WASHINGTON - Top members of President George W. Bush's administration are frequent visitors to key swing states ahead of the November 2 US election bringing accusations from Democrats that the taxpayer is subsidising the Bush campaign.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice will go to Florida on Monday to speak to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Rice has given speeches in several key states to defend the administration's war on terror, US media said.

Treasury Secretary John Snow has also been across Florida this week, officially talking about the US economy.

Florida is the biggest of the 10 battleground states that Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry are fighting over as they step up the battle for votes.

But Treasury Department spokesman Rob Nichols denied any link between Snow's engagements and the campaign. "A lot of it depends on going where you are invited."

Ohio, another big battleground, has also had Snow's attention in recent weeks. And since July, except for business trips to New York, all of Snow's engagements outside of the capital have taken him to swing states.

On Friday, a Democratic lawmaker called for an inquiry by the Government Accountability Office, a Congress watchdog.

Carolyn Maloney, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, said she wanted the GAO to "investigate the use of taxpayer funds to pay for what appear to be campaign related trips by three senior administration officials."

Maloney also wants trips by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge looked into.

John Edwards, the Democratic candidate for the vice presidency, has also condemned what he calls administration bias.

"Condi Rice shouldn't take the time to go on a campaign trip for George Bush," he said Wednesday.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Democratic president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, said that Rice's actions "represents, at least in my book, excessive politization" of the post.

Even if they are officially talking about their own departments, the officials have all hailed the work of the Republican president.

"President Bush's tax cuts gave our economy the oxygen it needed to right itself and continue on a path of growth and job creation."

The visit of a top official assures valuable publicity in local media. But the repercussions can also be negative.

A "Tour for Jobs" carried out by the Bush economic team in February became a fiasco with the media concentrating on Snow's flip-flop on the prospects for the US job market.

At the start of the month, Snow and Commerce Secretary Don Evans became tangled up in clarifications after challenging figures saying that the country has lost jobs since Bush's controversial election victory in 2000.

© Copyright 2004 AFP

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