Have hit pieces, will travel

Republican political consultant Tom Mitchell, who worked for Carl DeMaio and had the distinction of being fired in 2011 by voluble GOP district attorney Bonnie Dumanis — as well as being San Diego city attorney Jan Goldsmith’s communications director — has turned up as executive director of the Republican Party of New Mexico. Mitchell was hired after the party dumped the previous job-holder, Bobby Talbot, in April, after just weeks on the job, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

Scott Hinkle, a legislative aide to Democratic congressman Juan Vargas, continues his free-traveling ways. In April, Hinkle was in Boston on a $1153 tour of the national security programs paid for by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Now he’s returned from a day of “educational briefings on capital markets, derivatives and systemic risk” at Philadelphia’s Wharton Business School.

Sponsor Third Way picked up $93 in travel and $49.33 worth of meals for the May 29 jaunt from Washington by train and automobile. The non-profit, backed by major corporate interests including Qualcomm, says on its website that its agenda includes “a series of grand economic bargains, a new approach to the climate crisis, progress on social issues like immigration reform, marriage for gay couples, tighter gun safety laws, and a credible alternative to neoconservative security policy.”