{"id":1913,"date":"2007-06-28T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T23:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/speaker-to-make-statement-on-rep-vigil-situation\/"},"modified":"2007-06-28T17:12:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-28T23:12:00","slug":"speaker-to-make-statement-on-rep-vigil-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/speaker-to-make-statement-on-rep-vigil-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker to make statement on Rep. Vigil situation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a> plans to make a statement soon on the situation involving Rep. Richard Vigil<\/a>, D-Ribera, and indictments that were recently issued against his wife and three others in Las Vegas<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. <\/p>\n

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

Vigil\u2019s wife Roberta and three others are facing felony charges related, in part, to allegations that they misspent public money secured with the help of Richard Vigil on an annual, invitation-only party that was billed as training for employees of the West<\/st1:placename> Las Vegas<\/st1:placename> School District<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u2019s bilingual education program that his wife used to run.<\/p>\n

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

Vigil is currently vice chair of the House Education Committee<\/a>, and some have questioned whether he should continue serving in that capacity while the attorney general continues to investigate the situation. Whether Vigil is a target of the investigation is unknown. <\/p>\n

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

I asked the speaker whether he believes the situation hampers Vigil\u2019s ability to be an effective representative or a leader on the education committee, and he told me he is preparing a news release on that topic that will be issued soon.<\/p>\n

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

I asked the same question of House Minority Leader Tom Taylor<\/a>. He said it\u2019s a complicated issue because \u201cethics is based on moral values, and those vary from person to person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Vigil requested additional capital outlay money for the bilingual education program this year, even after the situation with the party was made public, Taylor<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said, adding that he would never request an appropriation for someone with whom he had a close tie.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI mean, you avoid the appearance of impropriety,\u201d Taylor<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201cThat\u2019s not his banner, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

It was one of the few appropriations the governor vetoed.<\/p>\n

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

\u201c(This year\u2019s request) came after all of the public criticism and everything else that went on with the money, so obviously Richard doesn\u2019t think there was anything wrong,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt just indicates to me that, basically, Richard has a different set of values.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

But, Taylor<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said, he doesn\u2019t know \u201cthat Richard necessarily did anything wrong.\u201d He said the House \u201cshould wait awhile and see what comes out of\u201d the attorney general investigation.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think in the process of that, if Richard was involved\u2026 then certainly, I think his peers will have some questions for him,\u201d Taylor<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

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

Any move should come from the speaker or the House Democratic caucus, so it\u2019s not political, Taylor<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> said.<\/p>\n

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

The state Republican Party<\/a> agrees that the best course of action is to wait and see what happens.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIn this case, we are currently waiting for all of the facts and any remaining indictments to be handed down, but in the event that Rep. Vigil is deemed to be an integral part in the corruption scandal \u2013 whether directly or indirectly involved \u2013 we will certainly call for him to step down from his position on the education committee,\u201d said GOP spokesman Scott Darnell.<\/p>\n

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

Vigil referred questions to his attorney, who I was unable to reach for comment.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 5:20 p.m.<\/p>\n

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

Matt Farrauto, executive director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico<\/a>, had this to say:<\/p>\n

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

\u201cFirst, I think there is a legitimate question about whether it\u2019s fair or appropriate for the alleged conduct of a lawmaker\u2019s spouse to prompt a lawmaker\u2019s removal from a House committee,\u201d he said. \u201cSecond, the speaker of the House is the appropriate person to make a decision as to whether a state representative should be removed from a House committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThat being said, for government to succeed at improving our quality of life, as it is capable of doing, the public needs to have confidence in our elected leaders,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why the Democratic Party of New Mexico has consistently urged lawmakers to avoid even the perception of public corruption and to abide by the highest ethical standards, and why we have condemned officials who have, by their own action or behavior, brought disrepute on state government.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan plans to make a statement soon on the situation involving Rep. Richard Vigil, D-Ribera, and indictments that were recently issued against his wife and three others in Las Vegas. Vigil\u2019s wife Roberta and three others are facing felony charges related, in part, to allegations that they misspent public money […]<\/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-1913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913","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=1913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}