Sanford to Pay State Back for '08 Trip Where He Met Mistress

(WLTX, Tim Smith/The Greenville News) - Governor Mark Sanford says he's going to pay the state back the money spent on a business trip last year to Argentina--a trip where he now says he had a rendezvous with his mistress.

"As noted by the Department of Commerce, I attended a trade mission with the Department of Commerce last June," Sanford said in a written statement. "As the agenda notes, the mission was spent meeting with government and private business officials in both Brazil and Argentina. This trip was handled very professionally by the Department of Commerce, and I'm proud of their work there.

"However, while the purpose of this trip was an entirely professional and appropriate business development trip, I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with. That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip."

He issued a press release announcing his intention after a Freedom of Information Act request by The Greenville News for records of the trip.

Records released to the newspaper show that Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor did not follow Sanford through Argentina and most of the taxpayer expense for that part of the trip was for Sanford and an agency employee, more than $10,000. Most of that was in airfare for Sanford.

The trip had been brought up by several critics of the governor, who said he used taxpayer money to see the woman.

Meanwhile, Sanford tells reporters who staked out his beach home that he's focusing on his family right now.

He emerged briefly Thursday from the Sullivans Island home and rolled down the window of his car to talk. Asked if he's planning to resign, he shook his head no.

Sanford publicly admitted Wednesday that he's been having an affair with a woman in Argentina whom he had just returned from visiting. He says he'll reimburse the state for the cost of a trade mission last year where he "made a mistake" and saw her.

He spent Thursday at the beach home with his wife, who says she asked him to leave two weeks ago so she could come to terms with his infidelity.

He told reporters he was heading back to Columbia on Thursday afternoon.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said the governor also spent Thursday talking with state lawmakers.

At the same time, more voices came out Thursday calling for Sanford to resign.

Glenn McCall, one of the state's two national representatives to the Republican National Committee, said Sanford should follow the principals he's outline before and quit.

McCall says Sanford repeatedly has said party leaders should be held accountable for not upholding the GOP's principles. And McCall says the married father of four should be held to the same standard.

McCall is also a county party chairman and said that party members want Sanford out.

State Representative Todd Rutherford (D-Richland County) said again Thursday that he wants the governor to leave office.

"The fact that he left 4 1/2 million people in South Carolina without a governor for 5 days and seemed to care less about it, that's why I'm calling for his resignation," Rutherford said.

The Spartanburg-Herald Journal wrote an op-ed, saying the scandal will consume Sanford's time, and force his focus away from the issues of South Carolina.

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, however, said he sees no reason for the governor to step down.

"As far as resigning...resigning from the Republican Governor's Association was appropriate but resigning the governorship...I think that they might create more turmoil than it would resolve," McMaster said. "We have important matters before us now in the government that we need to move on with. It [a resignation] would shake up the governor's office itself, with the staff...and all the people that are appointed by the governor, people that are in key positions around the state that have the confidence of the governor but might not have the confidence of the next one. I think that the best thing to do is stay the course."

New details have also come out about the woman with whom Sanford had an affair.

La Nacion in Buenos Aires, Argentina names the woman as 43-year-old Maria Belen Chapur.

Chapur is reportedly a divorced mother of two, and works for an agricultural company. The paper says she speaks several languages and keeps in shape by playing sports.

In his Wednesday news conference admitting the affair, Sanford said that the woman with whom he had the relationship had two children.

Sanford called the woman a "dear, dear friend" in his statements. He says he met the woman eight years ago, and that their relationship turned romantic about a year ago.

During his recent absence, Sanford went to Argentina and visited the woman.

The State newspaper in Columbia has published e-mails which it reports are between the governor and the woman. The paper said it had possession of the e-mails for six months, but withheld publishing the documents until Sanford's Argentinean trip became public. (Read More About the E-Mails)

Tony Santaella

6/25/2009 10:38:34 PM