{"id":4101,"date":"2009-01-05T03:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-05T09:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/01\/richardson-drops-another-bomb-on-nm-politics\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:46:39","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:46:39","slug":"richardson-drops-another-bomb-on-nm-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/01\/richardson-drops-another-bomb-on-nm-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson drops another bomb on NM politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since October 2007, New Mexico politics have been in a state of flux as the transition to the post-Pete Domenici<\/a> era unfolded at the same time that the progressive takeover of American politics shifted the makeup of the state\u2019s congressional delegation and Legislature.<\/p>\n

We thought the dust was about to settle. Domenici was out. So were Wilson<\/a> and Pearce<\/a>. And Bill Richardson<\/a> — well, we all knew he came back to New Mexico to run for governor primarily so he could get another job in Washington, and we started 2009 thinking he was leaving to become commerce secretary.<\/p>\n

Which would mean Diane Denish<\/a> would become, in the coming weeks, the first woman to be governor of New Mexico.<\/p>\n

But Richardson dropped another bomb on New Mexico politics on Sunday when he withdrew his nomination<\/a> to be commerce secretary.<\/p>\n

So now we\u2019re at another point where we don\u2019t know a lot. Barack Obama<\/a>, Richardson and Denish have all publicly hinted that, if the investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in Richardson\u2019s administration clears him of any wrongdoing, he might still join Obama in Washington and Denish might still become governor.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, there\u2019s the possibility that Richardson or members of his administration could be indicted, and Denish — and the Democratic Party in general — could lose favor in the eyes of the public at a time when the GOP will make a strong push to win the governor\u2019s race in 2010 so it can have a say in redistricting in the next decade.<\/p>\n

In addition, people close to Richardson and Obama are sparring about whether the governor was entirely forthcoming<\/a> about the investigation during the vetting process, and there are questions about whether Richardson\u2019s relationship with Obama is already tainted, regardless of whether the probe clears him. So Richardson may or may not be leaving the state before his term ends in 2010, regardless of the outcome of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Many members of Richardson\u2019s administration have already left in anticipation of his departure. Denish has assembled a massive transition team that includes paid staff and volunteers from all over the state. Politicos have been lining up to ask Denish to appoint them to replace her as lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all on hold.<\/p>\n

A serious investigation<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that the investigation is serious. The Washington Post<\/a> is reporting that \u201cthe governor\u2019s top aides — and even Richardson\u2019s actions\u201d are under scrutiny, and that \u201csome evidence raises concern about the propriety of the Richardson administration\u2019s interactions with a donor.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started as an FBI probe is now a full-fledged grand jury investigation<\/a> into whether there is any connection between the state\u2019s awarding of a lucrative contract to a California company and sizeable contributions the company made to political action committees formed by Richardson. CDR Financial<\/a> earned almost $1.5 million advising the state on interest-rate swaps and other business related to $1.6 billion in bonds appropriated for a massive transportation project.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in 2003 and 2004, CDR Financial gave $75,000 to Richardson\u2019s political action committee Si Se Puede!, and the company\u2019s head, David Rubin, gave $25,000 to Moving America Forward, another Richardson PAC.<\/p>\n

Richardson has been dogged by pay-to-play allegations throughout his tenure as governor, and many members of the New Mexico media reacted somewhat nonchalantly when word of this investigation first leaked in August. But it\u2019s quite serious. Richardson has appeared tired, worried and distracted for months, with good reason.<\/p>\n

Despite his public statement that he\u2019s confident the probe will clear him and his administration, Richardson\u2019s future is uncertain. And that means the state\u2019s political scene is too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since October 2007, New Mexico politics have been in a state of flux as the transition to the post-Pete Domenici era unfolded at the same time that the progressive takeover of American politics shifted the makeup of the state\u2019s congressional delegation and Legislature. We thought the dust was about to settle. Domenici was out. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haussamen-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101","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=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}