ATLANTA — Ken Ard resigned Friday as South Carolina’s lieutenant governor. A few hours later, he was indicted on misdemeanor charges of violating the state ethics act stemming from a campaign-finance scandal.
And before the end of the day, the Republican lawmaker who once touted the “common sense and fiscal discipline” he had learned in the family business, had pleaded guilty to seven ethics charges. He allegedly used campaign funds to buy iPads and a Playstation video-game console.
“During my campaign, it was my responsibility to make sure things were done correctly. I did not do that,” Ard, 48, said in a statement. “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.”
A state judge sentenced Ard, who was elected in November 2010, to five years’ probation, a $5,000 fine and 300 hours of community service.
Those penalties are in addition to a $48,400 fine levied in July by the ethics commission after it found that Ard used campaign funds to pay for fuel, meals, hotel rooms, electronics, clothing for his wife and tickets to the Southeastern Conference championship football game.
Glenn McConnell, a fellow Republican and the Senate’s president pro tempore, said he would step into the position as mandated in the state constitution, even though it would arguably mean a loss of power because the lieutenant governor’s post is largely ceremonial.
Ard’s was the latest in a series of scandals that have rocked high-profile lawmakers in the South Carolina GOP. Among other incidents, a state treasurer resigned in 2007 after a cocaine possession indictment, and in 2009, then-Gov. Mark Sanford confessed to an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman after disappearing from his office to visit her.
It is not clear what effect those dramas and others will have on the party in one of the nation’s most conservative states. The party holds all nine statewide offices and controls both legislative chambers.
“I valued Ken’s partnership and wish Ken and his family all of the best going forward,” said Gov. Nikki Haley said in a statement Friday.
