{"id":1727,"date":"2007-05-15T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-15T23:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/lyons-flew-on-developers-plane-to-aggie-ncaa-game\/"},"modified":"2007-05-15T17:22:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-15T23:22:00","slug":"lyons-flew-on-developers-plane-to-aggie-ncaa-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/lyons-flew-on-developers-plane-to-aggie-ncaa-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyons flew on developer’s plane to Aggie NCAA game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a> flew in March on a plane either owned or chartered by Las Cruces<\/st1:city> developer Philip Philippou to a college basketball game in Spokane<\/st1:city>, Wash.<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> <\/p>\n

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

The New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype> Aggies<\/a> were playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in several years, and Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was one of a number of people who flew to the game on Philippou\u2019s plane and on a second plane owned by the university.<\/p>\n

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

Philippou currently has an agreement<\/span><\/a> to develop 3,200 acres of land controlled by Lyons<\/st1:city> on Las Cruces<\/st1:city>\u2019 East Mesa<\/st1:place>. Both men have come under fire in recent weeks because Philippou gave more than $20,000 last year to a political action committee that gave most of it to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 re-election campaign. Then Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> bypassed his own process for seeking bids to lease the land by giving the contract to Philippou in December, before the announced time to submit proposals had ended.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

The Las Cruces City Council<\/a> is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to annex the state land and approve the master plan for the 6,000-acre Philippou development of which it\u2019s a part, The Vistas at Presidio.<\/p>\n

\n

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

Kristin Haase, spokeswoman for Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, said the land commissioner was invited to the basketball game by university President Michael Martin<\/a> and believed NMSU had chartered the plane.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cCome to find out later, after asking questions, that Philippou chartered the plane. But Pat was under the impression that Martin chartered the plane,\u201d Haase said. \u201cI think Pat was na\u00efve about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Haase said she didn\u2019t know who paid for Lyons<\/st1:city>\u2019 accommodations in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, but said the university gave him a ticket to the Aggies\u2019 game and he paid for his own ticket to another game.<\/p>\n

\n

Philippou said he made a jet \u201cavailable to the university\u201d but didn\u2019t invite the land commissioner. He refused to say how much the trip cost and whether the jet was his or one he chartered.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s anybody\u2019s business,\u201d Philippou said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Martin said that, after the Aggies learned they would play in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on March 16, the university began looking for ways to get fans to the game. They used one plane owned by the university\u2019s Physical Sciences Laboratory and, when Philippou offered his plane, Martin agreed.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI thought, \u2018Gee, that\u2019s a good thing \u2013 a rich guy willing to get some fans to the game,\u2019\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

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

There was no monetary exchange and Philippou\u2019s plane flight wasn\u2019t a donation to the university, Martin said. He was simply a private citizen flying to the game and willing to take others.<\/p>\n

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

Martin said the university\u2019s costs were paid through private donations.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe had a whole block of tickets. I invited the governor, the lieutenant governor, everybody,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

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

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was the only elected official to attend, he said. Two regents also attended.<\/p>\n

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

Martin said he took Philippou\u2019s plane on the way to Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and flew back on the university plane.<\/p>\n

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

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was on Philippou\u2019s plane for the entire trip. Each plane seated about a half dozen people.<\/p>\n

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

Asked if she knew anything about Philippou\u2019s motives for offering the flight and the political contributions, Haase said, \u201cI didn\u2019t even know until last week that he paid for the flight. I think he was just trying to be a nice guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI know it looks really bad, but I think that Pat, he genuinely thought it was Martin who paid for the flight,\u201d Haase said.<\/p>\n

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

More contributions to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city><\/span><\/p>\n

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

What\u2019s been reported in the media in recent weeks is that Philippou gave $20,500 to Blue & Red PAC<\/a> last year. The PAC gave $17,642.50 of it to Lyons<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019 re-election campaign. Philippou says he didn\u2019t direct that the money be given to Lyons<\/st1:city>, and Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> says he didn\u2019t know where the PAC got its money.<\/p>\n

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

The PAC is run by Republican lobbyist David Kimble<\/a> and Democratic lobbyist Domonic Silva<\/a>. Kimble is a lobbyist for Philippou.<\/p>\n

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

I found some more gifts that haven\u2019t been reported by the media.<\/p>\n

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

\n

In a lobbyist report filed with the Secretary of State\u2019s office in January, Kimble reported spending $360 in May 2006 on radio advertisements for Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 re-election campaign. Then in September, he reported spending $1,750 on advertisements for Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> on the \u201cAggie Network.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

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

\n

The May gift is listed as an in-kind contribution on a report Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> filed last year. So is the September contribution, but Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> reported that it was for $1,991.03.<\/p>\n

\n

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

Silva reported giving $1,100 in cash to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 re-election campaign. According to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 reports from last year\u2019s election cycle, he also gave $400 in in-kind contributions. Though Silva isn\u2019t listed as a lobbyist for any Philippou company, when I asked if Silva works for him, Philippou told me Silva and Kimble work together.<\/p>\n

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

Philippou gave $6,000 in cash to Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> on Feb. 5, according to a report filed Friday.<\/p>\n

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

Philippou didn\u2019t answer some of my questions about his motives for giving, saying he would talk to me if I wanted to ask \u201cquestions of substance,\u201d but he did say that he \u201cgave a few dollars to Mr. Lyons because I like him.\u201d He also said he has given money over the years to a number of Democrats and Republicans.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cTo give money to political figures or election committees\u2026 I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with that,\u201d Philippou said. \u201cWhy is there an issue? There is no issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Lyons<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> for governor in 2010?<\/span><\/p>\n

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

I also asked Haase why Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is still raising money when he can\u2019t run for land commissioner in 2010 because of term limits.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about governor in 2010, but he has not made any decisions,\u201d she said. \u201cJust because a dozen people tell you you should run for governor doesn\u2019t mean you should.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this posting contained two quotes from Haase that have since been reworded because of miscommunication during the original interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico Land Commissioner Pat Lyons flew in March on a plane either owned or chartered by Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou to a college basketball game in Spokane, Wash. The New Mexico State University Aggies were playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in several years, and Lyons was one of a […]<\/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-1727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727","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=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}