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The state has a new director of elections. The hiring of A.J. Salazar was announced today by Secretary of State Mary Herrera in a news release. He will begin in job on April 20 and will be paid $95,000 a year. “I look forward to having A.J. Salazar join our team here at the Secretary of State’s Office,” Herrera said in the release. “He has a reputation of being meticulous, thorough and attentive. Continue Reading
Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill today that will require the state to create an online, searchable database of all state government contracts over $20,000. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, who pushed for the approval of House Bill 546, sponsored by Al Park, D-Albuquerque, hailed the database as a way to increase transparency in state government. “New Mexicans deserve to know who is doing business with their government. This law will enable all citizens to track state government contracts, follow the flow of public money and understand how it is being used,” Denish said in a new release. “Ethics reform in government starts with transparency, and I’m proud to have worked hard on this effort which guarantees more sunshine on the business of government.” While most bills approved in the session that just ended take effect in June or July, lawmakers decided for some reason that this bill shouldn’t take effect until Jan. Continue Reading
The federal investigation into GRIPgate, the controversy surrounding the $1.6 billion transportation project, has been expanded as staffers from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been brought into the probe, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting. SEC involvement, according to the Journal, “would indicate investigators have widened their scope to include possible securities fraud as well as the widely reported pay-to-play allegations.” Basically, what CDR Financial Products did for the state and how much it was paid is now of interest to investigators. That’s in addition to the pay-to-play allegations — that the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson traded a lucrative state bond contract for $110,000 in contributions to Richardson’s political committees and his 2006 gubernatorial campaign. The SEC team includes Denver enforcement division attorney Allison Lee, who, the Journal article states, “was part of the SEC enforcement team that successfully brought civil charges against former Richardson insider and state Game Commission Chairman Guy Riordan. From the Journal: “Riordan was barred from the securities industry and ordered to repay the state $2.2 million for paying bribes to former state Treasurer Michael Montoya to get state investment business. Continue Reading
Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White has formed a political action committee aimed at repealing the death-penalty repeal recently signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson, and the PAC’s first TV ad is running statewide beginning Monday. Here’s the ad: The aim of Repeal the Repeal PAC, White wrote in a note on the group’s Web site, is “reinstating the death penalty in New Mexico for the most heinous crimes.” To accomplish that, it plans to: • “aggressively combat the misinformation campaign waged by the radical opponents of the death penalty and educate the public on the issue and the circumstances surrounding its repeal.” • “begin a petition drive in order to give voters the opportunity to ‘repeal the repeal’ of the death penalty at the ballot box, pursuant to the New Mexico Constitution.” • “urge voters to support candidates for the legislature and state office who will vote to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico.” Continue Reading
Sunland Park has had so much scandal and controversy over the years that this might not surprise anyone, but New Mexico State Police seized documents from the city’s government on Friday as part of a criminal probe, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News. Officers were at the city offices on Friday. A complaint, according to State Police Spokesman Peter Olson, was “made by the city council.” According to the Sun-News, quoting a source in city government, payroll, finance and purchasing documents were taken, as were records from the clerk’s office. The city’s mayor, Martin Resendiz, could not be reached by the Sun-News for comment. No other details were available. Continue Reading
The vast majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said Gov. Bill Richardson should sign a bill that would open conference committees and many other legislative meetings to the public. He did just that earlier today. Of 203 voters in the poll, 184, or 91 percent, said the governor should sign the bill, while 19, or 9 percent, said he should not. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading
This article has been updated.Despite what he calls its “flaws,” Gov. Bill Richardson signed today a bill that will open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public. “I have always maintained that this is a decision that should be made by the Legislature, without involvement by the executive branch,” Richardson said in a news release. “Nevertheless, the Legislature chose this path and I have signed the bill out of respect for its desire to further open the committee process to the public.” Richardson has said for years that he supported opening conference committees — meetings formed by legislative leaders to reconcile differences between versions of bills passed by the House and Senate. He pledged late in the session to sign House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, if the Legislature passed it, but after the bill was approved, he backpedaled on the pledge, saying “loopholes” in the bill concerned him. The loophole is that the bill allows the Legislature, by a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers, to override the law and re-close the meetings. Continue Reading
