COLUMBIA - The executive director of a private group promoting Gov. Mark Sanford's tuition tax credit proposal has been demoted after writing phony letters to a newspaper's editorial board.

Todd McCauley, who was the day-to-day manager of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, will be assigned new duties, spokesman Denver Merrill said Monday.

McCauley wrote three letters to The (Columbia) State newspaper's editorial board under the pseudonym "Dennis Sinned" that railed against the news media and urged passage of the bill, the newspaper reported.

The legislation would give tax credits to families who send their children to private schools or another public school, or who home-school their children.

The organization made other staff changes on Monday. Randy Page, a veteran of S.C. Republican politics, was named president of the group.

Tom Swatzel, who had been the group's president, was name its chairman.

Sanford distanced himself from the staff moves.

"Anybody that's not playing by the rules on either side ought to be reprimanded for that," Sanford spokesman Will Folks said. "This is their decision, and it's up to SCRG to make its own personnel moves as it sees fit."

The governor touts the plan in a television advertisement that debuted Monday.

The S.C. Policy Council, a conservative think tank, has spent $217,000 to air the ad statewide.