Sanford Also MIA in 2008

Did the runaway governor run away before? In their ongoing sifting through South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's email records, The State discovers that Sanford went missing during a 2008 state-funded trip to Brazil and Argentina. Unable to track Sanford down in June of 2008, SC Commerce Secretary Joe Taylor wrote to a staffer, "Need contact number of [Sanford] ASAP." But the more interesting email revelations this time are not about Sanford's romance with Argentinian mistress Maria Belen Chapur, but his interactions with staffers. In addition to asking his staffers to help find a missing toy for his son, Sanford corresponded with staffers who strongly admonished the governor's controversial advocacy for rejecting stimulus money: "We are getting killed message-wise," wrote his Sanford's former chief of staff. "[E]ven folks who supoprt you are worried you have lost your mind."