Governor Peek a Boo

Governor Pawlenty and his staff did some shifty dodging this afternoon to avoid the press corps. Several reporters (including me) were staking out budget negotiations and were waiting to speak with Gov. Pawlenty. When a reporter called and asked "Is the governor going to come out and talk with us or do we need to chase him?" the response was "You need to chase him."

So we tried and failed.

After covering several exits (there were four of us), we ended up missing the governor. His security detail took his car and drove it to an exit that wasn't staffed by a reporter. A spokesman later said "The governor just called and said he was sorry he couldn't meet with you but he had to go meet with the families of fallen soldiers."

Why couldn't he say that himself instead of going through the trouble of evading us?

UPDATE:

Budget talks just broke off around 10:45 PM. The governor was more than generous with his time and answered all of our questions.