{"id":14126,"date":"2010-03-04T08:10:27","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T15:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14126"},"modified":"2010-03-11T18:17:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T01:17:42","slug":"herrera-runs-%e2%80%98a-crooked-organization%e2%80%99-former-elections-head-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/herrera-runs-%e2%80%98a-crooked-organization%e2%80%99-former-elections-head-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Herrera runs \u2018a crooked organization,\u2019 former elections head claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/p><\/div>\n

The state\u2019s former elections director accused Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/a> in his resignation letter of violating the Governmental Conduct Act<\/a> and election laws. And A.J. Salazar says he\u2019s turned his allegations over to the attorney general, the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n

Salazar accuses Herrera of \u201csoliciting money from firms that contract with her office and ordering \u2018exempt\u2019 employees to obtain petition signatures for her re-election campaign,\u201d according to the Journal.<\/p>\n

Salazar, a former deputy district attorney, was quoted by the Journal as saying he \u201chas never worked in such a crooked organization.\u201d Herrera was quoted as saying she has \u201cdone nothing wrong\u201d and Salazar\u2019s \u201cunfounded allegations\u201d are based on \u201ctwisted information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar resigned Friday<\/a> after 11 months on the job<\/a>. Earlier this week, James Flores, spokesman for the Secretary of State\u2019s Office, confirmed Salazar\u2019s resignation, but when asked by NMPolitics.net if he could provide any additional information about the situation, Flores said the office had \u201cno other information to offer at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Journal article quotes extensively from Salazar\u2019s resignation letter, which the news organization obtained. NMPolitics.net requested a copy of the letter \u2013 which is a public record \u2013 from the secretary of state\u2019s office two days ago but has not yet heard back from Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo<\/a>, that office\u2019s records custodian.<\/p>\n

Trujillo has until Friday to respond.<\/p>\n

The letter, according to the Journal, states that, during Salazar\u2019s time as elections director, \u201cit has become abundantly clear to me as to why my predecessors have left the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

The position has been a revolving door in the Secretary of State\u2019s Office. When he was hired, Salazar was the third person in eight months to take the job.<\/p>\n

The allegations<\/h3>\n

Salazar wrote in his resignation letter, the Journal article states, that the secretary of state \u201cinsisted that we obtain \u2018sponsorships\u2019 or donations through targeted communications with firms or businesses with whom we contract\u201d to help fund training events for county clerks.<\/p>\n

Trujillo was quoted by the Journal as saying that, on Salazar\u2019s advice, the office consulted a lawyer who advised against doing that.<\/p>\n

Salazar also wrote in his letter that Herrera ordered exempts to each gather 1,000 signatures for her re-election campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour administration engages in political activity in the office, during work hours,\u201d the Journal quoted Salazar\u2019s letter as stating. \u201cThis is completely inappropriate coming from any elected official – especially from the Chief Elections Officer of the State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herrera was quoted by the Journal as saying a meeting was held \u201cduring the lunch hour\u201d and some people volunteered to gather signatures, but Salazar told the Journal \u201cnothing was ever voluntary. \u2026 We were ordered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened with government resources, in a government office, regardless of time,\u201d the Journal quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n

Salazar was quoted by the Journal as saying that the Attorney General\u2019s Office \u201chas been made aware of these particular issues\u201d and he will \u201ccooperate with any subsequent investigation.\u201d A spokesman for the AG would not comment except to say that, \u201cIf, in fact, allegations like that were to have come to our office, we certainly would look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herrera, a Democrat, is being challenged in November by Republican and state Sen. Dianna Duran<\/a> of Tularosa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state\u2019s former elections director accused Secretary of State Mary Herrera in his resignation letter of violating the Governmental Conduct Act and election laws. And A.J. Salazar says he\u2019s turned his allegations over to the attorney general, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,169,107],"class_list":["post-14126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-mary-herrera","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14126","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=14126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}