{"id":81958,"date":"2015-09-09T01:00:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T07:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=81958"},"modified":"2015-09-10T09:58:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T15:58:07","slug":"we-must-end-new-mexicos-culture-of-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/09\/we-must-end-new-mexicos-culture-of-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"We must end New Mexico\u2019s culture of corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Dianna Duran pledged to give New Mexicans \u201ca scandal-free Secretary of State\u2019s Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Heath<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis campaign is about working to restore the confidence and trust,\u201d Duran told me<\/a> months before she was first elected secretary of state in 2010.<\/p>\n

Months before that, Duran deposited a $600 check into her personal account that her campaign issued to Sean Davis of Tularosa for \u201cequipment & work on campaign,\u201d the attorney general claims. Duran allegedly forged Davis\u2019 signature. Investigators say Davis didn\u2019t work for Duran, endorse the check, or receive the money.<\/p>\n

Between 2010 and 2014, Duran allegedly committed dozens of crimes<\/a>, using close to $10,000 in campaign funds to keep her personal bank account in the black while gambling at New Mexico casinos. Duran\u2019s attorney says she\u2019ll plead not guilty.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Duran joins a long list of public officials in New Mexico \u2013 Democrats and Republicans \u2013 who have lost the public\u2019s trust. Some examples:<\/p>\n

A Senate president, Manny Aragon<\/a>, was convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money. A state Treasurer, Michael Montoya<\/a>, was convicted of extortion. Another treasurer, Robert Vigil<\/a>, was convicted of attempted extortion. Former Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr.<\/a> was convicted of fraud, embezzlement, and elections-law violations.<\/p>\n

The first government scandal I wrote about involved five school board members in Las Cruces secretly giving a superintendent almost $1 million in incentives<\/a> to stay in that job. They were the first \u2013 and to date the only \u2013 public officials prosecuted for violating the state Open Meetings Act since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written about others who weren\u2019t charged with crimes but acted unethically. Former Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> scandals were many. Former Sens. Phil Griego<\/a>, Leonard \u201cLee\u201d Rawson<\/a>, Shannon Robinson<\/a>, Mary Jane Garcia<\/a> and Joe Carraro<\/a>, and Rep. Richard Vigil<\/a>, are among the lawmakers who engaged in unethical behavior.<\/p>\n

Former Land Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a>, now a Public Regulation Commission member, bypassed his own bidding process to lease state land to a campaign contributor. Former Attorney General Gary King<\/a> was a landlord to a state agency while the state\u2019s top cop.<\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s system encourages such conflicts of interest. We\u2019re the only state that doesn\u2019t pay lawmakers, so many have other jobs. We\u2019re also one of a handful of states with no ethics commission to set standards and hold officials accountable.<\/p>\n

There seems to be no end to the scandal. Last week, KOB-TV reported<\/a> that Rep. Antonio \u201cMoe\u201d Maestas failed to report thousands of dollars in contributions on his campaign finance reports.<\/p>\n

There are lots of good people in government. Many are working to avoid conflicts. Republican state Rep. Jim Dines doesn\u2019t take money from political committees or lobbyists<\/a>. Dines and Democratic Rep. Bill McCamley reject most gifts from lobbyists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But our government has a plague. Corruption hurts economic development<\/a> and creates other problems. I have no doubt it contributes to New Mexico being ranked 49th in child well-being<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been prosecuting public officials for a decade. We\u2019ve approved piddly, incremental reforms. We\u2019re still plagued by corruption.<\/p>\n

Some policymakers want real change but as a whole state government still resists it.<\/p>\n

We need to push our government to embrace widespread, systemic reform. Among proposals worth considering are paying legislators and enacting term limits, along with better accountability and transparency laws and beefed-up penalties for wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

If we advocate for change, officials who resist are part of the problem and should be replaced. For the sake of our children, we must end our culture of corruption.<\/p>\n

As I’ve disclosed in the past, I’m friends with McCamley. Click here<\/a> to read more about how I handle such situations with the goal of treating everyone fairly.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve been prosecuting public officials for a decade. We\u2019ve approved piddly, incremental reforms. We\u2019re still plagued by corruption. We need to push our government to embrace widespread, systemic reform. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[234,142,1191,118,109,114,107,706],"class_list":["post-81958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-children","tag-crime","tag-dianna-duran","tag-economy","tag-ethics-reform","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse","tag-transparency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81958","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=81958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}