Sanford slimmed down his list of priorities to five this year, compared with three times that in the past. Yet when the Legislature adjourned this week, he only had two accomplishments - lawsuit reform for businesses and medical malpractice cases and changing Senate rules.
"He's not building a legislative resume. He's building a taxpayer resume," University of South Carolina political scientist Blease Graham said. "Fighting the good fight against the Legislature, if you're able to style the Legislature as being adversarial, may be a great political asset in contemporary times."
Sanford said Friday he was not as concerned about the score card because he has stirred up the debate on hot-button issues such as tax cuts and school choice and the cumbersome idea of restructuring state government.
"If there was no influence you wouldn't have this conversation (about the proposals)," Sanford said. "I think we're having a lot of influence on the continued push toward moving things that will make our state more competitive in this global village of six and a half billion people that we live in."
Many are coy or shy away from their answer, but just about any legislator will flash a sly smile when asked about Sanford's awkward style of persuasion inside the Statehouse.
Last year, he angered lawmakers after he carried two squealing piglets to the doors of the House chambers to protest pork in the budget. This year, he simply praised a handful of House and Senate members for their support of his stack of 149 vetoes in the budget.
State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said Sanford - a former congressman who never served in the Statehouse - is slowly building bridges in the General Assembly.
"He has gotten better at it than when he was first sworn in. He didn't bring any animals this year," she said with a laugh. "That's progress."
Still, the unexpected vetoes irked legislators. Sanford's often criticized for his low profile and lack of personal relationships with lawmakers on either side of the aisle. If anything, the contention is the one thing Republicans and Democrats agree on.
They praised bipartisanship when the state's $5.8 billion budget was approved nearly unanimously and when they overrode the governor's vetoes this year.
"Anytime you have Republicans and Democrats slapping each other on the back ... generally means it's not a good thing for taxpayers," Sanford said.
The governor appears to be setting up the theme for his re-election campaign.
"It puts him in a position to make a popular appeal as opposed to a legislative appeal," Graham said. "In an era of much quicker communications, of advertising-based campaigns, it's quite possible to be a successful governor in terms of an electoral sense without being a successful governor as traditionally defined in the governing sense."
Dr. Oscar Lovelace of Prosperity, who has been pushing Medicaid overhaul plans, is researching whether he'll find enough cash to face Sanford for the GOP nomination.
"One thing Sanford has been able to do is raise money," said Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen.
"I'm not saying he's invincible," Thigpen said. "He can't run for re-election saying, 'Look at the accomplishments I've had. Send me back and I'll do some more.'"
State Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said Republicans would try to work with Sanford, especially heading into an election year.
"I think the desire has been there to work with him, particularly on the Republican side, in every way we can," Martin said. "We're just not always able to do that because of some ideological divide that we have between us."