Today, one of the most interesting political contests for the next few weeks will take place, and no one seems to know what the status of the race actually is. Curtis Bostic squares off against former governor Mark Sanford in the runoff for the Republican nomination to represent South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, a race that Bostic has tried to turn into a referendum on Sanford’s earlier scandal — as the two Republicans match up closely on most of the issues:

Sanford disappeared for five days while he was governor in 2009, telling his staff he was out hiking the Appalachian Trial. Later, he tearfully revealed at a Statehouse news conference he was in Argentina seeing a woman he later called his soul mate and to whom is now engaged.

Sanford, mentioned then as a possible presidential candidate, ended up divorcing his wife, Jenny.

Bostic says that behavior has left Sanford a compromised candidate who would give the Democrats a shot at taking back a district they have not held in more than three decades.

Sanford in turn has attacked Bostic for failing to turn in a financial disclosure form, including last night at a final “forum”:

Curtis Bostic attempted to use former Gov. Mark Sanford’s words against him in a debate Monday on the eve of the Republican runoff for the 1st Congressional District.

Sanford pushed back with criticism about Bostic’s failure to file a campaign-disclosure form.

The two squared off at a Hilton Head Island First Monday Republican Lunch Group forum — the last time the two men would debate before Tuesday’s runoff. It also was the only Beaufort County debate between the candidates.

Who’s poised to win today’s race and fight Elizabeth Colbert Busch in the special election to replace now-Senator Tim Scott? That’s a good question, since little polling has taken place in this primary, and none to my knowledge between the initial primary and today’s runoff. Sanford scored an easy first place in the first primary, leading Bostic 37/13, but any anti-Sanford impulse would coalesce around Bostic rather easily.

The district seems safe enough that, contra Bostic, whoever prevails today should beat Colbert Busch. As The State points out, Mitt Romney won this district by 18 points last November, although special elections such as these can produce big surprises, thanks to smaller turnouts and the resultant disproportionate impact of GOTV efforts. We can bet that both national parties will sink a lot of money and effort into this race, simply because (a) a flip would provide all sorts of PR implications for both parties, and (b) nothing much else is going on until next month’s special US Senate race in Massachusetts.

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Read more:http://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/02/ru...s-1st-cd-today/

Mark Sanford, GOP, nominated U.S. House, District 1, South Carolina.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — UPDATE: AP: 8:17 p.m. declares Mark Sanford the victor in today's runoff GOP election for House District 1.

8:17 p.m.

219 of 317 precincts - 69 percent

x-Mark Sanford, GOP 17,654 - 55 percent

Curtis Bostic, GOP 14,304 - 45 percent

PREVIOUS REPORTING:

Former Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday that results from a South Carolina congressional primary runoff will give a good indication whether voters have moved past the personal indiscretions that derailed his political career several years ago.

"I think tonight's verdict will say a lot as to where people are or are not on that," Sanford said after voting in his downtown Charleston precinct. "I suppose at some level, I will never completely move beyond that."

The former three-term congressman and two-term governor saw his political career sidelined four years ago when he disappeared from the state only to return and confess to an extramarital affair with a woman to whom he is now engaged.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/04/02/27042...y#storylink=cpy

Zitat

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"I suppose at some level, I will never completely move beyond that."

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Yeah. You won't move beyond it because you are a dirt bag and a POS. If you had any class or a shred of self respect, you would disappear and quietly volunteer at a soup kitchen or read books to the blind. Instead he has to get his narcissistic face out in the public again. Bleh.

The only people who I believe should try to forgive Mark Sanford are his children.

The voters can harbor any ill will towards the man and his idiocy until the end of time and I would never blame them.