Gov. Mark Sanford says he will continue to push for a tuition tax credit bill, even though he doubts it 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 said.

“I will continue to believe that actual school choice is the key reform or a linchpin reform in making our schools better,” Sanford said.

The governor told The Charlotte 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 said, 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 the Republican governor is either conceding failure or pulling an election-year stunt, Sanford sought to clarify his position.

“We’re in an election year,” Sanford said. “I thought realistically the most we’d get done was the charter school thing.

“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 a tuition tax credit.

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. “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 Sanford was merely acknowledging political reality.

“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 governors in the country.

House Education Committee chairman Ron Townsend, R-Anderson, said tuition tax credit advocates in the state would not likely back down, regardless of whether Sanford is one of its leading proponents.

“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.