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"I want to thank my God," Sanford said. "I used to cringe when somebody would say I want to thank my God because at that point I would think this is getting uncomfortable. But once you really receive God's grace and (have) seen it reflected in others you stop and acknowledge that grace and the difference He has made in my life and in so many lives across this state and across this nation."

The former three-term congressman and two-term governor saw his political career sidelined four years ago when he disappeared from the state only to return and confess to an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman to whom he is now engaged.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) -- Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday cleared another hurdle in his bid for a political comeback, defeating a former county council member to win the GOP nomination for a vacant U.S. House seat. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Sanford had about 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Curtis Bostic, a former Charleston County Council member. The candidates were vying Tuesday in a GOP runoff in the 1st Congressional District, which covers the south coast. Sanford will face Elizabeth Colbert Busch and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt in a May...

‘Mark Sanford Gets Resurrected” — it’s the perfect headline for Easter Week. Sanford, the South Carolina congressman-turned-governor who fell from grace (and from office) when he surreptitiously slipped off to Argentina to meet a lover, is back. Polls seem to indicate that he’ll coast to victory in a runoff against Curtis Bostic to fill the House seat Tim Scott vacated when he was appointed to the Senate. Though Bostic has positioned himself as far to the right as possible — the URL for his campaign website is StopSpending.com, and Rick Santorum recently stumped for him — Sanford has touted his...

Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is facing a runoff against Curtis Bostic for the GOP nomination for the state’s 1st Congressional District seat, which was vacated when Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate. One would think that Sanford’s infamous abandonment of his post to indulge in a fling with his Argentinian mistress would disqualify him from serious consideration by those who treasure “family values” or who think using public money for a dalliance isn’t the sign of a true fiscal conservative.more...

<p>Charleston, S.C. -- Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, whose political career was derailed four years ago because of his affair with an Argentine woman, is attempting an improbable comeback.</p> <p>Once mentioned as a potential 2012 GOP presidential contender, the 52-year-old Republican said Wednesday he will run for his old congressional seat in his home district along the South Carolina coast. Sanford, a penny-pinching conservative long before the Tea Party movement, said he is done apologizing for the affair and wants to restore "fiscal sanity" to Washington. He believes voters are ready to give him another shot in office.</p>

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has narrowed her list of potential Senate appointees down to five — including the state’s former first lady Jenny Sanford. A person close to the process confirms that the five names under “active consideration” are Sanford, Rep. Tim Scott, Rep. Trey Gowdy, former state attorney general Henry McMaster and Catherine Templeton, the director of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

<p>George Zimmerman's defense team wants educational and disciplinary records for Trayvon Martin, the Miami Gardens teen Zimmerman shot Feb. 26 in Sanford, according to a new post on the defense's blog.</p> <p>Zimmerman's team posted this morning that it has begun its discovery process, issuing several subpoenas aimed at gathering records on Trayvon's school history dating back to middle school.</p>

Mark Sanford, the disgraced former South Carolina governor, is engaged to the Argentinian mistress who cost him his political career. Sanford, 52, surprised journalist María Belén Chapur last week with a wedding proposal in Buenos Aires that left them both crying and promising to stay together forever.

Special Prosecutor Angela Corey's office today released 76 new pages of evidence in the George Zimmerman second-degree murder case, including dozens of pages of records the state did not intend to make public. The new documents included a grainy photo depicting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's body, George Zimmerman's school records, from high school and Seminole State College, and his application for the Seminole County sheriff's Citizens Law Enforcement Academy.

A potential witness in the case against George Zimmerman has testified that the neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing Florida teen Trayvon Martin molested her when they were both children. The unidentified woman told the Duval County State Attorney’s office that Zimmerman began abusing her when she was 6 and continued until she was 16, MyFoxOrlando.com reports. Zimmerman is older than the woman by a little more than a year. The woman also told police that Zimmerman and his family do not like African-Americans. Phone calls Zimmerman made from the Seminole County Jail were also released. A total of 140...

Trayvon Martin's parents to appear in Little Rock A news release says the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives, meeting in Little Rock next week, will hear from the parents of Trayvon Martin at a civil rights breakfast at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Martin is the 17-year-old black youth shot in Sanford, Fla., in a case that has drawn worldwide attention for the police's initial decision not to charge the shooter, George Zimmerman, though Martin was unarmed. Also speaking will be former Little Rock Mayor Lottie Shackelford. Awards also are planned, including to the Little Rock Nine; to Keith Jackson...

Sanford Commissioner Patty Mahany reacts

(CNN) - Sanford, Florida, Police Chief Bill Lee, who drew criticism for his department's actions in the Trayvon Martin case, was fired Wednesday, his spokeswoman said. Spokeswoman Sara Brady said Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte made the decision. Lee had submitted a resignation letter in April that said he was stepping down, but city commissioners voted not to accept it. In March, he had said he was stepping down temporarily in the wake of the public furor over the failure of the police to arrest George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who has said his shooting of Martin on February...

ORLANDO, Fla. – George Zimmerman accused the Sanford police department of corruption more than a year before he shot Trayvon Martin, saying at a public forum the agency covered up the beating of a black homeless man by the son of a white officer.

SANFORD – As the world eagerly awaits the release of never-before-seen evidence in the case against George Zimmerman, employees for Special Prosecutor Angela Corey late this afternoon provided a preview in the form of an eight-page document. The paperwork, filed with the Seminole County clerk as closing time approached, listed several witnesses the state plans to call and identified several pieces of the evidence prosecutors expect to use in their scond-degree murder case against Zimmerman. Most names were redacted from the document, but six civilian witnesses were listed: Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin — parents of the alleged victim, Trayvon...

When the Trayvon Martin case first started garnering national attention, there were many that thought they knew who George Zimmerman was: an overzealous racist with a vendetta against young black men who was on a mission to assert power with his gun. But then little details started emerging, such as pictures of Zimmerman’s bloody head that could bolster his self-defense claim; CNN even backtracked and said the tape it once suggested showed Zimmerman uttering a racist slur was actually him most likely saying it was “cold.” And now, Reuters has put together a detailed profile of Zimmerman that seems to...

April 25, 2012 Sanford commission rejects police chief's resignation Commissioner Patti Mahany on her decision, Zimmerman case

Patty Mahany, part of a majority voting 3--2 to reject Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee's resignation, goes on a rant Monday against those who attacked the city over it's handling of the Trayvon Martin case. I feel this city was invaded... Somebody's got to stand up for our city, somebody's got to say 'we are not a racist city, we are a great city, and we have a great police department.'

The Sanford, Florida, City Commission decided Monday not to accept the proposed resignation of its embattled police chief, who has been under fire for the handling of the investigation into Trayvon Martin's death in February. Chief Bill Lee has been on leave since March 22, a day after the commission expressed a lack of confidence in him for how he's handled the investigation. George Zimmerman, who has said he killed the 17-year-old Martin in self-defense, was not arrested after being questioned by police the night of the shooting. He was charged weeks later with second-degree murder. Earlier Monday, the city...