The exchange occurred in the hallway outside the governor's office. Kuhn found out the first lady contributed $1,000 to the campaign of Chip Campsen, a longtime friend and former staffer of Gov. Mark Sanford. Many observers expect Campsen to knock Kuhn out of the Senate.

Kuhn said he went to the governor's office to confront Jenny Sanford about the contribution and to ask her to quit helping Campsen.Kuhn said he also asked her, rhetorically, if she would contribute to his campaign.

The first lady said it was her right to support whomever she wanted. She refused to donate money to Kuhn or to vote for him.

The confrontation then became heated. Just who escalated the situation, however, is a matter of he said, she said.

According to Will Folks, Gov. Sanford's spokesman, Kuhn was upset.

"He raised his voice to the first lady and generally conducted himself in a manner she found unprofessional and frankly, insulting," Folks said.

Kuhn contends the first lady lost her cool.

"If anybody yelled at anybody, it was the first lady," he said. "If anybody was unprofessional, it was her. She really blew her top. The staff had to usher her out of the hallway, because according to them, they 'didn't want the press to see Jenny that way.'

"She's got an unbelievable temper," Kuhn added.

The blowup is the latest proof of strained relations between the senator and the governor's office, stemming back to when Kuhn helped kill the governor's government restructuring proposal in committee.

Kuhn was one of several senators who opposed the proposal. However, he seemed to garner the lion's share of blame from Sanford's office.

He is in the middle of a tough primary race for Senate District 43, along with Campsen and Henry Fishburne.

The governor has said he does not endorse candidates in the primary, as a matter of personal philosophy. Folks said the first lady's donation should not be viewed as a gubernatorial endorsement.

Still, Jenny Sanford stays involved in her husband's politics. And a TV ad Campsen began running recently in the Charleston market shows Sanford and Campsen standing side by side, smiling for the camera.

Campsen, a former member of the S.C. House of Representatives, said there was nothing out of the ordinary in showing his association with Sanford, who picked him to be a part of his transition team after the 2000 election. He also named Campsen a senior policy advisor during the first months of his term.

Campsen said Kuhn's frustration is a result of having to live with his voting record this year.

"John may be upset, but he's really upset at a historical fact," Campsen said. "The fact is he has not been supportive of the governor's agenda."

Many of Kuhn's fellow senators did not seem to like the idea of the governor, by any connection, supporting an incumbent's opponent.

"I don't think that's fair," said Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston. "Those three guys can fight it out on their own, and whoever wins, wins. That situation just divides the Republican Party. Which is good for me, really."

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said the first lady has a right to support whomever she wants.

McConnell should know. Former Governor Carroll Campbell once supported a Republican candidate against McConnell, who had opposed Campbell's government restructuring plan.

"The similarity is a little eerie isn't it?" he said.

Fishburne stayed away from the fray. "I understood from the beginning of this race that the governor and Chip are friends and that John Kuhn is the incumbent Senator," he said. "That's what their ads seem to be emphasizing while our ads are addressing the issues: improving education, lowering property taxes and relieving traffic congestion and sprawl."

Clay Barbour covers the Statehouse. Contact him at (803) 799-9051 or at cbarbour@postandcourier.com.

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