Janice Arnold-Jones (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Unlike two other candidates running for governor, state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, has released her schedule of government-related appointments and events in response to a records request.
You can view Arnold-Jones’ official calendar for the months of January-May by clicking here.
The calendar is maintained by legislative staffers for Arnold-Jones. Arnold-Jones contacted Legislative Council Service last week in response to the records request from NMPolitics.net seeking her official calendar. She had the agency send her a copy, and she provided it to me.
Arnold-Jones is an unpaid legislator, not a full-time government official, so there are a lot of days on the calendar that don’t list any appointments. During the regular legislative session that ran from mid-January to mid-March, however, there were a lot of events and appointments on the schedule.
Arnold-Jones’ calendar reflects activities during the regular session that included committee meetings; events hosted by lobbyists, activist groups and others; media interviews; birthdays; a funeral for a former colleague who died during the session; and time for exercise.
Shortly after the regular session there was a special session of the Legislature. Arnold-Jones said her calendar doesn’t reflect many appointments and events from that time because special sessions are chaotic, and events happen as they unfold rather than being scheduled.
Unlike Arnold-Jones, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, a Democratic candidate for governor, and Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, have refused to release calendars or schedules, saying their government offices don’t maintain official calendars of their appointments. Read about the Denish situation here and the Martinez situation here.
Denish’s office says it may provide other documents that indicate some of what Denish has been doing. Martinez and Denish have both declined to answer the question of who, if anyone, is keeping a schedule of appointments related to their government jobs if their government offices aren’t doing it.