In New Mexico, 2006 will be remembered for two things politically – widespread scandal in both parties and at all levels of government, and the impressive influence of Gov. Bill Richardson, who raised a record amount of money, won re-election by a record margin, and somehow managed to control state policy, avoid direct implication in scandal and campaign for other candidates across the nation at the same time.
In compiling this list of the top 10 political stories of the year, I had to consider statewide issues and topics local to
Feel free to agree, disagree or add your thoughts by submitting comments at the end of this posting.
10. Housing authority scandal
The state housing authority scandal was underreported this year but had widespread impact. Not only was $5 million in taxpayer money misused and, most likely, lost forever; the system for providing affordable housing in one of the nation’s poorest states was revealed as a sham and came apart at the seams.
The scandal began in
When she received no help, Williams went public, accusing former Region III Director Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos in March of mismanaging the housing authorities and improperly selling homes in
It turned out it hadn’t gone where it should have. In June, Region III defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. That finally prompted the governor’s office to get involved, and reviews by his office and the State Investment Council forced Gallegos to resign on Aug. 1 and the housing authority system to essentially shut down.
The investment council found widespread misuse of the state-owned bonds, including almost $900,000 that went to Gallegos as salary, benefits and a questionable loan.
Perhaps the most intriguing misuse of money revealed in the investment council report was a $300,000 loan the housing authority made to a private company owned by Gallegos under the guise of purchasing more than 30 lots in
The report also found that homes were being sold to investors, in addition to two employees and a board member of the Region III authority. The attorney general is suing over the homes sold to those tied to the authority.
Gallegos, who has repeatedly denied misusing the money, was further implicated in the scandal when the Albuquerque Journal reported in November that a
Lujan said he didn’t know about the situation until the Journal contacted him about it.
Look for this story to get more attention in 2007. The Legislature and governor will likely take a look at a proposal to restructure the system with more safeguards. The attorney general’s office is investigating. Keep your eyes open for possible indictments.
9. Ethics reform
The scandals were many this year: Former Insurance Superintendent Eric Serna resigned amid an attorney general investigation into his questionable relationship with a bank that did business with the state. The housing authority system crumbled after it defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. Former state Treasurer Robert Vigil was convicted of one felony count but acquitted of 23 others. The
The headlines have been overwhelming this year, and further emphasized a call for ethics reform that began in 2005 when the treasurer scandal broke. Gov. Bill Richardson created a task force to study the issue, and will propose the creation of a powerful state ethics task force, limits on campaign contributions and gifts, public financing of judicial candidates and other reforms in the 2007 session.
The governor’s backing gives ethics reform hope, but the proposals will still have a tough time in the Legislature. Many doubt the push will result in meaningful change. Until it does, this topic remains near the bottom of the top-10 list.
8. Spaceport
Following Virgin Galactic’s verbal commitment in late 2005 to build its headquarters in
But an UP Aerospace attempt to launch a rocket into space in September failed, and its other 2006 launches were cancelled as it seeks the cause of the anomaly that doomed that attempt. An application for an FFA license is on hold until that happens. The tax-increase vote hasn’t yet happened, and the state’s money can’t be spent until other conditions are met. There isn’t a good road to the spaceport, and legislators will be asked for another $25 million in January to build one. The Rocket Racing League’s progress has been slower than anticipated.
This is a visionary undertaking that has the potential to change the state, and these sorts of endeavors take time. We’re waiting. In the meantime, the controversial spaceport project stays near the bottom of the top-10 list.
7. LCPS superintendent fired
In November, the Las Cruces Public Schools Board of Education fired former Superintendent Sonia Diaz after four months on the job. The decision followed weeks of paid administrative leave while the school board investigated allegations that Diaz was a tyrant who treated employees horribly.
Diaz has appealed her firing and will have a hearing in January.
