Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Attorney General Gary King says he’s focused during his first term on making the office one that is respected, honest, ethical and doing high-quality work.
“We are the law firm for the State of New Mexico, and I think we should have the state’s best lawyers,” King, a Democrat, said during a recent interview in Las Cruces.
He acknowledged that the office doesn’t pay as much as many private law firms, but said lawyers have the opportunity to work on some high-profile cases and make a difference, which has attracted quality attorneys.
King said he’s made significant improvements in the office during his first term:
- The office’s focus on combating Internet crimes against children has helped lead to a huge spike in the number of cases that are prosecuted in New Mexico.
- The state was on “high-risk” status for Medicaid fraud when King took office in 2007, but the office has focused on prosecuting such cases, and the state recently earned a new, less-worrisome designation from the federal government.
- The office has new special prosecutors focused on domestic violence and DWI.
- The AG has a new governmental accountability unit that focuses on public corruption and related issues.
- The office has a greater focus on combating use of methamphetamines.
- Outreach to youth about how to be safe has increased.
- The AG’s consumer affairs unit is more effective and professional in its dealings with people.
- The quality of representation of state agencies has improved.
King said his office has improved in all of those areas while seeing 10 percent of its budget be cut in the last three years.
That doesn’t mean every area of the office is more efficient. The cuts are obvious in some areas, King said. For example, it takes the office significantly longer to respond to legislators’ requests for legal opinions than when he first took office because resources have been diverted elsewhere.
Public corruption cases
King’s GOP opponent, Matt Chandler, and other Republicans have accused King of being soft on corruption. King defended his record in a recent guest column published on this site.
The most high-profile cases King’s office has brought – against Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. and his father, former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and others, and former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos and others – are all bogged down by legal questions.
In the Block case, some charges were dismissed because the judge ruled that King overstepped his authority with the indictments. His office is appealing. In the other two, defendants are questioning whether King’s office can represent a state agency in a civil capacity and criminally prosecute officials from that office. King says there’s no conflict, but the question is awaiting a ruling from the appeals court.
King said no court has ever ruled on the question about a potential conflict between the civil and criminal divisions in his office – which indicates that very few public corruption cases has ever been brought this far in New Mexico’s history.
The statute under which the Blocks are charged is relatively new, so no court has ever ruled on the pending question in that case, either.
So while others say King isn’t doing enough to combat corruption, King contends that his office is taking these cases further than most attorneys general have done in the past.
How bad is corruption in NM?
Republicans regularly use the term “culture of corruption” to describe government in New Mexico. King takes issue with calling it a “culture,” saying that term is “too broad” and implies that every government official is corrupt.
King, who has access to more information about actual corruption than most New Mexicans, says corruption is a “substantial problem,” and he said there is “significant corruption” here.
However, he said, most government employees and officials are hardworking and trying to do their jobs well. King said his focus isn’t on using politically charged terms, but is instead on finding those individuals who are corrupt and prosecuting them.
Even though those three high-profile cases haven’t yet resulted in convictions, King said the indictments have had an impact. He said he believes officials are working harder to try to comply with state laws.
King said there are two types of corruption in New Mexico. The first is traditional pay to play – in which an official pockets money in exchange for an official action. There’s lots of public support for such cases, King said.
King called the second the “this-is-the-way-that-we’ve-always-done-things-in-New-Mexico-and-we-don’t-want-to-change-it” corruption. He cited the case against former State Treasurer Robert Vigil as an example. The jury saw video of Vigil taking money, but Vigil argued that it was a campaign contribution and a jury failed to convict him on most of the charges he faced.
“Those cases are much more difficult, I think – the ones where it looks like something that’s been accepted practice in New Mexico, and we’re trying to change that practice,” King said. He added that campaign contribution limits that take effect after the current election cycle will help with situations like Vigil’s.
I asked whether King has ever received pressure from high-ranking officials to back off a corruption investigation. He said he’s often asked when his office indicts someone why they are doing it. King said he’s also received pressure “in certain instances” that “was a little more severe.”
However, that pressure didn’t rise to the level of criminal activity, King said, or he would have indicted the person who was applying the pressure.
Legislative changes
King said he plans to keep pushing during another term as attorney general for the creation of a state ethics commission that would investigate complaints of ethical violations and educate officials on what’s acceptable behavior.
And he will push for other changes. King wants the ethical requirements in the Governmental Conduct Act to apply to all government officials in New Mexico. Currently, the law governing ethical behavior applies to state workers but not local governments.
King said there are other areas in law where he will ask the Legislature to clean up language so his office can prosecute cases.