Unity08 is failing to attract the support it needs

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A high percentage of Americans frequently identify themselves in polls as moderates. The majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of the nation. They’re about as unhappy with Democrats in Congress as they are fed up with Republicans. They believe the nation is too polarized, and that is keeping us from moving forward. And yet, a movement with the potential to change that has, thus far, failed to spark the interest it needs to succeed. Continue Reading

Restricting ballot access may come back to bite Dems

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Ballot access is important for a healthy democracy. Voters can’t make choices they don’t have. In New Mexico, the leaders of the Democratic Party, which has controlled most of state government for some seven decades, haven’t exactly been champions for ballot access. Now that threatens to come back to bite them in a big way. The most recent move to restrict ballot access, approved by the Legislature and governor earlier this year, made it more difficult for many major-party candidates to get on the ballot. Continue Reading

Legislative bodies need greater accountability

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A bipartisan task force is proposing the creation of a new congressional office that would have the power to initiate ethics complaints against members of the U.S. House of Representatives. While the proposal may create the appearance that Congress is getting tough on misdeeds, it has little chance of actually doing anything to discourage unethical behavior.Under the proposal, complaints initiated by the new Office of Congressional Ethics would be considered by the House ethics committee. The office would be staffed by six people – three appointed by the speaker and three appointed by the minority leader – who would be paid to serve part-time, four-year terms.Outside groups and citizens would not have the power to file complaints against House members, and the office wouldn’t have subpoena power. Essentially, the task force wants to create an office whose staffers work for the people it’s charged with investigating without giving them insulation from political pressure and the power to do the job.The power would come with the threat of a subpoena. The insulation would come with a standard procedure for outside groups, not the office itself, to initiate complaints.As it stands, the proposal is no better than the current system, which only allows House members to initiate complaints. Continue Reading

On immigration, N.M. deals with cost of D.C. inaction

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Washington’s inability or unwillingness to reform our broken immigration system has forced states to take some creative steps to deal with resulting problems. In 2003, New Mexico began offering driver’s licenses and identification cards to undocumented immigrants. The controversial idea colored the most recent Democratic presidential candidate debate when Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd argued about a similar proposal in New York. In New Mexico, the change, coupled with a new program that checks whether drivers are insured, has drastically reduced the number of uninsured drivers, but it’s also led to a controversy over potential illegal voting. Before the change, New Mexico had the highest rate of uninsured motorists in the nation – one in every three drivers. Now, New Mexico’s uninsured motorist rate is 10.8 percent, well below the national average of 14 percent. Continue Reading

Domenici’s retirement creates quandary for state GOP

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The retirement of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici puts the New Mexico GOP in a quandary. Not only do Republicans have to defend two seats in Washington next year that they currently hold, without incumbents – three if U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce decides to run against Rep. Heather Wilson in a Senate primary – but they also need to save resources for a serious attempt to capture the governor’s office in 2010. Even before Domenici announced last week that he would retire at the end of 2008, the state’s Republicans had their minds on that race, knowing they won’t likely make enough gains in the state Legislature in 2008 and 2010 to have serious influence in redistricting in the next decade. Their best chance at being influential in that process is winning the gubernatorial race. It’s critical for the GOP. Continue Reading

Mayor’s office violated ethics, ABQ councilors say

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The Albuquerque Tribune published an article today about my Wednesday column that reported on e-mails and cell phone records suggesting the chief of staff to the Albuquerque mayor and others were involved in an assault in May on two city councilors. The column’s publication on this site and in the Trib marked the first time the documents were revealed publicly. In today’s article, the two councilors who were the primary targets of the May campaign accused Mayor Martin Chávez’s administration of violating ethics rules in orchestrating the attack. Read the article by clicking here. Continue Reading

E-mails, cell-phone records suggest behind-the-scenes coordination of assault on Albuquerque councilors

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In comments published in the Albuquerque Tribune on May 30, Barry Bitzer, chief of staff to Mayor Martin Chávez, denied any involvement by the mayor or himself in a campaign against two city councilors who opposed a Chávez tax-cut proposal. Instead, Bitzer called the Committee for Responsible Budgets’ campaign, which included radio advertisements and robocalls attacking conservatives Brad Winter and Don Harris, “a grassroots movement.” City e-mail and phone records suggest otherwise. The ads and robocalls began shortly after the committee was formed on May 24, three days after the council’s vote against the tax cut. But Bitzer and two others close to the mayor possessed scripts for the ads and robocalls on May 20, the day before the council vote and four days before the committee was formed. Documents obtained from the city through a records request show that Bitzer sent the scripts that day, by e-mail, to Mark Fleisher, a Democratic operative who works for the mayor’s gubernatorial exploratory committee, and Greg Payne, the city’s transit director. Continue Reading

