Next month’s South Carolina special election for Congress was thrown into turmoil this morning as word spread that former governor Mark Sanford had been charged by his former wife, Jenny Sanford, with trespassing at her home back in February. The court records were sealed, but have now been leaked. Sanford has a court date to address the charges two days after the special election.
As I have written before, many conservatives have worried that Sanford’s past scandals would lower his chances of holding the safe Republican seat.
Sanford has issued the following statement this morning. While it offers a reasonable explanation, very little that’s controversial in politics is conducted at a reasonable level. This is clearly damaging to Sanford’s candidacy.
It’s an unfortunate reality that divorced couples sometimes have disagreements that spill over into family court. I did indeed watch the second half of the Super Bowl at the beach house with our 14 year old son because as a father I didn’t think he should watch it alone. Given she was out of town I tried to reach her beforehand to tell her of the situation that had arisen, and met her at the back steps under the light of my cell phone when she returned and told her what had happened.
There is always another side to every story, and while I am particularly curious how records that were sealed to avoid the boys dealing with embarrassment are now somehow exposed less than three weeks before this election, I agree with Jenny that the media is no place to debate what is ultimately a family court matter, and out of respect for Jenny and the boys, I’m not going to have any further comment at this time.
He knew these charges were hanging over his head for over two months while he ran in the primary. This is a district that voted for Romney by a margin of 58 percent, and if Sanford loses the seat it will be touted as a big defeat for the clueless and “anti-woman” Republican party.