Jenny Sanford A "Hero" In S.C.

Washington Post: Governor's Wife Has Drawn A New Path For The Aggrieved Spouse Of A Philandering Politician

(Washingtonpost.com)  This article was written by Philip Rucker.

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This is the place where the betrayed wife took her stand.

As her husband's affair with an Argentine woman exploded onto the global stage and publicly humiliated her family, Jenny Sanford, 46, and their four sons sought refuge here at their large beachfront cottage on this lush island enclave outside Charleston.

In marked contrast to elsewhere across the state, where residents remain riveted by the scandal of Gov. Mark Sanford's disappearing act and affair, Sullivan's Island is the cocoon protecting Jenny and the boys as they strive for normalcy.

But it has also been the first lady's war room, where she has given her wayward husband a public thrashing. In the process, she seems to have drawn a new path for the aggrieved spouse of a philandering politician, an episode that has become something of a ritual in American politics.

Outside the Sanford home, on Atlantic Avenue near the towering lighthouse, the cameras had disappeared this weekend. Kids splashed in a pool next door and their parents laid under the hot Carolina sun, while other residents biked and jogged along narrow streets lined with palm trees.

The entrance to the Sanford family's driveway was blocked by a security agent in a black sedan with tinted windows, but the Sanford boys could be seen riding their bicycles underneath a basketball hoop. Inside, Jenny Sanford packed to take them on a vacation and visitors streamed through. Her sister stopped by with her new baby, as did the family lawyer, in shorts and sandals and carrying a canvas beach bag.

It was just as Jenny Sanford would have it, her friends here said. She is not a victim, they said, but a survivor.

"Jenny is the hero in this story," said Cyndi Mosteller, a longtime friend and a prominent Republican operative here. "She's the hero to her children, and I think she's the hero to this state. In the midst of this tragedy, she is standing strong to who she is and what she believes in. . . . I think Jenny has not had these types of ambitions, but I think every woman in South Carolina would vote for Jenny Sanford for governor right now."

For Mark Sanford to move South Carolina past a sex scandal that gripped the nation and embarrassed his state last week, family friends here said, he may need help from his wife, who has long been his chief political strategist.

When her husband first ran for Congress in 1994, Jenny Sanford had a 15-month-old and a newborn to care for. She ran the campaign from the basement of the cottage, a role she continued to play in other campaigns.

"He would have never won either of his governor's races without her -- no way," said Will Folks, Sanford's spokesman from 2001 to 2005. "She ran the show. He pointed the direction he wanted to go, and she was the bulldozer that cleared the path and got him there."

But that was all before her husband disappeared for days without letting anyone know where he was, then confessed that he had been in Argentina with his mistress. Maria Belen Chapur acknowledged Sunday in Buenos Aires that she had a relationship with the governor but said she otherwise would not talk about her private life.

"His career is not a concern of mine," Jenny Sanford told reporters camped at the end of her driveway as she left with her boys for a boat ride the other day. "He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children."

Her husband has been staying in the governor's mansion in Columbia since she kicked him out a few weeks ago. He spent several hours Thursday on Sullivan's Island, where he began trying to repair the damage.

Asked Friday about his marriage, he told reporters: "This goes into the personal zone. I'd simply say that Jenny has been absolutely magnanimous and gracious as a wonderful Christian woman in this process."

Here on Sullivan's Island, neighbors were reluctant to talk about what they called "the events" and said they have an abiding faith that the Sanfords will work it out -- privately.

Inside an art gallery, the owner was skittish of saying anything about the Sanfords, good or bad. "This is a very private community, and this is a personal family issue," Julie Sweat said as she readied her shop for an art show.

Next door at the Green Heron, a small grocery store on the main drag, a sign read "EVACUATE, MEDIA SCUM."

"This was their place to get away from it all," said Jessamyn Jacobs, 47, a manager at Station 22 restaurant. "I feel sorry for them, and the poor woman."

In this small community of mostly full-time residents, everybody seems to know everybody -- and everybody seems to know everybody's business. But, said Taylor McLeod, 21, a barista at the coffee shop here, "It's not like Wisteria Lane, 'Desperate Housewives' standing on the corner gossiping. People keep to themselves and don't air other people's dirty laundry."

