A North Dakota state senator who is resigning following a report about text messages he exchanged with an inmate ran up travel expenses the past decade that are more than 14 times what lawmakers bill state taxpayers on average.
Travel records reviewed by The Associated Press show Republican Ray Holmberg has made taxpayer-funded trips to four dozen U.S. cities, China, Canada and several countries in Europe. He was reimbursed about $126,000 for nearly 70 trips — all out of state — over the past decade.
Holmberg, who became one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers in a career that spanned 46 years, announced this month that he would resign June 1 following a report that he had traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges.
Holmberg declined to talk to AP, referring questions to his attorney, Mark Friese. “I’m his lawyer, not his travel agent,” said Friese, a prominent North Dakota defense attorney. “The propriety of his travel is a question” for the Legislature, Friese said.
His House counterpart, Rep. Chet Pollert, declined to comment on the appropriateness of the travel: “That was his decision to travel and it’s up to him to determine whether it was right or wrong.”
Many of Holmberg’s trips were to meetings organized by the Council of State Governments and the National Conference of State Legislatures, which are national groups that represent state lawmakers. He was involved in the group in part through his work on redistricting committees since 1981.
AP
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