It's a world away from his former job as a bass guitarist in Dead Agent Caper, a Columbia rock band.

But Folks, 29, sees similarities between his current job as press secretary to Gov. Mark Sanford and his experience in the band.

"It's a lot like being the spokesperson because you're on the stage but in the background," Folks said. "The name is irrelevant because you're the spokesperson for the governor."

Folks seemingly was plucked from obscurity for the job. During the campaign for the 2002 gubernatorial election, he wrote an opinion piece for The State newspaper about the need for small businesses to be included in Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges' technology task force.

Sanford saw the article and was impressed. Folks said Sanford told him, "You write the way I think."

Folks began working on the campaign in October 2001. His previous experience included freelance communications consulting and graphic design work and writing for the University of South Carolina Athletic Office.

He received degrees in history and philosophy in 1997 and a master's degree in mass communication in 1999 from USC.

His father, Randy Folks, an international business professor at USC, said his son always had a strong interest in politics, although he was not actively involved in groups such as the Young Republicans.

"He was, by 1988 at the age of 14, very interested in the whole election process at the national level," Randy Folks said. He recalled his son gluing a George H. Bush campaign sticker to his bedroom door, a sticker Randy Folks remembers having a hard time removing.

But, like Sanford, Will Folks is not a typical Republican. Although his parents usually vote Republican, other relatives are solid Democrats. Folks applied for a position in Hodges' press office before joining Sanford's campaign.

"Jim Hodges was and is an incredibly nice guy who probably could have benefited from a positive message and some reformist ideas," Folks said. "Maybe he should have hired me."

Instead, Folks found he had a lot in common with Sanford. When the two first met at Sanford's Sullivan's Island home, Folks said, the future governor wore a ripped T-shirt and shorts and bare feet.

Folks, who's often seen around the Statehouse wearing jeans and a baseball cap, is "certainly not they gray-suited tie-bound typical political operative," Sanford says.

Folks hopes people find inspiration in the Sanford employees who do not have political ties.

"I think it's important that people who typically wouldn't be a part of the political process be encouraged by the governor's example to get involved."

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