COLUMBIA - During a campaign debate last year, GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Sanford berated then-Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat, about the lack of diversity in jobs he controlled.

Now that he's governor, however, Sanford says he's having a tough time finding black people willing to take pay cuts to come work for him. And, he says, he's facing the fact that many qualified blacks also are Democrats.

While black legislators say they expect the governor's Cabinet and senior staff to reflect the racial makeup of the state, Sanford's spokesman Chris Drummond says the governor won't be bound by numbers or quotas in filling those jobs.

"When you make those kinds of promises during the campaign or on the stump, obviously it puts you in a position that you're going to have to deliver once you're in there," said Rep. Jerry Govan, an Orangeburg Democrat and chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

Sanford said he would announce more of his top staff and Cabinet positions this week, a process that's been slowed down as "we've tried to be affirmative in our actions."

"They're talented, bright, but ultimately have a different political process," Sanford said of most black Democrats.There needs to be "philosophical alignment, you also have to have a degree of comfort," Sanford said.

Culturally, he said, "it's as normal to be white and Republican as its been to be black and Democrat."

Qualified blacks may have "rooted political involvement in the other party," he said. "If you have rooted political involvement, that probably makes it very, very difficult for me as a Republican elected official," Sanford said.

Sanford should move away from political considerations, said Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston. "What he should understand is he cannot govern as a Republican now. He's got to govern as a governor of South Carolina," Ford said.

When Hodges was elected, Ford and other members of the Legislative Black Caucus complained that he was crossing party lines and hiring Republicans for key jobs.

As it turns out, that was the right approach, Ford now says. "Once you become elected, that party stuff's supposed to go out the window," he said.

Apart from the politics, there's the bottom line of taking a lower-paying job to work for the governor.

"We've had any number of situations where we've gotten to the 99-yard line and ... folks have said, 'I can't take the pay cut,' " Sanford said. For instance, a person making $160,000 in the private sector may balk at an offer of a $106,000 state salary, he said.

"They say, 'I like you. I really believe where you're coming from. But I don't like you that much,' " Sanford said.

"I do not buy into the fact that there's not a pool of qualified African-American candidates who are willing to serve their state," Govan said. "We have the same level of expectations for Mark Sanford as we did for Jim Hodges."

Govan said that if Sanford is having problems finding candidates, the caucus can help but the governor hasn't asked.

Sanford would do well to hold onto some of the black staff members who are now losing jobs in the transition, Ford said. "They've got people now who have those jobs that he could keep. Once you become governor, that doesn't mean you've got to kick everybody out just because you're a Republican or Democrat," he said.

Ford pointed to Evelyn Williams, a black woman who had served as Hodges' ombudsman. Williams was told Friday she had no job, Ford said. "You're talking about one of the best ombudsmen in the country, but she's out of a job because she's a Democrat," he said.

Sanford's office did not immediately respond to a question about whether Williams was fired.