[© THE CHARLESTON POST & COURIER]
By JOHN FRANK
COLUMBIA—Now that school’s out for the summer, first lady Jenny Sanford resumes her primary job: being a mom. She spends most the summer months with her four children at the family’s Sullivan’s Island beach house. She gets help from her husband, Gov. Mark Sanford, when he comes down from Columbia on weekends.
It’s a job the first lady relishes, rather unlike the role she plays in the governor’s administration the’ rest of the year.
Jenny Sanford, 42, came under fire from state lawmakers during the legislative session that just ended for her involvement in the uproar about whether to privatize s state-owned Santee Cooper.
But her role in that matter is really just the beginning. In a recent interview, the first lady conceded that she participates in day-to-day operations of the state, including helping to make policy decisions. She is not a paid staffer, and her involvement comes at her husband’s request, she said.
“I have been incredibly supportive of my husband,” she said during an interview at the Governor’s Mansion. “In a nontraditional way, I do help at his office … and will continue to do so as long as he needs me.
“I wouldn’t say I enjoy it,” she added. “If I had my choice, I wouldn’t be involved at all.”
The first lady typically gets her children off to school and then goes to the governor’s office about 10 a.m. to attend morning meetings. Then, her husband assigns her various jobs.
“I pretty much am in his office in the mornings most days, and I do pretty much anything he wants me to do for him,” she said. “I help to bridge the gap between things that have been commonplace themes in his life and making sure everybody in the office is on pace with his agenda.” Mark and Jenny Sanford both declined to disclose the specific tasks, but the governor said her duties typically relate to numbers.
She does “anything and everything,” said the governor…