As readers know, I requested the calendar files, since the beginning of 2007, from Sid Miller, our legislator. Shortly after I got them, my computer went south and I didn't get much of a chance to look again until last night. I thought it would be interesting to see what a legislator does with his or her time. So I compared the first TEC campaign finance report with the calendar information and put it into a time line. Here's the PDF of the firat 6 months in 2007.  And some comments I have along with it.

First up, I had thought that legislators didn't get paid much. But, this breakdown that compares teacher salaries to Texas Lege salaries includes, as of 2005, not only the salaries but the 108,000 paid to maintain district offices. And of course, as noted from the TEC (Texas Ethics Commission) reports, people contribute to the legislators and the legislators expense stuff out of that on reports. That's what's interesting.

Generally, I note that the calendars have lots of events listed on them, but that doesn't mean they were attended. The entries that have *Sid* next to them seem to be ones that he went to for sure, unless the events or appointments were cancelled. Second, look at all the events that are given for legislators. They can all eat high on the hog, get all the booze they want, go to hand-shaking and shmoozing sessions on just about any given day. In other words, I noticed on the expense report that Miller didn't expense his meals every single day. One would think, though, that he eats at least 2-3 times per day, so perhaps he, for example, went and had breakfast with Tom Craddick, who seems to have arranged this type of thing quite a bit.

Now for some details that stood out to me.

For some reason, even though Miller is paying out $1,125 a month for a home in Austin, he also paid a motel charge in January 2007.

Take a look at the lobbyists dinners. I plan to ask TEC about the reports, which the lobbyists also must file and tell what they spent on shmoozing people... and WHO, generally, they shmoozed. For example, on January 24, Miller went out to dinner with Debbie Keel, lobbyist for AT&T. Since he didn't file a charge for the meal, I assume that Keel did on hers.

It's comforting to see so many regular and local people in the district that Miller meets with, and quite a few meetings of that nature.

On Jan 30, Milller had dinner with Todd Smith. Todd Smith, if you look at tthe TEC reports, gets quite a bit of money all the time for consulting fees, so it may be that he picked up the cost of dinner at the Austin Club. However, there is no lobbyist report for Todd Smith for that month although he was (and possibly is, haven't looked in 2008) a registered lobbyist.  (P.S. If you click the link, you'll see Austin Club is quite the upscale place to eat).

Jan 31-wonder what that whole TAB (Texas Association of Business) trip was that was also possibly going to require going to Philadelphia? Dinner with another lobbyist at tony III Forks restaurant.

Feb 9-apparently the rules of campaign finance allow you to expense what looks to be a private event -a horse show in San Antonio.

Feb 13-ANOTHER dinner with Debbie Keel from AT&T. That was right after a dinner with a lobbyist and some other legislators at III Forks. Those guys know where to eat, eh?

Feb 14-Lunch with Lee Woods and the Trial Lawyers Association, with Talton attending.

You can see on the sheet where I pulled out some of the lobbyists and dinners, etc.

I notice on Feb 28 that he met with homebuilders from the district and the Fot Worth builders in Somervell. That has to be Larry Smith's group. Sid Miller did show up to the Stoneview presentation, too. I wonder, what does a statelegislator have to do with building homes in Somervell County?

What the heck is the Nadine Craddick Fund?

I'm going to look at some more of this when I get a chance. Let me say that I can see why people might want to run for political office. I believe that the bills themselves are drarfted by another entity, probably influenced by some lobbyists, so the rep has the job of meeting people and going to dinner and events. And getting it all paid for.