Despite some public relations blunders with pigs and horses and a continuing spat with members of the Republican-controlled General Assembly, Sanford has kept a popular profile with voters across the state.

While he has accomplished little over the last three legislative sessions (no real restructuring; no real income tax cut; no school vouchers), he's still popular. But there are signs that the image is tarnishing, Democrats say.

Some recent events play into the hands of Democrats as potential hard-hitting negative ads in the coming 2006 re-election campaign:

Credit rating loss: Now that the state has lost its sought-after AAA credit rating from one Wall Street firm, Democrats see a vulnerability on economic issues for the governor. While Sanford and lawmakers pointed fingers at each other, the Standard & Poor's credit-rating agency pointed to the state's recent lackluster record on job creation and its record of having one of the nation's top unemployment rates. Governors often want to take credit for creating jobs, but when they fall into this trap, they also have to take blame when things go awry.

Free trips: Recent news shows the governor took $6,000 in free trips from private interests as 27 lawmakers and constitutional officers accepted almost $50,000 in free travel. Such cozying up to corporate bigwigs could cause problems for Sanford and others. In other state election campaigns, free trips and perks have led to populist negative ads that were very effective against incumbents.

Santee Cooper report: While the governor and his team are pooh-poohing a Senate subcommittee's report on the state electric utility, voters surely will be reminded by Democrats that the report was authored by members of Sanford's own party. It will be used as an example of internal meddling. Furthermore, Sanford got caught between different versions of the truth by saying that he didn't order a look into privatizing the utility when records show his office and appointees to the board did just that.

Education: The governor's big agenda item, using public funds to pay tax credits to people to send their kids to private schools (a fancy end run that really is a school-voucher proposal) died a very public death this year. While it likely will come up next year, Democrats will use the issue to hammer Sanford over what they'll characterize as his commitment to using public funds to pay for private education instead of supporting public education outright. Again, an effective ad can put Sanford in a bad light.

"People expect their governor to move the state forward, to make education better and to create jobs," State Democratic Party Executive Director Lachlan McIntosh said. "Sanford didn't seem to get that memo."

And while Democrats are putting issue bullets in their belt to use against the governor next November, Sanford still has the advantage -- millions of dollars in campaign cash as Democrats struggle to raise money even on a good day.

But maybe the governor, who hasn't seemed eager to get into the media spotlight lately, has gotten the message that he needs to work on his image. Just last week, his temperamental press secretary, Will Folks, announced he was resigning to go to the private sector where he hoped to be instrumental in helping his boss get re-elected.

More likely, the governor has dispatched Folks to start using some of that campaign cash to work on the image, a job that is easier and more flexible when you're not on the public payroll.