Cop killing makes death penalty a hot topic in election year, and payday loans still an issue

By |

“Expect the death penalty to become an issue in the next two months.”That’s what one insider told me this week after the capture of alleged cop killer Michael Astorga in Mexico. For anyone who doesn’t know, he’s charged with the fatal shooting of a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy two weeks ago.His capture has the governor and attorney general calling for the death penalty.That’s interesting, one source tells me, since Gov. Bill Richardson worked a deal to dodge this issue the last time it came to a vote in the legislature. The House voted to repeal the death penalty, but the Senate Judiciary Committee killed the proposal. The deal, the source told me, allegedly involved one member of that committee who agreed to change his vote and kill the legislation. Richardson didn’t want the issue on his desk, the source said, because he would have to choose between alienating the liberal base in the north by opposing the repeal or looking like a liberal in a national field of presidential candidates who will likely all support the death penalty.It appears Republican mudslinging at Richardson for not building new prisons and because he appoints the parole board that let Astorga out pushed the governor to take a position.“In rare situations, the death penalty is the appropriate penalty,” he said in a news release earlier this week. Continue Reading

Speaker Lujan strikes back at critics, and Cervantes has a different take on Santa Teresa deal

By |

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan struck back at those who say he quietly slipped a $75 million appropriation into this year’s capital outlay bill by saying “we weren’t trying to fool anyone… that’s not how we operate.”Last week, I reported that it was Lujan who put funding into the bill for the state’s share of future water rights settlements with American Indian tribes. Before that, no one had said publicly who was responsible for the funding proposal Gov. Bill Richardson later vetoed, leaving the public in the dark about the situation. Lujan called me Tuesday to acknowledge that it was him, and to say he has “no problem taking the initiative” on important issues.Lujan, in fact, sponsored a bill this session that would have appropriated $20 million for the state’s share of one of three outstanding water rights cases. That bill passed the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, which Lujan said is proof that he wasn’t sneaking around.It was sometime in the last 2-3 days of the session, Lujan said, that he combined three water rights settlement proposals and put them all in the capital outlay bill.A couple of sources criticized Lujan last week for, in addition to being sneaky, ruling over the House like a monarch. Lujan also disputed that Tuesday.“That’s not the case at all,” he said. Continue Reading

Fallout from the Doña Ana County special audit; plus, Judge Chaparro won’t ever be a judge again

By |

State Auditor Domingo Martinez released a long-awaited audit of Doña Ana County last week that found widespread problems. He then said many of the problems appear to have been remedied, satisfying most and infuriating a few.Two items are outstanding. Years ago when he was a county commissioner, State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was instrumental in creating an agreement with landowners in the Santa Teresa area: They would loan the county money to pay back bonds used to build a water and sewer system there, repayable with 3 percent interest.The agreement violates the terms of the bonds and has all sorts of other problems, said Martinez, who referred it to prosecutors for further investigation. It’s now being examined by the New Mexico State Police and the attorney general’s office.Cervantes told me two years ago that if problems were found, he would have to take credit. I guess it’s time.Also outstanding is the selection of the architect Design Collaborative Southwest of Albuquerque to design the county’s new, $20 million administrative complex. The commission violated the procurement code on many levels in selecting DCSW, which had been ranked last out of four bidders by a committee. Continue Reading

Criticism of Richardson’s potentially illegal hiring spreads amid calls for an investigation

