Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Gov. Rick Perry

According to their official calendars, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst may have enjoyed easy living the first three months of this year, compared with other top state leaders.

Perry had state-related events to attend on fewer than 40 days of the year's first quarter, counting a parade, a coach's salute and two Washington dinners. The state's chief executive, who plans to seek another term in 2010, had no state-scheduled events on 31 weekdays.

Craddick listed appointments on 32 weekdays, with 28 weekdays showing no state-related business.

And Dewhurst might have had as many as 25 weekdays lacking state-scheduled events, though the redacted calendar released by his office didn't permit a conclusive count.

The American-Statesman, using the Texas Public Information Act, requested official calendars covering the first three months of 2008 for the state's top six statewide elected executives and Craddick, all Republicans, to get a sense of what each leader does day to day. Although the calendars did not prove to be comprehensive accountings of their working hours, they yielded glimpses of how the officials spent their time. Filled in by interviews, the calendars also hinted at policy and political priorities — and suggested that the leaders rarely cross paths.

Robert Black, Perry's press secretary, noted that Perry assumed the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association this year and started promoting his book saluting the Boy Scouts.

"Both these events took up a considerable amount of the governor's time," Black said, "but working hard to elect more conservative governors across the nation and espousing the values and virtues of the Boy Scouts of America is well worth the effort."

Veronica Vargas Stidvent, who worked for George W. Bush when he was governor and as president, said, "Some of the hardest-working days I had in the government were those days when I had absolutely nothing on my calendar; we were working on closed-door projects."

Such calendars are rarely made available prospectively, that is, before officials attend the events on them.

Also, the calendars don't always illuminate political events such as fundraisers.

From January through March, for instance, Dewhurst had several appointments with individuals he hoped would contribute to his political kitty. In an interview, he did not identify the individuals.

Craddick's calendar, meanwhile, listed more than 30 political meetings or events for the period, without disclosing details.

Alexis DeLee, Craddick's spokeswoman, said Craddick's calendar didn't necessarily demonstrate when he was attending to state business. "A good portion of his time is spent on the phone taking care of state business, and that isn't shown on his calendar," DeLee said.

DeLee said, too, that Craddick visited with more legislators than the nine Republicans and three Democrats named in meeting with him on his calendar. "More often than not," she said, "members will stop by without a scheduled appointment, or he will see them at events."

Craddick and Perry were not available for interviews, while the other officials each said they weren't slacking on days when their schedules listed nothing happening.

"If I'm not at the beauty parlor," state Comptroller Susan Combs said, "I've got my nose to the grindstone."

In some cases, the calendars might have listed goals rather than actions.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he sometimes can't pick up his twins from school at 5 p.m. as noted on his calendar.

Attorney General Greg Abbott said that despite what his calendar says, he doesn't often make it home before 6 p.m.; his goal is to help his daughter with homework at least two nights a week.

"You really can't glean too much from the calendar," Abbott said. It doesn't show hours he devotes to overseeing the 4,000-employee agency, he said, including attention to legal matters, the agency's organization, and preparations for speeches, news conferences and interviews.

Dewhurst's office redacted the names of about 70 people he visited, though Dewhurst later identified many individuals, also revealing details such as scheduled haircuts, gym visits and surgery for a deviated septum.

Dewhurst, whose duties include oversight of the Texas Senate, said he works 60 to 80 hours a week keeping tabs on his private business, attending to political fundraising, reading letters and other materials, and visiting senators, constituents and government officials.

Among his activities, he said, were visits with the president of Baylor College of Medicine, a phone conversation about cancer research with Lance Armstrong and a conference call with senators so Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, could discuss resignation plans.

All of the officials left Austin in the three months, with most swinging through Washington, where Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples laid groundwork for a late-May Texas trade mission to Cuba, Combs briefed members of Congress, Dewhurst looked into changes in Medicaid funding and Abbott, in a trip paid for by his campaign, visited President Bush at the White House with other state attorneys general and held a campaign fundraiser.

According to their calendars, Patterson and Craddick did not travel out of state.

Patterson called his hike with reporters toward the Christmas Mountains the most significant event on his schedule for the period. Resulting stories, he said, enabled more Texans to learn that the mountains — which he has sought to sell — are nearly inaccessible.

Patterson, who pilots himself around the state, said the state appropriately paid for a Texas Monthly writer to fly with him from San Marcos in his two-seat airplane to reach West Texas for the hike. A reporter for the Big Bend Gazette joined the pair on the ground.

"It's absolutely state business. The public has a right to know," Patterson said.

According to the calendars, Abbott topped the other officials by giving more than 20 interviews to newspapers and TV and radio stations. Abbott said he turns down two to three times more interview requests than he accepts.

Perry gave a book interview to The New York Times Sunday Magazine and was interviewed by three national TV programs.

Perry devoted 20 to 40 minutes to an interview by Cole Blue, a fourth-grader whose parents drove him more than eight hours to the Capitol from their home in McComb, Miss. Wendy Blue, Cole's mother, said Perry sang the state song, "Texas, Our Texas," and "talked and talked and talked and talked." Her son fielded a grade of 104 for his project.

"Fun," Blue said. "We had a great time."