Gov. Mark Sanford encouraged a group of Beaufort County Republicans on Saturday to unite and bring the public together to support a push toward smaller government.

"We've got to be unified about certain ideas, about the idea that we need less government," the Republican governor said.

Sanford spoke at a fund-raiser for county Republicans, held at the Marriott Beach and Golf Resort in Palmetto Dunes, which attracted about 100 people.

He also pledged to keep government doing work that benefits people while keeping it as basic as possible. As an example, he said that when he previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, he voted against legislation that named Washington's National Airport for former President Reagan. He supported Reagan, he said, but didn't think that renaming an airport was important work for the government to do.

"At the end of the day ... it was not going to have a whole lot of impact in regard to anybody's daily life," Sanford said.

In his 30-minute speech, Sanford spoke about state policy, Republican ideology and also made several veiled references to supporting President Bush and the war on terrorism.

"You are a group that understands this nexus between freedom and limited government. You have to have limited government to have freedom," Sanford said.

He used a story of a Korean War battle to emphasize the need for unity among the people, especially Republicans.

"We're in a long battle line, and in any battle line no force is more important than the other, because if you're outflanked ... then it impacts every other part of the battle line," Sanford said.

"What is very important is for each one of you who are engaged in the Republican Party, the Republican effort, is to focus on a unified party," the governor said later. "Elections are not won or lost by Republicans, and they're not won or lost by Democrats."

Elections are decided by independents, Sanford said, encouraging the partisans to work to attract undecided voters to the Republican cause.

"It is ideas that capture the imaginations of those independents," he said.

The fund-raiser also included a silent auction featuring Republican souvenirs and paraphernalia. Items included posters advertising for the film "The Passion of the Christ" and souvenirs showing President Bush throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in the first baseball game after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

One of the more partisan items on display was W brand ketchup, created this political season as a pro-Republican alternative to Heinz brand. (The Democrats' nominee for president, John Kerry, is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, who inherited part of the Heinz ketchup fortune when her first husband died.) A sign teased attendees to support the upstart condiment brand: "You don't support Democrats. Why should your ketchup?"