Governor Sanford Goes Missing Since Thursday; He's Been Located Now His Aides Say, and is Just "Recharging"

Recharging his batteries for a fight over stimulus money in the state legislature, they say.

But. The guy's wife didn't know where he was and he didn't answer calls. Whatever the real story is, any aspirations he might have had for higher office are over. You can't elect a president who mysteriously disappears for four days. It's flakey.

The whereabouts of Gov. Mark Sanford was unknown for nearly four days, and some state leaders question who was in charge of the executive office.

But Sanford’s office told the lieutenant governor’s office Monday afternoon that Sanford has been reached and he is fine, said Frank Adams, head of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s office on aging.

Neither the governor’s office nor the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for governors, had been able to reach Sanford after he left the mansion Thursday in a black SLED Suburban SUV, said Sen. Jake Knotts and three others familiar with the situation but declined to be identified.

Sanford’s last known whereabouts had been near Atlanta because a mobile telephone tower picked up a signal from his phone, authorities said. His office now knows where he is, Adams said.

His office knows, but they're not sharing that with the public. And Sanford isn't appearing on tv or something to reassure constituents.

First lady Jenny Sanford told The Associated Press earlier Monday her husband has been gone for several days and she did not know where. She said she was not concerned.

The governor’s state and personal phones had been turned off and he had not responded to phone or text messages since at least the weekend, a source familiar with the situation said.

Most mobile phones cannot be tracked if they are turned off.

Jenny Sanford said the governor said he needed time away from their children to write something.

Weird. It's not really normal for anyone to disappear for four days. Understandable in some cases, maybe, but not normal. It's not acceptable for the chief executive of a state to disappear himself like this.

I don't know what the hell he was doing, but the move is so odd I suspect his reasons wouldn't reflect well on him.

Thanks to JennyC.

Overblown? Robert Paulsen writes this isn't necessarily a big deal, and that the AP reporter might be making a mountain over a molehill, for partisan reasons.

It's possible he's right. It's possible that the Governor's top aides knew exactly where he was and could get in touch with him with a secret cell phone at any time. It's possible the guy just said "I need to fish for a few days, don't call unless it's important," and the AP wrote the story up as an Unsolved Mystery hosted by Robert Stack.

That's all possible, I guess. Still, it's odd that the man's wife didn't know where he was. She said she was unconcerned, but... just seems odd. Spouses usually aren't allowed to keep their locations secret from each other, especially not for four or five days running.

posted by Ace at 03:30 PM

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