South Carolina’s embattled governor has announced no plans to resign. But half of his constituents believe he should, according to a new InsiderAdvantage poll.

The survey questioned 926 registered voters just hours after Gov. Mark Sanford’s public announcement that he had left the state without notice for nearly a week to visit a woman in Argentina with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

The state capital city’s newspaper of record has yet to join the chorus of those calling for the governor’s resignation. “The State” published an editorial declaring, “Indeed, it is within Mr. Sanford’s power to not only make amends to our state but reverse what seemed destined to be one of the lamest of lame-duck periods in our state’s history.”

Sanford, who is limited to serving two terms as governor, will step down in January 2011 — provided his political career can survive the remaining year and a half in office.

The governor’s fiscal conservatism — in particular his failed attempt to refuse federal stimulus funds earmarked for South Carolina –  has caused him to butt heads with state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. And while some of the governor’s political enemies have already seized on Sanford’s moral indiscretions in hopes of giving him the boot, other legislators may find it more advantageous to leave a weakened executive in office.

Democrats will likely seize on Sanford’s personal failings in South Carolina’s next gubernatorial election. What the GOP must decide is what helps or hurts the party more — allowing a controversial Republican to finish his term in the state’s most high-profile office or giving the post to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, also a Republican, who would have just over a year to get the office in order before facing the next gubernatorial election in November 2010.

Bauer, often critical of Sanford in the past, may have already answered that question when he told reporters, the governor should remain in office.