Gov. Kaine made 14 DNC trips

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine took 14 trips as Democratic National Committee chairman during the first six months of 2009, according to records obtained Tuesday after an Associated Press open records request.

The information from State Police was released shortly after Kaine's office made public a five-page itinerary from January through last weekend showing 155 destinations outside greater Richmond. The AP made the request for the records under Virginia's Freedom of Information law

Kaine's list, reflecting stops as exotic as Casablanca and as close as Fairfax, did not distinguish between travel on state business or DNC work.

That became clear, however, from the police summary based on travel receipts the governor's protective detail submitted to allow the Democratic Party to reimburse the state for $7,515 in security costs.

The summary shows three DNC trips to New York City, two to Chicago and Florida and single visits to other cities in most every region of the continental United States, reflecting a busy schedule as Kaine carries out his dual duties.

It also shows that most party business trips were swings of several days. There were two four-day DNC missions and five three-day trips. Two of the multi-day sorties landed him at events in three separate states.

Yet it doesn't account for the totality of his DNC work. Many of the 41 trips he took into Washington, D.C., from Jan. 1 through last weekend combined official duties as governor, such as appearances in the northern Virginia suburbs and his monthly WTOP radio shows, with work at DNC's headquarters in Washington.

"I work all the time on state business. You can't get away from it when you're governor," he said in an interview last month.

With the two roles so closely connected on those trips, it's impossible for agents who act as his bodyguards to delineate party business from state work.

Kaine's travel became an issue when Virginia Republicans began claiming he was giving his state duties short shrift to attend to Democratic business. The state GOP chairman, Pat Mullins, and several Virginia news organizations, including The AP, requested the governor's travel records.

It took on additional urgency after South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford disappeared for several days last month, telling no one his whereabouts, only to tearfully admit when he returned that he had visited a mistress in Argentina.

Kaine's office rejected the GOP broad request for the records, including details on the governor's executive protection unit, and rejected many journalists' requests, citing an exemption to the open-records law and a state Supreme Court decision upholding it.