Diane Denish
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Diane Denish has been hammering her GOP opponent, Susana Martinez, because the district attorney office Martinez runs bought office supplies from a business owned by an employee.
It turns out that Denish, as chair of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, voted in 2003 to give a no-bid contract to a business owned by the wife of an employee.
The Albuquerque Journal reported on this on Monday, but I haven’t had time to blog it until now.
From the Journal:
“Denish voted to give a no-bid, software contract worth $130,000 to a company owned by the wife of Galen Shipman, then an employee with the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority’s information systems department. Denish, in her role as lieutenant governor, is chairwoman of the MFA board.”
Martinez has accused Denish of hypocrisy for criticizing her while she’s done the same thing. But Denish told the Journal that there’s a big difference between that and what Martinez did:
“This is apples to oranges,” Denish said. “I had no relationship with this employee. Susana Martinez gave a contract to somebody who was her deputy, who she was friends with, who is a campaign donor to her. We had a process. There is no evidence of any review process in the Doña Ana County district attorney’s office for giving a sole-source contract.”
Read more here.