A panel of the South Carolina Senate has passed a bill that would require governors–and lieutenant governors–to have a full-time security detail provided by the State Law Enforcement Division.

Republican Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens County says the change is definitely a response to Governor Mark Sanford telling his security detail on many occasions that he didn’t need any security. One of those was when he disappeared from the state and went to Argentina for most of a week.

Martin says they aren’t trying to give the chief of the state’s executive branch a hard time, but he or she should not be able to ditch the security detail.  He says the bill needs to replace existing law, which simply says the governor will be offered security. [Read more...]