Herrera wants audit of 2006 election expenses

New Secretary of State Mary Herrera wants an audit of how millions of federal dollars were spent by her predecessor on the 2006 election.

New Mexico used most of the $9 million from the Help America Vote Act on new equipment, according to the Albuquerque Journal, but also spent money on a myriad of television advertisements featuring former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron.

Before leaving office last month, Vigil-Giron asked for $800,000 in state money to pay for some of the equipment expenses because her office ran out of federal money, the Journal reported. Vigil-Giron has been criticized since then for spending money on television commercials featuring her own face instead of on the equipment.

Though the two women have been fighting publicly for months, a spokesman for Herrera told the Journal that the request that the state auditor examine the situation is not an attack on her predecessor.

“This is strictly about the smartest, prudent thing to do,” spokesman James Flores told the Journal.

State Auditor Hector Balderas told the newspaper Herrera could hire an independent auditor or ask that the office’s annual audit focus on how the state spent the federal money.