{"id":41395,"date":"2012-07-11T07:37:42","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T13:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=41395"},"modified":"2012-07-11T22:26:04","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T04:26:04","slug":"for-gary-king-a-rough-road-lies-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/07\/for-gary-king-a-rough-road-lies-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"For Gary King, a rough road lies ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Attorney<\/a>

Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Gary King\u2019s record as attorney general \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 has led the media to judge him harshly and gives Republicans lots to hammer him with. That\u2019s largely why many Democrats view the gubernatorial candidate as unelectable.<\/h4>\n

In 2011, I ranked criticism of Attorney General Gary King<\/a> as one of the year\u2019s top stories<\/a>. Here\u2019s what I wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cAttorney General Gary King had one of the worst years of any elected official in New Mexico in 2011. The criticism was widespread (and included me), and it covered a range of issues including allegations that his office was\u00a0\u201cineffective\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in dealing with cop discipline cases, that it trailed those\u00a0responsible for Medicaid fraud recovery<\/a>\u00a0in almost all other states, that he thumbed his nose\u00a0at campaign contribution limits<\/a>, that he gave Jerome Block Jr.\u00a0an overly lenient plea deal<\/a>, that he was playing fast and loose with Southern New Mexico\u2019s water<\/a>, that he\u00a0declined to investigate<\/a>\u00a0bribery allegations against a state official the feds later indicted, that his office\u00a0violated the Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a>, and that he had a serious conflict<\/a>\u00a0with a corruption case his office was prosecuting.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing has long faced criticism for his handling of corruption cases, but the condemnation of the job he\u2019s doing was deafening in 2011. The Santa Fe New Mexican said King\u00a0should consider resigning<\/a>. I\u00a0slammed King<\/a> after he attempted to damage my credibility and intimidate me into silence by suggesting that I colluded with Republicans to deflect criticism away from the governor and onto him.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The criticism has continued this year. King and his office were in the news for downplaying how long they had known about allegations of embezzlement<\/a> from a Santa Fe hospital. The Elephant Butte Irrigation District accused King of a \u201csinister\u201d and political motive<\/a> \u2013 \u201cthere are more votes north of Elephant Butte Lake, which could come in very handy in a statewide political race\u201d \u2013 for his lawsuit that seeks to void an agreement dividing water between Southern New Mexico and El Paso. The Albuquerque Journal called King\u2019s record as AG \u201cwoefully inadequate.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

And, finally, the Federal Election Commission ruled that King and his 2002 campaign for Congress broke federal law and FEC rules<\/a> by using an electronic signature of a one-time campaign treasurer on finance reports that treasurer didn\u2019t review.<\/p>\n

What does that add up to? Many Democrats were slapping their foreheads when King announced on Tuesday that he\u2019s running for governor<\/a> in 2014. The comments I heard from many ranged from \u201cAre you kidding me?\u201d to \u201cHe\u2019s going to have a very difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lots to hammer King with in TV ads<\/h3>\n

King certainly has his supporters. But, time and again, King has disappointed those in the Democratic Party who believe it needs reform. Many Democrats see a candidate who isn\u2019t electable.<\/p>\n

The media (including me<\/a>) has judged King harshly, and that isn\u2019t likely to change. In addition, with his record \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 as AG, King has handed Republican Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> and her political adviser, Jay McCleskey, lots to hammer him with in TV ads.<\/p>\n

Martinez has been bogged down lately by her own controversy about use of personal e-mail for public business<\/a> and whether the Public Education Department used state resources for political purposes<\/a>. But before that, her approval among voters had been well over 50 percent<\/a> for her entire tenure as governor, and sometimes into the 60s<\/a>. That\u2019s almost unheard of for a Republican governor in this left-leaning state, at least in recent times.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of time for Martinez\u2019s approval to evaporate or King\u2019s record to improve before voters actually go to the polls in 2014. But King has had five and a half years to fight corruption and build up the impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9 an AG can\u2026 and in recent months the state\u2019s two largest newspapers have accused him of doing the opposite.<\/p>\n

Sure, King still has time to win some of the big public corruption cases he\u2019s been investigating or have been awaiting trial for years. He could improve Medicaid fraud recovery. But one Democrat I said that to last night laughed in response.<\/p>\n

King has focused much of his tenure as AG on fighting human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children, but he may have a difficult time distinguishing himself from Martinez \u2013 a former prosecutor who put rapists and child killers in prison \u2013 on those issues.<\/p>\n

Positioning himself with Democrats<\/h3>\n

The timing and venue of King\u2019s announcement was questionable. He first confirmed to the public radio station KANW 89.1-FM in Albuquerque that he was running. Then he talked with some other media outlets after they heard about the radio interview.<\/p>\n

King says he didn\u2019t plan it. From The Associated Press<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cNews of King\u2019s gubernatorial campaign first surfaced Monday when he was asked whether he would run during a radio interview with KANW. King said he had to answer the question directly, but that his intention wasn\u2019t to \u2018take any thunder away\u2019 from candidates currently vying for office.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Regardless, the reality is that King announced in July \u2013 a month in which few are paying attention to politics \u2013 without a news release or news conference. He didn\u2019t get a lot of media attention.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Albuquerque TV on Tuesday gave a lot of time to the extradition of a child killer<\/a> from Mexico, and most stories mentioned Martinez<\/a> helping with the extradition. Even as governor, Martinez is still building a reputation as a crime fighter. Martinez, not King, won the media battle on the day King announced his gubernatorial campaign.<\/p>\n

Then again, for King, getting into the race early probably isn\u2019t about winning over the public. It was about positioning himself early with Democrats. King is likely to face a tough primary before he even has the chance to fight the public battle with Martinez.<\/p>\n

Will Democrats be convinced? Time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary King\u2019s record as attorney general \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 has led the media to judge him harshly and gives Republicans lots to hammer him with. That\u2019s largely why many Democrats view the gubernatorial candidate as unelectable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[197,142,224,114,107],"class_list":["post-41395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2014-election","tag-crime","tag-gary-king","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41395","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=41395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}