“Jenny Stanford did not stand by her man — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford — as he made a rambling, tearful apology last summer for an affair with a woman in Argentina.

But she felt a strong desire to make a statement.

“Not a sound bite,” she says in her new memoir, Staying True, “but to really let the world know where I was coming from.”

For the full story go to:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123411066

“…And now we’ve got South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford, the Beyonce of buttoned-down political wives…I don’t mean whether to stay married or not; that’s solely up to the people in the marriage. But you can decide what sort of image to project, both to the world and to your spouse. Beyoncé sings that the cheater is the one who loses out, and in the case of Mark and Jenny Sanford, that’s clear. He’s the butt of jokes about the Appalachian Trail, and she’s got the buzz about a new political career.”

For the full story go to:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/02/06/a_beyonc_brand_of_feminism/

In Her Book “Staying True,” Jenny Sanford Dishes with Dignity

For the full story go to:
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/02/10/in-her-book-staying-true-jenny-sanford-dishes-with-dignity/

The idea that Jenny Sanford wrote her memoir Staying True to mollify her sons, as she told the New York Times, is quite comical if you’ve actually read the book. There is no child who needs to know precisely when and how his father lied to his mother about the mistress in Argentina and how she watched him disintegrate into a pleading, heartsick fool. Sanford’s tone is studiously not vengeful, and yet this book is an act of revenge. As well it should be, since the poor woman was married to the most doltish specimen of a husband this side of John Edwards—a fact she elaborates on in exquisite detail for future generations of Sanford men to chew on.

For the full story go to: http://www.slate.com/id/2244253/

“Here’s a sign of the times: when Jenny Sanford sat down to tell her young sons that their father, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, was having an affair, one of them reacted in an unusually worldly way.

“Oh my gosh,” exclaimed 13-year-old Bolton Sanford. “This is going to be worse than Eliot Spitzer.”

For the full story go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/books/04book.html

“THERE is a tradition here at the governor’s mansion, that a first lady leaves her mark. The most recent mistress chose to upgrade the gardens. On this chilly, winter-dormant morning, a visitor could only imagine the springtime blooming of her camellias, hydrangeas and Confederate jasmine, the orange trees in urns standing guard at the archway.”

For the full story go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/fashion/07jenny.html

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2868

February 13, 2010, 2:00 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
Mt. Pleasant Towne Centre
1716 Towne Centre Way
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina 29464

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2973

February 16, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
The Book Stall at Chestnut Court
811 Elm St # Ll
Winnetka, Illinois 60093-2295

http://www.thebookstall.com/

By ANDY BARR

Jenny Sanford used one of her last speaking opportunities as South Carolina’s first lady to call on more of her fellow Republican women to run for office.

Sanford — on the verge of starting divorce proceedings with her husband, GOP Gov. Mark Sanford, next month — used a state GOP lunch Thursday featuring three former South Carolina first ladies to make a plea to the women of her state.

“Women understand the conservative issues as well as any man. We run our households and our families, and we don’t live beyond our means,” Sanford said to a room full of the state’s most powerful Republican women, according to the first lady’s notes of the speech, which were obtained by POLITICO.

“We balance our checkbooks as we seek balance in our lives. We care about our security, health and well-being, quality education for our children and hope for their future,” she added. “We need more women and more true conservatives involved in all levels of government to bring common sense and efficiency to our big, bureaucratic government.”

Sanford, a former investment banker and the ex-campaign manager for her husband’s runs for congress and governor, is rumored to be exploring a political career of her own after she divorces her husband. And like any GOP pol on the stump, Sanford touted her some of her conservative credentials by pointing to cost-cutting measures she undertook in the first lady’s office.

“Using good old-fashioned common sense, I was able to reorganize the operations at the governor’s mansion and save the taxpayers more than $1.5 million over the years I lived there,” she said. “As first lady I saw, up close, many of the challenges we face in this great state, and I saw the need for more true conservatives in all levels of government.”

Sanford has greatly increased her political profile since her husband’s admission to an affair in June, stepping out more on her own and crafting a public persona completely separate from the embattled governor.

Sanford endorsed long-shot Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley independently of her husband in November, the same month that she launched her own website operated outside of the first lady’s office. In February, she’ll start a book tour for her much-anticipated memoir.

In her speech, Sanford singled out Haley — a young Indian-American woman from Lexington County with a record of reform and a favorite among national party leaders.

“Women across our state are making a difference in so many ways, whether they are seeking elected office, as my good friend Nikki Haley is, or whether they are supporting a spouse as candidate or elected official or whether they are championing an issue or cause in their own manner,” she said.

South Carolina’s soon-to-be-ex-first lady concluded her remarks by calling on the women in the room to help reform a state which is predominately run by white men.

“We have the power to change the course our state and nation are on by being involved, and making sure other common sense, conservative women are involved as well,” she said. “Thank you for the privilege of serving.”

By BRUCE SMITH

CHARLESTON — Jenny Sanford, in perhaps one of her last official duties as South Carolina’s first lady, said Thursday that not enough women are involved in politics in the state.

She received a standing ovation as she took the podium at a state GOP women’s luncheon, telling the audience of about 200 that women have made strides since she came to the state but more needs to be done.

Jenny Sanford filed for divorce last year after Gov. Mark Sanford admitted to an affair with an Argentine woman. The divorce will be finalized next month.

“I was honored to serve this area first as a congressional spouse, and I’m honored right now to be serving as first lady, at least for a little while longer,” she said to scattered laughter from the crowd.

Before becoming governor, Sanford, with his wife overseeing his campaigns, was elected to Congress from the 1st Congressional District on the South Carolina coast.

Jenny Sanford, a Georgetown-educated, former Wall Street vice president, said in the two decades she has been in the state, women have advanced in both business and politics.

“But we still have so far to go,” she said.

Three former first ladies of Republican governors also were honored – Mary Wood Beasley, Iris Campbell and Anne Edwards.

By GINA SMITH

South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford’s memoir will be released Feb. 5, months before the initial May publication date announced last fall.

The 240-page memoir, entitled “Staying True,” will “recall her shock and anguish upon discovering that her husband was having an affair with a woman in Argentina, and the further pain when she learned — just a day ahead of most Americans — that he had not ended the affair when she believed he had,” according to the book’s publisher, Ballantine Books, a division of Random House.

“She reveals the source of her determination to be honest and forthright instead of the victim in the tabloid passion play that gripped the nation in June 2009,” reads promotional material from the book’s publisher.

While Mark and Jenny Sanford are due in divorce court next month, the book’s release has not been timed to coincide with the proceeding, said Theresa Zoro, Jenny Sanford’s publicist.

“It was done and we wanted to get it out there,” Zoro said.