COLUMBIA--The bid to restructure state government received a crippling blow Tuesday, a little more than an hour after Gov. Mark Sanford came to its defense in a rare appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Committee members voted to remove three of the six constitutional officers marked for elimination, severely damaging the bill's chances of passage through the General Assembly.

LOU KRASKY/AP Gov. Mark Sanford testifies Tuesday before the S.C. Senate Judiciary Committee in Columbia on the restructuring legislation.

"It was like the Titanic after it hit the iceberg," said Senate President Pro Tem and Judiciary Committee Chairman Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston. "They gutted real reform today, and if they don't put it back together, it has no chance of getting a two-thirds vote in the General Assembly."

The bill, sponsored by McConnell, would leave the attorney general and state treasurer as elected positions. The lieutenant governor would run on the same ticket as the governor. The six other offices would be filled by gubernatorial appointment with Senate consent.

But committee members Tuesday, led by opposition from Sens. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia, John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg and John Kuhn, R-Charleston, voted to remove lieutenant governor, adjutant general and secretary of agriculture from the list.

The meeting, which frequently became heated, was adjourned until next Tuesday with the fate of the other three constitutional officers still undecided.

But according to committee member Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island, unless the bill is reassembled, it will likely die in committee.

"The chili is still on the stove," he said. "It's not over yet, but we won't send it out like that, all hacked up."

Kuhn could not be reached for comment.

Upon hearing the news, the governor was disappointed. According to Sanford spokesman Will Folks, the governor plans to continue pushing for the needed reforms.

"It's hard to believe that some folks won't even let the voters decide what form they want their government to take," he said.

Sanford attended Tuesday's meeting in hopes of quelling the growing opposition to restructuring. His speech to committee members focused on the need for greater accountability and the merits of a form of government similar to the federal system.

South Carolina ranks in the bottom five states nationwide when it comes to the power of the governor. Nine elected offices share the powers of the executive branch: governor, lieutenant governor, adjutant general, commissioner of agriculture, comptroller general, secretary of state, superintendent of education, treasurer and attorney general.

McConnell's bill would, according to the Council of State Government, bring the state in line with the national average.

But following his speech, some committee members expressed concerns about the complicated nature of certain positions and openly doubted whether the public would understand what they were voting about.

Such an argument was made for the secretary of agriculture and the adjutant general, but not for the secretary of education. The office, which has a budget that accounts for half the state budget, was not removed from the list.

This led Sen. Thomas Moore, D-Clearwater, to question if the votes were partisan in nature. Secretary of Education Inez Tenenbaum is the lone Democrat among constitutional officers.

McConnell said he is not sure if the votes were partisan, but he is sure they were political.

"They were making choices for job protection today, showing they were really not concerned with moving this state forward," he said.