Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 25, 1990 TAG: 9006250275
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Wilder's travels began slowly. In his first six weeks in office, he made four out-of-state trips, three of them to the District of Columbia. But since the legislature adjourned in mid-March, his out-of-state travel has increased in frequency and length, and the trips now number more than three dozen.
Although Wilder's immediate predecessors - fellow Democrats Charles Robb, now a U.S. senator, and Gerald Baliles - became globe-trotters during their years in the governor's mansion, both stayed closer to home in their first year in office. At this point in his administration four years ago, Baliles had made three out-of-state trips; he made eight in his first year.
But Wilder is widely sought out from around the nation and around the globe. He is accepting many of those invitations at the same time he faces a state budget shortfall of $350 million dollars back home.
He has yet to travel overseas as governor, but in a meeting Thursday with Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Wilder told the Saudi Arabian ambassador that he will visit his nation next year. Wilder also plans to go to Japan, Taiwan and other Pacific Rim nations; Eastern Europe and Africa. Invitations from Israel, Uganda, Angola, Nigeria and Tunisia are under consideration.
Wilder's hectic schedule - this past week he spent Sunday night in Minneapolis; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights in Washington, and Friday night in Des Moines - is widely seen as an attempt by the governor to position himself for national office, in 1996 if not 1992.
Wilder contends that his frequent trips are good for Virginia, that they boost pride back home and are an incentive for economic development.
At an impromptu news conference in Richmond on Thursday, the day before he left for two days of politicking with Democratic candidates in Iowa, Wilder said "no one has complained to me" about the travels. A spokesman said the governor's office has received only one call complaining about his travels.
Wilder dismissed as callous a question about whether he is wasting taxpayers' money and emphasized that he spends "about 18 hours a day, seven days a week" on state business. He cut short his Iowa trip to give the commencement address Saturday night to the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria.
Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, called "wholly unbelievable" Wilder's contention that he is working night and day on state matters but said there is "certainly no scandal" in his trips.
"Name me a major politician, when given the opportunity to get on a national ticket, who wouldn't jump for it," Sabato said.
Wilder is smart to make the most of his uniqueness now, Sabato added, because he could have competition on the national scene if gubernatorial candidates Andrew Young in Georgia and Dianne Feinstein in California are elected later this year.
Wilder's press secretary, Laura Dillard, said the governor goes to great lengths to spend most weekdays in his office on the third floor of the Statehouse in Richmond. She emphasized that when Wilder went to New England earlier this month, for example, he flew black to Richmond, arriving about 1:30 in the morning, rather than stay overnight in New Hampshire, where he had made a political speech.
What she didn't make public, however, was that - according to a logbook at the state Department of Aviation - Wilder returned to New England the next day, using the state's jet, for a four-day stay on Nantucket Island.
Asked about that trip and an earlier one to Long Island, N.Y., neither of which appeared on the governor's public schedule, Dillard said Wilder has, or will, reimburse the state for the trips, which she described as personal.
Although Dillard said the governor has reimbursed the state for the Long Island trip, no record of payment was found at the state Department of Accounts.
Dillard said the governor's policy adviser, Walter A. McFarlane, determined early this year that it was "proper and appropriate" for Wilder to use state-owned aircraft for personal trips "if he cut a personal check" for them.
"When the trip is clearly political," Dillard said, "we can't use the state plane," or if the governor does, the sponsoring organization is supposed to reimburse the state.
Dillard said decisions on when to use the state plane are made by Wilder's chief of staff, J.T. Shropshire, appointments secretary Jacqueline Fritz and herself.
Dillard said Wilder tries to use private planes, donated by supporters, for political trips. That's what he did this weekend in Iowa, with a plane supplied by Northern Virginia developer Al Dwoskin.
Such trips will be listed as political contributions on Wilder's next conflict-of-interest statement, Dillard said.
The state budget includes $52,920 (reduced from $55,000 as a result of the governor's order that state agencies cut their budgets 2 percent) for travel by the governor or his staff on planes operated by the Department of Aviation.
by CNB