{"id":3644,"date":"2008-08-29T10:40:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T16:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/governors-office-comments-on-noel-hiring\/"},"modified":"2008-08-29T10:40:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-29T16:40:00","slug":"governors-office-comments-on-noel-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/governors-office-comments-on-noel-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor&#8217;s office comments on Noel hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SLgm26oC2vI\/AAAAAAAAIis\/quFj22Br3xE\/s1600-h\/Noel,+Jim.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SLgm26oC2vI\/AAAAAAAAIis\/quFj22Br3xE\/s200\/Noel,+Jim.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5239980891337579250\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>One of the questions the GOP has raised <a href=\"http:\/\/haussamen.blogspot.com\/2008\/08\/gop-outraged-by-herreras-hiring-of.html\">in requesting documents<\/a> related to the secretary of state\u2019s decision to hire the son-in-law of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tomudall.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Udall<\/a> to be the state\u2019s elections director is whether the governor was involved in the choice.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Jim Noel is leaving a job in the administration of Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Richardson<\/a> as head of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fscll.org\/JSC\/Main.htm\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission<\/a>, and Noel\u2019s wife, Amanda Cooper, who is currently running her father\u2019s Senate campaign, has also worked for and is close to the governor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> spokesman Gilbert Gallegos released this statement when asked for comment:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cThe secretary of state met with the governor\u2019s chief of staff to discuss several issues, and during that conversation (Secretary of State) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sos.state.nm.us\/sos-SecBio.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Herrera<\/a> asked James Jimenez his opinion of Jim Noel,\u201d Gallegos said. \u201cJames worked with Jim in the past in his capacity as executive director of the Judicial Standards Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I asked a follow-up question via e-mail: So there was no pressure from the governor\u2019s office to hire Noel? Gallegos didn\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">One more point that is worth making on this subject: Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/legis.state.nm.us\/lcs\/legdetails.asp?Name=258&amp;Submit=Search\" target=\"_blank\">Dianna Duran<\/a>, R-Tularosa and a former <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:placename st=\"on\">Otero<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype st=\"on\">County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> clerk, has criticized Noel\u2019s hiring as an egregious conflict of interest. State law, she said in a news release, \u201cforbids a family member of a person on the ballot to be a poll worker because of the appearance of impropriety. How in the world does it look to voters to allow the son of the candidate at the top of <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s ballot to oversee the entire election process?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Duran, like every other person in the state who has served as a county clerk, herself appeared on the ballot while she oversaw the election. How does it look to voters to have a candidate on the ballot overseeing the county\u2019s election process?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the questions the GOP has raised in requesting documents related to the secretary of state\u2019s decision to hire the son-in-law of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Udall to be the state\u2019s elections director is whether the governor was involved in the choice. Jim Noel is leaving a job in the administration of Gov. [&hellip;]<\/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-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","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=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}