By Whitney Cheshire
Last November, New Mexicans elected four brand-new leaders, and re-elected two old ones, to statewide office.
But despite the fresh blood, the dominating political philosophy in
Not much new or surprising there. Any pollster can tell you that simple party affiliation dictates the lopsided results of
But when the four Democrats battling for attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor and secretary of state took their campaigns to the voters last year, they didn’t say “vote for me because I’m a Democrat.” Instead, they all ran on a platform of change that would restore trust, and said they would be different.
After all, Mary Herrera was not going to be another Rebecca Vigil-Giron, and, to be sure, James B. Lewis would be nothing like his predecessor, Robert Vigil.
With Republican opponents beating the drum for change, Democrat candidates had to follow along.
So six months into new leadership, we’re wondering… do we have reform, as promised, or is it just the same-old, same-old?
King takes a step in the right direction
Let’s start with our new attorney general, Gary King.
To say the least, we were skeptical that King would follow through with his campaign pledge to root out corruption. The previous finger pointing, stalling, forgetting, misplacing and, in the end, failing triangle of state Democrat leadership – the one that refused to do a darn thing about public corruption – had us a little wary from the get-go. Especially since King and his predecessor, Patricia Madrid, were so cozy on the campaign trail and the final election results forced us once again into a Democrat, Democrat, Democrat tag-team of oversight.
But surprisingly, King actually announced some long-expected indictments this week. The wife of state Rep. Richard Vigil and some of her colleagues at the West Las Vegas school district are now going to have to defend themselves against public corruption charges and their excessive partying, which was paid for by the taxpayers and funded by the schools’ bilingual education program.
So for that, King and his staff deserve a pat on the back. Credit where credit is due, we say. To actually see legal progress on a publicly-reported-upon-and-much-discussed case of public corruption is refreshing, to say the least.
Now, where are they with the investigation into former Insurance Superintendent Eric Serna, or the still-ick-thick cloud surrounding the state’s housing authority?
Just asking… we’re not pressuring or anything. Of course.
Herrera working to overcome past problems
OK – How about Herrera?
Everybody knows there was no great love between Herrera and Vigil-Giron, especially during those dark days of Election 2004.
None of us can forget their finger pointing and blame game that erupted in the national media.
So to have
Funny-sad, that is.
Why?
Because Vigil-Giron, well known for such excessive and over-the-top partisan antics like attending a rally with Jane Fonda weeks before absentee voting started in 2004, was found by the Department of Finance and Administration to have violated the law while also inappropriately overpaying some of her staff.
And because Vigil-Giron spent too much money, the newly elected Herrera is in a tight situation.
When the smoke clears, will we see reform in Herrera’s office? In how the budgets are handled? In how the elections are handled? In how the “campaigns” are handled?
We can’t wait to see.
Because without a doubt, Herrera can refer to several examples of what not to do as secretary of state, thanks to you-know-who.
Auditor, treasurer have been less visible
So while King is announcing indictments and Herrera is struggling to get her budget in order, what are the two financial guys doing?
State Auditor Hector Balderas hasn’t made many headlines, but he’s been busy. Balderas is tasked with overseeing over 600 government entities and $90 billion in assets, all with a $3 million budget. He says his office is being aggressive in pushing for timely audits from individual agencies, which has been an ongoing problem. He’s served a few subpoenas, and with the new fiscal year starting this month, he’ll be digging in to issues with the regional housing authorities.
Lewis has been pretty quiet as well, but Balderas says the two, along with King, have been working closely on a number of issues, the most important being how they can be accountable to each other.
Interesting, given the fact that both King and Balderas have now been given the DFA review of Vigil-Giron.
Final thoughts
The one tangible thing that the voters have seen in terms of change, or reform, from the days of the Do-Nothing Democrat Triangle, was this week’s public corruption indictments.
But it was only tangible because it was in the news.
Hopefully Herrera, Lewis, Balderas and King will remember that it is their sole responsibility to inform the public of their good deeds, and that results, not good intentions, are what we’ll measure them by.
And we really want to see some results, which, in this state, is far from the status quo.