With a Special Election Win, Mark Sanford Completes His Comeback

Overcoming the disgrace of a bizarre extramarital affair while he was governor of South Carolina, former Rep. Mark Sanford reclaimed a seat in Congress on Tuesday by winning a special election over Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Sanford was leading 53-46 percent in incomplete returns and several news organizations called the race early Tuesday evening.

Sanford’s victory, which came despite the National Republican Congressional Committee withdrawing its support for his campaign, completes a remarkable political comeback just four years after he was a late-night comic’s punch line.

The special election in the 1st Congressional District fills the seat left vacant after Republican Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to the Senate late last year.

For Democrats, the loss will elicit questions about why the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and its outside allies invested roughly $1 million in the race even after national Republicans decided to stay out of it. And it will reaffirm doubts that Democrats can win in conservative districts, even against personally flawed Republicans.

Sanford’s victory shouldn’t be a surprise, because of the district’s heavy Republican lean—Scott won more than 60 percent of the vote in his 2012 reelection. But the onetime governor’s well-known personal foibles and a strenuous campaign that seemed to magnify those faults led many to doubt he could win the election.

Making the race more difficult was his opponent, whose well-known brother, satirist and talk-show host Stephen Colbert, helped her raise money nationally, while her own deep roots in the district appealed to local voters. Colbert Busch touted herself as an independent voice, criticizing President Obama’s health care reform while pointing to her business background as proof she could help the country grow jobs.

But in the end, voters appeared more persuaded by the argument that Colbert Busch would be another ally for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a line Sanford pushed frequently during the campaign.

For Sanford, the win is a near-miraculous turnaround. His political career appeared over in 2009 when he admitted to an extramarital affair with an Argentinian woman, acknowledging he lied to his aides when he told them he was “hiking the Appalachian Trail” while visiting her out of the country. He remained governor, but talk of a White House run—he had been seen as a contender for the GOP nomination—ended abruptly.

Sanford, who served three terms in Congress from 1995 to 2001, decided to run for his old congressional seat in the state’s Low Country after Scott was appointed to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Jim DeMint. The former governor was the leading vote-getter among a pack of Republicans in the primary and won a runoff for the GOP nomination with relative ease against an underfunded opponent.

Sanford looked like the early favorite against Colbert Busch, but revelations that his ex-wife, Jenny Sanford, had accused him of trespassing at her home in February threatened to damage his already flawed image among voters, especially women. The NRCC announced it would no longer support his campaign, fearful that other harmful revelations about Sanford would come out before the election.

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Obama urges graduates to blunt special interests by getting involved

By Roberta Rampton

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Sunday urged college graduates to participate in politics and said that without broad public involvement special interest groups can defeat legislation supported by the majority.

Obama, who said he is "obsessed with this issue" of inspiring citizens to engage with the political system, in a commencement address to Ohio State University was indirectly referring to the recent defeat of a proposal to expand background checks for gun purchases.

The measure enjoyed broad support among Americans but was defeated in the U.S. Senate.

Obama told students they need to vote and run for office and said that giving in to cynicism gives room for lobbyists and "the well-connected" to get their way in Washington.

"That's how a small minority of lawmakers get cover to defeat something the vast majority of their constituents want," he told the crowd of more than 57,000 at Ohio State University, including the 10,000 graduates.

Gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association have lobbied heavily against Obama's gun control proposals made in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting.

Obama and his supporters have said that it is up to voters to hold their elected representatives accountable for the vote.

"Class of 2013: you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be. But it requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship," he said.

The president said tragedies of the past year have shown how Americans can come together for the common good.

Obama said Americans have shown how citizens can help communities recover from disaster like Hurricane Sandy last year, the recent Boston Marathon bombings and the December school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

"In the aftermath of darkest tragedy, we have seen the American spirit at its brightest," Obama said.

"We've seen courage and compassion, a sense of civic duty, and a recognition that we are not a collection of strangers."

Obama's remarks come as polls by the Harvard University Institute of Politics show that the "millennial" crop of students - an age bracket that supported him in his election campaigns - is becoming fed up with politics.

Obama usually delivers a few commencement addresses each spring. The Ohio State University address is his first.

He will also speak at Morehouse College in Atlanta on May 19, and at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland on May 24.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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France, allies want special force for Mali U.N. mission

By John Irish and Michelle Nichols

PARIS/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France and its African allies want a heavily armed force able to counter any resurgent Islamist threat in Mali as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, diplomats said.

The United Nations is considering setting up a 10,000-strong force in the former French colony before presidential and legislative elections in July, a deadline a European diplomat described on Tuesday as "a race against time".

U.N. deputy peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet is in the Malian capital Bamako this week to assess options for a peacekeeping mission once a French-led military intervention that began two months ago is completed.

A heavily armed rapid-reaction force, similar to the unit proposed for a U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, would be a departure from its typically more passive peacekeeper operations.

In practical terms, U.N. diplomats say, troops in the rapid-response force would have more freedom to open fire without being required to wait until they are attacked first, a limitation that is standard for U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the world.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to deliver a report to the Security Council with peacekeeping recommendations for Mali by the end of the month, and diplomats hope a vote could take place by mid-April.

"The discussion so far in the council shows that a consensus is there (for a peacekeeping mission)," said a senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Diplomats said the vote hinged on the security situation.

France launched a ground and air operation in January to break Islamist rebels' hold on the northern two-thirds of Mali, saying the militants posed a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.

French and Chadian troops are engaged in heavy fighting in northeast Mali, where Islamist militants have taken refuge, and hope to secure the region by the end of the month.

Paris then wants to start winding down its 4,000 troops with a view to handing over to the African force, AFISMA, that would later fall under the U.N. peacekeeping mandate.

AFISMA comprises about 6,000 troops, mainly from West Africa, including more than 2,000 Chadians. Other than Chad's contingent, most African elements remain in the south of Mali away from the fighting.

"We'd like to see the non-Chadians go north to Gao and Timbuktu so that the focus can be on the final phase in the extreme north," the European diplomat said.

"After that, we're talking about a peacekeeping force of 10,000 soldiers."

RAPID INTERVENTION FORCE

However, there are fears that militants could launch a guerrilla-style insurgency marked by suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids on towns, leaving the U.N. force exposed.

A rapid-reaction force to counter this threat could retain battle-hardened Chadian troops, but also include elements from new forces such as Burundi, which has played a key role in fighting Islamists in Somalia.

France's role in that framework has yet to be defined, but diplomats say talks center on French elements being based either in Mali or elsewhere in the region and intervening if needed.

"It would be under French control, but approved by the United Nations," said the European diplomat.

Financing is also an issue. About $450 million in donations pledged last month in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to fund African and Malian troop operations have failed to materialize, leaving a burden on AFISMA countries, diplomats said.

Once the Security Council authorizes the deployment of a peacekeeping mission - which would take at least two months - the U.N. would equip, finance and support most of the troops and give them human rights training, the U.N. official said.

(Writing by John Irish; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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