By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

A former S.C. State Ports Authority board member dismissed by Gov. Mark Sanford on Jan. 7 has filed suit in the Lexington County Circuit Court, charging the governor exceeded his powers when he removed him.

Sanford pulled Carroll A. “Tumpy” Campbell III, son of former Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. and a one-time political ally, from the board citing a potential conflict of interest regarding the state’s lobbying rules.

While Campbell acknowledges ports authority board members serve at the discretion of the governor, he told SC BIZ that documents released to the media concerning the dismissal, as well as published comments by the governor’s staff, showed that he was dismissed for cause.

Campbell maintained that gives him a right to appeal the governor’s action to the circuit court.

The break between the two men came after Campbell, whose term was set to expire in 2010, established what he describes as simply a consulting firm in Columbia in 2005.

The issue reached a flashpoint in April 2007 when Campbell announced that his Carroll Campbell & Associates had established a Columbia office and hired Russell Munn and Nikki Hutchison, two well established lobbying specialists.

Joel Sawyer, a Sanford spokesman said that announcement started a series of conversations between the governor, his staff and Campbell.

“This is something we struggled with, but the decision we ultimately arrived at was not a surprise,” Sawyer said. “We told Tumpy all along that our position was that if it’s not OK to for a registered lobbyist to sit on a state board, how can it be OK for the owner and operator of a lobbying firm to sit on a board?”

“It’s a matter of honoring the spirit as well as the letter of the law,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said the governor had not yet been served with a copy of the suit and therefore could not comment on its specifics.

“We’ll take a look when and if we are (served), but there’s no question in our minds that the governor was on very solid ground in exercising his removal power,” Sawyer said.