Sun-News says Richardson should debate

The Las Cruces Sun-News on Monday joined the choir of news organizations calling on Gov. Bill Richardson to debate Republican challenger John Dendahl. You can read the newspaper’s editorial by clicking here.

Since Richardson has not agreed to a debate, here’s another column written by Dendahl. The article about former New Mexico State University Student Regent Felicia Ybarra’s battle with Richardson was published in the Albuquerque Journal on Aug. 21, 2003, and was taken directly from Dendahl’s Web site.

Student Regent Put NMSU Duty First

By John Dendahl

“Felicia Ybarra is a young mother, the student member of the New Mexico State University Board of Regents and an appointee who does not bend gracefully to the governor’s will.

“Ybarra has lived nearly all her 22 years in Las Cruces. She has attended NMSU for four years while working part-time to pay her way, and told me in a phone conversation of her long devotion to her university.

“Gov. Bill Richardson appointed Ybarra. Like all but one other of his appointees as university regents, she provided the undated letter of resignation he demanded.

“Whether Richardson can date one of those and ‘accept’ the purported resignation is an important constitutional question. Ybarra has loaded that course with political peril.

“In addition to Ybarra, Richardson has appointed two other NMSU regents — Steve Anaya, a nephew of former Democratic governor Toney Anaya, and Robert Gallagher, an adviser to Richardson when he was secretary of energy.

“It might have been a foregone conclusion that these three Richardson appointees would control the march at NMSU. Sometimes, though, things don’t work out quite as planned. First, together with holdover regent Laura Coniff this lineup comprised four Democrats, one more than the three-of-one-party constitutional limit. Ybarra was told she would have to change her registration.

“That took several weeks because voter registrations in Doña Ana County were closed for a local election. Her confirmation by the Senate was completed after the registration delay.

“Gallagher was clearly the governor’s choice for board president. He pressed for a meeting on the earliest date specified for this election. Coniff, however, was nominated by the other holdover regent, James Manatt, and was elected president.

“Ybarra voted with the majority in a 3-2 decision, thus exercising the independent judgment expected of a university regent. Gallagher refused nomination as vice president, saying he didn’t have time for that position.

“The governor’s men, Anaya and Gallagher, since have found themselves in the minority on one 3-2 vote effectively deferring election of an interim president and another on a tuition increase.

“Ybarra cast a soundly-reasoned vote in each case, one that was in the best interest of her university rather than an implied political directive from the governor’s office.

“NMSU lost its accreditation about 70 years ago on account of being corrupted by politicization. Now, Ybarra says she is feeling intense political heat.

“Summoned to a meeting with the governor near the end of July, she went to his office accompanied by her mother. She says the governor’s deputy chief of staff sat through the meeting, but her mother was barred.

“Ybarra says Richardson told her to resign from the NMSU board and accept a position on the Commission on Higher Education; she politely declined.

“‘Flabbergasted’ is how the governor’s office characterizes his reaction. ‘Furious’ probably comes closer.

“The governor is likely pondering that undated letter of resignation. As he does, he’d better have the right answer to this question: If it were the intent of the people that the governor run our universities, why does their state constitution:

• “Establish regents of these institutions with terms of specific duration;

• “Enumerate three specific grounds for removing a regent, among which one cannot find anything resembling or even suggesting disagreement with the governor;

• “Give the state Supreme Court exclusive jurisdiction over proceedings for a regent’s removal?

“Felicia Ybarra’s stand may encourage other regents to act as if their duty is owed to the universities, not to the man who holds their resignations.”