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Doug Turner says his age is one thing that sets him apart from other potential 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidates. At 40, he’s younger than the others who are running or openly considering it. “I think I would probably bring a different energy,” Turner said today in a phone interview. “ … I think I bring a sense of the possible to the table. Continue Reading
Gary Bland may be taking — and may or may not deserve — a lot of heat for his role in the state’s investment scandal. But he also deserves credit for standing up against shenanigans in the state’s housing authority system. That’s the conclusion the Albuquerque Journal’s Thomas Cole drew in an article published Saturday in which he wrote that Bland “kept the public light shining on the (Region III Housing Authority) when others would have preferred it be turned off.” I’ve covered the housing authority scandal since the beginning — writing my first article on it about two weeks before Cole wrote his in early 2006 — and I’ve witnessed the same thing. Many will say the State Investment Council (SIC) and Bland haven’t gone far enough in taking on people tied to the housing authority scandal. Some will point out the fact that the chairman of the state Democratic Party works for the law firm the SIC hired to try to recover bond money lost when most of the system collapsed in 2006. Continue Reading
Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has donated $5,000 from her campaign fund to an agency that works on neighborhood revitalization — an amount equal to what she has received from the men indicted in the housing authority scandal. Steve Fitzer, Denish’s finance director, said the money has been donated to United South Broadway Corporation, a nonprofit that, according to its Web site, “works within older historic neighborhoods of Albuquerque to address affordable housing opportunities, commercial revitalization, crime prevention and youth development” in an effort to revitalize neighborhoods. The money Denish received from the housing authority defendants included $500 from Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos, former director of the Region III Housing Authority; $500 from Robert Strumor, the former bond attorney for the authority; and $4,000 from Strumor’s law firm, Hughes and Strumor, Fitzer said. Gallegos, Strumor and former Region III accountant Dennis Kennedy are facing felony charges in the case that include fraud and money laundering. Former Region III attorney David N. Hernandez is charged with tampering with evidence.A prior version of this posting incorrectly identified Fitzer as Denish’s campaign manager. Continue Reading
Talk about putting a positive spin on a bad situation. A newly posted message on the secretary of state’s Web site claims that “upgrades” are the reason the office’s computer systems and Web site are down. “SECRETARY OF STATE’S WEBSITE DOWN FOR UPGRADES,” states the headline on the message, which was posted late Friday on a page that is otherwise devoid of content. “The Secretary of State’s network is currently down for upgrades. Our website will be unavailable during this time. Continue Reading
Gov. Bill Richardson will be in Las Cruces on Monday to announce $30,000 in emergency state funding for a nonprofit that provides child care, education and other help to homeless and near-homeless families, a state senator said Sunday. Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, said Richardson’s help will follow a $20,000 gift to Jardin de los Niños made by Stan Fulton, the owner of Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino. Jardin was in danger of closing because of a lack of funding, Papen said, but the aid from Fulton and the governor will help the organization keep its doors open for several months until other cash comes in. Papen said the governor will make the announcement Monday at noon at the nonprofit’s facility, located at 999 W. Amador Ave. “We’re very grateful both to Sunland Park racetrack and to the governor for helping this organization stay alive,” the senator said. Continue Reading
The majority of those who voted in last week’s non-scientific poll on this site said Democrat Martin Heinrich, the incumbent, would win a contest against the other declared candidates in next year’s 1st Congressional District race. Of 322 voters, 186, or 58 percent, said Heinrich would win, while 129, or 40 percent, said he’d be defeated by Republican Jon Barela. Meanwhile, seven, or 2 percent, said Libertarian Alan Woodruff would win the race in a potential matchup between the three. Don’t forget to vote in this week’s poll, located at the top of the right column on this page. Continue Reading
Problems center on new campaign finance and disclosure system; official says IT employee placed on leave but isn’t under suspicion By Heath Haussamen and Trip JenningsA week after a leaked link allowed a handful of people to preview the secretary of state’s new campaign finance and disclosure system on its Web site, officials now say problems have knocked out that and other systems that are necessary for the office to function. Officials are working furiously to restore the office’s computer systems and Web site and are trying to figure out how much work must be done to recover the database for the new campaign finance and disclosure system. Systems that are necessary for the public to do all sorts of business, from accessing campaign and lobbyist information to registering trademarks and other dealings between businesses and state government, are down. “Right now we are having IT issues at the SOS,” Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo II said today. “Everything is down. Continue Reading
The secretary of state’s Web site has been in various stages of not working right — and sometimes not working at all — for several days now. On Tuesday, I noticed that the campaign reporting and disclosure databases were down. By Wednesday, the entire Web site had slowed to a snail’s pace. This morning, the site was running more smoothly, but the searchable databases were still offline. Tonight, the entire secretary of state’s Web site — http://www.sos.state.nm.us — is offline. Continue Reading
