Cheney to go hunting on Election Day

Vice President heads to S.D. for first trip since accidentally shooting friend

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updated 4:42 p.m. ET Nov. 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney will spend Election Day on his first hunting trip since he accidentally shot a companion last February while aiming at a covey of quail on a private Texas ranch.

The vice president, after working at the White House on Monday morning, will head to South Dakota to spend several days at a private hunting lodge near Pierre. Lea Anne McBride, his press secretary, said it was an annual hunting outing and said Cheney spent Election Day in 2002 at the same lodge.

He will be accompanied by his daughter, Mary, and his political director, Mel Raines, who will help him keep track of the election returns, McBride said.

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On a Feb. 11 hunting trip in Texas, Cheney shot attorney Harry Whittington in the torso, neck and face when he pulled the trigger on his 28-gauge shotgun. The vice president later called it “one of the worst days of my life” and said, “The image of him falling is something I’ll never ever be able to get out of my mind.”

The shooting was ruled an accident. Whittington was hospitalized for six days.