Assuming she doesn’t return to the district, Diaz will be the third superintendent since 2001 to leave amid scandal that has spread like a cancer and has threatens to rip the LCPS community apart. Though many say teachers are professionals who don’t let politics affect education, the constant uncertainty in the district is having an effect.
Diaz’s firing was controversial. Several legislators threatened to ask the state to takeover the district because of the school board’s inability to stabilize the situation, but have since backed off. Two seats on the school board are up for election in February.
With Diaz’s firing and the board seats up for grabs, talk of a revolt has quieted. It could ignite again quickly if the board isn’t cautious in its approach to finding a new superintendent. For now, the board appears to be doing just that.
All can agree that it’s time to do what’s best for the students. The problem is that factions in the community haven’t been able to find common ground on how to do that. This community will face one of its most difficult challenges yet in putting aside differences and compromising, but it’s the only way to proceed.
6. County election reform
After years of scandals and embarrassing snafus, problems with the June primary election finally prompted
Shortly after the primary, Clerk Rita Torres fired former Elections Supervisor Mari Langford. About the same time, many Democrats began talking about whether Torres, who has suffered from health problems in recent years, was fit to continue serving.
Because of her health issues, many were shocked when Torres announced that she would not hire a new elections supervisor before the Nov. 7 General Election. She said she and Deputy Clerk Cecilia Madrid would oversee the election themselves.
Behind-the-scenes political wrangling prompted Torres to change her mind in August. Days later, she hired Lynn Ellins, co-chair of the commission’s elections task force and a former
Ellins immediately began implementing recommendations the task force had not yet made to the commission. His leadership and the work of the task force was an encouragement to employees, and most believe
Ellins has stayed on for the time being to further implement the task force recommendations, and has applied for the permanent position. His presence has helped turn around a troubled office, and the hope now is that he can create lasting change.
5. Immigration
Immigration continued to be a hot topic in 2006, but Congress failed to act on any comprehensive reform, instead sending a controversial bill to President Bush that would appropriate billons to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bush signed the bill.
Contrast that with Gov. Bill Richardson, who gave a speech outlining a comprehensive immigration reform plan earlier this month at
While the debate played out across the nation – Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley was even invited to take part in a nationally-televised immigration debate on the Comcast Network – the effects were felt locally. Illegal crossers continued to die in the desert in
With the Democrats taking control of Congress, there’s a much greater chance comprehensive immigration reform will be signed into law by Bush in 2007.
4. House speaker battle
When Gov. Bill Richardson found a $75 million appropriation to fund water settlements in the 2006 capital outlay bill that he didn’t know was going to be there, he vetoed it.
Legislators on both sides of the aisle began a hunt for the culprit, because they also didn’t know the money was in the bill. The trail quickly led to Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, and he admitted he had done it.
Lujan added in the money at the last moment and outside the normal process. It was the most egregious of several such incidents that frustrated other legislators. State Rep. Joseph Cervantes said publicly he thought some legislative leaders – he never mentioned Lujan by name – opposed opening conference committees and made deals and decisions in secret to keep other lawmakers in the dark.
It was then that rumblings of a challenge to Lujan’s leadership began. But it wasn’t until the Albuquerque Journal reported in November a tenuous link between Lujan and the state housing authority scandal that Majority Leader Ken Martinez decided to openly challenge Lujan.
The battle divided House Democrats, in many ways pitting the old guard against the newer, younger group of representatives – a sophomore class that includes the state’s future leaders. But those rising stars didn’t account for a handful of freshman legislators whose campaigns were heavily financed by Lujan, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the governor, who quietly supported Lujan. Though the final numbers are secret, most of the representatives-elect supported Lujan, as did another freshman lawmaker who was appointed by Richardson to fill a vacancy hours before the speaker vote.
Lujan won the secret ballot, and Martinez quickly accepted a nomination for majority leader. After a hard-fought race that threatened to tear apart the caucus, Democrats emerged from their closed-door meeting with the same leaders in place and pledges of unity.
