Aside from the damage done to his standing as South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford’s recent admission of an extramarital affair may end up tarnishing another of his political credentials — his carefully honed reputation as a tightfisted steward of taxpayer money.
Analysis of state travel records that were reviewed to explore the circumstances of his affair with his Argentine girlfriend, found that in his 6 1/2 years as governor, Sanford traveled frequently and in a style markedly at odds with his political persona façade.
The records detail more than $468,000 dollars worth of state-funded travel for Sanford and show that he routinely billed taxpayers for high-end airline seats, racking up more than $44,000 on business- and first-class airline tickets. He often stayed in pricey hotels that far exceeded the rate limits he imposed on other state employees.
On one overseas trip, the state appears to have spent more than $12,000 for the governor’s business-class tickets for a September 2007 trade mission to mainland China while his aides flew in economy class for airfares as low as $1,900.
The records released under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, cover commercial airline trips to destinations including Paris, Beijing, Stockholm, Munich and London, as well as state plane flights that carried him, his family, friends and staff around the state and country. They do not detail the costs of every international trade mission Sanford participated in, and, in some cases, the documents are incomplete or difficult to decipher.
Still, the picture that emerges from these records conflict with Sanford’s portrayed image as a politician who is especially stingy with taxpayer cash and vigilant about the costs of taxpayer-funded travel.
After winning a seat in Congress in 1994, he pounded his chest and publicly agonized over accepting a $10,000-taxpayer-funded trip, telling a local paper.
Is this guy for real…
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