Het archief van de vrouw van de gouverneur

Jenny Sanford was tot begin 2010 getrouwd met Mark Sanford, de gouverneur van South Carolina. In 2009 scheidden ze van tafel en bed omdat hij met zijn vriendinnetje naar Argentinië was gevlogen en zes dagen onvindbaar was. Tot zover niets bijzonders, maar...
Een paar weken geleden bleek dat mevrouw Sanford haar hele persoonlijke archief heeft gedoneerd aan de bibliotheek van de College of Charleston.

In a recent interview, Jenny Sanford said she was moving last August and needed to downsize. “I was either going to donate them to someone who could use them, or throw them out. ”
She said she thought the materials would be especially useful to researchers interested in election campaigns. While married, she ran her husband's congressional and gubernatorial campaigns. They never lost an election.
Taken together, the materials provide a front-seat view of one of South Carolina's most dynamic political couples. Some materials are surprisingly personal and include a wedding album and emails the Sanfords sent each other in April 2009 about their unraveling marriage. They divorced later that year after Mark Sanford's public confession that he secretly left the state to visit his now-fiancee, Maria Belen Chapur, in Argentina.
The collection also contains thousands of letters, cards and emails that friends and strangers sent Jenny Sanford after the affair came to light. Many congratulated her for not standing by her husband during the news conference. Scores also wrote that they too had husbands and wives who were unfaithful. One suggested she move to Minnesota because of its good schools and wholesome values. During her book tour, a person handed her a voodoo doll with a note that said, “Don't get mad, get even.”

Nou vind ik het al apart dat het persoonlijke archief van "de vrouw van..." geacquireerd wordt, maar wat ik nog verbazingwekkender vind: het hele archief is volledig openbaar!

Some of the most revealing materials are notebooks of Jenny's from between 2004 and 2010, when her husband was governor. They're simple spiral notebooks that a college student might use, but inside are extensive notes that Jenny made about legislative battles and other issues.
On one page, she diagrammed a state of the state speech. On another she wrote about efforts to privatize Santee Cooper. “Santee Cooper — competitive process needed for study so no future questions arise re competitiveness of bid … Marshall wants to call number of banks and get proposals in writing.”
She scribbled notes to call Jon Lerner, a Washington, D.C., political consultant, and comments about some of her husband's bruising battles with the Legislature. In one, she apparently paraphrased a quote from powerful state Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence: “Leatherman — 'here b/f sanford, will remain after ms, ms will be footprints in the sand.' ”

Dat kunnen wij ons hier toch nauwelijks voorstellen.

Uit de inventaris blijkt trouwens dat er nog meer bijzondere dingen in het archief zitten, bijvoorbeeld een sieraard dat een cadeautje was van Fidel Castro en het voodoo-popje op de foto hierboven. In dit foto-album zie je nog meer foto's van delen van het archief.

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Plaatje: After Mark confessed to having an affair, a friend named Donnie sent a voodoo doll to Jenny. Jenny Sanford Collection, courtesy of College of Charleston Special Collections Department