Lalla Lee Campsen, a close confidant, was with Jenny Sanford on Wednesday when the governor gave his rambling confession. "It was a day filled with sadness and great disappointment, as well as love, support and hope from family and friends," Campsen said in an e-mail. "It was also a day when Jenny exuded, perhaps as never before, her great strength of character."

Friends said the written statement she issued was classic Jenny Sanford. She told the world that she loves her husband and would strive to repair their marriage, but that she asked him to leave because it was "important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect and my basic sense of right and wrong."

"Did you read her statement?" asked Marjory Wentworth, a family friend and South Carolina's poet laureate. "Brilliant, gracious, effervescent."

Jennifer Sullivan Sanford was born into a wealthy Irish Catholic family in suburban Chicago and graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a degree in finance. She took a job handling mergers and acquisitions on Wall Street, rising to become a vice president at Lazard Freres & Co.

She met Mark Sanford, who was working at Goldman Sachs, at a party in the Hamptons and soon they were married. He was itching to enter politics, friends said, so she gave up an investment banking career to devote herself to raising a family and her husband's ambitions. The Sanfords settled in South Carolina's Low Country, not far from his family's plantation.

Discussing her previous life with the Associated Press once, Jenny Sanford said, "Leaving it and coming down here and following this nice young boy from Carolina was a big jump."

And jump she did. The Sanford house was in a perpetual state of constructive chaos, friends said. Jenny Sanford would be folding laundry and cooking dinner while on the telephone with campaign advisers about what the next television advertisement would say. She oversaw his staff, drafted speeches, set policy and raised money. She even baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for reporters and other guests.

Sanford, who still speaks with a hint of a Chicago accent, combines the grace and hospitality of a Southern belle with the street-smart toughness of a Northern businesswoman. Campaign staffers joked that she is "an Old Testament woman with a 170 IQ."

"Make no mistake: She's the person who at the end of the day talking with the governor has the most influence on him," said state Sen. Tom Davis (R), Mark Sanford's longtime friend and former chief of staff. "Jenny was always one to speak her mind. She's absolutely fearless."

Now it appears her husband has to plot his next moves without her firepower.

Sunday, Jenny Sanford and the boys left Sullivan's Island for their vacation -- outside the state.

[maddog0802]

thank God Jenny's not another spineless stand-by-her-man politician's wife. And him asking her permission to go see his mistress?! Man what balls he has! (or that stupid!) If I had tried that with my wife, guess what I'd be.....ball-LESS! Good for you Jenny....give the cheating lying stimulus-grandstanding scum HELL!!!!

[babooph]

Sounds like he was dominated & looked for some more relaxed life.

[skyk-2009]

The times they are a changing!

[stevex47]

There's some flattering pics of her on cnn. She's really lovely. Not sure what the dude was thinking.

[artorus]

So all it takes to be a hero is to be the wife of a cheating governor? ******* weak ass country.

[zonkzilla]

"Nah, she's just trying to make sure that he doesn't eat a revolver and leave her stuck without an income source."

Jenny Sanford is a multi millionaire on her own right and could buy and sell Mark Sanford 20 times or more and everyone in The Hamptons, Hilton Head, and Kiawah Island knows this.
Compared to Jenny Sanford's net worth, Mark Sanford is just trailer park trash.

[zonkzilla]

I guess the people of South Carolina now wish Jenny Sanford had been elected and not Mark Sanford. We can see who was the character and drive behind that couple and who really should have been elected.
Jenny Sanford is a fine looking woman and wealthy and since Mark Sanford does not want her, I am sure there are thousands of good honest men who do.
Jenny can definitely do a lot better than the creep she married. She is too good for him.
If Mark Sanford had any courage or character he would resign and then the people of SC could appoint Jenny Sanford as interim governor.

[jumkey]

She's a hero because her husband cheated on her? And this make her governor material?

The Republican Party has become the party of professional victims. Having no ethical or moral members they are reduced to lionizing the victims of their abuse.

