COLUMBIA, S.C. — Would a governor in a state with the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation really say no to President Obama's stimulus money?
That is the question reverberating through South Carolina, where Republican Mark Sanford -- a popular second-term governor and noted fiscal conservative -- says he may reject some of the $2.8 billion in federal funds headed to his state.
Some observers suspect that the governor, who is regularly mentioned as a presidential contender in 2012, is just grandstanding. It's hard for them to imagine a lawmaker leaving millions of dollars on the table in a state with a 9.5% unemployment rate -- one that has cut hundreds of millions from its budget in recent months, and will cut millions more in the next fiscal year.
"I don't know whether this is some presidential politics underway, and just headline [grabbing]," said Republican Glenn F. McConnell, president pro tempore of the South Carolina Senate.
But others said they wouldn't be surprised if Sanford tried to send something back. The 48-year-old real estate entrepreneur has earned a reputation as a fiscal hawk since his 1994 election to Congress as part of Newt Gingrich's "Republican Revolution." As governor, he has vetoed hundreds of projects in the name of budgetary restraint, earning the ire of both Democrats and Republicans.
"He'll probably stick to his guns," said Otis Rawl, president of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, who has urged the governor to accept the stimulus money. "I don't think he'll give up at all."
For some out-of-work South Carolinians, even the suggestion of rejecting bailout money fills them with outrage. William Williams, 38, a laid-off telecommunications worker, had a message for Sanford as he searched futilely through a computerized job bank in Marion County, a struggling industrial area where unemployment has reached 19%.
"Stop playing politics with my life," Williams said, looking at his unemployed brother James. "If you ain't going to help your people . . . "
"Then get on out the way," James said.
Similar dramas are playing out in a handful of states this week, as lawmakers prepare to grab their share of the $787 billion in stimulus aid.
