Alright, I can finally answer this question with certainty: Secretary of State Mary Herrera has not issued more administrative rules than previous administrations.
That despite the recent claim by James Flores, Herrera’s spokesman, that Herrera has “issued more administrative rules and procedures than any past administration.”
Flores initially made the claim in an April 9 article about a possible election challenge to his boss in next year’s primary. But I was told the claim was false, so I checked it out, and reported later on April 9 that, at least as it related to elections and elected officials, Herrera trailed the previous two secretaries of state in the number of administrative rules issued.
Herrera has brought forth two new rules. By comparison, during her three terms in office former State Rebecca Vigil-Giron enacted nine, and former Secretary of State Stephanie Gonzales issued six during her tenure.
But there are other rules that could be promulgated by the secretary of state not related to elections and elected officials, so I wrote in my second posting on April 9 that it was difficult to know with certainty that Flores was wrong.
Flores didn’t admit in an e-mail he sent late last week that his original statement was wrong, but he did say that, upon review, his office found that Herrera had promulgated two new rules and amended three others. He also said another new rule will be issued shortly. He provided a document that contains them all.
So, even if you count the rules Herrera amended, she falls far short of Vigil-Giron’s nine new rules. And that’s not counting the rules Vigil-Giron amended.
Flores also provided a second document containing “several examples of guidance issued by our office to the County Clerks during the recent election cycle.”
“Madame Secretary has been extremely pro-active not only with initiatives conducive to the operation of the SOS, but also in providing rules, guidance, and maintaining open lines of communication with the
County Clerks and their staff,” Flores wrote in the e-mail.
We could spend all debating whether issuing rules is a good thing and whether the debate over which secretary of state issued more rules even matters. But I think we’ve already spent enough time on this issue.