Gowan goes where none has gone before

House Speaker David Gowan is asking Attorney General Mark Brnovich to investigate his travel expenses in a bid to clear his name ahead of his congressional race.

The House is required to report its spending to the Arizona Department of Administration’s General Accounting Office. Although those records don’t detail which lawmakers or staff the chamber’s travel expenses were on behalf of, they offer a glimpse of the chamber’s spending on travel in the past year.

House Majority Leader Steve Montenegro has repaid the American Legislative Exchange Council for a travel stipend he received for attending the organization’s July 2015 conference in San Diego, which he drove to at no personal cost while using a state fleet vehicle.

Arizona House Speaker David Gowan last month repaid the state more than $12,000 for mileage reimbursements he claimed for trips that he took in state vehicles and for days he claimed to work but did not.