GOP outraged by Herrera’s hiring of Udall’s son-in-law

Republicans are up in arms over the secretary of state’s decision to hire the son-in-law of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Udall to be the state’s elections director.

The secretary of state’s office confirmed on Monday that Jim Noel is leaving his job as head of the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission to fill the elections job, which has been vacant for much of the year. Starting Sept. 8, Noel will oversee elections and ethics issues including campaign-finance reporting.

Noel is married to Udall’s daughter, Amanda Cooper, who is also Udall’s campaign manager.

“Putting Jim Noel in charge of counting votes is like letting Roger Clemens’ wife administer the test for steroids,” state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, R-Albuquerque, told me Tuesday.

State GOP spokeswoman Shira Rawlinson told The Santa Fe New Mexican that Noel’s hiring is “a stunning conflict of interest.”

“During an election that will be extremely competitive, it is entirely inappropriate that a close family member of one of the candidates be in charge of counting the votes,” she said.

And Rep. Dianna Duran, R-Tularosa and a former Otero County clerk, put out a news release decrying the situation. New Mexico law, the release states, “forbids a family member of a person on the ballot to be a poll worker because of the appearance of impropriety. How in the world does it look to voters to allow the son of the candidate at the top of New Mexico’s ballot to oversee the entire election process?”

“Time and time again we face question of impropriety in our elections here in New Mexico. But this has to be the worst impropriety to date,” Duran said. “I cannot imagine Tom Udall not stepping in to restore confidence in this critical election by asking Jim Noel… to refuse the position.”

‘An independent decision’

Udall campaign spokeswoman Marissa Padilla said Noel’s hiring “was an independent decision made by the secretary of state’s office. You can direct any personnel questions to their office.” Noel isn’t commenting.

James Flores, spokesman for Secretary of State Mary Herrera, told The New Mexican that there is no conflict of interest. He called Noel “the most qualified of all the candidates,” but he didn’t know how many people had applied for the job.

“We hired a guy to do a job. That’s all it boils down to,” Flores was quoted by the newspaper as saying. “We have Democrats, Republicans and an independent on our management team. Everyone here will be treated fairly and equitably.”

Republicans aren’t satisfied. They topped off their attacks today with a formal records request to the secretary of state’s office for documents related to Noel’s hiring, including his résumé, references, letters of recommendation and all correspondence about Noel, including any from Udall and Gov. Bill Richardson.

“The Republican Party believes the voters of New Mexico have a right to know who exactly recommended Jim Noel… for the position of state elections director,” Rawlinson said in a news release announcing the records request.

About Noel

Since Noel was hired as executive director and general counsel in 2004, the Judicial Standards Commission has taken a more active role in policing the judiciary. A number of judges — most Democrats — have been removed from the bench or resigned as a result of action Noel initiated at the commission. That includes three former judges appointed by Richardson — District Judge Larry Ramirez of Las Cruces, Bernalillo County Metro Court Judge J. Wayne Griego and Rio Arriba County Magistrate Judge Tommy Rodella.

Noel has also been active in elections-related work. He helped author the state’s 2006 paper ballots law and other elections-related legislation. He has served on two elections-reform task forces and two ethics-reform task forces. The last time he served on the ethics task force, he chaired the subcommittee that recommended the creation of a state election commission.

Noel was a presiding judge who helped oversee the canvass of this year’s Democratic presidential caucus, and he was involved in setting up the party’s caucus in 2004.

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Duran is a Democrat.