Mr. Sharpe, 67, a former state lawmaker from eastern Aiken County who was elected to the state's top agricultural post in 2002, was suspended by Gov. Mark Sanford after being arrested Thursday on federal extortion and money laundering charges connected to a cockfighting club about 12 miles north of his home on Perron Garvin Road near Wagener.

In return for his advocacy of making cockfighting legal in South Carolina and his attempts to persuade local law enforcement officials that matches at the Carolina Club were aboveboard, federal prosecutors say, Mr. Sharpe accepted $25,500 in legal and illegal contributions from the South Carolina Gamefowl Management Association, a Spartanburg-based group that ran the Aiken County arena.

But Mr. Sharpe isn't the only high-profile official to receive money from the association.

On Friday, South Carolina Democratic Party officials called on Mr. Sanford to return a legal $2,500 contribution from the same cockfighting group. The contribution is listed in a campaign disclosure form filed in January 2003 for his general election campaign.

"Gov. Sanford took money that is tainted by scandal," South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin said in a prepared statement. "If Sanford were serious about screening his contributions, he never would have taken money from an illegal cockfighting organization in the first place."

Mr. Sanford's campaign officials said the governor didn't know the contribution, made one day before the November 2002 election, came from a cockfighting group.

"As far as the governor knew, this was a group supporting one of his favorite sports - duck hunting," said Ashleigh Streeter, the governor's campaign finance director.

Simply returning contributions is not an option for Mr. Sharpe.

For his lawyer and former legislative colleague, John Felder Sr., of Columbia, the most troubling part of the 12-count, 25-page federal indictment is the explicit declaration by prosecutors that Mr. Sharpe's property will be seized if he does not surrender $35,399.42 in money, interest and proceeds they say he garnered by breaking the law.

"I take it very seriously," Mr. Felder said of the forfeiture declaration detailed near the end of the indictment. "We will have to really resist that vigorously, because Charley and his family aren't wealthy people and don't have that many assets."

According to Aiken County property records, Mr. Sharpe and his wife, Linda, who is Aiken County treasurer, have a home and about 137 acres of land at 1196 Perron Garvon Road appraised at $173,160; a mobile home appraised at $13,300 and a 5-acre lot appraised at $12,500.

The cockfighting club near Mr. Sharpe's home was raided Nov. 22, and $50,000 was seized and 118 people were cited for misdemeanor cock fighting at a makeshift arena that included a fighting pit and bleachers.

Aiken County officials expressed shock Friday about the indictment of Mr. Sharpe, a Democrat-turned-Republican who represented roughly a third of the predominantly rural part of the sprawling jurisdiction as a state lawmaker and has the reputation of a hard-working politician who loved to work a crowd and was a fixture at civic events around the county.

"He didn't miss a trick," said state Rep. Skipper Perry, R-Aiken, who as a rookie legislator joined the House Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee that Mr. Sharpe chaired in his final year as a lawmaker. "If you had an event, he was there. If you wanted him to give a speech, he'd talk - if you wanted him to mingle, he'd do that. He's what you call a retail politician - he'd shake every hand in the place."

During his 18 years as a legislator, he rose to chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee and founded both the Agriculture Caucus and the Business Caucus. Although often described as a farmer because he raises cattle and hay on his farm near Wagener, Mr. Sharpe also ran a printing business in that small Aiken County town, Mr. Perry said.

As a lawmaker, he was one of the few Aiken County politicians who fought for the sparsely populated part of the county east of Aiken, said Aiken County Commissioner Kathy Rawls.

Mrs. Rawls remembers joining forces with Mr. Sharpe and state Sen. Nikki Setzler, a West Columbia Democrat whose district includes a small slice of northeastern Aiken County. They would battle politicians from the more populous western part of the county centered on North Augusta and Aiken to make sure their districts got a fare share.

"That was it - Charles Sharpe, myself and Nikki Setzler," she said. "This is a very rural area and sparsely populated, and therefore, many, many times, people who run for office countywide concentrate on the population centers and ignore the eastern part of the county."

Mr. Perry worried about the impact of Mr. Sharpe's indictment on Republican Party politics in Aiken County and on Linda Sharpe's political fortunes.

"I sure hope this doesn't hurt her, because she's done a hell of a job as treasurer," he said.

Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.

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