COLUMBIA - Living up to his campaign promise to shake up S.C. government, Gov. Mark Sanford is also raising the hackles of some lawmakers within his own Republican Party.

He has vetoed local bills for such seemingly innocuous purposes as merging two Charleston voting offices and forgiving three school days that students in Greenville County missed because of an ice storm.

The reason: Sanford says he wants to end the longtime practice of lawmakers managing local affairs from Columbia. That's local government's job, he says.

During his six years in Congress, Sanford often took lonely stands based on principle. But if he continues doing that in Columbia, some lawmakers and other observers say, he could end up sabotaging his ambitious legislative agenda that includes government reorganization.

"It shows what an independent streak he has, and that's refreshing," said Rep. Doug Jennings, D-Marlboro. "On the other hand, it certainly may hamper his ability to build coalitions to get things done."

Charleston Republican lawmakers are upset that Sanford vetoed a bill that would have merged the Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and the county's election commission into a single agency.

"There's no question that he's come into office with a great reservoir of goodwill, but not as high a reservoir of understanding how state government works," said Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston.

"This is not a buddy system or a good ol' boy system," Altman said. "It's a system of mutual respect, and realizing that we have to solve problems practically, not from a theoretical standpoint."

Sanford, who lived in Charleston before moving into the governor's mansion in January, told lawmakers in a letter last week that he rejected the bill because it was local legislation specific to a single county.

"Such acts are in violation of the state constitution, which says, `no laws for a specific county shall be enacted,' " he said. He gave the same reason for vetoing the bill forgiving the missed school days in Greenville County.

"The governor has clearly indicated that he is not going to violate home rule," said Chris Drummond, Sanford's director of communications. Drummond said Sanford suggested instead that Greenville lawmakers introduce a statewide bill giving school districts flexibility to deal with days missed to weather.

"He would sign off on something like that," Drummond said, "but he's not going to micromanage school districts from Columbia."

Sanford is right, said College of Charleston political science professor Bill Moore. But, he said, "even though these types of vetoes are constitutionally correct, they have obviously bothered some of the legislators. Over time, these can accumulate. And there will be a time when he will need friends in the legislature."

Sanford's veto was one of five he signed Feb. 21, all on local bills, and his first vetoes since taking office in January. As quickly as Sanford sent lawmakers the vetoes, they overrode all but one -- with only the members from the affected counties casting votes. By tradition in South Carolina, only the local legislative delegation votes on such local issues, and the rules require only a two-thirds vote of those casting votes to override a veto.

The veto of the bill merging the two Charleston voting offices hasn't come up for a vote because of inter-party squabbling within the local delegation. The 12 Republicans are pushing the bill in the name of efficiency. But the six local Democratic lawmakers say they feared Democrats wouldn't get an equitable share of the seats on the merged agency's board

Rep. Jim Merrill, R-Charleston, said Sanford could have saved lawmakers a lot of trouble if he had told them in advance of his intention to veto the bill.

Some Greenville lawmakers also complained they were blindsided by the vetoes. "It's going to be hard for him to recover from it unless he can work out his differences with folks," said Sen. Verne Smith, R-Greenville.

Sanford had to do political damage control on a different issue in Greenville last month. His decision to review a proposed deal between Clemson University and a private developer unnerved local political and business leaders. The $2.6 billion project would include an automotive research center aimed at attracting thousands of jobs.

In Greenville, the governor said he supports the project's concept, but he wants to know more about the state's financial obligation and that of the developer.

And on Tuesday, Sanford made a rare visit to the House floor, although he denied it was a fence-mending trip. He did promise to have his staff perfect how it communicates with lawmakers.

Unlike all previous S.C. governors since 1965, Sanford never served in the legislature and knew few of the members before winning the Republican nomination for governor in June. A Florida native, he won election to Congress in 1994 as a political outsider and never established many relationships with GOP activists.

Fiercely conservative about fiscal matters, he often voted in Congress against the Republican leadership on spending bills.

"He apparently is starting out the same way as governor as he was as a congressman," Moore said.

"The difference is that as a congressman, you're one of 435 and you can be different and go against the politicians," Moore said. "As a governor, you're a single individual dealing with a legislature, and politics is the art of compromise."

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, brushed aside the notion that Sanford has gotten off on the wrong foot in his dealings with lawmakers.

"He's learning his way around state government and having some disagreements; that's not unexpected," Wilkins said. "I don't see it as any major problem whatsoever."

Moore agreed that so far, all that has occurred are a few minor irritations. The question remains, he said, "To what extent will Sanford modify his style to fit political reality?"

The first big test could come this summer, after lawmakers pass the state budget, he said.

"When you get down to things like the legislature having pet projects being vetoed by the governor as pork barrel, that's when the rubber is going to hit the road," Moore said. "If such items start appearing in the budget, I think Mark Sanford would clearly veto these, based on his behavior as a congressman where he wouldn't approve projects for his own district."