Gov. Mark Dayton on Wednesday will set off on a second mystery 'economic development' trip.
The new trip was announced just a few hours after the governor defended keeping secret the destination of a trip he took out of state last week.
"I went because I am trying to get jobs for Minnesota and part of that is meeting with businesses who don't share my willingness to be put in the public limelight," Dayton said of his trip last week.
The governor's mysterious Wednesday trip is designed to woo a different company than Dayton tried to lure last week, spokesman Matt Swenson said.
As with last week, all his office announced about his Wednesday plans was that the governor would be "traveling out of state for a meeting regarding a possible economic development opportunity for Minnesota. The governor will leave by commercial flight tomorrow morning and return home tomorrow afternoon."
Dayton has made a quest for transparency a hallmark of his first term -- voluntarily releasing both his tax returns and his campaign finance data -- but said on Tuesday that requests to know the details of his jobs trip were "unreasonable."
The governor said it would destroy the possibility of getting a company to pick Minnesota "by making the kind of disclosure you are asking for." He said that reporters have a "moral responsibility" as well as a "journalistic responsibility."
"Do you want us to go out there and try to get people more jobs in Minnesota or not?" he asked. "If we announced this and (said where we were going) I wonder how many of you would have even thought it was worth a story. It is really disappointing how it has been blown out of context."
