{"id":3719,"date":"2008-09-16T11:54:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T17:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/gop-hammers-heinrich-on-lobbying-skipping-debate\/"},"modified":"2008-09-16T11:54:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T17:54:00","slug":"gop-hammers-heinrich-on-lobbying-skipping-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/gop-hammers-heinrich-on-lobbying-skipping-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP hammers Heinrich on ‘lobbying,’ skipping debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Republicans are calling on Democratic 1st Congressional District candidate Martin Heinrich<\/a> to release records related to his work toward the creation of the Ojito Wilderness<\/a> and accusing him of ducking debate. <\/p>\n

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

The GOP contends that Heinrich \u201cbroke state and federal law by failing to register as a lobbyist\u201d while he worked toward the creation of the Ojito Wilderness, according to a Monday news release<\/a> from the state Republican Party<\/a>. Heinrich was paid by several organizations to push for creation of the wilderness. His campaign calls it \u201cadvocacy,\u201d while the GOP and the campaign of his Republican opponent, Darren White<\/a>, call it \u201clobbying.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In the release, the GOP called on Heinrich to release records related to his work, including \u201call names of the clients he represented at Heinrich Consulting and the corresponding gross receipts tax records for all income Heinrich Consulting received from those clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

A spokeswoman for Heinrich, Angela Barranco, wouldn\u2019t respond directly to the allegation that Heinrich was required but failed to register as a lobbyist or to the request that Heinrich release his records. Instead, she made this statement:<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMartin is proud of the work that he did to advocate on behalf of New Mexico priorities and help bring together grassroots work on behalf of Ojito Wilderness, which is one of New Mexico\u2019s greatest challenges,\u201d she said. \u201cI challenge them to pick which part of that they don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The GOP release brings up the fact that Heinrich has previously admitted that he ran his consulting business for three years — including time while he was an Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> city councilor — before realizing he needed a city business license.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMartin Heinrich has already admitted to breaking the law once by illegally operating his business without a license. Now it\u2019s time for him to come clean about breaking ethics laws by failing to register as a lobbyist,\u201d state GOP spokeswoman Shira Rawlinson said.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018He should have to explain\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Barranco recently told the New Mexico Independent<\/a> that Heinrich \u201chas never been registered as a federal or state lobbyist and he\u2019s proud of the advocacy work he\u2019s done,\u201d but she conceded that he was paid for work that included attempting to influence government officials. White\u2019s campaign manager, Sara Lister, told the Independent that Heinrich\u2019s failure to register as a lobbyist was similar to his failure to register his business with the city, saying it \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean he wasn\u2019t a lobbyist any more than his failure to register his business does not mean he didn\u2019t have a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe should have to explain why he did not register,\u201d Lister said.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s something Barranco and the Heinrich campaign have, thus far, not done.<\/p>\n

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

The GOP release quotes Jim Scarantino (who, by way of disclosure, is an unpaid columnist for this site<\/a>), a former director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance<\/a>, as saying he has firsthand knowledge that Heinrich lobbied at the state and federal levels. Scarantino said Heinrich was paid by the Wilderness Support Center<\/a> and Campaign for America\u2019s Wilderness<\/a> to lobby on behalf of the Ojito Wilderness Act, and claims Heinrich also lobbied on two other preservation issues. The Heinrich campaign has not disputed the assertion that he was also paid by Zia Pueblo<\/a> and the Sierra Club<\/a> on the Ojito issue.<\/p>\n

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

Heinrich created this Web site<\/a>, which states that he \u201cdedicated several years of my life to the creation the Ojito Wilderness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The National Republican Congressional Committee<\/a> put out its own release<\/a> stating that Heinrich \u201chas some explaining to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe last thing Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> needs is another politician who is willing to skirt the law and try to get away with it,\u201d NRCC spokesman Ken Spain said in the release. \u201cWith his shady dealings and refusal to be forthcoming about his lobbying work, Martin Heinrich has shown voters that he\u2019s already well on his way to becoming just another Washington insider that can\u2019t be trusted to put their interests over his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Ducking debate?<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Also on Monday, the White campaign put out a news release accusing Heinrich of pulling out of a debate that was being organized by KRQE-TV<\/a> and AARP<\/a>. A date had not been announced for the planned forum.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAfter agreeing to the debate, and even after both campaigns agreed to change the date to appease Martin Heinrich\u2019s \u2018busy schedule,\u2019 today Martin Heinrich surprised no one and declined the opportunity to debate Darren White on the important issues of the day,\u201d White spokesman Stephen Schatz said. \u201cMartin must have reconsidered after his abysmal performance at the other candidate debates and forums and awakened to the fact that his liberal politics are out of touch with the independent voters of the First District.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Barranco said that\u2019s not what happened.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe just couldn\u2019t really come to a schedule that was going to be workable,\u201d she said, adding that the candidates have already debated twice and have two additional debates scheduled.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere\u2019s other opportunities, and this is really just them again, just much ado about nothing,\u201d Barranco said.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 9:40 a.m.<\/p>\n

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

Click here<\/a> to read the letter from the AARP and KRQE to the White campaign stating that there won\u2019t be a debate because Heinrich declined the invitation.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans are calling on Democratic 1st Congressional District candidate Martin Heinrich to release records related to his work toward the creation of the Ojito Wilderness and accusing him of ducking debate. The GOP contends that Heinrich \u201cbroke state and federal law by failing to register as a lobbyist\u201d while he worked toward the creation of […]<\/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-3719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719","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=3719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}