arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Gina Smith, a reporter for The State, the Columbia-based largest newspaper in South Carolina, was there on a hunch, and intercepted him. She began digging. So did other reporters. Sanford knew the game was up, and he had to come clean.
In 2001, he had met María Belén Chapur, at a dance in Uruguay. In 2008, he began an affair with her. Jenny had known about his previous infidelities, but he had told her, and now told the media, that Chapur was "my soul mate." He and Jenny had been to marriage counseling, and she had asked for a trial separation about 2 weeks before his disappearance.
South Carolina to Argentina is some separation. Apparently, good old American mistresses were no longer good enough for Sanford.
And then, just when it looked like the whole world was laughing at Mark Sanford, he caught a break. Actress Farrah Fawcett died of cancer. And, within 3 hours of that announcement, Michael Jackson died. (I have a separate entry for that event.) Suddenly, everyone stopped paying attention to Sanford. It was like the whole sordid, ridiculous thing never even happened.
The State legislature threatened him with impeachment and removal if he did not resign. Knowing that he was term-limited, and couldn't run again in 2010, anyway, Sanford refused to resign, and hand the Governorship over to Bauer, who was even further to the right than he was. The legislature dropped the impeachment inquiry, deciding on the lesser punishment of censure.
In 2010, Bauer embraced his inner white South Carolinian, and made racist remarks. He lost the Republican Primary to Sanford's handpicked successor, State Representative Nikki Haley, who was elected Governor in November. (As far as is known, the relationship between Sanford and Haley was strictly political.)
Also in 2010, the Sanfords divorced. Sanford and Chapur became engaged in 2012, but the engagement was broken in 2014. Jenny Sanford married again in 2018. Mark has never remarried.
In 2012, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina resigned. Governor Haley appointed Representative Tim Scott to his seat. That opened up Scott's House seat. Sanford ran for it, and, less than 4 years after his scandal, was elected with 54 percent of the vote -- against a woman, no less: Elizabeth Colbert Busch, an economist, and the sister of politically-themed comedian Stephen Colbert.
South Carolina. Where you can abandon your job, your wife, and your country to go be with your mistress, and still win an election.
South Carolina. Where it's better to lie about being a Christian, but tell the truth about being a Republican, than to tell the truth about being a Christian and a Democrat.
Oh well, at least you can't propose an anti-gay rights bill because you want to "preserve the institution of marriage," and then get caught violating your marriage vows with a prostitute, and still claim to be following the teachings of a God of brotherly love, and get re-elected. Nope, you can't do that in South Carolina.
To do that, you have to be in Louisiana. Ask Senator David Vitter.
Apparently, another thing you can't do in South Carolina is oppose Donald Trump. In a February 2017 interview, Sanford said that Trump "at some level... represents the antithesis, or the undoing, of everything I thought I knew about politics, preparation and life."
And yet, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, only 4 Republican House members voted less frequently with Trump than Sanford. After getting attacked by Trump, Sanford ran 2018 re-election campaign ads saying he'd voted with Trump 89 percent of the time. It wasn't enough: He lost the Republican Primary.
On September 8, 2019, Sanford announced he would challenge Trump in the Republican Primaries for President. On November 12, he suspended his campaign.
*
June 25, 2009 was a Thursday. This was the off-season for the NFL. The NBA season had wrapped up a few days earlier, with the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Orlando Magic for the title. The NHL season had also recently concluded, as the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup, reversing the result of the previous year's Finals by beating the Detroit Red Wings.
There were 13 Major League Baseball games played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-7 at Turner Field in Atlanta. Alex Rodriguez, in the middle of a big hot streak, hit a home run, to help Alfredo Aceves be the winning pitcher in relief of Andy Pettitte, who did not have good stuff.
* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at the new Citi Field in Queens.
* The Washington Nationals beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-3 at Nationals Park in Washington.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-5 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-4 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
* The Florida Marlins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3 at what's now called Hard Rock Stadium in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens, Florida.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-5 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-5 in 13 innings at U.S. Cellular (now Rate) Field in Chicago.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.
* The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-8 in 12 innings at Chase Field in Phoenix.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the San Diego Padres, 9-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.
* The Colorado Rockies, the Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants were not scheduled for that day.
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