Metro court defendant admits stealing $2 million

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One of the defendants in the Bernalillo County Metro Court scandal changed his plea on Friday and admitted to taking more than $2 million form taxpayers. In admitting that he successfully conspired to steal what prosecutors say added up to $4.2 million during construction of the $83 million facility, Toby Martinez, former administrator of the court, could face up to 45 years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to seek less in exchange for his testimony against the other defendants, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting. Martinez is the fourth to plead guilty in the case, while four others, including former Senate President Manny Aragon, are still facing felony charges including conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering. Read the indictment by clicking here. Continue Reading

Iglesias opines on report, appointment of prosecutor

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Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico is out with two new commentaries on the recently released report on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, including him, which found that the reasons Bush administration staffers gave Congress last year for firing Iglesias were hogwash. In the first, an Oct. 1 commentary published in the Los Angeles Times, Iglesias wrote that he was pleased that the report “fully vindicated” what he and his fired colleagues have been saying: “Improper politicization has crippled the (Justice) department, and the Bush administration’s culture of partisanship-loyalty above all has done a terrible disservice to this country.” “Justice was compromised. Not only were my colleagues and I not insulated from politics — as we should have been in our jobs as prosecutors — but we were fired for the most partisan of reasons,” Iglesias wrote. “In my case, it was because powerful Republicans in Congress and the White House believed that I had not done my duty as a Republican to bring criminal charges against Democrats in the run-up to the 2006 elections.” Iglesias wrote that the “lack of adult supervision at Justice was breathtaking; no one reined in the young bulls in the constitutional china shop.” He also wrote the report indicates that the reasons for the firings were based on “rumor and innuendo rather than evidence.” In a Friday column published on The Huffington Post, Iglesias wrote about the appointment of a federal prosecutor to decide whether criminal charges are warranted. Continue Reading

White’s new ad hits Heinrich on streetcar vote

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1st Congressional District Republican candidate Darren White’s new TV ad hits Democratic opponent Martin Heinrich for his vote as an Albuquerque city councilor to extend a tax to help fund a controversial streetcar project. Here’s the 30-second spot: “Martin Heinrich’s personal attacks: ‘false… deceptive.’ His record is worse,” the ad’s narrator states. “On the city council, Heinrich cut a shady deal to extend our sales taxes for 10 years without voter approval. Why? Continue Reading

Voters in poll say Teague is best on the economy

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The majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said Democrat Harry Teague is the 2nd Congressional District candidate most capable of handling the nation’s economic crisis. Of 399 voters, 225, or 56 percent, picked Teague, while 174, or 44 percent, picked his Republican opponent, Ed Tinsley. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

Domenici talks with TIME about mental health parity

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The current edition of TIME magazine features an interview with retiring U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici about Congress’ recent approval of a bill that mandates mental health parity in the insurance industry. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was included in the financial bailout bill approved earlier this month by Congress and the president. Domenici, who is retiring because he has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease, has a daughter who suffers from schizophrenia. As I’ve reported, he worked for years with a bipartisan group of senators to get the bill passed. TIME spoke with Domenici about the legislation, the state of mental health care in America and his hopes for the future. Continue Reading

Domenici asks voters to support Pearce in new ad

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Retiring U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici is appearing in a new TV ad urging New Mexicans to replace him with the Republican candidate, Steve Pearce. Here’s the 30-second ad from the Pearce campaign: “For a long time you’ve allowed me to serve you. Together we’ve accomplished a lot for New Mexico,” Domenici says in the ad. “Now I must pass this work to someone who can continue our progress. Steve Pearce is that someone.” “He knows how to make our lives prosper and how to create jobs that will keep our economy robust, do the right thing for New Mexico’s future,” Domenici says. Continue Reading

Richardson says rift with Bill Clinton persists

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File this under the “We’re-fighting-two-wars-and-the-economy-is-tanking-so-I-don’t-care” category if you want, but I still figured it was worth a small mention. Gov. Bill Richardson says his endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton may have created a “permanent fissure” with former President Bill Clinton. “It could be pretty much a permanent fissure. But that’s politics, that’s OK,” Richardson told National Public Radio on Thursday, according to The Politico. “I did what I thought was best for the country. Continue Reading

