A former spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford is reporting on his Website that a presidential primary endorsement from South Carolina’s second-term chief executive is off the table.  Will Folks reported Thursday morning on FITSNews.com that two senior aides close to Sanford have confirmed their boss will not endorse anyone.

“Take it to the bank,” one of the aides told FITSNews. “He’s staying out.” [...]

Mind you, we’re not completely closing the book on a potential gubernatorial endorsement, but the reality is that the calendar is pretty much taking care of that for us. With just thirty days to go before South Carolina Republicans head to the polls, we’re fast approaching D-Day in terms of maximizing the media value of a high-profile endorsement like Sanford’s.

It’s unlikely anything will happen between now and the New Year as people start tuning out politics to spend time with their families, and if the first week of January passes with no word, the available media cycles become severely crammed.

It was a 50-50 bet as to whether or not Sanford would give his backing to anyone.  Since he’s on pretty much every short list for the vice presidential slot, this is a smart move to hedge his bets and not tick anybody off.

We reported back in October that the Columbia rumor mill was churning out reports that Sanford would back Giuliani, but that inevitably never happened.  The other candidate reportedly in the running for a gubernatorial nod was Mitt Romney.

Both of those candidates could still get Sanford’s support during the primary, as could any of the other three top-tier candidates, but that’s becoming increasingly unlikely.