Long Before Affair, Sanford Fibbed About His Youth in Fort Lauderdale

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Neither side wants to admit it, but we South Floridians have something in common with philandering South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford: namely, a South Florida residence, however fleeting. A Fort Lauderdale native, Sanford prefers that voters in his current state regard him as a Carolina farm boy. Before he ever lied about going on nature hikes when he was actually following a booty call to the Southern Hemisphere, Sanford lied about growing up among us.

"Growing up on a family farm in South Carolina taught me about hard work and responsibility."

That is the sound bite that opened the campaign ad during Sanford's first gubernatorial campaign in 2002. It was accompanied by video of Sanford driving a pickup around a South Carolina farm. This National Journal article, which fails to note the factual inaccuracy of the line, has a link to the video.

In an Associated Press article from that period, Sanford defended the ad from criticism by the state's Democrats, pointing out that although he was raised in Fort Lauderdale by his doctor father, the family made frequent visits to a farm in Beaufort County, South Carolina, and that he "most certainly did grow up on that farm,"