S.C. governor turned away by poll worker
By JIM DAVENPORT, Associated Press WriterTue Nov 7, 1:53 PM ET
Even Gov. Mark Sanford needs the right ID to vote in South Carolina. One day after eye injuries interrupted his last day of campaigning, Sanford forgot his voter registration card and was turned away from the polls, returning 90 minutes later to cast his ballot.
"I hope my luck turns," Sanford said. "Yesterday, I had the eye issue, today I was absentminded and didn't have my voter registration card."
Poll workers at a Sullivans Island precinct turned the governor away when he didn't have his registration card and the driver's license he showed had a Columbia address. He returned later with a new card.
"I hope everybody else out there is as determined to vote as I was today," he said.
On Monday, Sanford was sidelined from campaigning after he burned his eyes under stage lighting at an economic development event a day earlier.
"It's behind me and the prognosis is good," Sanford said before he was first turned away.
With his eyes red and watery, Sanford hoped his bid for a second term turned more on the image he's nurtured for four years as an outsider taking on political insiders.
Along the way to Tuesday's election, the Republican found himself repairing rifts with GOP voters stung by his vetoes or other party faithful turned off by what they called his libertarian leanings.
But it's doubtful Sanford's day off did much to help Democratic challenger Tommy Moore's prospects.
Moore has raised just $3 million to win the office. That's less than half of the more than $8 million Sanford gathered. The difference left Sanford on television nonstop through the summer, giving him the edge in defining the contest and himself, and Moore was unable to answer until mid-October.
Sanford says the race is about the state's future, including efforts he'll continue to cut spending, cut taxes, push school choice and restructure and streamline government. Moore seized on the state's unemployment rate ? for more than a year one of the nation's highest ? and Sanford's push for school vouchers.
That issue has polarized some voters.
School administrator Odell Stuckey, 62, said his mind was made up a long time ago.
"I'm totally against vouchers for private education," said Stuckey, of Richland County. "I support public money for public education."
The unemployment rate also has been an issue that Sanford has tried to downplay by talking about employment growth. It gave rise to Moore's mantra that Sanford "sees numbers, I see people."
Early on, Sanford's campaign tagged Moore, a Clearwater Democrat, as a "28-year, liberal, Columbia insider."
Earning and nurturing that outsider image has riled Republicans, prompting Sanford to wrap up his campaign with ads telling voters he's willing to lose votes to take the state where it needs to go. Tuesday's contest becomes a measure of whether those he peeved will stay with him.
Some left months ago to support Sanford's primary opponent, Oscar Lovelace, a Prosperity family practice doctor. Lovelace road a wave of anti-Sanford sentiment to win 35 percent of the vote and carried Lexington County, a GOP stronghold, after Sanford vetoed a heart center there.
After the primary, Republicans for Moore groups sprouted around the state, giving structure to the anti-Sanford sentiment.
Sanford said he won't have to worry about voting for himself anymore ? this is his last campaign.
"I was telling the boys this is a fairly significant event in our little family," he said of his wife and four boys. "This is the end of the road."
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Sanford, 46, is a self-styled, penny-pinching maverick who served three terms in the U.S. House, stepping down to honor a term-limit pledge. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., native developed a reputation for voting against even the most popular legislation, including projects in his own district, and sleeping on a futon in his House office.
After Sanford graduated from college, he worked at a New York investment banking concern and got into real estate. In early 2001, he entered what would become a GOP crowded field with eight candidates eager to take on Democrat Gov. Jim Hodges. He easily beat former Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler ? a favorite of the state's established GOP base ? and defeated Hodges in the November election with 54 percent of the vote.
Moore, 56, is known as the state Senate's biggest dealmaker. He's been a a fixture on conference committees that have worked out final compromises on the state lottery, sweetening incentives for film makers and changing ethics laws.
He's the founder and owner of Boiler Efficiency Inc. in Clearwater.
Moore grew up in a small mill town near Aiken, delivered newspapers and worked behind a drug store's soft-drink and ice-cream counter. When he was in elementary school, he told a teacher he would be serving in the state House one day. He did that between 1979 and 1980 before winning the Senate seat he's held since 1981.
