Secretary of State Mary Herrera
Two new media reports indicate trouble in Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s office, with one quoting former employees about the issues in her office and the other citing e-mails that indicate that some office employees were being paid by taxpayers while they worked on Herrera’s campaign.
The Rio Grande Sun came out with the report about the e-mails. From the article:
“A New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office administrator scrutinized fellow employees for campaigning on state time and complained of apparent political favoritism before he turned over information to federal investigators last month, according to documents obtained by the SUN.
“Office email shows Administrator Manny Vildasol caught resistance from other staff in April as he verified Office employees were on the clock while they prepared for Secretary of State Mary Herrera’s past campaign events. He also complained in later emails that the Office’s formal inquiries into election law violations were handled out of order, giving the appearance that certain cases were given priority for political reasons.”
Read more here.
KUNM radio in Albuquerque has the other report. From KUNM’s Jim Williams:
“As KUNM has reported previously, some former Secretary’s office employees say they left because of mismanagement and a lack of professionalism in the office. In recent weeks, some of those former employees have come forward with specifics. But first: this story is as much about the people who would not speak on the record as those who would. I spent countless hours on the phone and in person with well over a dozen current and former employees of the Secretary of State’s office. Each spoke at length of cronyism, incompetence, and humiliation, and each was overwhelmingly certain there would be retaliation if they spoke out. But that didn’t stop some of them.”
Read or listen to the story here.
Herrera’s problems appear to be turning into an avalanche. In the monthly NMPolitics.net that went out to qualifying donors on Tuesday, I moved the race between Herrera, the Democrat, and Republican Dianna Duran from leaning in Herrera’s direction to being a toss-up. I’m considering ranking the race as leaning in Duran’s favor when the next newsletter goes out on Sept. 30. What do you think?