ow appropriate that Governor Paul Cellucci and Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift are politicking and partying this week at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. It's a fine metaphor for their 19 months together in office. It also helps to explain their woeful poll ratings.
Too often Cellucci and Swift have been out of state or away from work. When they are on the clock, they spend inordinate amounts of time on ceremonial, fund-raising, or other political aspects of the job. The time they spend on the less glamorous business of governing is unimpressive.
That's evident from our analysis of their ''official'' appointment calendars. We use quotation marks because the schedules, coughed up two months after we formally requested them, appear to be extensively edited (Read: sanitized).
Swift, whose tenure in office has been one long, well-earned public relations disaster, has a disturbing habit of mailing it in on Fridays, not occasionally but nearly every week. In 82 weeks, Swift's last official appointment ran to 4:30 p.m. or later only seven times on a Friday. On at least 14 other weeks, she took the day off (at times extending a long holiday weekend) or was out of town for official or political trips.
Most other weeks, it appears she knocked off early, sometimes very early. One Friday this past January, for instance, her only calendar entry is a 9:45 a.m. ''Snowmobile Legislative Ride'' in Plainfield. On the Friday before last Labor Day weekend, her only scheduled event was a 9:30 a.m. phone call to a county sheriff, apparently made from North Adams, her hometown.
On four other Friday schedules, her only event was over by 9:45 a.m.
Moreover, in 1999, she spent at least 31 days out of state at conferences, on trade missions (Israel and Mexico), or trips to Washington, plus a minimum of another 19 vacation days. In addition, several days were simply not accounted for in the package provided to the Globe.
This year, she's on a pace to exceed those numbers, having already piled up at least 36 travel or vacation days with a planned trade mission to Brazil and Argentina scheduled for this fall (she's already been to Germany and Switzerland this year). Totals for trade mission days include weekend days.
We include in that total of 36 two days this past February, which were missing from Swift's schedules sent to us. Fortunately, Cellucci's schedule includes a notation that his lieutenant was ''away'' those days. Apparently, the Cellucci-Swift redacting team failed to collaborate on that one.
Of course, the Guv is no slouch when it comes to globe-trotting. In 1999, he spent 52 days out of state, mostly trade-missioning or governors' conferencing. About a dozen of those days were personal vacation. Again, total days spent on trade missions include weekends.
This year, the total is already 38, with a Cellucci trade mission to Australia and Japan scheduled for November and campaigning for his pal, GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush, a certainty.
We include the period March 22 to April 1 in that total even though Cellucci's ''official'' schedule lists for that period only the word ''Hold.'' It turns out, those days were being ''held'' for his trade mission to China.
Cellucci deputy press secretary Jason Kauppi insists there was no editing of these schedules. That assertion falls somewhere between implausible and preposterous.
Scores of Cellucci and Swift meetings noted on the calendars given to the Globe identify neither a subject nor the participants. The notion that the actual schedules they work from on a daily basis would lack such basic information is inconceivable. On the off chance these are the genuine appointment entries, the schedulers should be fired.
Also absent is the address or purpose of the omnipresent ''receptions,'' usually held in the evening. That's because most, if not all, appear to have been fund-raisers.
In 1999, Cellucci logged 100 of them, occasionally turning a trifecta of three events per night. Swift notched 56 last year.
By contrast, Cellucci met with his Cabinet 34 times last year. He also met 279 times with members of his staff. That sounds more impressive than it is. The meetings averaged 21 minutes apiece, according to our calculations.
He spent at least that much time burnishing his public image, attending a total of 249 press conferences, photo opportunities, ribbon-cuttings, groundbreakings, proclamation and bill-signing ceremonies, and rallies.
There will be a few of those this week in Philly, so Cellucci and Swift should feel right at home.
