{"id":79830,"date":"2015-08-31T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T19:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=79830"},"modified":"2015-08-31T21:44:44","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T03:44:44","slug":"house-dems-want-duran-to-resign-will-consider-impeachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/08\/house-dems-want-duran-to-resign-will-consider-impeachment\/","title":{"rendered":"House Dems want Duran to resign, will consider impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrats in the New Mexico House called Monday for the resignation\u00a0of Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who is facing criminal charges<\/a> related to abusing the state’s campaign financing system.<\/p>\n

\"Dianna<\/a>

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Dianna Duran<\/p><\/div>\n

If she won’t resign, House Democrats want\u00a0their GOP colleagues, who control the chamber, to join them in “discussions regarding the potential consideration of articles of impeachment,” a news release states.<\/p>\n

“Beginning today, we are reaching out to our Republican colleagues in the House to find a way forward that is strictly nonpartisan, in keeping with the traditions of the House,” Minority Leader Brian Egolf said. “While we hope that Secretary Duran will choose to leave office, we in the House must be prepared to proceed in the event she does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duran’s attorney hasn’t responded to an email NMPolitics.net sent over the weekend asking if Duran, a Republican, is considering resigning.<\/p>\n

Charges against Duran include fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.\u00a0Attorney General Hector Balderas, a Democrat, also\u00a0alleges\u00a0violations of campaign laws, tampering with public records, conspiracy and violations of the Governmental Conduct Act.<\/p>\n

The impeachment process must start\u00a0in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s criminal complaint and supporting information against the secretary of state are deeply disturbing and incredibly serious,\u201d Egolf said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secretary of state is charged with protecting the rights of voters, upholding our campaign finance laws, and enforcing our state\u2019s ethics laws. These are some of the most important functions of our government,\u201d said Rep.\u00a0Patricia Roybal Caballero, the House Democratic Caucus Chair. \u201cNew Mexicans must have trust in the chief administrator of these laws.”<\/p>\n

She called on Duran and Gov. Susana Martinez, a\u00a0Republican, to “immediately appoint a qualified official to oversee these functions.”<\/p>\n

“Our government must be transparent and must have the trust of the public,” Caballero said. “New Mexicans deserve to have complete faith in the person that is responsible for protecting voting rights and enforcing ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s not clear what authority Martinez has to be involved in such a move. NMPolitics.net has emailed\u00a0her office seeking comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats in the New Mexico House called Monday for the resignation of Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who is facing criminal charges related to abusing the state’s campaign financing system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,1191,705,107],"class_list":["post-79830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-dianna-duran","tag-money-in-politics","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79830","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=79830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}