{"id":1605,"date":"2007-04-18T16:58:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-18T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/madrid-says-she-can-aid-investigation-of-domenici-might-also-challenge-states-senior-senator-next-year\/"},"modified":"2007-04-18T16:58:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-18T22:58:00","slug":"madrid-says-she-can-aid-investigation-of-domenici-might-also-challenge-states-senior-senator-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/madrid-says-she-can-aid-investigation-of-domenici-might-also-challenge-states-senior-senator-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid says she can aid investigation of Domenici, might also challenge state’s senior senator next year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid<\/a> says she\u2019s waiting to see what happens with a pending ethics investigation before deciding whether to run against U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a>, R-N.M., next year. <\/p>\n

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

She also believes the Senate Ethics Committee should interview her in the course of its investigation into the senator\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

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

Shortly after losing to U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, R-N.M. last year by 861 votes out of more than 211,000, Madrid<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> said she might run for Senate or governor in the future. Since then, Domenici and Wilson have been dogged by allegations that they had former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias<\/a> fired because he refused pressure from them to speed indictments in a public corruption probe. Such indictments, which were issued last month and included former Democratic state Senate President Manny Aragon, might have aided Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in her re-election bid.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Iglesias\u2019 allegations triggered the inquiry into whether Domenici violated Senate ethics rules. Madrid<\/st1:state> says she\u2019s waiting for the outcome of that probe before she decides whether to take on New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s senior Republican.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m watching this very carefully,\u201d she said. \u201cI think we have to wait and see what happens with this investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Madrid<\/st1:state>, who grew up in Las Cruces<\/st1:city> but spent much of her career in Santa Fe<\/st1:city> and Albuquerque<\/st1:city>, added that she has \u201calways been very strong statewide\u201d and believes she would have defeated Wilson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> in a statewide race.<\/p>\n

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

Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> thinks she can aid Senate probe<\/p>\n

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

I reported earlier today<\/a> that Sen. Ken Salazar<\/a>, D-Colo., was excused from the panel investigating Domenici\u2019s actions because of his friendship with Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The former attorney general confirmed that, and also said she believes she should be interviewed by the panel.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think I have something to add to that investigation,\u201d Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> said.<\/p>\n

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

What she has to say doesn\u2019t directly relate to Domenici\u2019s October 2006 phone call to Iglesias, which was about an investigation into the Bernalillo County Metro Courthouse scandal. But Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> told me in March she believes Domenici and Wilson may have had a hand in another massive public corruption scandal prosecuted by Iglesias\u2019 office.<\/p>\n

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

Madrid<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, who was still attorney general while she ran for Congress, alleged last month that her office was kept from having any involvement in prosecution of the state treasurer scandal. She said that was \u201cprobably\u201d done at the urging of Republican operatives and designed to give Wilson<\/st1:city> fuel to attack Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> for doing nothing about public corruption.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe were deliberately kept out by the Justice Department, the U.S.<\/st1:country-region> attorney and the FBI,\u201d Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> said last month, adding that she believes it is likely that Iglesias, Domenici, Wilson and Bush political adviser Karl Rove<\/a> \u201chad these prosecutions so intertwined with this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

By contrast, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office is working closely with the current state attorney general, Gary King<\/a>, on prosecution of the metro court scandal.<\/p>\n

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

Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> said today she believes Domenici and Wilson \u201cused the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office and the FBI very inappropriately,\u201d and said she believes the senators investigating Domenici should ask her about it.<\/p>\n

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

Click here<\/a> to read the details on her allegations from the article I wrote last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid says she\u2019s waiting to see what happens with a pending ethics investigation before deciding whether to run against U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., next year. She also believes the Senate Ethics Committee should interview her in the course of its investigation into the senator\u2019s actions. Shortly after losing […]<\/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-1605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605","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=1605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}