July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Governor Mark Sanford’s battles with fellow Republicans who run South Carolina’s Legislature have left him with few allies as he tries to stave off calls for his resignation after admitting to an extramarital affair.

“There is clearly a growing view” among state Republican leaders “that the time may have come for Governor Sanford to remove himself and his family from the limelight,” South Carolina party Chairwoman Karen Floyd said in a statement yesterday.

“The crisis the governor imposed by his abuse of office is the people’s business and must come to an end,” said a statement by state Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler and five Republican colleagues.

Sanford’s dealings with his own party were difficult even before his disclosure of the affair. He fought with the Legislature this year over his effort to reject millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds; the state Supreme Court ordered him to take the money. Sanford, 49, once brought two pigs into the state House chamber to object to lawmakers’ spending proposals.

“Sanford doesn’t have any base level of support,” said Jim Guth, a political science professor at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. “Think back to the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Even at the end, there were a lot of Republicans defending him.”

‘Soul Mate’

Sanford has resisted calls to step down after telling a news conference last week about his unannounced flight to Argentina to meet his mistress. The calls got louder after the Associated Press quoted Sanford as saying in interviews this week that the woman, Maria Belen Chapur, was his “soul mate” and that he had relationships, though not sexual ones, with other women.

South Carolina’s law enforcement agency found that Sanford didn’t use state funds to visit Chapur, agency spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said today in an e-mail. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, a Republican, had asked for the probe.

Today, Sanford’s wife Jenny released a statement that said her husband’s behavior was “inexcusable” but that she was willing to forgive him, according to the Associated Press. She said her husband had said he wanted to save their marriage and that “for the sake of our boys I leave the door open to it,” AP said.

Weekend With Family

Sanford is leaving tomorrow to spend the July 4 weekend with his family in Florida, spokesman Joel Sawyer said in an e- mailed statement. The Sanfords hope to take a longer vacation later in the month, Sawyer said.

Floyd, the state Republican chairwoman, said she spoke with party leaders over the past few days and that they said Sanford needs to “devote his efforts full-time to repairing the damage in his personal life.”

U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, yesterday added his voice to those asking Sanford to step down. He said he delivered that message in two conversations with Sanford this week.

“For the sake of our state, for the sake of his family, and all of us who love South Carolina, he needs to step down,” Barrett said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it is clear to me that in this environment, the governor is no longer capable of effectively leading the state.”

State Democratic Chairwoman Carol Fowler yesterday called for Sanford to resign.

‘Reprehensible Behavior’

“He has already revealed enough immoral and reprehensible behavior to justify asking him to step down,” Fowler said. “State officials seem unable to do anything except worry and talk about Governor Sanford’s extramarital affair.”

Sanford has shown no sign of backing down.

“The governor has given a full and truthful account, and he is finished discussing this matter,” Sawyer said in an e- mail yesterday. “He is focused on being governor, on rebuilding his marriage, and on building back the trust of South Carolinians.”

Sanford is barred by a term limit from seeking re-election in 2010. One thing working against his resignation is that Republicans jockeying to succeed him don’t want Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer to take over and then run as an incumbent next year, said Ferrel Guillory, a professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill who specializes in political trends in the South.

The Incumbent

“It’s easier to run for an open seat than to run against an incumbent,” Guillory said. “If the lieutenant governor became governor even for a short time, he becomes the incumbent.”

Sanford had dropped out of sight for about a week, resurfacing June 24 to acknowledge he had been in Argentina seeing Chapur, with whom he said he had a yearlong affair. He apologized at his news conference in Columbia and later said he would reimburse the state for travel to Argentina during a trade mission to South America last year.

He then elaborated on his relationship with Chapur, who he had known since 2001, in interviews with AP this week. They saw each other in New York as well as Argentina, he said.

Sanford told AP he had inappropriate contact with other women during his marriage though he didn’t have sex with them.

“You go to a place where you probably shouldn’t have gone,” Sanford told AP. “I let my guard down in all senses of the word without ever crossing the line that I crossed with this situation” during his affair with Chapur.

Sanford shouldn’t have talked to AP, said his former press secretary, Will Folks, who now edits the South Carolina political blog fitsnews.com.

“In the span of 24 hours, he went from having this thing in hand, if not licked, to being back on the ropes,” Folks said in an interview. “He’s in a worse position now than he was at the start.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Juliann Neher in Washington at jneher@bloomberg.net; Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 2, 2009 18:44 EDT