In a letter delivered to Sanford on Tuesday, Harrell asked Sanford to step down for the good of the state.
“What has become clear is that Governor Sanford’s issues will continue to dominate our state as long as he remains in office,” Harell said. “Whether he should be removed from office is a question that will need to be answered from the State Ethics Commission investigation, but our state’s future is too important to have the Governor’s issues overshadow everything we do for the next fifteen months. For the good of our state, Governor Sanford should step aside.”
“The issues we have facing our state and the work that needs to be accomplished is too important for us to spend this next year bogged down with the distractions Governor Sanford’s actions have created,” Harrell continued.
Sanford has repeatedly said he will serve out the remaining months of his term as governor, even as more calls for his resignation continue to come in.
On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham hand-delivered the House Caucus’s letter to Sanford
“Our unemployment is high and the people of our state are concerned about the future – it is a shame that our state government continues to be mired in distraction,” Bingham said.
“The time has come for the governor to step aside and let South Carolinians begin the process of healing our state.”
The governor’s “disturbing” actions over the summer forced caucus members to take action, the letter states.
“Given the disturbing actions you revealed to the public in late June and the ensuing facts portraying possible legal and ethical violations that have continuously emerged these past few weeks, we have collectively come to the conclusion that South Carolina will not be able to move forward under your leadership,” the letter states.
“Your decision to abandon our state for five days, with no defined order of succession and with no known way to contact you, is inexcusable,” the letter continues. “Your admitted actions and the facts surrounding the allegations against you — which are currently being investigated by the State Ethics Commission — reveal a pattern of poor decision making and questionable leadership.
“Your actions have been destructive to our state’s image on a worldwide stage and are harming the state’s image on many levels,” the letter states.
The letter is signed by 60 of the 72 members of the House Republican Caucus, including Pickens County Legislative Delegation members Rep. Davey Hiott, Rep. B.R. Skelton, Rep. Rex Rice and Rep. Phil Owens.
But not all House members are calling for Sanford’s resignation.
In a response to the letter, Rep. Nikki Haley said it’s the legislature’s continued focus on Sanford’s scandals that is distracting the state, not Sanford himself.
"Governor Sanford is first and foremost responsible for the ongoing scandal that has occupied so much attention in South Carolina for the past couple of months,” Haley said.
“But the leadership of the General Assembly is also stoking those fires and keeping the scandal going, and it is doing so for its own political purposes.
“We can put the names of all 170 Members of the General Assembly on a list requesting the Governor resign, but at the end of the day there is only one person who will make that decision, and Governor Sanford has made it clear that he will not step down,” she continued. “So any further pressure in that direction is nothing more than political posturing, and that's not what we as elected officials ought to be doing.”
Thursday night, the Republican Party’s executive committee met and more than two-thirds of that body voted to ask Gov. Sanford to resign.
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