{"id":639,"date":"2006-09-28T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-28T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/alleged-conflicts-e-mail-misuse-plague-herrera\/"},"modified":"2006-09-28T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T22:11:00","slug":"alleged-conflicts-e-mail-misuse-plague-herrera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/09\/alleged-conflicts-e-mail-misuse-plague-herrera\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged conflicts, e-mail misuse plague Herrera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera, the Democrat\u2019s candidate for secretary of state, is under fire because two of her campaign workers also work in her clerk\u2019s office. <\/p>\n

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

Vickie Perea, the Republican in the race, told KOAT-TV<\/a> in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> that she is \u201cvery concerned\u201d because two county clerk employees \u2013 Diane Brown and Daniel Gutierrez \u2013 also work for Herrera\u2019s campaign. Perea said those employees have a stake \u2013 beyond getting an accurate count \u2013 in the results of the votes they\u2019ll be tallying.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Herrera countered in the news report that the employees don\u2019t do campaign work on county time, but didn\u2019t directly address the concern raised by Perea.<\/p>\n

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

The Bernalillo<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> code of ethics says employees should stay away from activity that affects the \u201cindependence of judgment or action in the performance of official duties,\u201d according to KOAT.<\/p>\n

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

It should also be noted that Perea\u2019s second cousin works in the clerk\u2019s office, but he doesn\u2019t work on her campaign. He\u2019s the brother of big-shot Democrat Manny Aragon.<\/p>\n

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

Earlier this month, Perea accused Herrera of misusing taxpayer money by sending out a campaign e-mail from her government e-mail address.<\/p>\n

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

That is absolutely a misuse of a government e-mail address. Politicians should never use those addresses to campaign.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s not unusual for employees of elected county officials to work on their campaigns. Such is often the practice in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

But when it\u2019s the elections office we\u2019re talking about, Perea brings up a good point: Can those employees remain impartial when counting votes, when deciding whether to accept provisional ballots? Can they be trusted to remain ethical?<\/p>\n

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

While we\u2019re on the topic of this race, in a debate last week both candidates vowed to push for a state law requiring New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> voters to show photo ID before voting, according to the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s no surprise that Perea sides with her party on this issue. Herrera\u2019s position, however, was a bit of a shock. She cautioned that such a law would have to ensure that no one\u2019s right to vote it taken away, according to the Journal.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

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

At the debate, Perea called Herrera\u2019s position \u201ca political conversion for expediency,\u201d according to the Journal. Herrera claimed she has been a longtime proponent of voter ID.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Thanks to the Wednesday Morning QB<\/a> for providing the video of the KOAT report.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera, the Democrat\u2019s candidate for secretary of state, is under fire because two of her campaign workers also work in her clerk\u2019s office. Vickie Perea, the Republican in the race, told KOAT-TV in Albuquerque that she is \u201cvery concerned\u201d because two county clerk employees \u2013 Diane Brown and Daniel Gutierrez \u2013 […]<\/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-639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639","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=639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}