By |

Legislators quietly began telling me months ago that Gov. Bill Richardson was illegally making hires without approval of the legislature.It’s no secret that the governor gets to make almost 650 such appointments when he takes office, but Richardson has apparently made about 710 appointments. The more than 60 jobs he allegedly created in violation of state law cost $3.5 million in taxpayer money.“They’re political payoffs, and we’re squandering state resources,” Sen. Leonard “Lee” Rawson, R-Las Cruces, told Larry Barker of the television station KRQE in Albuquerque. “This is a deliberate ‘in-your-face’ to the legislature and the public.”Republicans have been joined by some Democrats in their criticism, including Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque.“This governor is violating the law,” McSorley told Barker.Republican Sen. Kent Cravens of Albuquerque has delivered a petition to Attorney General Patricia Madrid asking for an investigation. It’s signed by 25 legislators.KOB-TV, another Albuquerque station, continued shining attention on the allegations with a story this weekend.One source told me legislators haven’t publicly challenged the governor on his hirings before now because he is such a master at political bargaining – meaning, if you cross him, he’ll veto your capital outlay money and might just finance your opponent’s campaign. But some senators are now speaking for the record because they are fed up with Richardson blaming them for many of his proposals dying in this year’s legislative session, the source said.Others suggested the obvious: Richardson is up for re-election this year. Continue Reading

Gov. Richardson’s hiring problems revealed

By |

I don’t post new blog entries on Fridays, but I’ll sometimes link to other interesting sites. Since we don’t get Albuquerque television stations in Doña Ana County, I wanted to make sure you all saw two reports by television investigative reporter Larry Barker about the governor’s questionable and potentially illegal hiring practices. The reports ran on Albuquerque’s KRQE News 13 earlier this month.Click here to watch the report on the governor creating over 60 new positions for friends and allies.Click here to see part two of the series.I also wanted to thank Michael Swickard for having me on his radio program Thursday morning. For those of you who missed it, it appears that I’ll be on from time to time. I’ll give you advanced notice next time.And I have completed the comments policy for my blog. Continue Reading

Sources agree: Speaker Lujan slipped $75 million into funding bill when no one was looking

By |

It was Speaker of the House Ben Lujan who slipped a $75 million appropriation into the capital outlay bill in this year’s legislative session when no one was looking. The money, which Gov. Bill Richardson later vetoed, was designated for the state’s share of future water rights settlements with American Indian tribes.Several sources confirmed Lujan’s name for me Wednesday.Lujan apparently made the admission during a meeting with more than a dozen legislators and Richardson just before the governor made massive cuts in spending bills. Sources tell me the governor asked who put the funding in the bill and why, since the state engineer had said previously that the money wasn’t needed this year.Lujan took credit at that meeting, sources said.One source tells me some members of the Senate discovered the water rights settlement funding in the bill just after midnight on the last day of the session. The surprise came after the House approved an amended version and sent it back to the Senate, where it had already been approved without the funding. The senators apparently panicked because they realized the bill was too big and they were running out of time, a source tells me.At that point, the governor’s office was also made aware that the bill was way too large and included the water rights settlement money.The House had added some other funding to the bill as well, and it was all approved.Ultimately, Richardson slashed $268 million from spending bills, leaving in place $5.1 billion to finance government operations and $710 million in capital outlay improvement projects. Continue Reading

Magistrate race a Dem. staring contest, and capital outlay snafu illustrates need to open committees

By |

There’s an interesting race developing in Doña Ana County between two longtime Democrats running for magistrate judge.Olivia Nevarez Garcia was appointed to the position last year by Gov. Bill Richardson after Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan resigned. At the time, Garcia was the county’s probate judge and a successful real estate agent.Maria E. Rodriguez held a different magistrate judge seat briefly in 2004. Richardson appointed her after the resignation of Anne Segal, who packed up and left town in protest after losing her 2004 primary bid for a district judgeship.Two days after Richardson appointed Rodriguez, the county Democratic Party picked Richard Silva over Rodriguez to run for the position in the November 2004 election. Sources tell me that was done because Richardson didn’t consult the county party before making his choice. He just called up State Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, and appointed the candidate she named.In rejecting Rodriguez, the county party was asserting its independence.When Silva was elected, Rodriguez had to quietly pack up the office she had called her own for only a few weeks. Continue Reading

Justice for all Hispanics, or only those from the north? Plus, why don’t Crucens seek statewide offices?

