Chandler questions King’s overseas travel

Attorney General Gary King has traveled overseas on personal business at least nine times since taking office in January 2007. His opponent in the Nov. 2 election says that’s too much.

“When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” Republican Matt Chandler said during an AG candidate debate in Las Cruces on Sunday – a reference to the government corruption he contends King hasn’t pursued aggressively enough as attorney general.

King, a Democrat, countered at the debate that the state didn’t pay for any of his overseas trips except one – a trip to Geneva, Switzerland in May 2008. He said he traveled to Geneva at the request of federal officials to talk about New Mexico’s partnership with the state of Chihuahua, Mexico on combating human trafficking.

King was in Geneva on May 21 and 22 of that year, records obtained by NMPolitics.net show. The state paid almost $1,800 for lodging and airfare for that overnight trip.

King didn’t fly from New Mexico to Geneva. He flew from Bucharest, Romania, where he was with his wife, who was attending a meeting of a NATO panel she chaired. When King was finished with his business in Geneva, he flew back to Bucharest on the state’s dime.

Traveling with his wife, Yolanda Jones King, was the reason for the overseas trips, King said in a recent interview. His wife, who has a doctorate in physical chemistry, served until recently as the chair of NATO’s Research and Technology Organization’s Sensors and Electronic Technology Panel. She’s no longer on the panel.

When she did serve on the board, Yolanda Jones King had to travel twice a year to meetings. She said, during the recent interview with her husband, that there was a social aspect to the meetings and it was good to have her husband accompany her for reasons of protocol.

The countries King has visited

Because the state didn’t pay for most of Gary King’s overseas trips, the AG’s office doesn’t have records related to the costs of the trips. However, King’s government cell phone records reveal dates that he has been in a number of countries. He used his cell phone to check his voice mail, use the Internet or call numbers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque:

• From Poland and the Czech Republican between July 10 and 13, 2007.
• From the Netherlands on March 12, 2008.
• From Romania on May 22 and 23, 2008.
• From France on June 25, 2008.
• From France again between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1, 2008.
• From Slovenia between May 5 and 14, 2009.
• From Italy between June 22 and 24, 2009.
• From Taiwan between Oct. 9 and 11, 2009.

In addition, King submitted reimbursement to the AG’s office for use of an internationally capable Blackberry he rented while he was in Spain from April 30 to May 18, 2007. The cost to the state of that Blackberry rental was $343.47.

“The use of an international blackberry was necessary so that I could check e-mail related to important pending business matters for the Attorney General’s Office while out of the country,” King wrote in a June 13, 2007 letter to the state’s Department of Finance and Administration justifying the expense.

King didn’t use his government cell phone much during his other overseas trips. The cost of the international calls amounted to less than $300.

In touch with what’s happening in NM?

In an interview, Chandler said he’s not questioning the legality of King leaving the country so often during his tenure. He said everyone is entitled to a vacation, but he believes it’s inappropriate for King to be a “globetrotter” – spending so much time in other countries on personal business – when there’s important work to be done in New Mexico.

“We are dealing with an era of corruption,” Chandler said. “We need an attorney general that’s on the job and in tune with what’s happening in New Mexico.”

“We have to have someone that leads by example, and the lack of leadership in the Attorney General’s Office is indicated in the lack of results,” said Chandler, who has accused King of not being aggressive enough on corruption.

King said he has a Blackberry “that works all over the world,” and he has been able to stay in touch with his office from the places he’s visited. In fact, he said his Blackberry doesn’t work as well in Truth or Consequences as it has in many of the countries he has visited, so he’s sometimes more out of touch in parts of New Mexico than he was overseas.

“The way the world works now, you’re no more out of touch in Bucharest than you are in Washington, D.C.,” King said.

The AG said he likes traveling with his wife, and he noted that she often travels with him when he’s on the job as well. He said each pays their own way when they travel together while one is on business.