As I wrote on Tuesday, Gov. Bill Richardson and his administration have taken strong action in response to the investment scandal that started in New York and has spread to New Mexico and other states.
But those steps to address the situation came only after it became a national scandal that threatens to further bog down a governor who has watched his career sink in recent months because of a federal grand jury probe into allegations of pay to play in his administration.
What was Richardson doing before all the eyebrow-raising dealing became known publicly?
State officials say Richardson was, until the scandal broke, unaware of payments made to third-party marketers — those hired by investment firms to help them win state contracts — that are at the center of the controversy. So why does Richardson keep refusing to answer a related question being asked by Trip Jennings, a colleague of mine at the New Mexico Independent?
Jennings writes in an article published on Wednesday that he asked Richardson at a news conference “whether he had met to discuss an investment with the son of a friend prior to the state’s decision to sink $90 million into the deal.”
He’s referring to Marc Correra, the man hired to sell to the investments with Vanderbilt Financial to the state. Those investments, which the state lost completely, are the subject of the pay-to-play lawsuit brought by Frank Foy on behalf of the state.
Correra has also been in the news because he shared in as much as $16 million in finders’ fees for winning investment companies — including Vanderbilt — big contracts in New Mexico. While a Richardson spokesman has said the governor wasn’t aware of any of the fees paid to Correra, the governor and his staff are refusing to say whether Richardson met with Correra about the Vanderbilt deal.
When asked by Jennings on Wednesday, Richardson didn’t answer the question, instead saying this:
“Look, yesterday in the State Investment Council I led the effort to fire Aldus, to ban third-party marketers, to have an audit jointly done by the Legislature and the Finance Authority. There is a federal investigation, a national investigation, going on. I am not privy to any of those details.”
“But did you meet with Correra prior to the investment, he was asked again,” Jennings’ article states.
“That’s all I’m going to say,” the governor responded, according to Jennings.
It’s the third time Richardson and his office have refused to answer the question.
So my question: Why, if the governor didn’t meet with Correra about the Vanderbilt deal, doesn’t he just say that?
Perhaps therein lies the answer to Jennings’ question.