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Biden attacks Richardson’s experience at forum

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Gov. Bill Richardson and four other Democratic presidential candidates all promoted similar plans for universal health care during a forum in Iowa on Thursday, but Joe Biden stood out, most notably for an assault on Richardson. It was Biden who first pointed out that all the candidates’ plans are similar. “It’s not the plan,” the New York Times quoted him as saying. “It’s the man or the woman pushing the plan.” Richardson focused on his plan’s call for cutting costs through preventative health care and reducing bureaucracy, the Times and Associated Press reported. Richardson said he had the best knowledge and experience to deal with the situation because, as a governor, he was “the only one up here who has actually had to deal with health care.” Biden told the governor that improving health care in a state of 2 million people and believing that qualifies you to fix the national system is similar to playing halfback in high school and believing it qualifies you to play professional football. Continue Reading

And deliver us from fat

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.” – George Bernard Shaw In an announcement this week, Gov. Bill Richardson, the Haystacks Calhoun of the Democratic presidential race, said he will to take on obesity if elected president. Richardson vowed in a news release “to confront the American obesity crisis head-on as president.” He said at an Obesity Society conference that two out of every three Americans are overweight or, even worse, obese. That is not me. I am the right weight, but I’m six inches too short. Continue Reading

Pearce preparing response to group’s allegations

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U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., is preparing a response to allegations that he failed to report a financial transaction he was required to disclose and may have advocated for drilling on the Otero Mesa in exchange for campaign contributions from those with ties to oil companies. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington made the allegations Tuesday when it included Pearce on its list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress. You can read the details about the allegations against Pearce by clicking here. A Pearce spokesman has called the allegations “lies” but refused, to this point, to elaborate. I’ve been pushing since Tuesday for the opportunity to interview a Pearce staffer about the situation. Continue Reading

Judge’s case might reveal future of housing scandal

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The case the Judicial Standards Commission has built – or has been unable to build – against Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court Judge Theresa Gomez may be an indication of what’s to come in the larger scandal involving the state’s housing authorities. Earlier this month, the commission asked the state Supreme Court to reprimand Gomez and require her to pay $17,000 in back rent to the state. That’s because Gomez lived rent-free, for 20 months, in a home owned by the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority, an organization whose goal was to provide housing for low-income people. At the time, Gomez was making $93,000 per year. She also dismissed traffic citations and cancelled an arrest warrant for Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos, the man who ran Region III at the time. Continue Reading

Democratic strategist to speak on women in politics

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A nationally known political strategist will be the next guest speaker in a series at New Mexico State University. Mary Hughes, co-founder and president of Staton Hughes, a San Francisco-based strategic communications and political consulting firm for Democratic candidates, will speak at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Creative Media Institute’s Digital Media Theatre in Milton Hall. Her talk, “Women in the ’08 Elections: Perception vs. Progress,” is open to the public. Hughes has directed campaigns and advised several elected officials, including: • Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to lead her party in Congress. Continue Reading

Ethics probe, guv’s future keep Senate race uncertain

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The dynamics of the 2008 race for the Senate seat held by GOP giant Pete Domenici remain uncertain as an ethics probe heats up and Gov. Bill Richardson’s comments don’t entirely rule out his entrance into the race. The Senate ethics committee has stepped up its probe of Domenici’s involvement in the U.S. attorney scandal, Truthout.org is reporting. In the past two weeks, the committee has interviewed potential witnesses, including staffers from the U.S. attorney’s office in New Mexico, about Domenici’s October 2006 call to former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Iglesias alleges Domenici pressured him to speed indictments in a case involving high-ranking Democrats to sway voters in the November 2006 election. Iglesias was fired weeks later, he claims as a result of refusing the pressure. Continue Reading

Richardson to participate in televised forum tonight

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Gov. Bill Richardson and four other Democratic presidential candidates will take part tonight in a forum on health care and financial security that will be televised in New Mexico. The AARP/Iowa Public Television forum will be shown on New Mexico’s public television stations from 7-8:30 p.m. In Las Cruces, it will be on KRWG-TV, which is Comcast cable channel 2. In the Albuquerque television market, it will be shown on KNME-TV channel 5. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden will also attend, according to AARP. Continue Reading

