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Maybe the better title for this post would be “Is Mark Sanford The Worst Candidate In America?” but the point remains the same. There is not a politician that is in as good of a position as Elizabeth Colbert Busch is in right now.
Not to belittle her campaign, which appears to have done a great job thus far, in any manner but to bring up the potential failings of the Republican Party to hold a seat that should’ve been a walkover.
In case you missed it, Republican challenger and former Governor Mark Sanford was accused of trespassing by his ex-wife, Jenny back in February. Sanford, as all of you recall, went through a divorce in 2009 after he admitted to an extramarital affair while in office and famously disappearing to visit his mistress while telling his staffers that he was “hiking the Appalachian Trail”.
After lying relatively low for the next year or so, Sanford started inching back into the political mainstream and announced his candidacy to fill the seat of ex-Rep. Tim Scott who is now serving in the Senate after being appointed to replace Jim DeMint.
Sanford, thanks to his deep pockets and statewide name recognition, beat out a double-digit field to qualify for a runoff before trouncing state Rep. Curtis Bostic to face Colbert Busch in the special election to be held on May 7th.
But as the campaign begins to intensify as we hit the backstretch, Sanford might’ve just put another nail into his political coffin. Jenny Sanford stated that the former Governor violated the terms of their divorce settlement by appearing on her property back in February.
Now this really looks bad for Sanford as voters try to forget why he is practically a national laughingstock. As David Nir of DailyKos states, “who can come out in favor of trespassing?” and he’s right as it looked like Sanford had a lot of explaining to do.
Well, he just released a statement and oh boy:
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.
This guy is running for Congress and I think “under the light of my cell phone” should join the Appalachian Trail in terms of Sanfordisms. Also notice how Sanford doesn’t necessarily dispute the allegations but in the second paragraph, shifts the onus onto Jenny and the media.
Still, how about this for Elizabeth Colbert Busch? She now has a 2013 example of the lack of morals, ethics and values that Sanford possesses. With some polls showing the race to be a tight one, and one that might be a pure toss-up, this has to demoralize several Republicans who would never vote for a Democrat and might just stay home.
The House Majority PAC, which is basically the DCCC’s SuperPAC, is on the offensive in this South Carolina district which signifies that they believe this seat might be winnable.
All because of the ineptitude of Mark Sanford.