The Republican candidate for the magistrate judge Division II seat in
The first hit to his campaign came in April, when the U.S. Office of Special Counsel began looking into whether Foldy and Sheriff Todd Garrison were in violation of the Hatch Act, which prevents some public employees whose jobs involve federal money from running for office while holding those jobs.
Foldy is a corporal in the sheriff’s department. He’s also the only Republican running against any of the county’s five incumbent Democratic judges this year.
When the feds began looking into the situation, Foldy stopped volunteering for overtime jobs such as DWI enforcement that are funded by federal grants.
The feds ruled within a couple of weeks that Garrison was not in violation, but left Foldy in limbo for more than two months.
The second hit came at the beginning of June, when Gov. Bill Richardson appointed Foldy’s opponent, Democrat Joseph Guillory, to the judgeship. The position became available when former Magistrate Judge Susana Chaparro announced on candidate filing day that she would not run again and was resigning.
Then, at the end of June, the feds finally gave Foldy an answer: He could keep his job while running for office as long as he didn’t work on any programs that involve federal money. Essentially, Foldy said, he can’t even be involved in discussions about applying for federal grants. And he can’t work any of the overtime he was hoping would earn him extra money for his campaign.
That, he said, adds up to thousands of dollars he could have spent campaigning.
I’m writing about this today because I neglected to report at the end of June that Foldy finally received an answer, and I was asked about it earlier this week.
Foldy said he had been prepared to quit his job if the feds told him such action was necessary in order to stay in the race.