By |

Ralph Arellanes, a board member of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico, has submitted a column to newspapers across the state calling Gov. Bill Richardson a traitor. Basically, he said, Richardson is betraying Hispanics from Northern New Mexico by sending too much money and too many jobs to the south.The Hispano Round Table of New Mexico has recently protested Richardson’s “ambitious agenda,” according to Arellanes.Arellanes wrote that the funding recently approved for the Southwest Regional Spaceport at Upham “could have created thousands of high-paying jobs in Northern New Mexico.” Never mind that New Mexico State University estimates the spaceport will create thousands of high paying jobs in Southern New Mexico.To be fair, Arellanes also complained about Richardson’s commuter rail project that will connect Santa Fe and Albuquerque.But he also complained that “Gov. Richardson is sending the lion’s share of state monies and jobs to Southern New Mexico.” Sources from the south tell me northerners are accustomed to getting the majority of the money, so Arellanes is mad about the spaceport and other economic development projects along the border.Arellanes wrote that he has good reason to expect more: “Isn’t Northern New Mexico where Richardson got his start? Where is his gratitude?”The conclusion, Arellanes suggests, is that “Richardson works against Hispanos!!” If his evidence is that the governor is working to create jobs in the Las Cruces area, I doubt the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces would agree.Arellanes, who is from Las Vegas, N.M., might do well to recall his own words in a 2000 speech: “This great land of enchantment should be equally enchanting for all.” I assume he meant that for all Hispanics, not just those living in Northern New Mexico.***Then again, maybe southerners aren’t giving politicos from the north much of a reason to remember them.There’s no chance someone from Doña Ana County will be elected to any statewide office this year, because none chose to run.The state’s second-largest population center has a history of not running candidates in statewide races. We’ve had a couple of governors and other occasional candidates, but it’s infrequent at best.State Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, said that’s largely because local politicians don’t want to move their families to Santa Fe, where the politics are different and homes are unreasonably expensive. Gutierrez, who used to be the state chair of her party, said she has considered running for land commissioner in the past, but “then I snap out of it.”There may be another factor. Continue Reading

The Galvan saga continues, and cheap shots lead to reader e-mails

By |

The New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission will decide next month whether to seek an order barring former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Reuben Galvan from seeking office again.Galvan resigned last year amid allegations that he raped and solicited a bribe from a Las Cruces woman in August 2004. After two hung juries, prosecutors dropped the criminal charges.But a source close to the case tells me the hearing before the commission has been set for mid-April. The hearing is secret, and its results won’t become public unless the commission asks the New Mexico Supreme Court to bar Galvan from seeking office again.Galvan admitted in a statement to police to actions that may violate the judicial code of conduct. While drinking and flirting in a bar, he discussed with the woman a pending battery case against her husband, though she was the alleged victim in that case. And he had sex with the woman, though she and her husband had been married two months earlier by Galvan.He also took the woman for a ride in his Porsche, though he told police he had too much to drink before driving.Galvan has a history of problems. Before the rape allegation surfaced, he was barred from hearing criminal cases for a time because he had a sexual relationship with an assistant district attorney while hearing cases she was prosecuting. Continue Reading

Purple America

By |

Though I won’t normally be posting new blog entries on Fridays, I will post links to interesting political sites from time to time. Today I’m suggesting you check out the Web site of a Princeton professor who analyzed the 2004 election results and found that America isn’t red and blue at all. It’s purple.The address is http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/.Have a great weekend. Continue Reading

The GOP says it’s focusing on quality, not quantity, and Mesilla gets one new trustee

