Finally, the South Carolina Democratic Party is taking the fight to Republican Gov. Mark Sanford.

About time.

For the last two years, they’ve virtually given the governor a free ride.

No more, vows Lachlan McIntosh, the state party’s new executive director.

The gloves are off.

Democrats came out swinging a few weeks ago at a news conference at the State House. They blamed Sanford for the state’s unemployment rate — third highest in the nation — and for the state’s low income growth — ranked near the bottom in the country.

Sanford’s “failed economic policies are causing real pain for working families in South Carolina,” Democratic Party chairman Joe Erwin charged, while the governor is proposing tax breaks for the wealthy.

On Tuesday, the Democrats continued their barrage, accusing the governor of engaging in a “deceptive” plan to privatize Santee Cooper, the publicly owned utility that supplies power to more than 625,000 customers.

“It is extremely troubling that Governor Sanford would repeatedly insist that privatization is off the table when the truth is that he has secretly hired a Wall Street investment bank to figure how much he can get for it,” Erwin said.

More of the same was heard Friday night at the party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner and the state Democratic convention on Saturday, where state Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Aiken, announced his candidacy for governor.

Democrats noted Sanford doesn’t even get along with people in his own party, particularly members of the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Instead, they said, the governor has resorted to stunts, including bringing pigs and a horse-drawn carriage to the State House.

Those moves alienated legislators in both parties.

Sanford dismisses the Democrats’ criticism of him as politics. He says it won’t wash.

“The fact that quite a few Republicans are criticizing Sanford as well frees (Democrats) up to be more direct in their attacks on the governor,” says Winthrop University political science professor Scott Huffmon, who does not participate in partisan efforts.

“It doesn’t look like they are playing politics.”

Actually, what the Democrats are doing in their stepped-up attacks is preparing for the governor’s race next year, laying the groundwork for the next candidate.

The issue is Sanford. He has accomplished little in his first term, Democrats will contend. And it doesn’t hurt that Republicans in the General Assembly — not Democrats — are knocking down his agenda.

How is the governor handling this early criticism?

By turning the guns on the Legislature.

A sample.

Sanford says the Republican-controlled General Assembly won’t let him make the necessary changes in government to make it more efficient.

And it’s awfully difficult to hold him accountable for a result if he proposes the remedy and lawmakers don’t act.

That’s not the greatest defense.

“If the Democrats can put the governor on the defensive — ‘It wasn’t me; it was the Legislature’ — that’s the posture where Democrats would want him,” says Huffmon.

But a word of caution. Sanford will be no pushover. He is popular with the average voter. He’s personable. He’s bright and he’s charming. Voters genuinely like the guy.

And he won in 2002 by being as critical of the Legislature — some would say more than — as he was of Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges.

Blue-collar voters especially like his “stick-it-in-your-face” style in dealing with the legislators. They cheer when the governor pricks their over-inflated egos.