INDIANAPOLIS | Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson on Monday added several Northwest Indiana stops to the list of taxpayer-funded trips she wants Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels to explain.
"We've found several instances of inappropriate use of state resources -- from using them to travel to his vacation home in West Virginia, to campaign stops. And there could be more," said Long Thompson campaign manager Travis Lowe. "If any of it has been for personal or political business, then Mitch Daniels should fully reimburse the state."
The travel flap began with an Aug. 31 Fort Wayne newspaper analysis showing Daniels mixes events such as parades and Lincoln Day Dinners -- traditional GOP fundraisers -- with state business, such as jobs announcements, when he travels in state airplanes and helicopters.
The Long Thompson campaign filed a state ethics complaint and a records request with the governor's office earlier this month. After receiving a flight log from the state last week, Lowe raised questions Monday about more than three dozen flights, calling on Daniels to release full itineraries, passenger logs and similar details.
"Gov. Mitch Daniels and this administration have done everything completely by the book," responded Cam Savage, spokesman for the Mitch for Governor Campaign. He declined to answer questions about specific trips.
The travel in question includes an Aug. 3 flight in which a state airplane apparently picked up Daniels at his vacation home in West Virginia and shuttled him to Griffith-Merrillville Airport. The governor witnessed goat judging that day during a visit to the Lake County Fair in Crown Point.
Dozens more flights from January 2007 through Sept. 9 are documented in a three-page spreadsheet attributed to the Aviation Department of the Indiana Department of Administration.
The Long Thompson campaign points to a March 7 trip in which a state plane flew Daniels to and from Gary. The governor spoke at a Times-hosted business awards luncheon that afternoon in Merrillville, stuck around for a $500-a-plate re-election campaign fundraiser at the Radisson Hotel and then flew back to Indianapolis on the state plane.
