{"id":1236,"date":"2007-02-08T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-08T17:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/richardson-under-fire-for-vigil-giron-appointment\/"},"modified":"2007-02-08T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-08T17:45:00","slug":"richardson-under-fire-for-vigil-giron-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/richardson-under-fire-for-vigil-giron-appointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson under fire for Vigil-Giron appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron disregarded a practice of her office last year that required signed, notarized letters from candidates wanting to withdraw from races, several politicos predicted in conversations with me that she would get a nice job this year in the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

She did, we learned on Wednesday. I\u2019ll let you decide what that means.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the quick back story. Former state auditor candidate Jeff Armijo was plagued during his campaign by allegations of making inappropriate sexual advances \u2013 allegations that were being reviewed by Bernalillo County\u2019s district attorney that have strangely vanished since Armijo was taken off the ballot.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Under extreme pressure from Richardson<\/st1:city>, Armijo<\/st1:place>, a fellow Democrat, announced he would drop out of the race. He later reneged on that pledge. The secretary of state\u2019s office at first told me and other media outlets that was fine, because he had never submitted the signed, notarized resignation letter that was required for a formal withdrawal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city>\u2019s administration pushed, sending Armijo<\/st1:place>\u2019s press statement to Vigil-Giron and arguing that it constituted a formal withdrawal. When the attorney general didn\u2019t object, Vigil-Giron sided with Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, and that was the end of it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Vigil-Giron was prevented by term limits from running again, and left office at the end of December.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Vigil-Giron has now been appointed to head the New Mexico Film Museum<\/a>, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. It\u2019s actually not much of a museum. It\u2019s an office that exists to promote filmmaking in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Vigil-Giron will replace India Hatch, who is being moved to the Department of Tourism.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is already taking heat for the move. Sen. Shannon Robinson<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, had been the sponsor of Senate Bill 525<\/a>, a bill sought by Richardson that would create a state Media Arts and Entertainment Department and consolidate the various film, media arts and music divisions in one place. It would have included the film museum.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He withdrew his sponsorship upon learning of Vigil-Giron\u2019s appointment Wednesday, leaving the bill an orphan with an uncertain future. Robinson told the news service that there is \u201cno rhyme or reason\u201d to Vigil-Giron\u2019s appointment, saying she has \u201cno concept of the film industry, no links to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Robinson also said professionals in the film industry reacted to her appointment with \u201cangst and disappointment.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Albuquerque Tribune\u2019s Kate Nash is reporting<\/a> that, on the Senate floor Wednesday, Robinson called Vigil-Giron \u201ca bowl weevil looking for a home.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been unable to reach the governor\u2019s office or Vigil-Giron for comment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron disregarded a practice of her office last year that required signed, notarized letters from candidates wanting to withdraw from races, several politicos predicted in conversations with me that she would get a nice job this year in the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson. She did, we learned on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}