HOUSTON –  Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has been out of the state or otherwise off of work nearly half of the time since his father entered the Republican race for president, despite pledges to remain focused on his elected office, a newspaper claims.

The Houston Chronicle examined Bush's calendar, agency records and social media accounts to determine that he had been away on personal time related to the presidential campaign and other reasons for 23 of the first 50 work days since his father, Jeb Bush, announced his bid on June 15.

But a spokesman for the Texas Land office, Bryan Preston, strongly disputed the Chronicle’s examination, written by Austin bureau reporter Brian M. Rosenthal, claiming the story was based on opinion – “not facts.”

According to the newspaper's analysis, George P. Bush took 15 full days off and dozens of smaller chunks of time that add up to eight more days. That includes campaigns stops for his father in Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Maine and Texas.

But Preston said that out of 63 working days this summer, 50 of those Bush spent doing business across the state.

“He was not out of the office anywhere near “half the time.” Not even close,” Preston said in a statement. “The numbers simply do not support Rosenthal’s opinion.”

Another General Land Office spokeswoman, Brittany Eck, said Bush makes up for time out of the office by working remotely and on weekends.

"Just because he's not sitting at his desk for the day doesn't mean that he's not working during that day," Eck said.

As a statewide elected official, the land commissioner has discretion over how to spend his time leading an agency that oversees 13 million acres of public lands and sells mineral rights to raise billions of dollars for education. Bush receives an annual salary of $137,500 in his first elected office.

John Courage, Texas chairman of Common Cause, a liberal-leaning accountability group, said it's understandable for an official to take time off as part of an attempt to seek a higher office, but there is less benefit to the taxpayers for a surrogate to do so.

"It just doesn't seem to make sense, because there's no potential benefit in terms of that officeholder getting the higher office," said Courage, who said the commissioner's salary should be deducted for every trip out of state. "When he leaves, someone else has to do that job, and that means the taxpayers are paying twice for the same thing. Why should they pay him if he's going to be campaigning?"

The Chronicle claims Bush has taken significantly more time off than his predecessor as land commissioner, Jerry Patterson. Last year, Patterson missed the equivalent of nine work days during the same period.

"You can pull it off and do it in a way that doesn't hurt the agency, or you can do it in a manner that hurts the agency, and I just don't know which this is," Patterson said. "When I traveled, the people that were left behind running the show were doing a damn fine job of doing that."

A meeting of the School Land Board, a three-person panel that oversees the sale of mineral rights to fund education, was canceled while Bush was in Miami for his dad's announcement. But those meetings are canceled about half the time because of minimal business to be done.

He also attended only half of the biannual assembly of the Western States Land Commissioners Association, but returned to Texas and spent that time mostly on the job.

Eck said Bush attended the most important part of association assembly and canceled the land board meeting because holding it would have wasted time and taxpayer money.

Bush took two weeks off completely - the week of June 15, when he attended his dad's announcement and stumped for him in Nevada; and the week of July 6, immediately after a New Hampshire trip, when he went to the campaign staff retreat in Maine - according to a Twitter message from Florida political strategist Slater Bayliss, who also was there.

But Preston insisted Bush has put in plenty of hours on the job – even though his wife gave birth to his second son in spring and he took only a few days of paternity leave. He said the Chronicle reporter had a “preconceived narrative” and ignored the facts.

“The indisputable fact is that Commissioner Bush has been working tirelessly on GLO business since day one. The indisputable fact is that Commissioner Bush is humbled by the support that the people of Texas gave him on Election Day and continue to give him today,” Preston said. “He is proud to serve as Texas Land Commissioner, and serving the people of Texas has been and will continue to be his #1 priority.”

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