‘One mistake a week’ is hampering guv’s campaign

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At the end of June, Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign was on fire. He had been climbing rapidly in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and was statistically tied with John Edwards for third place in the Granite State. He raised a respectable $7 million in the second quarter of the year. Some said he had joined the top tier of Democratic candidates. Richardson continued climbing in July, gaining ground in Iowa on the third-place Barack Obama. Continue Reading

Government should be for the people

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Hearing Hillary Clinton say recently that corporate lobbyists “represent real Americans” helped me realize I’m not too excited about the current slate of presidential candidates, primarily because I’m skeptical of a system over which Corporate America has too much influence. The fact that the favorite to win the White House in 2008 doesn’t understand that lobbyists don’t represent the average American proves we have a big problem. I’m not convinced that any of the candidates who are above the margin of error in the polls – Democrat or Republican – would bring about real change in a system that has been corrupted by corporate money. Without serious ethics reform, policy debates on Iraq, health care, energy independence and all other issues will continue to be too heavily influenced by corporations whose only interest is financial gain. The result is always a compromise between what’s good for the richest of the rich and what’s good for the rest of us. Continue Reading

NMSU is placing hurdles in front of public records

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Some governments provide easy access to public records. Others appear to look for ways to keep the public in the dark. Lately I’ve come across both. Because of allegations that city employees were inappropriately involved in council races in Albuquerque, I recently requested months of e-mails, cell phone records and time sheets for four city officials. The city responded in a timely manner, is offering to mail the records to me in Las Cruces and is charging a reasonable $34.50 for copies and postage – 10 cents per page and $1 per compact disc, far less than the $1-per-page allowed by state law. Continue Reading

Power runs amuck in our corporate-driven democracy

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On Friday evening, three successive stories on EPSN were about an NFL quarterback charged with running an illegal dogfighting ring, an FBI investigation into whether an NBA referee illegally bet on games he called, and the notorious Barry Bonds being booed as he approached baseball’s all-time home run record. Bonds, as many know, is at the center of baseball’s steroids scandal and could soon be indicted. The stories reminded me of the never-ending scandals in Washington and Santa Fe. They also caused me to ponder the danger of power that’s unchecked. Baseball is probably the best example in sports. Continue Reading

King is working to combat government corruption

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Gary King took the reins of the attorney general’s office in January knowing he would have to focus much of his effort on rooting out government corruption. Six months later, King is making a difference. The indictments last month of the wife of state Rep. Richard Vigil and three others on government corruption charges were an indication that King, who like Vigil is a Democrat, places the law above politics. Other investigations are ongoing. King’s office is scrutinizing Land Commissioner Pat Lyons’ decision last year to bypass his own bidding process and lease thousands of acres of land in Las Cruces to a developer who gave $20,500 to a political action committee that passed most of it on to his re-election campaign. Continue Reading

Guv must show he’s as capable as he is personable

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In his quest for the presidency, Bill Richardson has managed recently to climb above the margin of error in at least one national poll – to 5 percent – and to reach 10 percent in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. He’s done it while making a number of, at best, mediocre nationally televised appearances. Richardson’s attempts to set himself apart on Iraq and energy independence have been only marginally successful. And while he’s trying to score points for being Hispanic, most people across the nation don’t know he’s three-fourths Mexican. So why has Richardson gained significant ground in the last few weeks? Continue Reading

Lyons is the latest to prove the need for ethics reform

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State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is the latest official to prove that pay-to-play politics – or at least the appearance of such – is a systemic problem in New Mexico that plagues both parties. Before last year’s election, developer Philip Philippou gave $20,500 to a political action committee run by lobbyists he employs. The PAC gave most of it to Lyons’ re-election campaign, and the lobbyists gave another $3,600. Then Lyons bypassed his own bidding process and leased thousands of acres of land in Las Cruces to Philippou before the announced deadline for developers to submit proposals. Since then, Philippou has given another $6,000 to Lyons, who also flew at Philippou’s expense in March to a New Mexico State Aggies’ basketball game in Washington state. Continue Reading