Secretary of State Mary Herrera
There’s new turmoil in the Secretary of State’s Office. The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell is reporting that Public Information Officer James Flores has been placed on paid administrative leave.
Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo confirmed to Terrell that Flores was placed on leave on Aug. 18. But he wouldn’t go into details because “it’s a personnel issue.”
Flores is supposed to return to work today, Terrell reported.
Flores has been the office spokesman since Secretary of State Mary Herrera took office in 2007. Flores had taken time off just before being placed on leave to attend funerals for two family members.
Such turmoil is nothing new. Earlier this month, Office Administrator Manny Vildasol, who secretly recorded video in Herrera’s office, said he had turned the video over to the FBI because it shows “issues of criminal activity and unethical behavior.” He was also placed on administrative leave.
Vildasol made his comments to KOB-TV reporter Gadi Schwartz, who included the allegations in a report about Herrera’s laptop computer being infected with viruses.
Terrell also recently reported on Herrera filing public records requests to try to obtain e-mail communication between some of her staffers and critics of her who work in various county clerk offices.
When he quit in March, then-Elections Supervisor A.J. Salazar authored a scathing resignation letter in which he wrote that Herrera runs “a crooked organization.” He said at the time that he turned his allegations over to the attorney general. A number of former employees have backed up some of the allegations made by Salazar.
Herrera, a Democrat, is facing Republican Dianna Duran in November. Concerns about the way Herrera runs the office have prompted one prominent Democratic county clerk, Valerie Espinoza of Santa Fe, to support Duran. And Doña Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins, another Democrat, has expressed concern about whether Herrera can win re-election because of the allegations against her.
I’ll be looking in-depth at Herrera’s troubles in the NMPolitics.net newsletter that goes out to qualifying donors on Tuesday.