Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Diane Denish says it’s ironic that the GOP is criticizing campaign contributions she’s accepted when she’s been more transparent about her campaign’s finances than the Republican candidates.
The comments from the campaign of Denish, the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee, come a day after state Republican Party Chairman Harvey E. Yates Jr. raised questions about big campaign contributions Denish accepted in a guest column published on this site.
Denish accepted more than $50,000 from Leo Hindery Jr., with about half of it coming a month after Hindery secured a $30 million investment from the State Investment Council. The investment was recommended by Saul Meyer, the state’s former investment adviser, who has admitted to recommending “investments that were pushed on him by politically-connected individuals in New Mexico” in pleading guilty to unrelated charges in New York.
“Is this ‘pay to play’ unveiled, evidencing that Denish and Richardson are wrapped in the same corruption package?” Yates asked. “Perhaps. But, we need more information to know for sure — information which probably can be secured only by law enforcement officials armed with subpoena power.”
Denish spokesman Chris Cervini wrote in an e-mail response that it’s “ironic that the Republicans are attacking Lt. Gov. Diane Denish’s campaign contributions when they’ve chosen to run their campaigns in the dark, refusing to follow Lt. Gov. Denish’s lead and disclose contributions more frequently than the law requires.”
“While Lt. Gov. Denish is running the most open and transparent campaign in the state, Republicans are continuing negative attacks and demonstrating they do not have the leadership or ideas New Mexicans deserve during these difficult times,” Cervini wrote.
He’s referring to Denish’s practice of releasing campaign finance reports to the public quarterly in off-election years, though the law only requires that she does it twice a year. Denish is expected to voluntarily release a report in the next couple of weeks of her fundraising and spending from the fourth quarter of 2009.
I’ve asked each of the Republican gubernatorial candidates if any would match Denish in releasing a fundraising report this month. None have responded.