Globe-trotting governor spent more time outside New Mexico than in-state in recent weeks
May 31—Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has spent more time outside the state than in New Mexico over the past five weeks.
From attending the Kentucky Derby and leading a business and trade mission to the Netherlands to hobnobbing with actress Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame before the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C., the governor has been on the go-go-go since April 22.
"Gov. Lujan Grisham's busy travel and appointment schedule over the past month clearly demonstrates that she is working on behalf of New Mexicans even when she is not physically present in the state," spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said in a statement Friday.
"While there is no place the governor would rather be than New Mexico, sometimes advocating for our state on the national and international stage requires travel," she said.
Lujan Grisham shows no signs of slowing down.
She is scheduled to leave Saturday for Costa Rica to deliver a speech before a Democratic group, a trip her campaign is paying for, and she'll be attending the Western Governors' Association's 2024 annual meeting in Olympic Valley, Calif., from June 10-12.
McGinnis Porter disclosed the trip to Costa Rica, while the WGA, where Lujan Grisham currently serves as vice chair and will step into the role of chair after the meeting, announced her attendance in a news release Friday.
But New Mexicans wouldn't necessarily know about some of the governor's other international and domestic travel because her office — once again — hasn't been posting her schedule and list of appointments online.
Publication of her calendar, which her office promised to post on a weekly basis after Lujan Grisham was elected to her first term, only resumed following an inquiry from The New Mexican, the latest in a long string of lapses.
Michael Coleman, the governor's communications director, said the staffer typically in charge of posting the schedule online was on family medical leave for most of the past two months and only returned to the office this week.
"Unfortunately, the schedules did not get posted during this time," he wrote in an email. "Gov. Lujan Grisham's office takes transparency seriously and our communications team will make sure this doesn't happen again."
The calendar shows at least one trip out of state each week since April 22.
That day, she traveled to Frisco, Texas, for what her office called an official New Mexico Amigos reception at the Omni Frisco Hotel at the Star.
The New Mexico Amigos is a private, nonprofit and nonpartisan corporation of community leaders and is officially designated as the Goodwill Ambassadors for New Mexico, according to its website. "Its members are distinguished New Mexican civic, business, industrial and professional leaders who devote their time and financial support to the organization," the site says.
Two days later, on April 24, Lujan Grisham traveled with the group to Arkansas "for an official NM Amigos lunch and welcome" at the University of Arkansas football stadium, McGinnis Porter wrote in an email.
Lujan Grisham was back in New Mexico the next day but jetted off again April 27 for the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
That afternoon, a picture of the governor posing with Carter, the actress, was posted on her gubernatorial account on X, formerly Twitter.
"So much fun meeting @RealLyndaCarter and showing her my #WonderWoman ring [at Haddad Media President and CEO Tammy Haddad's] fabulous garden party today!" the post read, adding she was off next to the White House Correspondents' Dinner with President Joe Biden.
The following Saturday, May 4, Lujan Grisham was in Kentucky, where she attended the Kentucky Derby as part of a Democratic Governors Association event and then had dinner with the state's governor, Andy Beshear, according to her calendar.
By Monday afternoon, she was on a boat tour of Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark.
"The Governor flew into Copenhagen airport due to its proximity to Lund, Sweden, where she [traveled] to learn about their pilot electrification road program," McGinnis Porter wrote.
The calendar lists "travel" on May 9, followed by two "personal" days May 10 and 11.
By May 12, she was traveling again, according to the calendar.
Her office had announced a few days earlier the governor would be leading a business and trade mission to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to participate in the 2024 World Hydrogen Summit and Exhibition and meet with manufacturing companies interested in making investments in New Mexico.
Altogether, the calendar lists "international travel" May 6 to May 19.
On May 20, her office announced Lujan Grisham would be traveling New York City and Washington, D.C.
In New York City on May 22, the governor participated in a panel discussion on "Sustainable Investments for a Clean Energy Future" with Earth Day co-founder Steven Haft at the Smart City Expo USA.
The following day in the nation's capital, Lujan Grisham attended a White House State Dinner at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, according to a news release issued at the time.
"The dinner is in honor of His Excellency William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya, and Her Excellency Rachel Ruto," the news release stated, adding the governor would return to New Mexico on May 24.
Though the governor traveled frequently over that five-week period, she also conducted a lot of business, from meeting with members of her Cabinet and Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren to attending events.
Lujan Grisham, who has been called a surrogate for Biden's reelection campaign, also spent time on the phone with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and Emmy Ruiz, an assistant to the president and the White House director of political strategy and outreach.
Ruiz requested a meeting with the governor, McGinnis Porter wrote.
"Due to scheduling conflicts, they opted for a phone call instead of an in-person meeting. A call was scheduled on May 23 to catch up with the Governor ahead of the White House State Dinner," she wrote.
The call with Zients was to discuss New Mexico's "cannabis Border Patrol challenges," McGinnis Porter wrote, referring to the seizure of recreational and medical marijuana from licensed distributors at border checkpoints in the southern part of the state.
Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.