Jindal doesn't tell Dardenne when he leaves state
Last Modified: Friday, July 13, 2012 2:33 PM
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal doesn't notify Louisiana's second-ranking official when he travels out of state, even though Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne technically becomes governor whenever Jindal leaves.
The Republican governor has been out-of-state more than 25 percent of the time since May, campaigning for Republican presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney, raising money for GOP causes and candidates and participating in conferences.
Dardenne told The Advocate that he's never received any notification that Jindal was traveling out of state since he's been lieutenant governor. Dardenne has been in the job since 2010.
"I'm not whining about this or kicking and screaming. It's in response to your inquiry," Dardenne told the newspaper. But he added, "From a policy and protocol standpoint, it would be nice to know in case I need to be called into service."
Jindal spokeswoman Shannon Bates said in a statement that the governor remains governor wherever he is.
However, the Louisiana Constitution says, "When the governor is temporarily absent from the state, the lieutenant governor shall act as governor."
From May 3 through Thursday, Jindal was traveling 20 days during the 73-day period, according to news releases from the governor's office that announced when Jindal headed to 15 different states.
Previous governors Kathleen Blanco and Mike Foster said they told the lieutenant governor when they left the state while in office.
"It's just good for the lieutenant governor to have that conscious level of awareness," Blanco said.
Foster said, "We did it out of courtesy."
Both Blanco and Dardenne described times when governors and lieutenant governors were both going to be away from Louisiana and told the state's third-ranking official — the secretary of state — in case something happened.
Posted By: Dwight On: 7/14/2012
Title: typical
This Governor only believes in the constitution when it's to his advantage.
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