S.C. Governor Criticized For Mystery Trip

When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford went missing for four days, his staff, family — and even security detail — all said they didn't know how to reach him. The state was abuzz.

Late Monday, Sanford's office revealed that he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. The governor plans to return to the office Wednesday.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said in a statement Tuesday that the governor was "somewhat taken aback by all of the interest this trip has gotten."

But Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer says the interest in Sanford's departure made sense because it's part of Sanford's responsibility as governor to be accessible "at all times in case of having to make very difficult decisions."

"I'm not really concerned about what he does in his time off — or his private life," Bauer told NPR's Melissa Block. "But when you are the leader of a state, part of your private life you give up."

Bauer says he was told of Sanford's absence on Sunday. He heard about it from a legislator who called him to get information about where Sanford might have gone.

"I was just told the governor had left, the last knowledge of where he was at was a cell phone tower in Atlanta — his cell phone had been used — and since then there had been no correspondence from him, or the whereabouts was unknown as well," Bauer says.

He adds: "My staff on Monday called the governor's office and they said not to worry, that they had actually talked to the governor. And then a little while later, we saw a press release from the governor's office that, in fact, they had not been in contact. So I called in the evening myself and said I want to talk to the governor, or have him call me. They said, 'Well, when we talk to him, we'll let him know of your interest.' "

Sanford and Bauer, who are both Republicans, were elected separately. But Bauer would be able to act for Sanford in an emergency, according to the South Carolina Constitution. In the days Sanford was missing, there was no talk of a transfer of power.

"I don't think that's really the issue here," Bauer says. "As you know, clearly he has a very stressful job — just got out of the legislative session. ... He's fought a lot of tough battles for conservatives, and fighting Washington from that route probably is not a popular thing to do right now.

"It's been a tough year; I'm sure he needed time to himself and just get a break and recharge his batteries. I think the real concern was, No. 1 his safety, and No. 2, if we needed him to make a quick decision for something like a prison outbreak, what do we do if we can't get in touch with him? So those are the two big concerns. I appreciate the fact that he's getting a little bit of time off."

First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press she wasn't concerned — even though she didn't know where her husband was — because "he was writing something and wanted some space to get away from the kids," referring to their four young sons.

"Well, she's thinking about it from a standpoint of her family," Bauer says. "I'm thinking about it from the standpoint of 4.5 million people that look to him [in] any type of disaster to make a quick decision."

In explaining Sanford's absence, spokesman Sawyer said, "Nobody's ever accused our governor of being conventional." When asked if it's a common thing for Sanford to take off without his security, Bauer says it is.

"It's a common thing for him to do things quite differently, and that's why he was so popular when he was elected," Bauer says. "A lot of people liked his unconventional thinking and his approach to government that was vastly different. The only real difficult part is that now his staff can't get in touch with him. I think that's the real rub with a lot of elected leaders in the state."

But now — after so much attention — Sanford is in touch with his staff and headed back to business in Columbia.