THe Republican Party is simply a collection of sociopaths apparently.

[culturechang]

This does not make her a "hero". She did not do anything. I feel for her humiliation, but hero status isn't there.

[John_Merritt]

There are no heroes in this sad saga of failed romance and family values. In the eyes of the children, there are no heroes. In the eyes of Jenny and Mark, both will agree they or the other are not heroes. To the rest of us, we feel sorry for both of them because they both failed their children. And for anyone to side with Jenny not knowing the 'true story' of Mark's sin (sin is nothing more than missing the mark) does not believe that there are two stories to be told; and the truth usually lies somewhere in between. So if I was Mark and Jenny, keep quiet on all sides unless you want things exposed that you do not want the world to know about. Capice

[andacar]

"Missing the mark?" You make marital honesty and fidelity sound like an archery contest. And I suppose there's "another side" to this, the dishonest, hypocritical, lying governor's "side." In my opinion, the truth is NOT always "in the middle." The governor bellowed at us about family values for years and at the same time lied and covered up a tawdry affair. That is pretty straightforward to me.

[saturn05]

She maybe should have some sympathy for having a scumbag husband, but come on. She knew about the affair, why would we care that much?

[funslideds]

no no no.

Sanford actually asked his wife if he could take two of his younger kids with him and "go out to lunch" with an old friend.

The "old friend" had his two sisters watch the kids while Sanford and said friend 'had a good time'.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

These disgusting, detestable men and their affairs. I hope that Mr. Sanford's political career is destroyed and that he suffers for what he has done. I get so tired of hearing he "made a mistake" or he "had a lapse in judgment". What part of marriage is unclear? I wish Mrs. Sanford the best and hope she comes to her senses and keeps him where he belongs; somewhere else. He's nothing but scum.

[ianlou]

We should legalize prostitution in this country.
This would insure that the only men seeking marrage would be those who
honestly want all that marrage offeres beyond sax.

Women could then avoid the other 75% of the men in this country who would not consider marrage if sax was redally available without breaking any laws.

We should legalize prostitution in this country.
This would insure for women, that the only men seeking marriage would be those who
honestly want all that marriage offers beyond sax thus women could more easily avoid ?these disgusting, detestable men and their affairs?

Unfortunately, legalizing prostitution would VASTLY limit the number of men who are willing to risk the pitfalls of marriage if sax was legally available without marriage.

I think I have pinpointed the real reason prostitution is illegal.

[ianlou]

Sometimes its hard to be a woman
Giving all your love to just one man
You'll have bad times
And he'll have good times
Doing things that you don't understand
But if you love him you'll forgive him
Even though he's hard to understand
And if you love him
Oh be proud of him
'Cause after all he's just a man
Stand by your man
Give him two arms to cling to
And something warm to come to
When nights are cold and lonely
Stand by your man
And tell the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man
Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man

The State Song of South Carolina.

[Bayou123]

Hero? Her husband had another woman. That doesn't make her a hero!

[ubrew12]

Apparently, if you're Hillary Clinton you're a chump. If you're Jenny Sanford you're a hero. Go figure.

[Ichabod09]

Fifty per cent of marriages end in divorce. Half of the remaining fifty per cent are miserable. And the remaining twenty five per cent are lying through their teeth.

And the gays are screaming for the right to marry?

[ubrew12]

Why shouldn't they be just as miserable as the rest of us?

[formrusmcsgt]

The world is full of dishonest people.

Sanford is obviously one of those who will lie and cheat rather than end a relationship as an honest person would.

[parrots7]

Next door at the Green Heron, a small grocery store on the main drag, a sign read "EVACUATE, MEDIA SCUM."

I'll bet, it was the Media that made him Cheat on his wife . Dumb SC Repug!

[skyk-2009]

Yep they don't come much worse than that bunch of crackers!

[petesis]

Sounds like to me she is trying to get him back under her thumb. She is working on their marriage? Take the hint woman, the guy went to Argentina to be with his mistress. If she could take a hint maybe she would have been taking care of business at home. The poor idiot Governor. He should resign and go to Argentina to be with the woman that actually loves him. Just my opinion.