Mark Sanford Used Taxpayer-Paid Planes for Personal and Official Business

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Columnist

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) is being criticized in media reports for using state airplanes for campaign events and personal activities such as a dental appointment, hair cut, and his son's soccer game.

The reports are based on a review by the Associated Press of flight records and the governor's public schedule since he took office in 2003. The controversy is over whether Sanford was on official business when using the taxpayer-funded aircraft for the personal or campaign events, and whether it is legal to have any non-official activities overlap with travel on state-funded planes.

Sanford has not responded to these reports. But his former spokesman, Joel Sawyer, who stepped down Aug. 5, told the AP that "every time the governor used the plane it was for an official state purpose and that state purpose was documented."

Sawyer also said Sanford's public schedule doesn't chronicle all of the governor's official activities. "The governor's schedule is not reflective of everything he's doing that day," he explained.

The report of the official plane being used for a haircut is from March 10, 2006, when Sanford was flown from Myrtle Beach to Columbia, the state capital, at a cost of $1,265. His public calendar showed his only appointment in the capital that day was "personal time" at his favorite discount hair salon. The AP does not report how long the governor spent in the capital or if there were other official events in the following days.

An example of state, personal, and campaign use overlapping is on March 23, 2005, when Sanford flew on a state plane from Columbia to Mount Pleasant (near his family home) for a dental appointment, a TV interview and a speech at a Republican Party event.

A trip that appears to be related only to campaign and personal matters was on April 29, 2006. Sanford flew on a state plane from Greenville, not far from where one of his sons was in a soccer tournament, to Charleston to attend a National Republican Senatorial Committee meeting. The public schedule does not show any official duties in either city that day.

Government-funded travel -- at both the state and national level -– is legal for official business only, not personal or campaign events. The legality of travel expenses is debatable when the official combines a personal or campaign activity with state business.

The issue arose recently when President and Mrs. Obama flew to New York City for dinner on Air Force One. The president must travel on military aircraft for safety reasons, and so usually combines campaign events with official duties in order to rationalize the cost of travel to taxpayers.

As we have criticized Sanford for his extramarital affair, we should give him credit for his efforts to spend time with his family while working (although he and his wife are now separated).

Sanford opened himself up to intense media scrutiny by lying about going to Argentina to visit his lover. However, the media is using an easy target for unfair accusations. Most of Sanford's trips were for official business and balanced with his family and campaign obligations.

Filed Under: Investigations, Woman Up

Tagged: barack obama, BarackObama, breakingnews, jenny sanford, JennySanford, mark sanford, MarkSanford, michelle obama, MichelleObama, south carolina, SouthCarolina, top stories, TopStories

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.