Ethics task force to discuss ideas on Wednesday

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The governor’s Task Force on Ethics Reform is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The meeting will be held in room 307 at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. Several working groups have been discussing a number of topics since the group’s last meeting in May, and will make recommendations to the task force at the meeting. The groups will talk about an ethics commission, campaign contribution limits, gift limitations, making the treasurer and auditor appointed positions, public financing of campaigns, compensation for legislators, procurement practices and transparency in government. The last will include a discussion on opening conference committees. The meeting is scheduled to last until 4 p.m. Continue Reading

Wealthy developer enters race against Domenici

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A political newcomer with a lot of money has decided to challenge U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici next year. Santa Fe developer and Democrat Don Wiviott has been considering the race for a couple of months, but told Joe Monahan on Wednesday that he’s officially running and will start the campaign with $400,000 of his own money. He’s willing to spend up to $1 million, if necessary, he told Monahan. Wiviott joins two other Democrats who have entered the race against the state’s GOP senator – Jim Hannan of Santa Fe, a former staffer to the late U.S. Rep. Mo Udall, D-Ariz., and Leland Lehrman of Lamy, an alternative media journalist and Web designer. Neither has as much money as Wiviott, but both have been active – Lehrman through the online newsletter he publishes and Hannan through advertisements in newspapers in Santa Fe and Albuquerque and his campaign Web site. Continue Reading

Celebration of GOP activist’s life to be held July 14

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A celebration will be held next month in honor of longtime Republican Party leader Mike Laurance. Laurance died in May following a battle with cancer. He was 65. The celebration of Laurance’s life will be held on July 14 at 4 p.m. in the Creative Media Institute auditorium on the New Mexico State University Campus in Las Cruces. Those who can’t attend, but wish to contribute to a scholarship in Laurance’s name, can make checks out to the Mike Laurance Memorial Scholarship Fund and mail them to The Mike Laurance Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o Jonathan Benson, NMSU Box 3001 MSC 3CMI, Las Cruces, NM 88003. Continue Reading

Watch the newest Iglesias interview

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David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico who has been at the center of the national controversy surrounding the firings of a number of federal prosecutors, spoke this weekend with Julia Goldberg, the editor of the Santa Fe Reporter, in Portland at the annual Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Convention. Iglesias, in the interview, talked about loyalty and politics and about the differences between Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft. He said Ashcroft led an administration that was “working for the people,” while Gonzales leads one that is “working for the White House.” “I can’t imagine Ashcroft putting up with some of the nonsense that Gonzales did,” Iglesias said. “… I actually always found Ashcroft to be a straight shooter.” Iglesias also discussed the phone calls he received in October from Rep. Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Domenici and his assertion that the two pressured him to speed indictments in a public corruption probe to sway voters in the November 2006 election. Iglesias acknowledged, as he’s done before, not reporting the calls even though not doing so violated department policy. Continue Reading

King makes his own ethics reform proposals

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Attorney General Gary King is proposing several changes in state law designed to help root out government corruption. The proposals come as Gov. Bill Richardson’s ethics task force is also considering a number of proposals in an effort to clean up government in New Mexico. The task force’s next meeting is Wednesday in Santa Fe. On Tuesday, King presented the proposals to the Legislative Interim Committee on Courts, Corrections and Justice. According to a news release, King expects the proposals to be sponsored and debated during the 2008 session. Continue Reading

FOXNews.com examines the West’s blue streak

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FOXNews.com recently interviewed me for an article examining why the West has become such fertile ground for Democrats. I talked with the news organization about how important the West has become to presidential politics – how states such as New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Nevada, taken together, can be as important as Ohio or Florida. I also talked about how the West is turning blue because Democrats are doing a better job of reaching out to the unique voters that populate the West. If you’re interested, check out the article by clicking here. Continue Reading

Domenici’s poll numbers may be stabilizing

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U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s approval rating has dropped for the fourth consecutive month, but only slightly, and his support has actually increased in some key areas. Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s approval rating has also dropped. The decline in support for the Republican Domenici and Democratic Bingaman might indicate overall frustration with issues that include rising gas prices and a Congress that has failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. It’s possible that, unless the U.S. attorney scandal worsens, Domenici’s approval rating has bottomed out. In the newest survey, conducted June 8-10, Domenici has a 51-percent approval rating, down from 52 percent a month ago. Continue Reading

Poll shows Richardson’s support dropping in Iowa

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After several weeks of climbing in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, a new survey of likely Democratic caucus goers in the Hawkeye State has Gov. Bill Richardson’s support moving in the opposite direction. The Mason-Dixon Polling and Research survey, conducted June 13-16, has Richardson at 6 percent in Iowa. It surveyed 400 likely caucus goers and has a margin of error of 5 percent. The drop follows several weeks of gains in polls in the two important states to between 8 and 10 percent. This is the first poll conducted in Iowa since two recent, nationally televised appearances that earned Richardson a lot of criticism. Continue Reading

