Associated Press Published 2:56 p.m. ET July 23, 2019 | Updated 6:10 p.m. ET July 23, 2019

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — While Kentucky lawmakers worked Tuesday on a pension-relief bill he wants them to pass, Gov. Matt Bevin was in Colorado for a partisan event that he says let him talk trade issues with the vice president….

A photo circulating on social media showed Bevin attending a speech by Vice President Mike Pence at a Republican Governors Association event in a Colorado resort town.

Bevin is embroiled in a tough reelection campaign, and his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Andy Beshear, pounced on the photo showing the governor was out of state while Kentucky lawmakers meet in a special legislative session that Bevin convened last Friday.

Beshear’s campaign said Bevin “can’t even be bothered to show up” as lawmakers meet in the session costing taxpayers about $66,000 per day. The governor has sole authority to call lawmakers into special session and set the agenda, but the work then shifts to lawmakers.

Bevin tweeted Tuesday that he met with Pence and discussed the proposed replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement and its impact on Kentucky’s economy. The governor — who has made his alliance with President Donald Trump a campaign priority — referred to Pence as “a personal friend and a strong friend” of Kentucky.

Kentucky lawmakers are considering Bevin’s plan to give relief for regional universities and quasi-governmental entities, such as public health departments and rape crisis centers, hit by massive increases in their pension costs. Bevin’s proposal won House passage on Monday and cleared a Senate panel on Tuesday, setting up a vote Wednesday in the full Senate. The GOP holds commanding majorities in both chambers.

“While funding for rural health care clinics and rape crisis centers is in jeopardy, the governor was caught today at a private, luxury, donor retreat in Aspen, Colorado,” Beshear’s campaign said in a statement.

Bevin weighed in on the bill’s progress on Twitter, commending the Republican-led Senate panel for advancing the measure.

The House’s top-ranking Democrat, Rocky Adkins, called Bevin’s out-of-state trip “a prime example of where the governor’s true priorities lie: not with the people of Kentucky on a special session he called, but with wealthy corporate donors whose agenda is not best for Kentucky.”

Bevin’s main GOP rival in the primary election, state Rep. Robert Goforth, said he hoped the governor’s trip while lawmakers are in session “has something to do with benefiting Kentucky and not himself,” but he wasn’t particularly troubled by Bevin’s absence.

“He really has no business being here interfering with the legislative process” until a pension bill is sent to his desk, Goforth said.

Goforth was among nine Republican House members who voted against the legislation reflecting Bevin’s pension proposal.