Mark Sanford Used State Plane For Personal Use

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford liked to brag about how fiscally conservative he was, to the point of not wanting to take federal stimulus money. That’s what makes reports that he used a state plane for personal use so ironic.

Records reviewed by the AP show that since he took office in 2003, the two-term Republican has taken trips on state aircraft to locations of his children’s sporting events, hair and dentist appointments, political party gatherings and a birthday party for a campaign donor.

According to state budget law, “Any and all aircraft owned or operated by agencies of the State Government shall be used only for official business.”

Not only did Sanford make a big deal about not wanting to take stimulus money, he’s known to demand that state employees use both sides of Post-it notes. Just a couple of examples are:

On March 10, 2006, a state plane was sent to pick up Sanford in Myrtle Beach and return him to Columbia, the state capital, at a cost of $1,265 – when his calendar showed his only appointment in Columbia was “personal time” at his favorite discount hair salon. He had flown to Myrtle Beach on a private plane and attended a county GOP event.

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Also, on five of the last six Thanksgiving weekends, Sanford used a state plane to fly himself, his wife and their four sons from the family’s plantation in Beaufort County to Columbia for the state Christmas tree lighting. The cost for those flights alone: $5,536, including $2,869 for flying the plane empty to pick them up.

There are also reports that one of the reasons Jenny Sanford moved out of the governor’s mansion is that the governor has continued his relationship with his Argentinian paramour.

Sources close to the couple tell FITS that as soon as Sanford’s job was deemed “safe,” he began communicating with Chapur again almost immediately.

In fact, Sanford was allegedly caught communicating with Chapur shortly after returning from a five-day trip to Texas with the First Lady in mid-July, a trip that was specifically arranged to facilitate a reconciliation in the Sanfords’ marriage.

[…]

The latest Chapur-related “flare-up” between the governor and First Lady occured shortly after the couple returned to Columbia on July 20 from their Texas trip. That’s when sources say it became abundantly clear that the governor was not serious about reconciling his marriage – but was very serious about rekindling his affair with Chapur.

“He got caught contacting (Chapur) again,” a source inside the Governor’s Mansion told FITS, adding that “the screaming matches (between the Sanfords) were intense” after the governor reportedly admitted as much to the First Lady.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.