Oh no, here comes Randy Brock, riding the momentum of his own internal poll showing that he’s gaining ground among left-handed ferret owners born in the months of May, July, August, and November. Or something like that.

Anyhoo, Randy’s feeling his oats, and now he’s got a red-hot issue to use against Governor Shumlin.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock on Thursday criticized incumbent Gov. Peter Shumlin for what the challenger said has been too much time away from the office.

A Shumlin aide confirmed Brock’s assertion that Shumlin was out of state and turned the reins of government over to Lt. Gov. Phil Scott for 119 days during his first 21 months in office.

Huh. Sounds like a lot. Is it, VTDigger?

Shumlin’s time away from the state is hard to put into context, as similar figures for former Govs. Howard Dean and Jim Douglas are not readily available. Douglas spent some time away from Vermont in his role as National Governors Association chair from 2009-2010.

Yeah, and I seem to remember that Smilin’ Jim was very fond of his overseas trade junkets, too. What’s more, it looks like Randy put Shumlin’s schedule in the worst possible light:  

Brock acknowledged that his count included weekends and holidays, which together have numbered slightly more than 200 days since Shumlin took office.

Uh-huh. And I guess the Governor should have been in his office nights weekends, and holidays, eh, Randy?

‘The ship of state demands a captain at the wheel at all times and Peter Shumlin has not been at the wheel,” Brock said.

Mmm, that sounds just a little bit crazy. Does Randy want to be Governor, or Captain of The Caine?

Oh, one more tidbit from the Shumlin camp:

Shumlin campaign manager Alexandra MacLean said on 44 of those 119 days, Shumlin was on official state business, mainly meeting with corporate officials in a bid to get them to bring more jobs to Vermont.

Okay, so that brings us down to 75 days in 21 months out of state and not on official business, a little more than 3 1/2 days per month. Some of those on weekends and holidays. Including vacations, to which even a Governor is entitled. Unless you’re Cap’n Randy, who plans to lash himself permanently to the wheel.