But things won’t be the same. Several representatives are pushing for Lujan to give up his iron-fist tactics. Martinez emerges as the face of change in the House and its likely future speaker. All are anxious to see how Lujan will balance the need to be more inclusive of House members and independent of Richardson with the demands of the governor who helped him keep the position. Only time will tell.
3. Judicial scandal
Judicial scandal was, by far, the top local political story of 2006 in Doña Ana County.
Former Magistrate Judge Susana Chaparro resigned in March and agreed to never again seek judicial office as part of a stipulated agreement with the Judicial Standards Commission. In exchange, the commission dropped seven outstanding cases against Chaparro, including a probe into her alleged harassment of a magistrate court interpreter who employed her sister, but took her sister off drunken-driving cases while she dealt with her own drunken-driving case. Chaparro had been disciplined twice in the past mixing judicial and family business.
Former District Judge Larry Ramirez resigned from the bench in June during a commission investigation into allegations that he engaged in an ongoing pattern of sexual harassment and making inappropriate comments in the courtroom. His resignation was not part of an agreement; he quit before most of the allegations could become public, so most details remain secret.
Former Magistrate Judge Carlos Garza was removed by the New Mexico Supreme Court in November after the commission found that he had used illegal drugs and improperly involved himself the court issues of a woman with whom he had a personal relationship. Prior to that, Garza was also disciplined in a separate case in May after admitting to improperly involving himself in a drunken driving case against the woman.
There’s more.
In May, Las Cruces’ two municipal judges filed a lawsuit against the city seeking reimbursement for more than $100,000 in legal fees incurred while defending themselves during a commission investigation initiated by the city attorney’s office.
The dispute began in early 2004 when the judges, James T. Locatelli and Melissa Miller-Byrnes, complained to city management about the handling of cases by prosecutors and police. When mediation failed, they wrote a letter to the Las Cruces Sun-News alleging incompetence by police and city prosecutors.
After the letter was published, the city attorney’s office filed the complaint with the commission, which asked the high court to discipline the judges. The high court dismissed the complaint related to the letter, but chastised Miller-Byrnes for calling Jacquez a “smart ass.”
Shortly after the judges filed their lawsuit, a district judge denied the request. About the same time, another district judge denied the city’s request to force the municipal judges off cases prosecuted by the city attorney’s office – a request the city made because of the pending lawsuit.
In October, the commission asked the high court to discipline Locatelli for improperly issuing contempt charges against two attorneys, including Jacquez, and for not recusing himself from a case they argued in front of him. The commission found that Locatelli acted out of anger over what he perceived to be incompetence by Jacquez and that he had no authority to issue contempt charges since the case was already on appeal to district court.
The commission wants the high court to order that all records in the contempt cases be purged and to discipline Locatelli. The case is pending.
If all that wasn’t enough, the woman who accused former Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan of rape and bribery in 2004 filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2006. After two hung juries, the charges against Galvan were dropped in 2005, but not before he resigned from the bench. The civil case is pending.
Recent judicial scandals have prompted a large increase in funding for the commission. Though its power hasn’t substantially changed since the constitutional amendment that created it was approved by voters in 1967, the increased funding allows it to fully use that power for the first time.
Some have criticized the commission’s increased activity, prompting a review by lawmakers of the commission’s authority. Most believe the current review is healthy and may lead to improvements. In addition, the commission plans to review its own rules to see whether any changes are needed.
2. Iraq and GOP corruption
Nationally, 2006 was a year that independents and even some Republicans voted for Democrats. Fed up with a war in Iraq that President Bush has admitted the United States is not winning, and with repeated Republican scandals on a federal level, voters gave control of Congress back to Democrats for the first time since the early 1990s.
That has forced Bush to reexamine the war, and the United States will likely change course. The next two years of Democratic rule of Congress will set the stage for the 2008 White House race. Gov. Bill Richardson and other Democratic hopefuls can only pray that Democrats do a better job handing Iraq than did the Republicans.
