Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 29, 1990 TAG: 9006290402
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: HOT SPRINGS LENGTH: Long
Wilder, who appointed Patricia Kluge to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors earlier this year, declined to amplify on the friendship, which has become the object of speculation in newspaper columns in The New York Post and The Washington Times in recent weeks.
"We're friends," Wilder said at The Homestead just before a fund-raiser sponsored by the Democratic Legislative Caucus. "Both of the Kluges are friends and that is it."
John and Patricia Kluge, who separated about two months ago, were Wilder's largest contributors during his race for governor, giving $200,000. They also were co-chairmen of his Inaugural Committee.
Wilder, who is divorced, also refused to talk about his use of state aircraft to pick up and deliver Patricia Kluge in recent months.
"The logs [of the state plane and helicopter] speak for themselves," Wilder said. Pressed about specific flights to Albemarle Farms, the Kluge's sprawling Southern Albemarle County estate, and to Charlottesville, Wilder would answer only "like I said . . . like I said," the logs speak for themselves.
A source who works on Albemarle Farms said Patricia Kluge has talked openly about spending the Memorial Day weekend with Wilder at Camp Pendleton, the Coast Guard-operated compound near Virginia Beach. The camp has several cabins and has been used frequently by recent governors for holidays. The source, who asked not to be identified, also said Kluge joined Wilder on Nantucket for a four-day weekend June 7-10.
Records of Wilder's use of state aircraft those two weekends appear to bear out the story.
State police records of Wilder's use of the state helicopter show the aircraft traveled to Albemarle Farms on the way to and from Camp Pendleton over the Memorial Day weekend.
Records of Wilder's use of the state's jet show he used the craft for the Nantucket trip and that early on June 11, the plane departed with Wilder, a security agent and one passenger, stopping at the Charlottesville-Albemarle airport on the way back to Richmond.
Wilder has promised to repay the state $6,300 for the personal flights he has taken on the state jet, including the one to Nantucket and another in March to Long Island, N.Y. The governor is not billed for trips on the state helicopter, a twin-engine Bell 222 that state police say costs about $300 an hour to operate.
Wilder would not say whether he intends to repay the state for personal trips on the helicopter. The Washington Post has estimated Wilder's helicopter expenses in just over five months in office at $20,000. He has spent another $30,000 in flights, most of it out of state. The state had budgeted $52,000 for gubernatorial travel, with a smaller but unknown amount in the state police budget for helicopter flights.
Neither of Wilder's Democratic predecessors, Sen. Charles Robb and Gerald Baliles, used state aircraft for personal travel, spokesmen for each said. Chris Bridge, Baliles' press secretary, said the unwritten policy was that Baliles did not use state aircraft for personal travel unless it was in conjunction with state business.
David McCloud, Robb's chief of staff as governor, said Robb most often used the car provided to the governor for travel within three hours of Richmond. If the governor was pressed for time, he used the helicopter, McCloud said.
However, McCloud said Robb used the state plane so infrequently that a study was conducted midway through his term of possible other uses for it.
"We were very sensitive about what could be written" about Robb's travel, said McCloud, adding that he does not think Robb was too cautious. "We were very concerned about the perception that might be brought about by someone using public transportation for private travel."
Robb's predecessor, Republican Gov. John Dalton, was criticized for liberal use of state transportation, especially an out-of-state trip he took by plane while his limousine drove there to carry him around.
Republicans and some Democratic legislators said Thursday that they think Wilder should at least promptly reimburse the state for the airplane and helicopter.
Joe Elton, executive director of the Virginia Republican Party, blasted Wilder as being "extravagant and hypocritical."
Elton said that at the same time Wilder has ordered deep cuts in state spending to meet shrinking state revenues, his personal travel shows Virginians "he means do what I say, not what I do."
He called on the governor to reimburse the state for any personal or political travel and said Wilder's meetings with Kluge "are the kind of thing that has ruined many a politician."
State Sen. Dudley "Buzz" Emick, D-Fincastle, said, "I have a strong belief that all government officials should not use state-provided transportation for purely personal trips." He said Wilder must repay the state for the use of both helicopter and airplane for private purposes.
"Not only does he have to, I think you can force him to," Emick said.
John Kluge is listed by Forbes Magazine as the nation's wealthiest man, with an estimated estate worth more than $5 billion. Patricia Kluge, 41, has been a primary organizer of the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville. Her current marriage is her second.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on July 8, 1990\ Correction
Because of a reporter's error, a story in the morning editions June 29 and an editorial in all editions on July 2 incorrectly identified the agency that runs Camp Pendleton at Virginia Beach. The Virginia National Guard operates the compound.
Memo: correction