Top McCain VP pick kills 'South Carolina is so gay' ad
 McCain VP candidate and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford recently killed a tourism advertising campaign that would have branded his state "so gay," according to the SC gay paper, Q Notes.
The state employee who approved the ad and was promptly forced to resign at the governor's urging, even though he or she apparently violated no state rules.
The ad, approved by a state official and posted in the London Tube during gay pride week, announced, "South Carolina is so gay." Sanford is in the running for a slot on McCain's ticket as Vice President, according to ABC News.
The state employee was called in to management and promptly resigned, according to a spokesman for the state's Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Sanford reportedly ordered a department head "to do the right thing personnel-wise or process-wise to ensure this does not happen again," Sanford's spokesman Joel Sawyer told Q-Notes.
"If the employee broke any rule in the conduct of her job, it was apparently an unwritten one," the paper said.
"I'm not sure if there were rules to follow," said Edmonds.
The governor's spokesman told the paper "the 'so gay' ad should have been "run up the flagpole," but did not know whether any standard procedures were violated at the time it was approved.
"It defies common sense that someone would sign off on an advertising campaign that controversial," he said.
An tourism expert told the Atlanta Journal Constitution Wednesday that the decision could cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue, given that the ad was lampooned nationally on shows like Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Gays and lesbians spend $712m annually on travel, according to one industry estimate.
Sanford stirred controversy earlier this week when he told reporters that removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina's statehouse grounds isn't a priority.
He said it would take "a tremendous amount of political capital to try and open a compromise," that'd he rather focus on "the things that will make the biggest difference in the most people's lives."
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