Here's my little contribution to Sunshine Week: A story in today's New Mexican about how I've been waiting for nearly six months to find out how much state money was used to pay for Gov. Susana Martinez, her staff and police security detail for out-of-state travel.
To be fair, I've been waiting six months for info on about half the trips and only three and a half months or so for the other half.
While the Governor's Office has provided dates and destinations of the trips, the state Department of Finance & Administration has claimed my requests were "broad" so more time -- months and months more time -- is needed to compile the information.
The travel for which we still don't know how much taxpayers shelled out are:
* June 28-29: Martinez spoke at an Ohio State Republican Party dinner in Columbus, Ohio
* July 9: Funeral in Prescott, Ariz for 19 firefighters, members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshots who lost their lives fighting a wildfire northwest of Phoenix. (Only days before they died, the team had been in New Mexico battling the Thompson Ridge Fire in the Jemez Mountains.)
* July 12-15: Spoke in Miami at the annual conference for Maverick PAC, a political action committee co-chaired by Jeb Bush Jr.
* July 23-26: Republican Governor's Conference meetings in Aspen, Colo.
* Aug. 22 to 23: U.S. Manufacturing Summit in Orlando, Fla. Martinez was part of a state delegation to attend the event.
* Aug. 23-25: Political fundraiser in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
* Sept. 8-12: Political fundraisers in Philadelphia, New York City and Midland, Texas
* Oct. 7-10: Political fundraisers in Scottsdale, Ariz, and Dallas and Austin.
* Oct. 16-17: Keynote speaker at Texas Federation of Republican Women convention plus political fundraisers in San Antonio* Oct. 20-21: Political fundraisers in Oklahoma City
* Oct. 22-24: Political fundraisers in Denver and events for Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin
* Nov. 3-6: Campaigning in New Jersey with Gov. Chris Christie
* Nov. 19-24 Republican Governors Association meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.
* Dec. 13-14 Lobo game and political fundraisers in Kansas City
I'll soon be submitting more public records records requests related to the governor's out-of-state travel for dates after Dec. 14.
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