Texas Today

as reported on the dallas morning news website:

Mr. Perry’s official schedule, obtained by The Dallas Morning News under a Public Information Act request, notes several days when the governor had “no state scheduled events.”

In October, Mr. Perry’s schedule shows 11 weekdays on which he conducted no state business, including Oct. 17, the day he endorsed Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani for president at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

He also had “no state scheduled events” on Dec. 18. Instead, he was speaking to voters in Charleston, S.C.

“I’d rather be in Texas today, but I’m here because I believe in this guy,” he told Giuliani supporters.

Whether he would have rather been in Texas on dozens of other days last fall is unclear.

Mr. Perry’s official schedule does not indicate where he was on 10 non-holiday weekdays in November. During some of that time he was encouraging voters in Iowa and South Carolina to cast their ballots for Mr. Giuliani.

According to campaign finance records, Mr. Giuliani’s campaign paid travel expenses for Mr. Perry and campaign staffers to Washington, D.C., and Iowa.

Not all his time out of state was spent pushing his pick for president. In late November, Mr. Perry attended the Republican Governors Association conference in California, where he was elected the group’s chairman.

“When you have a state that is very successful, like Texas, you get a number of opportunities to demonstrate that to the rest of the country,” said Mr. Perry’s spokesman, Robert Black. “From education to transportation to tort reform, other states look to Texas. The governor is always happy to take that Texas message out on the road.”

While he’s out on the road, Mr. Perry is still on the Texas payroll. The top official’s salary is “not reduced during the governor’s absence from the state,” according to the state budget.