Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
In 2001, then-state Democratic Party Chairwoman Diane Denish took a stand against a proposal to open legislative conference committees to the public.
“… some aspects of politics, like sausage, are best made unseen if we’re to stomach the contents,” Denish wrote in an op-ed.
Now that Denish is the lieutenant governor and the Democrats’ likely nominee for governor next year, she’s talking a lot about ethics reform and transparency. On the flip side, Republicans have been hammering her on her past position on conference committees and other issues in an attempt to tie her to corruption scandals that have plagued Democrats in recent years.
“Now that she is in campaign mode, Diane Denish is singing a different tune,” state GOP Chairman Harvey Yates Jr. said in a recent news release. “That is just too much sausage for the people to stomach.”
Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez, a declared GOP candidate, authored a commentary published Wednesday on this site in which she wrote that she disagreed with Denish’s 2001 stance and believes “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
In an interview Thursday in Las Cruces, Denish said she has “changed my attitude” and now also supports opening conference committees to the public — something the Legislature and governor approved earlier this year. She said she had never been an elected official and had not “really seen how the process works” when she took the stance against opening the meetings eight years ago.
Denish also said people should want to be represented by officials who are willing to change their positions when they learn a better way.
“We don’t want people who are stuck in the past,” she said.
Focused on the future
Focusing on the future — rather than the past problems that have plagued state government — appears to be at the core of Denish’s campaign. Denish said she’s optimistic about what lies ahead for New Mexico and is currently focused on working to improve the state, not winning the 2010 governor’s race. She said she’s especially excited about the potential benefit to New Mexico of the national move toward energy independence.
“We’ve got some great things happening in New Mexico,” said Denish, who was in Las Cruces to speak at several events, including a symposium on improving graduation rates. “We’re well positioned to lead, especially in the new energy economy.”
But the attacks have been coming relentlessly from the state GOP and Republicans vying for the right to take her on next year. In formally entering the race earlier this week, former state GOP Chairman Allen Weh said the “Richardson-Denish administration has turned our state around for the worst” and complained about Democratic corruption.
And Martinez, in the same commentary referenced earlier, questioned a statement Denish made in response to the recent news that there would be no charges filed following an investigation into allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration.
“…this is good news for the people of New Mexico,” Denish said at the time.
“Good news for the people of New Mexico or good news for Denish? The fact that there is a distinction between those two questions tells us how far state government has fallen,” Martinez wrote.
During Thursday’s interview, Denish explained her comment by saying she believes “people breathed a sigh of relief” upon learning that the probe was over because investigators “found no legal wrongdoing and it was fully investigated.”
“It brought some closure to that,” Denish said.
Denish also pointed out the rest of the statement she released in response to the end of the investigation: “We need strong ethics reform to make state government more open and accountable and I will continue to lead that fight,” she said at the time.
‘Voters and New Mexicans want stronger laws’
Trying to tie Denish to her party’s corruption scandals is a smart move, but it may be more about winning a GOP primary than it is about the general election, New Mexico pollster and analyst Brian Sanderoff said. He has seen polling numbers suggesting that Republicans are more concerned about corruption than Democrats.
Still, Sanderoff noted that corruption scandals involving Democrats have been frequently in the news in New Mexico for years, so he expects it to be “one of many issues” on the minds of voters in the general election next November.
“It’s a good issue for the primary, and it could be a good issue in the general,” he said.
Weh has said GOP polling reveals that corruption is the third most important issue to voters, behind the economy and education.
Like the GOP, Denish apparently understands that voters are concerned about corruption. She recently proposed the creation of an independent ethics commission to help educate public officials about ethical conduct and then hold them accountable to those standards. The proposal has been discussed for years — long before Denish made her own proposal — but never gained traction in the Senate.
Denish’s commission would have the authority to issue subpoenas and punish unethical behavior. Asked how she’ll get it passed, considering that the Senate has rejected proposals to create less powerful commissions in the past, Denish said lawmakers who oppose it will have to explain themselves to their constituents.
“Voters and New Mexicans want stronger laws,” she said. “It will take some very hard work. … I’m willing to lead the charge.”