Sanford Denied (Again) On Restructuring

By FITSNews || Disgraced S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford’s new strategy of sucking up to state lawmakers failed its first test Wednesday, as the S.C. House of Representatives shot down what was generally regarded as the least controversial portion of his government restructuring plan.

By a vote of 82-34, the House failed to gain the two-thirds majority necessary to give voters the option of either continuing to elect the Secretary of State or allowing future governors to appoint the position.

As we’ve noted in the past, the Secretary of State’s office is a complete and total joke (much like the Secretary of State himself). It’s basically a $2.3 million excuse for a bunch of bureaucrats to shuffle paper around while drawing taxpayer-funded salaries and benefits.

In a perfect world (which the Palmetto State clearly ain’t), the office would either be assigned the role of policing the state’s elections and ethics laws (as it does in other states) or be disbanded altogther. Meanwhile, its repetitive stress-inducing “file cabinet” functions could easily be consolidated into other agencies that could do the work at a fraction of the cost.

Seriously, people … the fact that we pay “agency head” Mark Hammond and his deputy Melissa Dunlap over $180,000 a year (combined) to sit around with incredibly incurious looks on their faces is an absolute travesty.

And Dunlap has gotten a $14,000 raise over the last two years, too.

Anyway, unlike his plans to appoint the Superintendent of Education and Adjutant General, there has been very little controversy surrounding Sanford’s bid to move this agency into his Cabinet. Again, that’s because everyone acknowledges that the office is totally pointless, and that giving it to Sanford is totally inconsequential.

Accordingly, the fact that this bill failed to get the required two-thirds majority in the S.C. House – particularly in light of Sanford’s recent legislative hand-holding – surprised us a bit.

“While I hesitate to clog your inboxes with two emails in two days, this issue strikes me as important enough for your immediate attention,” Sanford wrote in an exceedingly earnest e-blast to his supporters Wednesday after the vote. “I asked you to join me in contacting our state Representatives (Tuesday) and urging them to vote for a bill that would simply give voters the choice this fall to vote on whether the Secretary of State should be an elected or appointed position. We needed 83 votes today to give people the chance to vote for this common-sense reform. We got 82.”

Sheesh …

Poor Mark Sanford … even sucking up he’s still one vote short of getting anything done.

WEB EXTRA

H. 3279 (Secretary of State Restructuring)

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