Group stands by allegation even as Pearce disputes it

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is standing by its assertion that U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., failed to report a financial transaction he was required to disclose even as Pearce’s spokesman says the claim is bogus. The allegation, made Tuesday when CREW released its list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress, is that Pearce failed to report on a public financial disclosure form the fact that he sold the assets of Lea Fishing Tools, Inc. to Key Energy Services for more than 540,000 shares of stock in 2003. The group says Pearce was required to report the sale and his failure to do so likely violated the Ethics in Government Act. Though a Pearce campaign staffer told me this morning that a spokesman from Pearce’s government office would call to discuss the situation with me, it has not yet happened. The last official word I received from Pearce’s office is that it would make no comments to me until after Pearce’s response was published in the Albuquerque Journal. Continue Reading

Robles would be an excellent choice for high court

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It’s no secret that a number of judges from Doña Ana County have had ethical problems in recent years. Four have left their jobs and another has been disciplined as a result of ethical problems and allegations that included drug use, sexual harassment and mixing personal business with the elected position. When one district judge, two magistrate judges and two Las Cruces municipal judges were simultaneously embroiled in scandal a couple of years ago, a longtime politico from Santa Fe told me he would be tempted to believe the entire judiciary in Doña Ana County was corrupt, except for one thing: He knew Robert E. Robles, the chief judge of the county’s Third Judicial District Court, to be a man of integrity. Robles has applied for the vacancy on the state Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Pamela B. Minzner. He would be an excellent choice. Continue Reading

Guv touts strong fundraising, still stagnant in polls

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Gov. Bill Richardson says he will raise more than $6 million in the third quarter of 2007, even as his campaign has stagnated in the polls. In an interview with the Associated Press, the governor said he is making a “mad dash” at the end of the fundraising quarter that ends Sept. 30 and will raise between $6 million and $7 million – about what he raised in each of the first two quarters of the year. A look at his schedule reveals the shift from campaigning to fundraising. Though Richardson has spent much of the quarter in Iowa and New Hampshire at campaign events, he plans in the next nine days only one-day trips to each of those states to attend debates. Continue Reading

Veteran’s activist many not run for Congress after all

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A prominent Vietnam veteran who said in July he was running against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., is having second thoughts. Rick Bolaños said today he is undecided about whether he wants to join two other Democrats in the race because he’s having a hard time lining up the support he needs. “We’ll probably know in the next 10 days,” Bolaños said. Bolaños told me in mid-July that he was “absolutely” running and would officially declare his candidacy within days, but it never happened. Since then, Bolaños has not attended a number of Democratic Party events, including the recent Labor Day breakfast in Las Cruces. Continue Reading

City election forum to be televised live

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A forum involving candidates running in the Nov. 6 Las Cruces municipal election will be televised live. The League of Women Voters of Greater Las Cruces forum will be held on Oct. 9 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 200 N. Church St. It will also be broadcast live on Comcast cable channel 20, the city’s government access channel, the first time in Las Cruces that such a forum will be televised live. Continue Reading

Mississippi celebrating

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By Carter Bundy I’m not a statistician. I mean, I can do the math of how many more games the Sawx have to lose to complete one of the great collapses in baseball history, and understand the numbers that back up Derek Jeter as one of the great clutch hitters ever. But I need some help with these numbers: Thank God for Alaska? What are the odds that all three of New Mexico’s Republicans in Washington would end up on the list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress? That’s a statistical freakshow. Continue Reading

Watchdog group lists Pearce, Domenici and Wilson among the 22 most corrupt members of Congress

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A Washington-based watchdog group released today its list of the 22 most corrupt members of the United States Congress. New Mexico’s three Republicans all made the list. It was no surprise to see U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson on the list, which was compiled by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The group filed formal complaints against Domenici and Wilson in March over their involvement in the U.S. attorney scandal. But the complaint against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce involves allegations that have been previously unknown to the general public, and at least one of the allegations could be serious. Continue Reading