{"id":9174,"date":"2009-11-10T18:55:28","date_gmt":"2009-11-11T01:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=9174"},"modified":"2009-11-12T10:29:33","modified_gmt":"2009-11-12T17:29:33","slug":"guv-lt-guv-spent-public-money-on-political-news-releases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/11\/guv-lt-guv-spent-public-money-on-political-news-releases\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv, Lt. Guv spent public money on political news releases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9175\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 325px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9175\" title=\"RichardsonandDenish\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/RichardsonandDenish.jpg\" alt=\"Gov. Bill Richardson, left, and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photos by Heath Haussamen)\" width=\"325\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/RichardsonandDenish.jpg 325w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/RichardsonandDenish-300x236.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Bill Richardson, left, and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish (Photos by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Denish, whose office spent money on other political work as well, plans to reimburse state with campaign funds; no comment yet from Richardson<\/h4>\n<p>Three 2004 news releases put out by Lt. Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ltgovernor.state.nm.us\/\">Diane Denish\u2019s<\/a> government office had everything to do with politics and nothing to do with governing \u2013 but they were paid for with federal stimulus dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Contract worker Lauran Cowdrey produced the releases, including one that announced Denish\u2019s support of then-Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry\u2019s picking John Edwards to be his running mate. The office of Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\">Bill Richardson<\/a> also used public resources in 2004 to produce at least one political news release, which also praised Kerry\u2019s selection of Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>The revelation about the news releases \u2013 proof that Denish and Richardson were spending at least some public funds on politics \u2013 comes after a week in which Denish has been heavily criticized for her use of the federal stimulus money. At least one good-government advocate says \u2013 and the lieutenant governor\u2019s office agrees \u2013 that spending public money on politics is not appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>Denish\u2019s chief of staff said late Tuesday that her gubernatorial campaign will reimburse her government office $790.54 for the cost of creating and distributing the three news releases and for work done by Cowdrey on two other days that appears to have been related to political events. Richardson\u2019s office has not responded to an e-mail request for comment about whether the governor sees any problem with spending public money on politics.<\/p>\n<p>After being shown one of the three news releases in question, Denish Chief of Staff Joshua Rosen said this afternoon that public dollars never should have gone to such an expense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cQuite simply, the state should not have been invoiced for these press statements relating to the election,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cThe lieutenant governor expressly forbids campaign work from being done from the state office and she was unaware that these charges were misapplied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rosen said Denish \u201cfirmly believes that a strict wall must exist between politics and official state work.\u201d The reimbursement from the campaign will include four days of work for which Cowdrey billed the state.<\/p>\n<p>Denish\u2019s office paid Cowdrey $23.50 per hour to do public relations work with funds that came from the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jobs_and_Growth_Tax_Relief_Reconciliation_Act_of_2003\">Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003<\/a>. Richardson gave Denish $225,000 in funds appropriated to New Mexico under the act.<\/p>\n<h3>Spending public money on politics is \u2018generally inappropriate\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Spending public money on politics is \u201cgenerally inappropriate,\u201d said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a general rule, the official business of the office should be separate from any outside political business that is being done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>New Mexico\u2019s statute related to such conflicts is \u201cpretty straightforward and speaks for itself,\u201d said Peggy Kerns, the director for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/AboutUs\/tabid\/305\/Default.aspx\">National Conference of State Legislatures\u2019<\/a> Center for Ethics in Government.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what <a href=\"http:\/\/law.justia.com\/newmexico\/codes\/nmrc\/jd_10-16-3-6e2d.html\">that statute<\/a> says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cA legislator, public officer or employee shall treat the legislator\u2019s, public officer\u2019s or employee\u2019s government position as a public trust. The legislator, public officer or employee shall use the powers and resources of public office only to advance the public interest and not to obtain personal benefits or pursue private interests incompatible with the public interest.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Two of the three news releases for which Denish\u2019s campaign plans to reimburse the state were clearly politically oriented because they are on letterhead from Denish\u2019s campaign (read them <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/DenishDiCaprioRelease.pdf\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/DenishGOTVRelease.pdf\">here<\/a>). <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/07--04_1-Denish_release.pdf\">The third<\/a>, which was sent out in July 2004, is on government letterhead and, like the other two releases, includes contact info for Cowdrey.