Apr 10 2008
Sanford Urged Port Royal Sale
Gov. Mark Sanford made repeated efforts to have the State Ports Authority sell valuable land at Port Royal in Beaufort County to a favored developer, according to testimony a Ports Authority board member gave to the Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday.
That developer, Chaffin/Light Associates, is led by Jim Chaffin, a Sanford campaign contributor.
Some legislators said the governor overstepped his bounds by pushing for a deal that would benefit a contributor.The governor counters that he has acted in the best interest of the state’s taxpayers by weighing in on the plan to sell state-owned coastal property another developer tried to purchase for $26 million.
Even if the Governor’s intentions were good as he claimed, this was a really stupid thing to do. How did Sanford think people were going to react when they found out the man he has been pushing to get the deal is a major campaign contributor. That’s your stereotypical “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” dirty politics. This could get him into serious legal trouble.