In New Mexico, the turning tide showed Republican U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson’s vulnerability. She would have lost her seat to challenger Patricia Madrid were it not for several seconds of silence and a stumbling answer Madrid gave at the end of the campaign when asked if she would raise taxes. U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., also showed weakness, as challenger Al Kissling spent almost no money and still secured more than 40 percent of the vote. That got the attention of many Democrats who now believe a stronger, better-funded candidate can knock Pearce out in 2008.
The shift also benefited Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who will take over from fellow N.M. Sen. Pete Domenici as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M. and in the majority for the first time since being elected to Congress in 1998, benefited the most by securing a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee starting in January.
Having a representative on that committee can only be good for New Mexico.
1. The Richardson machine
Democratic scandals captured headlines from January to December in 2006. That helped motivate the Republican Party to, for the first time in recent memory, run a candidate in every statewide race in New Mexico – many of them strong contenders. The party raised a lot of money and ran several solid campaigns.
Republicans were right to smell blood. New Mexico is a state whose percentage of voters registered as independent is on the rise, and the GOP went after them by talking, convincingly, about the need for political balance and the importance of kicking out the party in power once in awhile in order to keep the system honest.
It just happened that their argument worked to their benefit, since Democrats have controlled New Mexico for decades.
It was a wise strategy, and 2006 could have been remembered as the best year for the Republicans in New Mexico’s recent history.
It wasn’t.
Iraq and federal GOP corruption helped offset the state Democratic scandals to some degree, but the biggest factor by far in the 2006 election in New Mexico was Gov. Bill Richardson.
Richardson’s power and influence were amazing. He broke records by raising $13 million for his campaign and winning with 69 percent of the vote, and did it while spending significant time campaigning for candidates in other states. He pumped thousands into local House races and tens of thousands into the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and some statewide races. Much of the money raised by other candidates was also a result of the Democratic tide of the Richardson machine.
Even those Democratic candidates he didn’t finance benefited from Richardson’s popularity.
Richardson’s effect on state policy in 2006 was equally impressive. He and his staff forced through, with the help of a small, bipartisan group from the south, $115 million in funding for Spaceport America even though most Northern New Mexico lawmakers would rather not fund the project. He has created dozens of political-appointment jobs at a cost of several million dollars without legislative approval. Many lawmakers believe that’s illegal but, as a group, haven’t seriously tried to stop it.
How does Richardson keep lawmakers in check? He put Speaker of the House Ben Lujan in his place earlier this year by vetoing a $75 million appropriation for water settlements that Lujan slipped into the capital outlay bill at the last minute without the knowledge of the governor and most legislators. And Sen. Mary Kay Papen is one of several who failed to line up quietly behind Richardson during the session and paid for it with capital outlay vetoes.
Republicans thought voters might be incensed by such activity, but Richardson will start the 2007 session with an empowering re-election endorsement of more than two-thirds of New Mexico’s voters.
New Mexicans are aware of the Democratic scandals. Though tenuous links have been made between Richardson and some of the scandals, voters don’t see the governor as part of the problem. They see him as a trustworthy leader who is bucking bureaucracy and bettering their lives. They’re excited to have a national star at the top of their own state. It isn’t often that the New Mexico governor has a shot at becoming the next president, so there’s an aspect of celebrity worship to his popularity.
But it’s important to not blow Richardson’s effect on the election too far out of proportion. He creamed Republican John Dendahl in his own race, but most statewide GOP candidates fared well. Though Democrats picked up two House seats in Doña Ana County, Republicans picked up two others from around the state, so there was no overall change.
In some ways, the Richardson machine offset the Democratic scandals, and New Mexico voters opted for the status quo on Nov. 7.
In an election year that could have belonged to Republicans, it was Richardson who made the difference and helped the Democratic Party keep its grip on power in New Mexico.