Sanford was making it clear who he was going to be supporting in the primary. He gave on-the-record favorable comments about her candidacy when she announced, and recently send out an email to Republicans across the state encouraging people to take a look at Nikki. He basically unofficially endorsed her already. He tied his name to her knowing that he had the potential to become politically cancerous to her campaign.

Nikki was hoping to be the “Sanford candidate” which would propel her among many conservative primary voters. Now she is losing someone who could have been a great stump partner and fundraiser for her.

Or maybe I am overblowing this? Maybe many of those Sanford “tea party” conservatives still love their governor and he is still an asset to Nikki. My gut tells me though she is going to have to take up the conservative reform agenda without relying on (or wanting)the help of Mark Sanford. There are going to be too many Republican voters who want to move on from him. I just wish Sanford would have thought of what he was doing before he tied himself to Nikki’s campaign early on. I am assuming neither Nikki nor Jon Lerner (who probably set up a lot of this cross-support) knew what the last two days would have done to Sanford.