Grand jury directed investment board to produce records related to dealings with Aldus Equity, Chairman Bruce Malott’s e-mails This article has been updated.The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB) reversed courses this afternoon and released two subpoenas it has received from a federal grand jury that is probing state investment deals. The reversal comes because “additional information relevant to the release of the requested subpoenas” has become available since the ERB denied requests from me and others for the release of the records last month, ERB General Counsel Christopher Schatzman wrote in a letter sent this afternoon. He did not elaborate, and wrote that he reserves the right to withhold documents under similar circumstances in the future. Read the subpoenas by clicking here and here. The release of the subpoenas comes a day before the ERB’s governing board was scheduled to decide whether to override the decision by staff to withhold the subpoenas. Continue Reading
Not sure what led to last week’s indictments in the investigation into the misuse of bond money in the state’s regional housing authority system? Wondering what the housing authorities even do? Here’s a primer: The state’s housing authority law creates quasi-governmental agencies charged with helping provide affordable housing for people who qualify under federal law for such assistance. Until recent reforms changed the system, the state was divided into seven regions, each with its own housing authority (the seven regions have since been consolidated into three, but we’ll get to that later). Each authority is governed by a board whose members are appointed by the governor. Continue Reading
Last week, an interesting discussion developed on my Facebook page about Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the media’s coverage of her nomination. The debate started when I posted a link to an article on this site about last week’s meeting between U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. and Sotomayor. Deming resident John Lanning posted a comment stating that he could not believe New Mexico’s U.S. senators were supporting Sotomayor. And it went from there, with the New Mexico Independent’s Gwyneth Doland, former congressional candidate C. Earl Greer, NMPolitics.net columnist Michael Swickard and Democracy for New Mexico’s Barbara Wold debating what’s been reported about Sotomayor and whether Rush Limbaugh, Newsweek and FactCheck.org are reliable sources of information. That’s a panel of participants that rivals those assembled by any television or radio program in the state, and the benefit of Facebook is that Lanning and anyone else who has a Facebook account can also join in. Continue Reading
In the housing authority case, the allegations against the former head of the state bar are much different than the charges against the other defendants Three men indicted Friday in the housing authority case face felony charges including fraud and money laundering that could land them in prison for decades if they’re convicted. But the fourth defendant in the case, an Albuquerque attorney and former head of the State Bar of New Mexico, faces a much different allegation — that he destroyed, changed, fabricated or hid two invoices and a promissory note with the intention of preventing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of himself or someone else. David N. Hernandez, who was a contract attorney for the Region III Housing Authority, is charged with one count of tampering with evidence, according to the indictment. It’s a fourth-degree felony that carries a maximum prison sentence of 18 months. While tampering with records may not carry as long a prison sentence as the charges against the other defendants, it’s an important part of the housing authority case. Continue Reading
The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB) is scheduled to decide on Friday whether the agency should reverse courses and release federal grand jury subpoenas it has received. “Release of Subpoenas” is an item on the agenda for Friday’s meeting. The chairman of the board, Bruce Malott, said in an e-mail that he “thought it important that the issue be decided by the board as a whole because of the significance of the matter and the public’s right to know.” Friday’s meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. and will be held at the agency’s Albuquerque office, 6201 Uptown Boulevard NE Suite 203. Earlier this month, Malott wrote a letter to ERB General Counsel Christopher Schatzman stating that he wants the agency to reconsider its decision to withhold release of two federal grand jury subpoenas it has received. That letter stated that Malott wanted to discuss the issue during an upcoming board meeting if Schatzman was unwilling to reconsider. Continue Reading
This article has been updated for clarity.Frank Foy, who alleges pay to play in the Richardson administration, unsealed an amended and greatly expanded version of his complaint today. The 73-page document essentially incorporates investigative reporting done by media outlets related to scandals plaguing state government. It replaces Foy’s original complaint, which was 26 pages. Foy’s lawsuit originally alleged that the state lost $90 million in investment deals with Vanderbilt Financial made in exchange for a little more than $15,000 in contributions to Gov. Bill Richardson’s 2008 presidential campaign. It has been expanded to include a wide range of other pay-to-play allegations. Continue Reading
On Friday, I was directed by a source to an unpublicized but publicly accessible page on the Secretary of State’s Web site. What I found was an under-construction version of the long-delayed project to improve the Web site’s campaign reporting and disclosure databases. Eager for the site to be unveiled to the public (I listed it last week among five ethics reforms New Mexico needs), I greedily perused the site.I was impressed. Campaign finance reports, lobbyist reports and public officials’ disclosure reports were easily accessible through a searchable database that brought up basic information on the Web page and links to PDF files for those who wanted more detail. I found the new site to be simple and user-friendly — a huge improvement over the cumbersome site the secretary of state currently offers the public. Continue Reading