{"id":3654,"date":"2008-09-02T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/the-fox-is-watching-the-hen-house\/"},"modified":"2008-09-02T09:25:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-02T15:25:00","slug":"the-fox-is-watching-the-hen-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/the-fox-is-watching-the-hen-house\/","title":{"rendered":"The fox is watching the hen house"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SL1bGmCnNfI\/AAAAAAAAIlE\/JaDCM0meuAY\/s1600-h\/Guest+column.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SL1bGmCnNfI\/AAAAAAAAIlE\/JaDCM0meuAY\/s200\/Guest+column.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241445710177973746\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">By Stuart Ingle<\/span>  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Don\u2019t you just wonder at times what and who is thinking in our state capitol, <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Secretary of State <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sos.state.nm.us\/sos-SecBio.html\" target=\"_blank\">Mary Herrera\u2019s<\/a> decision <a href=\"http:\/\/haussamen.blogspot.com\/2008\/08\/gop-outraged-by-herreras-hiring-of.html\">to hire the son-in-law of a candidate<\/a> for the U.S. Senate, who is also the husband of the candidate\u2019s campaign manager, to be in charge of <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s election has to be one of the biggest blunders in our state\u2019s history. Is the public relieved that this job is filled? Did Secretary of State Herrera think we would all agree to her pick of a competent, qualified lawyer for the job and overlook the obvious conflict of interest?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SL1bGl9JxrI\/AAAAAAAAIk8\/1pn_rIKHtXk\/s1600-h\/Ingle,+Stuart.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_IabUCQmoheQ\/SL1bGl9JxrI\/AAAAAAAAIk8\/1pn_rIKHtXk\/s200\/Ingle,+Stuart.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241445710155073202\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Did it really never occur to her, or any of her deputies, that it might &#8212; just might &#8212; seem a bit out of the ordinary, or just might raise a few eyebrows, or just might cause a touch of doubt that a job that should be performed by a nonpartisan professional, insulated from and indifferent to the political intrigue that runs thick every election year, would instead be filled by the husband of a candidate\u2019s campaign manager and daughter?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Not one of Secretary Herrera\u2019s former peers &#8212; the county clerks of our 33 counties &#8212; would ever think to hire anyone remotely related to a candidate or anyone working in the country clerk\u2019s office. Under state law (NM 1-2-7C), they can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">We can be thankful in <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New   Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> that our county clerks will be counting the votes on election night. It may be time to put our state\u2019s election process under the guidance and supervision of a nonpartisan commission instead of the elected office of secretary of state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"><a href=\"http:\/\/legis.state.nm.us\/lcs\/legdetails.asp?Name=266\" target=\"_blank\">Ingle<\/a> is a Republican from Portales and the minority leader in the New Mexico Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Stuart Ingle Don\u2019t you just wonder at times what and who is thinking in our state capitol, Santa Fe? Secretary of State Mary Herrera\u2019s decision to hire the son-in-law of a candidate for the U.S. Senate, who is also the husband of the candidate\u2019s campaign manager, to be in charge of New Mexico\u2019s election [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654","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=3654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}