COLUMBIA, S.C., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- South Carolinians are not eager for Republican Gov. Mark Sanford's impeachment despite publicity surrounding ethics questions, a poll indicates.
The Ethics Commission dropped most of the 37 charges leveled against Sanford, and even with his confessional letters and calls for his resignation, only 36 percent of voters favored turfing him, a Rasmussen Reports poll released Friday showed.
40 percent favored impeachment after the news broke in June of Sanford's slipping out of the country without letting anyone know and his confession to a long-standing affair with an Argentinean woman he called his "soul mate," The (Columbia, S.C.) State reported.
A House panel considering impeachment said it would only consider nine of the 37 State Ethics Commission charges against Sanford, the newspaper said.
Censure is also an option and will be discussed in January when the full Legislature returns to session.
"I think the people of this state are just weary of it," said Republican political analyst Neal Thigpen. "This summer, it was most all people wanted to talk about. Now you can't scare up a conversation about it."
