By Dan McCue

COLUMBIA -- Exactly a week after Thomas Ravenel resigned as state treasurer to fight federal cocaine trafficking charges, Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday endorsed two possible successors, including Tim Scott, the current chairman of the Charleston County Council.

The General Assembly is set to reconvene for a special session in Columbia on Friday to deal with the vacancy.

In making his endorsement known, Sanford called on the Legislature to look outside its ranks to find a qualified, reform-minded treasurer. If elected, Scott, a financial services professional, independent businessman and longtime chairman of the county council, would be the first black to serve in a constitutional office in South Carolina since Reconstruction.

Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for the governor, said Scott had indicated his interest in the post a few weeks ago and has since been engaged in “serious discussions” about the office both with the governor and his staff.

“I think one thing the governor is saying by endorsing Tim Scott is that the General Assembly should not just limit itself to 170 people,” Sawyer said. “At the same time, Tim Scott is eminently qualified through both his public and private life, and I think the governor also sees this as an historic opportunity, a time to break away from a 130-year history of not having an African-American serve in a state constitutional office.”

If the General Assembly indicated an inclination to pick someone from within its own ranks, Sanford said he would endorse Sen. W. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken.

Ravenel returned to South Carolina on July 22 after a month-long stay at an Arizona drug treatment facility following his indictment on charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He resigned two days later, shortly before he appeared in the U.S. District Court in Columbia to answer the charges.

Ravenel’s attorneys, E. Bart Daniel and Gedney M. Howe III, both of Charleston, had previously entered a not guilty plea on his behalf while he was receiving treatment at the Sierra Tucson Center in Tucson, Ariz.

Since Ravenel’s indictment, former gubernatorial candidate Ken Wingate has been serving as interim state treasurer. While the state constitution gives the governor the authority to fill a vacancy among constitutional officers on an interim basis, it provides the General Assembly with the authority to choose a permanent replacement.

In announcing his endorsement, Sanford also highlighted the effect the General Assembly’s choice would have on the future of the state Budget and Control Board, which manages the operation of the state government.

Ravenel had been closely aligned with Sanford and state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, giving the governor control of the five-member board.

In his message to the Legislature, Sanford said choosing Scott or Ryberg would be consistent with the voters’ call in November for reform of the Budget and Control Board, “particularly in light of the recent GEAR report that highlighted $550 million in potential savings at that agency.”

In mid-July the S.C. Government Efficiency and Accountability Review Committee,  a nine-member board charged with analyzing the systems and services provided by the board found that it had too much authority over the operating arms of the state government and that it often acted “arbitrarily and sometimes capriciously simply by hiding behind a tangled web of legislation.”

Despite Sanford’s endorsement of two possible candidates, it’s now likely that the Legislature will choose a treasurer that would be more closely aligned with its two existing members on the board.

Ravenel’s replacement would fill the remainder of his term, which ends in 2010.