Sanford Disappeared Last Year, Too, Emails Show

Mark Sanford’s recent Argentine excursion wasn’t the first time he had gone missing: His commerce secretary didn’t know where to reach him in June 2008, either, emails reveal. “Need contact number for (Sanford) ASAP,” the secretary wrote to a Sanford staffer on the 28th—a day the South Carolina governor saw his lover, he has since admitted. The email was part of 3,300 pages of communications released to the State.

A commerce staffer wrote to Sanford during the same trip, saying some “were really concerned at first” about “a missed flight.” The emails also uncover other aspects of Sanford’s governing style. One shows he asked an aide where he should register a boat to minimize taxes; another includes a warning from a staffer that “even folks who support you are worried you have lost your mind” in the stimulus debate.
(More Mark Sanford stories.)