Deputy refuses to call on disgraced governor to quit

THE man who would replace South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford if he resigned over his affair with a woman in Argentina said yesterday he wasn’t calling for the governor’s resignation, and would try to help him through the next year.

Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, a fellow Republican, said he spoke to Sanford on Thursday and “could tell he had done a lot of soul searching”.

The two, who have not been allies and don’t run on the same ticket, didn’t discuss the possibility of the governor stepping down.