Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Attorney General Gary King has lately been “dragging his public trust to political depths previously unplumbed” and should consider “recusing himself from office,” The Santa Fe New Mexican wrote in an editorial published Saturday.
The newspaper says nobody is “so naive as to think the position of New Mexico attorney general is above politics,” but King’s recent actions go beyond what’s reasonable and are “certainly beneath his once-praiseworthy self.”
Why? For starters, his office “so completely fumbled the prosecution of ex-Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Girón, accused of misusing public money, that the courts threw him off the case.”
In that case, the judge didn’t say there was an actual conflict, but said perceptions of a potential conflict were enough to ruin King’s ability to prosecute. King turned the case over to the 2nd Judicial District attorney, who is looking for a special prosecutor to take the case.
‘Running interference’ for Democrats?
There’s more. The New Mexican is offended by King’s actions in the case brought by whistleblower Frank Foy alleging corruption in the Richardson administration. Foy initially took his allegations to King’s office, as required under state law, and only hired an attorney to pursue the case on his own after King’s office declined to act.
King is, meanwhile, supposedly investigating potential corruption in state investment agencies (his office rarely comments on such cases, so the status is unknown), and The New Mexican characterizes that as “King taking his sweet time acting against corrupt manipulation of the State Investment Council and the Educational Retirement Board.”
At the same time, Foy and his attorney, Victor Marshall, have pursued the separate whistleblower case. Marshall has “lately has found King belatedly butting in on the act,” the newspaper wrote. King’s office is now trying to take over efforts to recover money lost in state investment deals tainted by politics.
“Is he trying to foul up the case against a bunch of power-abusing Democrats who might include former Gov. Bill Richardson?” the newspaper asks about King.
One of the defendants, former ERB Chairman Bruce Malott, was treasurer for King’s 2004 congressional campaign. And, as the Albuquerque Journal reported this weekend, Malott’s signature appears on King’s finance reports as recently as last year. (King kept filing reports because he had to pay off a $122,000 loan.)
The Journal’s Thomas J. Cole called that a possible violation of federal election law, because Malott’s signature continued to appear on finance reports even after his work for the committee ended, and because King was required to report Malott’s departure from the committee to the FEC, but he didn’t.
The New Mexican calls King’s relationship with Malott “clearly a conflict of interest” with the whistleblower case in which King is trying to intervene.
“His involvement in the investment-council case comes off as running interference for several Democrats who abused their power — and that might yet include former Gov. Bill Richardson, whom Malott also served as campaign treasurer,” The New Mexican writes. “There’s at least the appearance of the Democratic AG as a convenient accessory for fellow Democrats.”
‘This is crazy’
Last, there’s King’s relationship with the state auditor, Hector Balderas:
“He has turned a deaf ear to Balderas’ call for further and faster action on what the auditor says is contract fraud in the Corrections Department and at the state’s housing authority. Instead, King’s operatives are persecuting Balderas — on the basis of what appear to be groundless and/or petty accusations of misbehavior.”
As NMPolitics.net recently reported, King’s office declined to investigate bribery allegations against a former Corrections Department employee who is now facing federal felony charges. Balderas recently released a damning audit related to the situation.
And King has long faced allegations that he didn’t dig deep enough or act quickly enough in the case of corruption in the state housing authority system, even though he did indict four people in a case that’s pending.
As for the “persecution” of Balderas, the paper is referring to an ongoing AG investigation into allegations based on complaints received through a hotline set up by Balderas’ office. Those include that Balderas “used workers in his office as baby-sitters and (gasp!) put in a time-clock system to keep employees from goofing off,” the newspaper wrote.
“Balderas has offered over and over to meet with King or his deputies about the complaints, so far to no avail,” the editorial states. “The Balderas case is being treated as a hot one — while readily provable corruption, uncovered by Balderas, goes ignored? This is crazy.”
What a difference a few months can make
The newspaper’s conclusion? While Marshall says King should recuse himself from the Foy case, “We’d go a step further, suggesting that he consider recusing himself from office, where he’s been less than intensively attentive to his duties between trips abroad — but that’s another story…”
That’s a story NMPolitics.net has written. As of October 2010, King had traveled overseas on personal business at least nine times since taking office in January 2007. Most of those trips were to accompany his wife, who was serving on a NATO panel.
“We are dealing with an era of corruption,” King’s opponent in last year’s election, Republican Matt Chandler, told NMPolitics.net. “We need an attorney general that’s on the job and in tune with what’s happening in New Mexico.”
Voters re-elected King. In fact, The New Mexican endorsed him in that race, writing that, “When it comes to competence and honesty, few of our state’s public servants can match Attorney General Gary King.”
What a difference a few months can make.
The AG’s communications director recently set up a blog designed to “expand upon, clarify, and provide correct information about the NM Attorney General’s Office (AGO) that may also appear in media sources such as television, radio, newspaper, blogs, etc.” It will be interesting to see whether the blog addresses The New Mexican’s editorial.
NMPolitics.net has also asked for comment. If the AG’s office does comment, you’ll read it here.