Complaint filed after newspaper reveals governor may have used state aircraft for political advantage

Election season is prime time for data mining and political investigations.

After the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind., reported that Gov. Mitch Daniels' 113 trips in the past 19 months included appearances that seem political, his opponent's campaign asked the state Inspector General to investigate:

Democrat Jill Long Thompson's campaign filed a complaint with the state Inspector General's office Wednesday seeking a formal investigation of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' election-year use of state aircraft.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate's campaign also filed a public records request seeking Daniels' travel logs and the e-mails, phone records and time sheets of all state workers who may have helped plan his trips or traveled with him.

The request comes about a week after The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne reported that Daniels logged about 85 percent as many flights in state aircraft in the first seven months of this election year as he did all of last year.

More here.

More coverage on this issue:

• Daniels' rival asks record probe; The Journal Gazette (Ind.)
• Rival hits Daniels on travel; The Journal Gazette (Ind.)
• Daniels treads fine line in state travel; The Journal Gazette (Ind.)