Group attacks Pearce’s oil ties, votes in radio ad

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A national environmental group that helped defeat a veteran GOP member of Congress from California last year is taking aim at five more, including U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce of Southern New Mexico. It’s further evidence that Pearce is going to face his toughest challenge yet in keeping his seat in 2008. The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is running the radio advertisement around the Second District of New Mexico as part of a larger campaign called “Heads in the Sand.” In the ad, which you can hear by clicking here, the group accuses Pearce of having his head “stuck in the sand” and voting repeatedly against legislation that would combat global warming and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. “Could it be because Steve Pearce has taken $375,000 in campaign cash from big oil while voting for $14 billion in tax breaks for oil companies gouging us with high gas prices?” the ad’s narrator asks. “… America has the know-how to be a world leader in clean renewable energy that will make our economy stronger, create jobs and protect the environment, but Steve Pearce continues to take big oil’s money and say ‘no.’” The group’s home page for the campaign against the former Hobbs oilman includes other information about Pearce and the campaign, in addition to ways to send a letter to Pearce and donate to keep the ad on the air. Continue Reading

ABQ recall effort has gubernatorial race undertones

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By Whitney Cheshire Take two Albuquerque City Council races, stir in a measure finance committee, add a dash of “recall,” and voila! Marty’s Party specialty… ABQ Takeover Soup! Good Wednesday morning to you here in the Land of Enchantment! We’re still laughing at the New Mexico GOP’s most recent Richardson baseball card, released yesterday. Click here to check it out. Continue Reading

Many say guv will continue climb in Iowa, N.H.

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A slim majority of those who voted in the last non-scientific poll on this site think Gov. Bill Richardson’s support will continue to grow in Iowa and New Hampshire. Of 150 voters, 77, or 51 percent, said he will continue to climb in polls in those states, while 66, or 44 percent, said he won’t, and seven, or 5 percent, said they don’t know. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading

High court won’t discipline Locatelli, finds negligence but not willful misconduct in contempt case

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The New Mexico Supreme Court has rejected a request to discipline a Las Cruces judge who admitted that he let anger and personal feelings affect actions related to his decision to issue contempt of court charges against two attorneys in 2004. Municipal Judge James T. Locatelli acted negligently but did not engage in willful misconduct, the high court stated in an opinion issued today, so he won’t be disciplined. In October, the Judicial Standards Commission sought a purging of the contempt charges, a formal reprimand, formal mentorship, an ethics course and reimbursement of the commission’s costs and expenses after finding that Locatelli improperly issued the charges and should have recused himself from the case. According to the commission’s petition for discipline, the matter began in April 2004, when Locatelli accepted a guilty plea from and sentenced a woman accused of shoplifting. Sometime after that, the woman hired Las Cruces attorney Marcia J. Milner and appealed the case to District Court. Continue Reading

Lobbyist, law enforcement officer dies after surgery

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A longtime law enforcement officer and lobbyist who fought a statewide ban on cockfighting died today following complications from knee surgery. Chris Jaramillo was 55. He was at MountainView Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces recovering from the surgery when complications resulted in a massive heart attack, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported on its Web site. Jaramillo was a registered lobbyist in New Mexico. His most visible client was the New Mexico Game Fowl Association, which successfully fought a proposal to ban cockfighting in the state until the Legislature approved the ban this year. Continue Reading

Richardson secures congressional endorsements

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Gov. Bill Richardson announced today the endorsements of four members of the U.S. House of Representatives – two of them Hispanics. That’s important because a number of visible Hispanics have endorsed other Democratic presidential candidates in recent weeks. Richardson’s campaign announced the endorsements of Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Solomon Ortiz, Gene Green and Silvestre Reyes of Texas. The endorsements from three Texas representatives are sure to give a boost to Richardson’s campaign in New Mexico’s neighbor to the east. “I am privileged to have the support of such honorable men,” Richardson said in a news release. Continue Reading

National Democratic group thinks Pearce is beatable

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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm of the party in the U.S. House of Representatives, thinks Southern New Mexico’s GOP Rep. Steve Pearce is vulnerable and is keeping an eye on the Democrats vying for the right to take him on next year. A key marker will be the July 15 deadline for candidates to submit finance reports for the second quarter of 2007. Those reports will reveal the health and activity of the campaigns of the two Democrats who have entered the race. Pearce knows it, and is trying to raise enough money this quarter to discourage DCCC involvement. He sent out a fundraising letter in May asking for help to keep the DCCC out of his race, saying the group has “the funds and the power to make a real impact.” He also went negative in the letter, attacking the two Democrats as liberals who will “be a voice for” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Continue Reading