Public officials certainly should have the expectation of something resembling a private life. We shouldn’t expect them to be chained to their desks, 24/7. Still, the brouhaha swirling around Gov. Bev Perdue’s weekend trip to Kentucky is getting interesting.
As Dome reported Saturday evening, the governor’s office provided no statement for hours after tornadoes touched down mid-afternoon. Nor was Perdue present at an 8 p.m. media briefing with emergency officials. The initial response from Communications Director Chrissy Pearson was that Perdue was out of town tending to a “family obligation” and that she would return to Raleigh late that evening.
Then the story turned bizarre. The next report from spokesman Mark Johnson said Perdue was visiting with college buddies in Kentucky, attending the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, a slate of thoroughbred horse races, and chatting with Kentucky’s Democratic governor. A staffer at the News & Observer was on the same commercial flight (which departed Kentucky at 8:45 p.m.) that Perdue took to Raleigh.
Or maybe she didn’t go to the races after all. A blogger at WWAY-TV in Wilmington got a terse response from Pearson today, saying she wasn’t at the races, and “Don’t believe everything you read in the N&O.”
So in one fell swoop, the governor (or at least a key adviser) threw her deputy communications director and the capital daily under the bus. (Before joining Perdue’s staff, Mark Johnson worked for McClatchy, the N&O’s owner, so this could be seen as a trifecta, which could have scored the governor some serious coin had she hit that at the track.)
Again, public officials have the right to private lives. Why her press staff was so disorganized is anyone’s guess. The storms were lethal and horrific. Perhaps they were (understandably) overwhelmed by the chaos.
But the situation raises a couple of other questions. Was Perdue doing any fundraising in Kentucky? If so, did she seek out any donors after word of the storms reached her? Were there plans in place to have some sort of transition of power to Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton in case weather made it impossible Perdue to return for a day or longer? And though she rushed back to Raleigh Saturday night, when was she planning to veto House Bill 383, the measure combining a continuing budget resolution with an extension of unemployment benefits? Perdue’s office issued a veto message Saturday. But before the storms hit, the implication was clear that she was going to stay in Kentucky until Sunday. Can a governor veto a bill while she’s not present in the state?
UPDATE: Politico.com picked up on the story as well, calling it an “Appalachian Trail” moment for Perdue, recalling former Gov. Mark Sanford’s MIA experience of a year or so ago.
UPDATE 2: Josh Ellis of State Government Radio tweets to point out that the lieutenant governor serves as acting governor any time chief executive is out of state (Article III, Section 3(2), N.C. Constitution.) No transition plans were needed.
