Everyone’s favorite Appalachian Trail hiker is not out of hot water yet. South Carolina’s State Ethics Board has released a report, charging Sanford with 37 separate violations:
The civil charges, which carry a maximum $74,000 in fines, stem from a three-month investigation by the state ethics commission and could be pivotal in a push by some lawmakers to remove him from office. The state attorney general is deciding whether the governor would face any criminal charges.
The ethics charges include 18 instances in which Sanford is accused of improperly buying first- and business-class airline tickets, violating state law requiring lowest-cost travel; nine times of improperly using state-owned aircraft for travel to political and personal events, including a stop at a discount hair salon; and 10 times he improperly reimbursed himself with campaign cash.
The travel allegations were first uncovered in a series of Associated Press investigations, while the allegations about his use of campaign funds were revealed by The State newspaper in Columbia.
The full ethics report can be read at this link. Some of the improper flights were Sanford using state funds to see his girlfriend, but that’s not the only thing he was doing on the taxpayer dime:
The commission also charges that Sanford used state aircraft to, among other things:
– Get a haircut
– Take a family vacation on the Georgia coast
– Get to one of his son’s games
– Go to a dinner in Charleston
– Attend a book signing in Mount Pleasant (a Charleston suburb)
– Go to a county Republican Party meeting
– Go to the grand opening of Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach
– Attend a state house Republican caucus meeting in Greenville
– Go to a campaign contributor’s birthday party
Sanford was actually a leader among Republican governors in fighting against accepting stimulus funds. He was actually forced to accept the funds by his state legislature. Sanford is just another “fiscal conservative” on the take.