{"id":204,"date":"2006-04-19T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-20T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/04\/ag-candidates-respond-to-death-penalty-questions-and-zamora-makes-an-embarrassing-mistake\/"},"modified":"2006-04-19T23:45:00","modified_gmt":"2006-04-20T05:45:00","slug":"ag-candidates-respond-to-death-penalty-questions-and-zamora-makes-an-embarrassing-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/04\/ag-candidates-respond-to-death-penalty-questions-and-zamora-makes-an-embarrassing-mistake\/","title":{"rendered":"AG candidates respond to death penalty questions, and Zamora makes an embarrassing mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been writing for awhile about the death penalty being an issue in this year\u2019s attorney general race. Geno Zamora\u2019s campaign had already responded to an e-mail from me by saying he supports the death penalty \u201cin limited cases.\u201d I was still waiting to hear from the other candidates.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, I received this e-mail from Philip Muller, campaign manager for Democrat Lemuel Martinez\u2019s campaign:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the district attorney for the 13th Judicial District, Lemuel Martinez is the only Democratic candidate for attorney general who has taken an oath to uphold the law. The death penalty is the law in New Mexico. As the chief law enforcement officer in his district, he is the only Democratic candidate for attorney general who has prosecuted death penalty cases. Until the legislature decides to repeal this law, he will continue to enforce the death penalty.\u201d
<\/a>
Which doesn\u2019t entirely answer the question about where he stands on the death penalty, so I e-mailed his campaign back and have not yet received a response.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gary King called me Wednesday. The conservative Democrat told me he is opposed to repealing the death penalty. He said he knows there are some problems with enforcing it fairly that must be addressed, but called the death penalty \u201ca necessary deterrent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican Jim Bibb has not responded to my e-mails. I should note that I had the wrong address for Gary King and that\u2019s why he didn\u2019t respond sooner. I just sent an e-mail to the address listed on Bibb\u2019s campaign Web site. That address is different than the address to which I had sent previous requests, which was provided by the Republican Party.<\/p>\n

Bibb is the son-in-law of former Gov. Toney Anaya who, as one source put it, \u201cachieved fame for his opposition to the death penalty and for commuting all of death row on his way out of the mansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While we\u2019re on the subject of attorney general candidates, Zamora put out a news release on March 2 announcing that he was opening an office in Las Cruces. He made a crucial mistake. Here\u2019s the quote:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the opening ceremonies, Geno stated, \u2018Las Cruces is New Mexico\u2019s third largest city and its growing importance cannot be ignored by any candidate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Las Cruces is the second largest city, with an estimated 79,524 people in 2004. Santa Fe was at 68,041 and Rio Rancho was at 61,953 that year, the Census estimated.<\/p>\n

I guess you can\u2019t win them all.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Do\u00f1a Ana County Commissioner Kent Evans, who is running in the Republican primary for the Public Regulation Commission seat held by Democrat E. Shirley Baca, called me this week to say he believes embattled state Insurance Superintendent Eric Serna should step down.<\/p>\n

At the request of the PRC, Attorney General Patricia Madrid\u2019s office is investigating Serna\u2019s decision to award a lucrative state contract to a bank that has since given lots of money to a non-profit started by Serna. Serna has been placed on leave while the investigation takes place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the world to know I will take a stand,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n

I guess he just did.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

And I wrote yesterday that Guy Riordan, who Gov. Bill Richardson removed from the state Game Commission after he was named in the treasurer\u2019s office scandal, was also a member of the board that oversees the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority. That is what the Game Commission\u2019s Web site states.<\/p>\n

But Steve Fitzer, finance director in the office of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, wrote Wednesday to tell me that, on the MFA Web site, Riordan is not listed as a board member. He is a former board member, but no longer serves there.<\/p>\n

Thanks for setting me straight. Accuracy is a top priority on this site, and I\u2019ll be quick to correct errors when they are brought to my attention.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s big trip to Las Cruces is today. He\u2019ll be talking about ethics in government to Common Cause. I\u2019ll be there, and if he says anything spectacular, I just might post a special Friday blog entry.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been writing for awhile about the death penalty being an issue in this year\u2019s attorney general race. Geno Zamora\u2019s campaign had already responded to an e-mail from me by saying he supports the death penalty \u201cin limited cases.\u201d I was still waiting to hear from the other candidates. Earlier this week, I received this […]<\/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-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204","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=204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}