TALLAHASSEE -- Since taking office nearly three years ago, Attorney General Bill McCollum has scheduled nearly a year's worth of half-days, personal and vacation days, or weekdays with no planned events.

Over the same time, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink scheduled the equivalent of more than 26 weeks of half-days, personal and vacation days, or days with no listed events, according to a Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times review.

At a time when Florida is experiencing record unemployment and budget shortfalls, the two Cabinet members vying to be elected governor in 2010 have schedules that most citizens can only dream about: a few partial to full work days in the Capitol, book-ended by long weekends or lengthy vacation periods.

Both defended their work habits, saying they are always on the job -- making weekend phone calls, reading lengthy briefings in the evenings, answering e-mails -- even if the schedule doesn't say so.

``Probably, we mischaracterized some of those days,'' said McCollum, 65, a Republican. ``The schedule doesn't really reflect everything I do, by any stretch of the imagination. . . . The job travels with me, even when I am taking personal time and vacation time.''

Said Sink, 61, a Democrat: ``I'm a multitasker. I've always got papers and things to read for work, even if I'm on a plane. I don't like to be anywhere without something to do.''

The Herald/Times reviewed the daily calendars for Sink and McCollum from their first day in office on Jan. 2, 2007, through Sept. 30, 2009. Days in which they worked four hours or less are counted as half-days of work. Holidays and weekends were excluded from the count of work days, though Sink and McCollum occasionally attend conferences or official events on those days. And particularly during the spring legislative session, there are days that begin early and are packed with meetings, luncheons and receptions that run through the dinner hour.

McCollum's schedule emerges as the most lax. He had 210 weekdays -- the equivalent of 42 work weeks -- in which he worked four hours or less, had nothing scheduled or took ``personal'' and vacation time. Of those days, 158 were half-days in which his schedule shows events and meetings lasting four hours or less. He scheduled 86 personal days.

McCollum said he works even when his calendar is marked ``personal day,'' such as last fall when he and his wife went to Wisconsin for a long weekend for their older son's wedding.

``Those are real personal times that may not have been marked vacation, but it was,'' he said. ``I will tell you that except maybe on Saturday for the wedding itself, every single day I was in Wisconsin I was working on something for my office.''

THE WORK THEY DO

As chief financial officer, Sink is paid $128,972 a year to lead an office of 2,022 employees and oversee a budget of $111 million. She serves as the state's treasurer and comptroller -- overseeing a wide range of areas including the state fire marshal, the health of state finances and investments, and issues including consumer fraud, insurance, even funeral and cemetery regulation.

McCollum is paid $128,972 a year and leads an office with a budget of $181 million and more than 1,300 employees. As attorney general, he handles cases of Medicaid fraud, defends the state in civil litigation cases and goes after large cases of identity theft, drug-trafficking and gang activity. McCollum's office also goes after Internet sexual predators and child pornography.

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