From the Los Angeles Times:
Reporting from 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.
