Sanford Defends Himself Against 'Time' Article

(Columbia) - The November 21st issue of 'Time' magazine names what it says are the nation's best and worst governors, after consulting with academics, political analysts and former governors. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is named as one of the three worst.Sanford took it in stride. "At the same time that I get this ranking, I've been ranked by National Review as one of the best governors in the country. The Cato Institute put us in the top three in the nation as freshmen, top five in the country overall. And so I think it always is a matter of perspective," he says.The other worst governors, according to Time, are Bob Taft of Ohio and Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana. Taft recently pleaded no contest to state criminal charges for failing to report 47 golf outings that someone else paid for. Blanco is included for her handling of Hurricane Katrina.So why does Time include Sanford on the list of "worst governors"? This is what the magazine says of him:"As a U.S. Representative in the 1990s, Mark Sanford often slept on an office futon instead of renting a Washington apartment. That kind of conspicuous frugality helped him get elected Governor of South Carolina in 2002. But a growing chorus of critics, including leaders of his own G.O.P., fear that his thrift has brought the state's economy to a standstill. This summer Standard Poor's lowered South Carolina's coveted AAA-bond rating to AA+, citing unemployment of 6.3% and a per capita income ($27,172) stuck in the nation's bottom fifth. The state had just lost its bid for a $500 million Airbus plant; Sanford was widely accused of making a miserly effort to lure the aerospace giant.Business leaders are losing patience with Sanford's vetoes of budget items like trade centers and tourism marketing. Even G.O.P. bosses charge that he is worse at economic development than at grandstanding, as when he visited the legislature last year carrying piglets to protest what he considered pork-barrel spending."Gov. Sanford defended himself, saying, "In this case, they're just flat-out wrong. I mean, if you actually look at the numbers on economic development, again there's never been a better year in the Department of Commerce, basically for the last 20 years, in the number of jobs that they've been able to recruit."The five best governors, according to Time, are Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia, Democrat Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Republican Kenny Quinn of Nevada, Republican Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Democrat Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.Sanford says there's a common thread among them that he's proud to stand apart from. "Four of the top five governors that they've chosen had been able to enact and push through very, very large tax increases in their respective states. And the fifth would have if the legislative body would have gone along with it."South Carolina Democrats were quick to pounce on the magazine's ranking. State Senate Democratic leader John Land III, D-Manning, issued a press release saying, "Mark Sanford is a bad governor. Now the rest of the nation knows it. Mark Sanford needs to seriously reconsider his bid for re-election. He is a national embarrassment to our great state."The magazine rating is bound to come up in the governor's campaign, but the thought of commercials reminding people that "a national magazine says Mark Sanford is one of the worst governors in the nation" doesn't faze him."My only hope is that people see it for what it's worth, that people look not at headlines but look at the underlying day-in and day-out of what we've done. And if they do, we're going to be just fine in this election," he says.