Worried over the state's economy and Gov. Mark Sanford's ongoing war with the Legislature, a loose-knit group of Republican business leaders is trying to recruit retired banker and ambassador Robert Royall to oppose the governor's re-election.

Royall, 70, told The Greenville News on Monday, "I'm not shooting it down."

Royall said he had no strong interest, but "if conditions were right, I might get interested. I don't have the pulse of the state like a lot of people do, but I'll have to take that pulse."

A spokesman for Sanford said the governor retains the support of much of the business community.

Warren Tompkins, a Columbia political consultant who was Gov. Carroll Campbell's first-term chief of staff and President Bush's 2004 Southeastern strategist, said, "I've been aware of it for some time that there is growing dissatisfaction within the business community. I hear it, I've gotten calls on it."

Tompkins worked for Sanford's election in 2002.

There has been public criticism of Sanford's economic record by leading Republicans in recent weeks, including House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, and 3rd District U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett of Westminster.

"The state, obviously, is not performing," Mack Whittle, president and chief executive officer of the Greenville-based The South Financial Group, said Monday. He cited a 20 percent drop in retail sales in Greenville and Pickens counties from 2000 to 2004 as textile and apparel jobs eroded and employment dropped.

Joel Sawyer, Sanford's spokesman, said, "By and large, the business community is supporting the governor's efforts to keep South Carolina competitive in the 21st century" and cited $2.76 billion in new capital investment and nearly 13,500 new jobs since Sanford took office in January 2003.

Sanford attracted a vocal, standing-room-only crowd of Upstate businesspeople when he came to Greenville to sign tort reform legislation at the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce Building. Later Sanford signed a small business tax cut into law.

Michael Fields, executive director of the state chapter of the National Federation in Independent Businesses, has hailed the 2005 legislative session as historic in terms of small business gains.

Sawyer said Sanford has focused on clustering to maximize quality economic development, automotive in Greenville and aerospace in Charleston, and on small business as the state's critical economic engine.

To Whittle, South Carolina is no longer competitive even in the region.

"Look at Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee (where) they've all had improving unemployment numbers. Look at our jobs creation, the new jobs that have been brought in, and they don't exist," Whittle said.

If the state was a private company, Whittle said, "there would come a time when the shareholders would not put up with it anymore."

Whittle said he's undecided on supporting Sanford for a second term. Whether he does "depends on who else is out there."

Bruce Ransom, a Clemson University political science professor, said that an incumbent governor "should be enjoying supportive and positive press and support from Republican political leaders, key business leaders, members of his party in the General Assembly, and Republican congressmen."

Instead, he faces the voices of discord and dissatisfaction with his job performance that has reached the point where important political and economic leaders are searching for viable alternatives to challenge him, Ransom said.

But unhappily for his detractors, Sanford may be "more popular among the voters than among the political and economic elites," Ransom said.

"It's tough to gauge, but the fact that leading people in the business community have been concerned with the direction we're taking, the lack of economic development and (Sanford's) inability to get along with the Legislature, to get things done," Tompkins said.

"If the governor's people aren't concerned about it, they should be," he said.

Barry Wynn of Spartanburg, who co-chaired President Bush's 2000 campaign in South Carolina with Royall, attributed the effort to a small group "up at the top end of the business echelon. My instinct is at this point, it's not very deep."

Wynn said that although he shares great concerns about the state's economy and industrial recruitment efforts, "you can't lay much of that on the governor because some of his initiatives (that died in the Legislature) would have pushed us in a better direction."

Whittle said it's all about leadership.

"Somebody's got to lead this state," he said. "We're not getting it from somewhere," Whittle said, stopping short of hanging it on Sanford. "The numbers are not there. It's not all the economy. It's what we're doing or not doing."

"I do know the business community is pretty upset about the lack of growth in the economy and we've got limited time to do some of the things that need to happen. It will get more difficult each year if we don't make progress," Whittle said.

As for Sanford's well-publicized battles with a Legislature controlled by his party, Whittle said, "That's some of it, but the General Assembly is probably more pro-business and probably more pro-growth, at least Bobby Harrell appears to be. And maybe the governor is."

But Sawyer, Sanford's spokesman, said that to some extent, Sanford's programs would take a period of time before the full impact begins showing up in economic statistics.

Tim Brett, a Greenville public relations executive, said there is "a lot of chatter, not just about Bob Royall, but about (Republican interest) in Democratic candidates, too." He described the effort as being in its infancy.

"The business community is looking for somewhere else to land and is very disenchanted with Sanford."

The governor, Brett said, is "aloof. He's really more of a Libertarian than a Republican, and he has no understanding -- or cares -- about what's necessary to make things happen in South Carolina. I peg him as being out of touch."