By |

The Doña Ana County Republican Party isn’t in crisis, says chair Sid Goddard. In fact, he says, it’s in the middle of a reorganization that is making the party stronger.During a meeting I had with party officials Wednesday, Goddard didn’t appear concerned that there are Republicans running in only 10 of 19 local races this year.“This is not a case of finding candidates to fill holes, but to fill the positions well, and if that means we leave the holes unfilled, so be it,” he told me.Goddard has a point. The underdog county Republican Party has run candidates before who had no chance of winning. Why waste resources on such races?Only four of the 19 positions up for grabs are currently held by Republicans, but party officials are optimistic that they might take a few more this year. Democrats, on the other hand, are optimistic they might take those four.Goddard said a stumbling block to finding quality candidates for all races was the continually dwindling confidence in the integrity and competence of the county clerk’s office, which has been plagued by problems in recent times.“There’s a concern about the conduct of the elections,” said Mary Thompson, a Republican Party volunteer who almost won the seat held by State Rep. Andy Nuñez, D-Hatch, two years ago.Goddard said that won’t stop the party.“We are a changed party, a committed party, and it is one that is going to deliver quality candidates,” he said.For now, the focus is on the primary. Continue Reading

Money man: Richardson’s effect shows in Tuesday candidate filings, plus Judge Chaparro quits

By |

“We’re not playing the same game at all.”That’s how Republican Lawrence Joy summed it up when I asked him to help explain why there were no Republicans running for nine of 19 local seats up for grabs this year. Joy, who ran unsuccessfully two years ago against State Rep. Antonio Lujan, D-Las Cruces, is seeking the seat again.Joy was explaining to me that Gov. Bill Richardson gives Democrats an advantage Republicans can’t currently match. He’s a national political figure with grand ambitions, and he brought with him when he returned to New Mexico a national fundraising machine.Republicans essentially gave up an attempt to take the governor’s mansion months ago, but Richardson’s influence in state politics became even more clear Tuesday when candidates filed to run in the June 6 Primary. In Doña Ana County, Republicans failed to find candidates to run against three Democratic state representatives, four magistrate judges, one district judge and for a spot on the Public Education Commission.The trend continued statewide. Republicans are running for only two of 14 district judgeships up for grabs around the state. Continue Reading

Boykin drops out but Republicans have bigger problems, and Apodaca’s out, too

By |

State Rep. William “Ed” Boykin, R-Las Cruces, announced Monday that he’s not seeking reelection this year. He stated in a Republican Party news release that he made the decision in December because he has “several projects that I want to get to that I have been putting off and I need to get back to them.”Las Crucen Scott Witt will file today to run for the District 37 seat Boykin is leaving, the release states. The retired Navy captain will face Democrat Jeff Steinborn, who almost beat Boykin in 2004.What the news release didn’t say was that the party asked Boykin last week to collect signatures and get on the June primary ballot, and he was out doing just that, a party insider assured me again Monday. The plan was that Boykin would get on the primary ballot, giving the party more time to find a suitable replacement. That apparently changed after it was reported in Monday’s blog.Boykin will be remembered as a fine legislator who earned the respect of Republicans and Democrats alike.But enough of that. Continue Reading

Boykin’s out, then back in the race, but for how long? Plus, fallout from the Welcome Inn case

By |

When the list of candidates running in the June primary is released tomorrow night, you’ll likely see the name of State Rep. William “Ed” Boykin, R-Las Cruces, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story of what’s happening on the Republican side in District 37. Boykin, who turns 74 later this year, had decided he wouldn’t seek reelection, sources tell me.Boykin didn’t show up a few weeks ago when the governor was in town to sign a bill he sponsored that will help make the Southwest Regional Spaceport at Upham a reality.But the Republican Party has searched in vain for someone to replace Boykin on the ballot, and Republicans are worried about losing his seat. Democrat Jeff Steinborn jumped into the 2004 race against Boykin at the last minute after Ray Storment withdrew his name, and he nearly beat the incumbent. Steinborn is running for the seat again.Republicans have asked Boykin to stay in the game, at least for now, a source tells me. Boykin, a retired educator who was first elected in November 2000, was out last week gathering the required signatures to get on the ballot. Continue Reading