COLUMBIA, S.C. - Gov. Mark Sanford says he will continue to push for school choice legislation, even though he doubts a tuition tax credit bill stands much chance of passing when lawmakers return to Columbia in January.

Instead, a bill that would make it easier to create local charter schools probably could garner enough support to pass, Sanford told The Associated Press on Monday.

"I have believed, I do believe and I will continue to believe that actual school choice is the key reform or a lynchpin reform in making our schools better in South Carolina," Sanford said.

The governor told The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer in a story for Sunday's editions that he would not press lawmakers to pass his tuition tax credit bill, dubbed Put Parents in Charge, in the upcoming session, focusing instead on the charter bill proposal.

"You don't ever want to back away from things that you believe in," Sanford told the paper. But "the bottom line in our political system is that you cannot force anything; you can only nudge it."

With Democrats seizing on the comments as evidence that the Republican governor is either conceding failure or pulling an election-year stunt, Sanford sought to clarify his position.

"As a practical reality, we're in an election year, I thought realistically the most we'd get done was the charter school thing," Sanford told the AP. "You've got to differentiate from strategically where you're headed and tactically what may happen in a given year."

He said he is "positively not" backing off his support for school choice legislation.

Senate Democratic leader John Land, D-Manning, called Sanford's initial comments a stunt.

"Mark Sanford can run, but he can't hide from his enthusiastic support of abandoning our children and their schools," Land said in a statement. "The idea that he can simply walk away from the signature piece of his legislative agenda is absurd. This just proves that Mark Sanford will say anything to get re-elected."

Clemson political scientist Dave Woodard said it appeared that Sanford was merely acknowledging political reality.

"I think his effectiveness as a governor would be improved if he could get something passed," Woodard said, pointing out a Time Magazine report that this week calls Sanford one of the three worst governor's in the country. "It's the art of the possible, and I think that's what he's working with. I don't think he's compromised any of his convictions in doing this."

Whether or not Sanford is one of its leading proponents, House Education Committee chairman Ron Townsend, R-Anderson, told the Observer that the army of school choice advocates in the state would not likely back down.

"The issue's still going to be there, because I don't think these folks are going to pack their bags and go home," Townsend said. "I believe they're here for the long haul."