{"id":371,"date":"2006-07-14T08:23:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-14T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/madrid-richardson-need-to-show-theyre-not-part-of-pay-to-play-system\/"},"modified":"2006-07-14T08:23:00","modified_gmt":"2006-07-14T14:23:00","slug":"madrid-richardson-need-to-show-theyre-not-part-of-pay-to-play-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/07\/madrid-richardson-need-to-show-theyre-not-part-of-pay-to-play-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid, Richardson need to show they&#8217;re not part of &#8216;pay-to-play&#8217; system"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/1600\/Madrid%2C%20Patricia.4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/200\/Madrid%2C%20Patricia.4.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Repeatedly in the past few months I\u2019ve read articles about various <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> leaders receiving large political donations from companies about the same time they made decisions that favored those companies.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Repeatedly, the politicos have said the donations didn\u2019t affect policy decisions. They say they aren\u2019t part of any alleged \u201cpay-to-play\u201d culture that exists in <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Obviously, the donors think such a system exists here, or they wouldn\u2019t be giving such donations. It isn\u2019t as though corporate giants are giving out of the goodness of their hearts, at least in most instances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/1600\/Richardson%2C%20Bill.37.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/200\/Richardson%2C%20Bill.33.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>The man whose actions most often coincide with donations is Gov. Bill Richardson. Attorney General Patricia Madrid has also been in the news a couple of times recently for the same issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The newest example is that <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> received $10,000 from a group that operates prisons in the state weeks after she issued a legal opinion backing its proposal to build a prison in Clayton. In May, we learned that Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino owner Stan Fulton gave $100,000 to a political action committee formed by <st1:state st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:state> weeks after she officially opposed the proposal to build a casino in Anthony that <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Fulton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> wants to kill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Fulton, a longtime Republican donor, makes no secret about the fact that he has tossed around money in this casino battle in an effort to win friends, including <st1:placename st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype st=\"on\">State<\/st1:placetype> <st1:placetype st=\"on\">University<\/st1:placetype> and the <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:placename st=\"on\">Gadsden<\/st1:placename> <st1:placename st=\"on\">Independent<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype st=\"on\">School District<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">As for <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, there are so many examples. The standard, tired answer is that the donations don\u2019t affect policy decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Let\u2019s not forget the statement by our former state treasurer, who said this is the way business is done in <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I\u2019m not accusing <st1:city st=\"on\">Richardson<\/st1:city> or <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> of anything. However, the reality is that pay-to-play has been prevalent in state politics for quite some time. Both have been around long enough to know that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">If they aren\u2019t involved in that system, they need to reject donations that could create such an appearance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Repeatedly in the past few months I\u2019ve read articles about various New Mexico leaders receiving large political donations from companies about the same time they made decisions that favored those companies. Repeatedly, the politicos have said the donations didn\u2019t affect policy decisions. They say they aren\u2019t part of any alleged \u201cpay-to-play\u201d culture that exists in [&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-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","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=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}