Sanford-Legislature disconnect still looms

e-mail this story Dan Hoover • Sanford-Legislature disconnect still looms (10/17/04) • Web chats fuel draft speculation (10/10/04) • Sales tax issue hurts DeMint's campaign (10/02/04) • State's voting record discourages visits from presidential candidates (09/26/04) • Christian bloc holds key to GOP success (09/18/04)

But in Columbia it looks like the same ol', same ol'.

It used to be Republicans vs. Democrats. Now it looks more like an all-GOP imbroglio.

Gov. Mark Sanford and his fellow Republicans who compose the Legislature's majority will square off again in January, perhaps minus the guv's bathroom-challenged piglets.

Lost in the presidential and senatorial rhetoric since the stalwarts last departed the Statehouse back in June is the ongoing disconnect between the maverick Sanford and the tradition-encrusted institution.

It's still there.

Sanford, a maverick who never served in the clubby Legislature and isn't a part of its culture, and lawmakers have had their problems as the GOP sought to consolidate its control over the executive and legislative branches for the first time in modern memory.

Carrying a pair of defecating piglets into the Statehouse after his vetoes were summarily overridden last year didn't help relations, although with the public, seldom warm to legislators, it seemed to play in Peoria.

'High numbers'

"Let's face it," said Rep. Harry Cato, R-Travelers Rest, "he has high poll numbers."

While legislators were appalled and Wilkins turned white-hot angry, "the public loved it," Cato said of Sanford's pig stunt.

The latest involves just how Sanford and the Republican House majority would go public with their 2005 legislative goals.

The House version is that it was to be done jointly, after the November elections. The governor's version is that there was never an agreement.

So the House, which has passed much of Sanford's agenda only to see it languish in the Senate, was caught off guard when Sanford announced he would go it alone last Tuesday with a Statehouse news conference.

Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, declared he wasn't mad at Sanford, but said, "We absolutely had an agreement."

Was it Sanford's understanding that there was no commitment on his part?

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the governor invited members of House and Senate who support his "Contract for Change" to join him at the Tuesday announcement "and indicated he would look forward to joining members of the House, just as he's willing to join senators, who are supporting his proposals."

Folks said Sanford had several "very positive" conversations with both House and Senate members from each party about his agenda.

Sanford told Wilkins two weeks ago of his intentions for last week's announcement, Folks said.

Wilkins disagrees

Afterward, Wilkins said he wasn't mad, but "we absolutely had an agreement. That's what I spent the last three months working."

Wilkins, continuing the happy face, echoed that Friday, stressing all's well and "there are no long-term repercussions."

"His agenda and ours are so similar. We're going to push the same issues. I don't think it changes anything other than we were hoping for a (joint) show of solidarity."

Some Republican lawmakers don't say publicly that they think Sanford double-crossed the House, but they do admit to having "heard" such talk among their colleagues.

Double-cross? "That's what I get from reading the papers," said Rep. Lewis Vaughn, R-Taylors.

"He's going to use some of the differences with the Legislature and its control over issues as leverage points in the (re-)election. He's not the first governor to do it."

"Double-cross? I don't know," Cato said. "I've had a lot of people ask me that."

Cato said both branches are "struggling with a communications problem. It's not just the House and the governor, it's the whole triangle, including the Senate. The people deserve better. Communications under every other governor I've served with were better, including (Democrat) Jim Hodges. We just can't get over the first hurdle."

Rep. Bob Leach, R-Greenville, said, relations are "very cool" and House GOP members feel "the governor is running against us."

Sanford isn't running against the Legislature, Folks said, but is totally focused on effecting fundamental reform.

Cato said he didn't read anything into Sanford's decision to go it alone with his agenda because "we know he's an independent-minded guy."

Goals match

Sanford's and the House GOP's legislative goals largely dovetail: further state government restructuring, tort reform, greater school choice, income tax relief and education reform, although some legislators haven't warmed entirely to more consolidation of power in the Governor's Office at their expense.

"We don't need everything under the governor," Leach said.

The House gave Sanford much of what he wanted last year. But little got out of the Senate, where one member can stymie legislation.

Sanford is now pushing for a change in Senate rules, although House members are steering clear of that one.

Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, recalled two meetings with Sanford, one in Wilkins' Greenville office, the other in the governor's Statehouse office.

"It's very clear in my mind that we were working toward a joint press conference, perhaps with the Senate invited. It was to be after the Nov. 2 election, he said.

Such contentiousness, however veiled protagonists want it to be, may now be part of the state's political fabric.

Blease Graham, a University of South Carolina political science professor, said, "Perhaps the political environment has changed to the point that informal, inter-branch contacts don't happen much anymore also a surprise, given the one-party control of both houses and the executive branch."

Meanwhile, Democrats can sit back and enjoy. What else do they have to do? Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 864-298-4883 ors toll-free at 800-274-7879, extension 4883, and by fax at 864-298-4395.