Governor Mark Sanford will give a copy of the State Ethics Commission report to South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell. A statement from attorney Butch Bowers says Sanford’s office will present a copy of the report to Harrell next week–after the Ethics Commission gives notice of its next hearing.

The commission decided that there was probable cause to continue the investigation into the governor’s travel activities. The state’s attorney general called for the investigation after AP reports questioned Gov. Sanford’s use of state planes and first class seating for various trips.

Attorney Butch Bowers

Bowers says that the Ethics Commission reviewed 772 flights taken by Governor Sanford, and that no questions were raised regarding 97 percent  of those. He said the panel examined 622 of the governor’s campaign expenditures and found 98 percent of them to be in complete compliance with the law. Bowers says they will continue to work with the commission, and look forward to the opportunity to present Sanford’s arguments to the commission.

To Bowers statement, the House Speaker’s spokesman Greg Foster said that the report on Sanford was a public document as of Wednesday when the commission gave it to the governor. He said it should have been made available to all South Carolinians then, not next week.

Speaker Harrell released a statement prior to that of Bowers, saying the state Supreme Court clearly ruled that governor Sanford fully waived his right to confidentiality in this case. Harrell says the waiver the governor signed extends to all documentation to which he is entitled and makes that documentation available to the public.

One of the four House members to sponsor the bill to impeach Governor Mark Sanford for serious misconduct in office, District 14 Representative Mike Pitts of Laurens, Abbeville and Greenwood, explains the bill: “It’s simple. I believe there was a dereliction of duty and it’s the duty of the House of Representatives to pursue impeachment if you believe if that that occurred and I do and I did,” says Pitts.

Pitts says still, when he leaves South Carolina for meetings, often he has to explain the actions of Governor Sanford.

“Yes, he’s hurt us. That action has hurt us. The affair is the issue that most of the public thinks about. They think about the trips to Argentina and the affair that’s been portrayed on the newscasts time and time again, and the governor returning to the podium time and time again to talk about it. But, that’s not the issue with me, what’s the issue to me is that he left a void in the chain of command at the top,” says Pitts. [Read more...]