Remember that debate, no... family vacation? Errr... couple hours of RGA work?

UPDATE: Further investigation on ORESTAR reveals that Chris Dudley was also reimbursed for one plane ticket on United to Aspen. (Ironically, my husband took the exact same United flight the week following Dudley's trip and it cost EXACTLY the same.)

Given that Dudley was so adamant that the trip was a family vacation, and that he told Lars Larson that he did "a couple hours of work", should the campaign be paying for this trip at all? Even if these charges were for a staffer, that's quite a hefty hotel charge. Also, whoever bought the plane ticket got an upgrade. Must be nice working for the Dudley Campaign.














A real-time charge for a United upgrade:














Frequent Flyers: Please feel free to corroborate or refute. These charges EXACTLY match my husband's who took that same flight (with upgrade) the following week.


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Weirdness surrounds the Chris Dudley family vacation back in July.

Recap: Dudley begged out of the ONPA debate because he had a pre-scheduled family vacation.

"Chris made a commitment to his family and he's going to uphold that commitment," said campaign spokesman Leroy Coleman.

Then it was revealed that he was caught in a lie when the Republican Governor's Association tweeted that they had spent a "productive couple of days" with Dudley. Those tweets were promptly removed so as not to implicate The Tall One in a lie. Too late! The Dudley Camp is then in the awkward position of having to explain that vacation/RGA meeting overlap (from Mapes' column):

Dudley's spokesman, LeRoy Coleman, said Dudley had long before blocked out a period of Wednesday through Saturday for a vacation in Aspen with his family. He chose that location in part because of the GOP meeting, Coleman said.

So imagine our surprise while sipping coffee in bed on a fine Saturday morning and scanning Dudley's campaign expenditures when we ran across this (click to enlarge):















Yup, that would be the hotel charge for the 2010 Dudley Family Summer Vacation Extravaganza and Debate Dodge. And it's a reimbursement. It's not illegal. At least, I don't think it is. But to be sure, we've written the Secretary of State and inquired.

However, it still eludes to an Honesty Problem and a problem if you happened to have donated to his campaign. You might have purchased a family vacation at a luxury hotel in Aspen for a family that can afford to buy its own vacation or even its own house in Aspen. I think it warrants an explanation because controversy has been surrounding this event from the git-go.

Gosh... A free vacation in Aspen in July sounds wonderful.