<\/p>\n<p>That release is clearly all about Kerry\u2019s 2004 campaign, which Denish chaired in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLieutenant Governor Diane Denish says she supports John Kerry\u2019s choice of North Carolina Senator John Edwards as his Presidential running mate,\u201d the release states.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson\u2019s office also put out <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/Documents\/Richardson-070604_1.pdf\">a July 2004 news release<\/a> about Kerry\u2019s selection of Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSenator Edwards is a strong Vice Presidential candidate,\u201d Richardson said in the release. \u201cHe deserves the vice presidential nod because of his hard work and his strong appeal to working families. He\u2019ll bring tremendous excitement and energy to the ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Other political expenditures<\/h3>\n<p>Cowdrey apparently billed the state for other political work and was paid for it after her invoices went through the standard approval process involving the state Department of Finance and Administration. Rosen has provided documents to show that Denish\u2019s campaign paid for the printing and mailing of a 2004 Christmas card, but Cowdrey, on three days, billed Denish\u2019s office for what Cowdrey called \u201cwork on Christmas Card.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rosen has said there was only one Christmas card in 2004.\u00a0Last week he said that staffs\u2019 recollection was that the work referenced on the invoices had to do with a holiday open house. He said the card was \u201cprimarily handled and paid for by the Denish campaign, not the state office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, he said this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe reviewed all the documents we could locate and it\u2019s clear the campaign paid for all direct costs of the\u00a0Christmas card. If Cowdrey spent any time at all on the card, we believe she was simply proofreading it in her role as the lieutenant governor\u2019s public information officer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There are two other references in Cowdrey\u2019s invoices to political work:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201c8\/4 9 hours: More tax credit plan work, set up interviews, work on Kerry for Saturday, consultant letter for Carlos, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201c7\/28 8 hours: DNC media binder, organizing clips, manning front office while Barbara attended day-long class.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rosen confirmed that work done on both of those days \u2013 July 28 and Aug. 4, 2004 \u2013 is among the work for which Denish\u2019s campaign is reimbursing the state.<\/p>\n<p>Kerry was in New Mexico the Saturday after Aug. 4, 2004, riding a train with Edwards through Raton to Albuquerque. Denish joined the two at a campaign stop in Las Vegas, according to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/washington\/207479nm08-08-04.htm\">Albuquerque Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rosen reiterated today what he said about that on Monday:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe work done by this contract public information officer relating to an event for Sen. Kerry or the 2004 election consisted of fielding media calls, providing logistical information about Lt. Gov. Denish\u2019s role and clarifying a remark on behalf of the lieutenant governor,\u201d Rosen said.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond confirming the reimbursement, Rosen has not released any statement or information in response to questions about the reference to the DNC. The date mentioned in that invoice \u2013 July 28, 2004 &#8212; coincides with the dates of the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Denish attended the Boston convention, serving as chair of the New Mexico delegation.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s another piece of evidence that Cowdrey was doing political work. In <a href=\"http:\/\/steveterrell.blogspot.com\/2004\/07\/roundhouse-round-up-rocking-love-boat.html\">a July 8, 2004 article<\/a> written by The Santa Fe New Mexican\u2019s Steve Terrell, Cowdrey is identified as \u201ca spokeswoman for Denish\u201d and quoted as talking about a public spat between Denish and then-Attorney General Patricia Madrid over whether Edwards had a strong campaign organization in New Mexico when he was running for president earlier in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Rosen did not directly respond when asked about the quote from Cowdrey in Terrell\u2019s article.<\/p>\n<h3>Republicans attack<\/h3>\n<p>Denish is the likely Democratic nominee for governor. Republicans have hammered her in the last week over her spending of the federal stimulus money, which was first reported on by <a href=\"http:\/\/newmexico.watchdog.org\/\">New Mexico Watchdog<\/a>, a site funded by the libertarian Rio Grande Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Republican gubernatorial candidate <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allenweh2010.com\/\">Allen Weh<\/a> and former U.S. Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heather_Wilson\">Heather Wilson<\/a> have called for formal probes. And today, Republican gubernatorial candidate <a href=\"http:\/\/susanamartinez2010.com\/\">Susana Martinez<\/a> said she hopes the revelation about the news releases \u201cwill refresh Diane Denish\u2019s memory concerning the misuse of federal stimulus funds, which were clearly intended for\u00a0economic development,\u00a0not\u00a0political campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This article has been updated to include additional information from Rosen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATED: Lt. Gov. Diane Denish\u2019s campaign will reimburse the state for three political news releases and other political work paid for with public money in 2004. No comment yet from Gov. Bill Richardson, whose office also put out a political news release in 2004.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-9174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174","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=9174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}