SC lieutenant governor resigns amid probe of campaign expenses for personal items

COLUMBIA, S.C. â€"  South Carolina Lt. Gov. Ken Ard resigned Friday amid a criminal investigation into whether he spent campaign money on personal items. 

Ard stepped down at 10 a.m. Friday in a letter given to Gov. Nikki Haley and state Senate leaders. He also issued a statement, saying he was sorry and it was his responsibility to make sure his 2010 campaign money was spent correctly. 

"There are no excuses, nor is there need to share blame. It is my fault that the events of the past year have taken place," Ard said in the statement. 

Two hours later, Sen. Glenn McConnell announced he would become the state's next lieutenant governor. The announcement was a surprise. The 64-year-old Charleston Republican has been in the Senate for 31 years and leader of the body for the past decade, amassing a vast amount of power. 

Some senators thought he might step aside briefly and let someone else become lieutenant governor, which has little power except to preside over the Senate. 

McConnell's decision came after a closed-door meeting with legislative leaders. 

"I have decided I have a moral obligation to my oath of office and the constitution of this state," McConnell said in a statement. "It is an obligation that compels me to do the right thing no matter how difficult it may me to me personally." 

Ard has been under a legal cloud for several months. The state grand jury began investigating Ard in July. The 48-year-old Republican has already paid a $48,000 ethics fine for using money from his campaign to pay for personal items, like clothes, football tickets and a flat-screen TV. 

Attorney General Alan Wilson, who oversees the grand jury, has called a news conference with State Law Enforcement Division chief Mark Keel for 1 p.m. Friday. Wilson's office refused to say what Wilson would discuss. 

Ard easily won election in 2010, and then freely spent campaign cash on tickets to the 2010 Southeastern Conference title game where South Carolina's football team played, as well as iPads, clothes, a flat-screen television and video game system. One spending spree at a Best Buy emptied $3,056 from his account. 

Ard paid the $48,000 fine in July after being hit with 107 civil counts of using campaign cash for personal expenses that also included a family vacation, clothes and meals. He also had to pay $12,500 to cover the costs of the state Ethics Commission investigation and had to reimburse his campaign $12,000. 

Within two weeks, Wilson set up a task force to review the ethics findings and referred the investigation to the state grand jury to determine whether it merited criminal prosecution. 

Ard promised full cooperation with the investigations and said he, too, had sought a full review on the day the grand jury news broke. However, the attorney general's office said Ard had only sought a State Law Enforcement Division investigation -- something that would have delayed the grand jury's work. 

The lieutenant governor is paid $46,545 for the part-time job. He presides over the Senate when it is in session and also is in charge of the state Office on Aging. 

Haley issued a statement thanking Ard for his service and wishing him and his family the best. 

"I look forward to continuing the progress South Carolina has made in the last 15 months with our next lieutenant governor," Haley said. 

Ard had only served two terms on the Florence County Council before he decided to run for lieutenant governor, beating an Army reservist and a former director of the state Insurance Commission for the Republican nomination in 2010. 

He touted his business experience, which included a truck body manufacturing plant, a convenience store and centipede grass farms. 

Ard bankrolled much of his campaign with personal loans, and questions about Ard's post-election spending were first raised by the Free Times, a Columbia weekly newspaper. 

Ard defended and justified the spending in a January 2011 interview with the publication. 

"I'll be honest, I'm not really good at dotting i's and crossing t's, but I've got a lot -- a lot -- of money in here and I'm certainly not spending any money on my own personal behalf. ... I've got a vast amount of my personal wealth tied up in this campaign and I'm just trying to recoup as much of that as I can," he said. 

The investigation of Ard marks the second time in two years a top state politician has had ethics charges reviewed for criminal prosecution. Then-Gov. Mark Sanford faced questions in 2009 after the Ethics Commission looked into his use of state planes, campaign cash and first-class travel after his revelation that he had an affair with a woman in Argentina. The GOP-dominated House issued a formal rebuke but did not impeach Sanford. 

Sanford paid $74,000 in ethics fines and $36,498 to cover the investigation and other costs -- the largest ethics fines on record. He also agreed to reimburse his campaign and state agencies for $29,736 in travel and personal expenses. 

Then-Attorney General Henry McMaster, a Republican, reviewed the Sanford case but said he found nothing worth prosecuting.

Article from FOXNEWS