The governor signed into law today a bill that requires government agencies in New Mexico to accept requests for public records via e-mail and fax. House Bill 598, sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, will take effect in mid-June. Cervantes’ bill came in response to New Mexico State University’s assertion in 2007 that records requests I filed weren’t valid because they were sent via e-mail. The attorney general considered the issue and said that, though his office and the vast majority of state agencies treat e-mail requests as valid, state law doesn’t explicitly require that they be treated as valid. Currently, the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act requires response to “oral” and “written” requests for public records, but there’s no clear definition of what constitutes writing. Continue Reading
Though there’s more to do, lawmakers who pushed ethics and transparency measures this year say the successes were significant Campaign contribution limits. Webcasting. Open conference committees. Additional campaign reporting. By any measure, the legislative session that just ended was the most successful in recent memory for ethics-reform advocates who have been pushing for years to fundamentally change the way state government does business. Continue Reading
Gov. Bill Richardson might not have been feeling much public pressure yesterday to sign a bill that would open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public, but he’s certainly feeling it today. Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said on Wednesday that, other than media pressure, his office had seen “very little public interest” in House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces. Since news reports about that circulated, the number of calls and e-mails to Richardson’s office has increased, Gallegos confirmed today. One of those e-mails was from Violet and Ronald Cauthon of Las Cruces. “You are under the impression that only media figures want open government,” they wrote in their letter, which they provided to me. Continue Reading
As expected, Gov. Bill Richardson signed bills today that will enact campaign contribution limits and require more frequent filing of campaign finance reports. The contribution-limit bill is Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. It will limit contributions to non-statewide candidates for office — including legislative candidates — to $2,300 per election from any entity except a political committee, which could give a maximum of $5,000 to non-statewide candidates. It will limit contributions to statewide candidates for office, political action committees and political parties to $5,000 per election from individuals and groups. There are two elections — a primary and a general — in each election cycle. Continue Reading
Gov. Bill Richardson is considering serving up a TIDD combo plate to lawmakers in a special session later this year, and that could put some House members from Las Cruces in a tough spot. Two very different proposals to use the controversial tax increment development district financing to fund projects died in the legislative session that just ended. One would have provided up to $7.25 million to fund redevelopment of Las Cruces’ downtown by committing a percentage of gross receipts tax revenue collected in the area to repay bonds. It’s a project that’s a local-government effort. The second, a proposal to provide $408 million for the massive SunCal development on Albuquerque’s west side, is a developer-driven project to build an entirely new development. Continue Reading
A couple of weeks ago, March 20 passed with me failing to recognize that it was the third anniversary of this site. Let me remedy that now. Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics — which I more commonly refer to these days as nmpolitics.net — has stayed strong through three years that have been among the most tumultuous in the history of the news business. I’m proud of that, but also remain humbled at the support the site has received ever since my wife and I decided to go with this crazy dream to quit newspapers and head down this road more than three years ago. What turbulent times these have been. Continue Reading
Gov. Bill Richardson plans to hold a news conference on Thursday to “take action on several ethics reform bills,” according to a news release from his office. The release didn’t specify which bills Richardson will sign, and two staffers didn’t respond to an e-mail about the news conference, but sources said Richardson plans to sign bills that will enact campaign contribution limits and require more frequent campaign reporting. The contribution-limit bill is Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. It will limit contributions to non-statewide candidates for office — including legislative candidates — to $2,300 per election from any entity except a political committee, which could give a maximum of $5,000 to non-statewide candidates. It will limit contributions to statewide candidates for office, political action committees and political parties to $5,000 per election from individuals and groups. Continue Reading
Westland Development spent a little more than $232,000 on a statewide advertising campaign that was part of its failed attempt to convince the New Mexico Legislature to approve a controversial method of public financing for its Albuquerque development. The advertising expenditures to promote the SunCal tax increment development district (TIDD) proposal were revealed in a report filed on Tuesday with the Secretary of State’s office. The biggest expense: $55,000 to Comcast Cable for television ads. The smallest: $320.06 for an ad on this site. Westland blanketed the state in billboards, TV, radio and internet ads and mailers. Continue Reading