Sanford Interview

Clemson Forum: In June Lt. Governor Andre Bauer endorsed Senator Tommy Moore’s wife to be First Lady of South Carolina. Has that affected your campaign at all and how do you and Lt. Governor Bauer get along?

Governor Mark Sanford: I was not aware of this endorcement, I don’t think that would count as an endorcement, it just means she would make a great first lady, and she would.

CF: Over the Summer you made two controversial moves, vetoing a bill which would have made it illegal to protest at funerals, and then signing a bill which makes two time child molesters eligible for the death penalty. Do you still feel that you made the proper decisions on these bills?

MS: Well I would say that as to the child molestors, I think there are just certain lines in any civilized society you don’t cross, and this is not just once but this is for the second offense, going after some young girl under the age of 12 is a line you don’t cross. There are dramatic consequences if you cross that line, I think it’s completely consistent with what I hear from a lot of folks; that that’s a line you don’t cross.

The funeral protest bill, I think that the easy and conventional political thing to do would be to sign a bill like that, who would be for a fallen soldier in Iraq? I’ve never taken the political track, and I know it would have been the wise political move but that isn’t the way I try to make decisions. We should only be creating laws about things that are affecting us. There has been not one protest of a funeral in South Carolina, so why enforce a law that doesn’t address a problem that actually exists? Should that become a problem I’d gladly reconsider.

CF: On the death penalty issue, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Coker vs. Georgia in 1977 that the death penalty was only applicable for murder. Are you concerned about the constitutionality of our law if it is ever challenged?

MS: The attorney general of South Carolina says the Coker case is not relevant in this instance, given the way the bill was put together. If you have an attorney general who says it will pass constitutionally you pass it.

CF: Education has become a major issue in this election, in the past you have pushed for private school vouchers unsuccessfully. If you are re-elected, will you push this issue even harder?

MS: What we push is better education in South Carolina. We push for a variety of things, we don’t think money is the only answer to improving education, and most folks we talk to in South Carolina agree with that. You’ve got an inadequacy issue and we’ve thrown 600 million at it the last 5 years, we’ve fully funded it, we’ve done a number of things tied to ad publicity. If you look at the statistics since 1988, we’ve had the largest percentage increase in funding education in the country. But what we’ve said is that that’s not the only cure to education. If you buy into funding being the only thing that will improve education, you’ve tied your success to the average per capita income in the state. A place like Connecticut has comes from a higher starting point than us per capita income wise. Choice is something we embrace in every other facet of education except 1-12th grade, if you want to go to Clemson or USC the state will fully subsidise your tuition to those schools, even if you want to go to a smaller school the state will take a smaller portion of the subsidy, we also do that in early childhood education and we think we should do it in 1-12th grade.

CF: As a Clemson student, I’m aware of a lot of budget cuts that have come our way in the last few years, is this a trend that we will see continue if you are re-elected?

MS: The budget hasn’t been cut for state universities, if you look at our numbers against the rest of the world, our numbers rank second in the southeast behind Kentucky as to what we allot to state funded universities, we’re top ten in the country in what we allocate to the student in tuition and fees. We believe in giving a return to families who work hard to pay for their kids to go to college.

CF: Senator Moore has made reforming healthcare a major issue in his campaign. What do you feel needs to be done to improve health care in South Carolina?

MS: We’ve dedicated an equally important portion of our campaign to healthcare. We’re second in the nation in healthcare discounts to retirees. We push hard for legal reform, respectfully this is something my opponent and I feel differently on. We feel legal reform is a key in healthcare.

CF: What are your plans for cutting down on the amount of publicly elected offices in SC if you are re-elected? Do you plan to push for offices like State Treasurer and State Superintendent to be appointed offices rather than elected offices?

MS: Yeah that’s been our big push. You’d have to be under a rock to not know that we have pushed for restructuring, we have a very unusual government structure in South Carolina. No other state has as many elected offices as we do and no other state has a budget control board.

CF: It looks like Republicans are going to be able to win every elected state-wide office, Republicans will keep the majority in the State legislature. Do you feel like if you’re re-elected you’ll be able to accomplish virtually anything you wish to accomplish in your second term?

No, that’s not the way politics works. You’ll only get a portion of what you push for, but I’d stress again how important it is we restructure in South Caroina. We’re the only state that has a budget structure board, we should run the state the way the founding fathers of the country wanted it. we don’t have three separate branches, we’re literally the only state that has a budget control board. There have been examples in the past how restructuring can be benefecial.

CF: Rumor has it that if you are re-elected you will run for President in 2008, is there any truth to that?

MS: No.

CF: Finally, Governor Sanford, you’ve got tens of millions more in money than Senator Moore, you’ve got a comfortable lead in the polls 3 weeks out of an election, and you’re in a heavily Republican state, perhaps the most conservative in the Country. Is there any way you can lose this election?

MS: Certainly, the election comes down to what voters decide in November and what the Lord wills. I hate to be philosophic about it, but there’s a lot that can happen in 3 weeks and there’s a lot that can happen in politics. If the Lord wants me to win I’ll win, if He wants me to lose I’ll lose.