Both campaigns put positive spin on CD2 forum

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There was plenty of positive spin from the campaigns of both 2nd Congressional District candidates on Thursday evening after Democrat Harry Teague and Republican Ed Tinsley squared off in a nationally televised forum. But the reality is that, while neither candidate crashed and burned, neither candidate shone at the forum, which was sponsored by New Mexico First and televised statewide on public stations and across the nation on C-SPAN. In an interview following the forum, State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces and a Teague supporter, characterized the difference between the candidates as “somebody who’s in touch with southern New Mexico (Teague) versus somebody who’s not (Tinsley),” and said Teague represents change, while Tinsley favors the status quo. Meanwhile, Las Cruces restaurant owner Tom Hutchinson, a Tinsley supporter, said Tinsley showed depth that Teague did not. “The biggest thing I noticed was Ed’s understanding of the issues, and he did go into depth and he proposed solutions,” Hutchinson said. Continue Reading

GOP group scales back ad buy in 1st District race

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The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) on Thursday cancelled about $500,000 in advertising it had reserved in its quest to help elect 1st Congressional District GOP candidate Darren White. That doesn’t mean White isn’t getting any help from outside groups. Freedom’s Watch has spent just under $500,000 on television ads attacking White’s Democratic opponent, Martin Heinrich. And the NRCC still plans to spend more than $200,000 on the race. But the move by the NRCC is undoubtedly a blow to a candidate who has trailed Heinrich slightly in recent polls of the race. Continue Reading

Watch the 2nd District forum live right here

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I’m told the screen at the end of this posting will become a live feed of the 2nd Congressional District candidate forum when it begins at 7 p.m. Assuming it works, you can watch the forum live right here. If that doesn’t work, click here or here to find the forum online. And if you aren’t able to watch it live, check back later tonight. I’m planning to post video of the full forum on this site for those who want to watch it at a later time. Here’s the live video feed: Live Videos by Ustream Continue Reading

Could NM politicos be headed for cabinet positions?

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Heather Wilson, Bill Richardson and even Steve Pearce have made their way onto one Washington publication’s list of potential members of the next president’s cabinet. CQ Weekly, part of Congressional Quarterly, is out with a special report that examines who might make up the cabinets of Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama.The publication isn’t online, so I can’t link to it. Richardson, the state’s Democratic governor, is often mentioned as a potential secretary of state in an Obama administration. But Richardson isn’t at the top of CQ’s list for that job: He’s third behind Susan E. Rice, Obama’s senior foreign policy advisor, and Richard Hollbrooke, a former assistant secretary of state. In writing about Richardson, CQ highlights his former jobs as U.N. ambassador and energy secretary, his endorsement of Obama after he ended his own presidential campaign last year and the continuation of his international work even as he has been governor. Continue Reading

NBC scraps Pearce/Udall Meet the Press debate

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NBC News has canceled a live, nationally televised debate between New Mexico’s U.S. Senate candidates that had been scheduled for Sunday. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce announced the cancellation today in a news release. His campaign said NBC notified it today that it plans to instead focus its Sunday Meet the Press program on the financial crisis. In a statement sent to the Pearce campaign, Betsy Fischer, executive producer of Meet the Press, said, “Due to our need to focus the program on the escalating financial crisis, we are going to be unable to host this Sunday’s New Mexico Senate Debate. We hope you understand that as a news program we sometimes have to change our programming plans as major news dictates.” Pearce said the debate “would have been a great opportunity” and he is disappointed, but pointed out that there are still three upcoming televised debates between him and Democratic candidate Tom Udall. Continue Reading

FBI probing 1,400 voter registration forms

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened a preliminary probe into 1,400 “potentially fraudulent” voter registration forms in Bernalillo County, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver told the newspaper she had turned over the suspicious forms to law enforcement, and said that’s proof that her office’s review of forms that are submitted to her office works. “That’s 1,400 cards here sitting in a file; they’re not entered into the system,” she said. The revelation about the probe was part of a larger article about Republicans “reviving alarms” about voter fraud in New Mexico and other states. The article quoted state Rep. Justine Fox-Young, R-Albuquerque, as expressing concern. Continue Reading

Congresswoman to visit southern NM for Obama

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U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis, D-Calif., will tour southern New Mexico on Thursday to talk with seniors about health care and promote the candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama. Solis and former U.S. First Secretary of Aging Fernando Torres-Gil will visit centers in San Miguel, Las Cruces, Deming, Truth or Consequences and Socorro today, according to a news release from the Obama campaign. They’ll be at the San Miguel Youth Center in San Miguel at 8 a.m., the Munson Senior Center in Las Cruces at 9:30 a.m., the Deming Senior Citizens Center in Deming at 11:30 a.m., the Senior Citizens Program in Truth or Consequences at 2:45 p.m. and the Socorro City-County Senior Center in Socorro at 5:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced today that it surpassed its goal of registering 30,000 new voters in New Mexico in the last 30 days people could register and vote in the upcoming election. That period ended on Tuesday. The Obama campaign said today that it registered nearly 35,500 new voters throughout the state from Sept. Continue Reading