Two nights ago, Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina) captured the vacated First Congressional District, which straddles the rugged coastline of his native Palmetto state. Prognosticators on the right and post-mortem pundits on the left will dish and decide the pertinent and importune elements of this closely watched race, starring a former governor recovering from a marital scandal.
First, a little background on South Carolina's outstanding history, followed by the current dramas that drove this race into the national news.
South Carolina often has displayed a rebellious streak, starting with its dalliance into nullification, when South Carolina’s Sen. John C. Calhoun rebuffed President Andrew Jackson over the “Tariff of Abominations.” During the “irrepressible conflict” over slavery, Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner excoriated Mr. Calhoun. On the Senate floor, his nephew bludgeoned Mr. Sumner with a cane, was censured, and proceeded to win re-election. Confederate Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s certified electoral win. A decade and a half later, in 1877, the Great Compromise, following disputed Presidential votes in South Carolina, deconstructed Reconstruction.
Today, South Carolina is a conservative, individual liberty paradise, a ruby red state where one-party Republican rule has forced cuts in spending and cuts in taxes, while marginalizing negligible pressures from unions, where minorities thrive at all levels of government. Perhaps “Don’t Mess with Texas!” should be replaced with “Don’t Press the Palmetto State!”
A Pivotal Junction
South Carolina is a crucial primary test for anyone running for the White House. In 2000, while candidate George W. Bush revived his campaign, then survived to the nomination, John McCain never recovered and disappeared. In 2012, Newt Gingrich briefly revived his Presidential fortunes, and successfully reviled the mainstream media’s vain preoccupation with President Obama as Messiah in contrast to Newt’s messy private life.
South Carolina is home to Mick Mulvaney, the District Five Congressman who trashed Congressman Henry Waxman following his un-glib, overtly flippant remarks about the GM bailouts:
“Did GM go bankrupt?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, it did. I am surprised that you hadn’t heard about it.”
Outrageous.
Four years ago when Sanford was governor, he was one of few Republicans who refused President Obama’s federal stimulus kool-aid. Five years prior, Sanford had satirized his “conservative” colleagues in the state legislature for excessive spending. To expose his disdain, Sanford ushered into the legislature two pigs, Pork and Barrel, to shame legislators for their profligate ways with taxpayer dollars. (Nearly a decade later, Congressional candidate Sanford wryly admitted that the two pigs subsequently were barbequed.)
Sanford is on record – with libertarian journalist John Stossel, no less – for attempting to enact a statewide voucher program in a state that had the lowest SAT scores. Despite failing, Sanford’s heart, at least in public, was in the right place.
Oh, There’s No Place Like Home
Unavoidably, Sanford’s troubled private life became a focus of his recent campaign to return to Congress. In 2009, while claiming to be hiking along the Appalachian Trails, he was meeting with a soulmate mistress in Argentina. As soon as the Latin liaison hit the front pages, Sanford came clean, tears and all: “I have been unfaithful to my wife.” He also had been unfaithful with taxpayer dollars, which he used to pay for the trip. He paid it back with a hefty $70,000 fine, the largest in South Carolina’s storied history. Following the censure of the state legislature, Sanford finished out his second term in office. His frustrated wife terminated their marriage. His political career, including a possible presidential run, also seemed finished.
Small business owner Nikki Haley, Indian-American of Sikh ancestry, replaced Sanford, retaining the Republican Party’s position of power in state politics, in spite of her predecessor’s impolitic personal life. Following her lead on limited government and limiting taxes, junior Sen. Jim DeMint abruptly resigned a few months ago to become head of the conservative Heritage Foundation. Gov. Haley appointed black Republican Congressman Tim Scott to finish DeMint’s term.
With the Scott’s district up for grabs, Sanford stepped in to reclaim an office he held in the early ‘90s. Whether out of red-blooded redemption or red-handed arrogance, Sanford won out over 15 Republican challengers (including a primary runoff). The Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of Daily Show parodist Stephen Colbert, would challenge him for this week’s special election.
Within days, Sanford trespassed on his ex-wife’s property to see his son, a reminder that personal failings always carry a lingering cost. The Republican National Committee hedged their funding. Democratic contributors showered Busch with cash, and her campaign outspent Sanford 5 to 1. Stephen Colbert stumped for his sister on TV. Sanford campaigned harder, debated cardboard House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The outside dough plowed the Democrat’s chances. A double-digit Republican lead shrank to “too close to call.” The voters final call: Sanford, by nine points.
To summarize the District One special election: Democrats lost $1.2 million because they could not buy South Carolina voters. So much for “the race was not a big deal to us.” All local politics is national, a tip that would tip the late House Democratic Leader Tip O’Neill off kilter. Disgraced Sanford proves that sin cannot stop God’s grace from standing up a fallen man to run again. Redemption is real. Republicans are rallying, and political reality trumps rhetoric once again. Sanford won in South Carolina, and so did we.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer and blogger on issues both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong resident of Southern California, he currently lives in Torrance. He may be contacted at arthurschaper@hotmail.com, aschaper1.blogspot.com and at asheisministries.blogspot.com. Also see waxmanwatch.blogspot.com.
