Denish Raises Another $750 K

UPDATED: The entire 305-page report is now included below, as well as a link to my New Mexican story.

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish raised almost $750,000 in the last three months of 2009, according to her campaign.

A news release from Denish spokesman Chris Cervini said Denish, the only announced Democrat running for governor, has more than $2.5 million cash on hand.

Denish for the past two years or so has voluntarily released quarterly campaign finance reports -- even though state law doesn't require her to do so. By law, the next required report is in May.

Last week Republican gubernatorial contender state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones released her campaign contributors. She's raised more than $50,000 for her campaign. Las Cruces District Attorney Susana Martinez has said she'll be releasing a report soon.

UPDATE: Campaign spokesman Chris Cervini reports Friday morning that about 75 percent of the money Denish has collected is from in state.

Below is the entire report. My story in Friday's New Mexican is HERE.

DENISH 4th Quarter 2009 Report

A previous version of this story had the wrong year for the report.

First Shots Fired in CD3 GOP Primary

Republican candidate Tom Mullins of Farmington is taking offence at an unsigned, undated letter he says is being distributed by supporters of his opponent, Adam Kokesh of Santa Fe. The letter,, Mullins says, questions his commitment to the U.S. Constitution.

In a post on his campaign blog yesterday, Mullins fires back at Kokesh:

My primary opponent is a war protester and proud of it. I have spoken with many veterans who believe that Adam’s actions dishonor the military and our nation’s military men and women. I agree with their opinion.

This could get interesting.

Kokesh, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war, indeed has a record of protesting the war.

Whoever wins the GOP primary will face incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Lujan in the general election

Roundhouse Roundup: Governor Going to New Hampshire

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 14, 2010

The governor's going to New Hampshire next week.

No, not that governor. I'm talking about former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. He's speaking to the New Hampshire Liberty Caucus on Jan. 23 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord, N.H.

In case anyone's forgotten, New Hampshire is home of the nation's first presidential primary.

The event is being billed as an "educational forum." Johnson recently launched a 501(c)(4) political action committee called "Our America: The Gary Johnson Initiative," to raise money to promote Johnson's small-government views.

Johnson, in recent interviews with myself and others, has been coy about the possibility of becoming a presidential candidate.

Remember, though, at this point of the previous election cycle, Gov. Bill Richardson was downplaying the possibility that he would run for president — even when he was getting acquainted with New Hampshire's rubber chicken circuit in 2005.

Something tells me this won't be Johnson's last trip to New Hampshire in the next two years.

Johnson should give his New Hampshire audience some food for thought. But not actual food. "The event will be a reception with a cash bar," the group's Web site says. "Food will not be served, however, we'll be inviting guests to join us at a local restaurant afterward, for further camaraderie and discussion."

Sounds like fun. But not as much fun as Johnson's scheduled appearance Wednesday night at the Marijuana Policy Project Gala in Washington, D.C., at the Hyatt Regency. At that $250-a-plate event, Johnson was expected to share the stage with the comedy team of Cheech & Chong. I bet there's a lot of camaraderie and discussion there, too.

The D.C. trip is "the first of several trips around the country, to engage the public in open dialogue regarding these and other pressing national issues," An Our America news release said Wednesday. Johnson's also traveling to Phoenix on behalf of his PAC on Jan. 27 and Los Angeles on Feb. 2.

Coalition of the Ruling: State Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, used the "C word" at a public forum last week. Speaking at a legislative town hall at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, Wirth noted that it's difficult to pass progressive legislation because the Senate is ruled by a coalition (emphasis mine) of Republicans and conservative Democrats.

That's true, of course. It's just that in recent years, the word coalition has taken negative connotations. When Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, won the post of Senate president pro-tem with the help of seven other conservative Dems and all 15 Republicans, he bristled at the word, which, he said, "means a lot of different things to a lot of different people." True to his word, Jennings didn't appoint any Republicans as committee chairmen.

Back in 2001, then-Sen. Shannon Robinson frequently railed against the three Democrats who teamed up with Republicans to oust then-Senate President pro-tem Manny Aragon. He used the word to castigate his opponents.

The negative connotations probably go back to the late '80s when Aragon and Republican Sen. Les Houston formed a coalition that led to Aragon seizing the president pro-tem post, which he held for more than a decade.

E-mail subject line of the week: "Governor Richardson to Receive Golden Gloves for Protecting Otero Mesa from Boxer Holly Holm." That was on a news release from Richardson's office Tuesday.

Hopefully, Ms. Holm has stopped being a threat to Otero Mesa.

A New Investment Scandal Lawsuit

Some might call it Foy II.

Donna J. Hill, a records clerk at New Mexico State University is suing past and present state officials and a couple of controversial financial firms in a class action suit to recapture money lost in questionable investments by the state Education Retirement Board.

Hill's suit seeks to win back money for 95,000 beneficiaries of the state educators’ pension fund.

It's similar to the whistleblower suit filed last year by former ERB investment officer Frank Foy, who claimed the ERB lost millions in investments made because of political pressure from Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration. In fact a lawyer for one of the defendants referred to the new suit as a “ copycat lawsuit.”

Among those named in the suit are ERB chairman Bruce Malott, former state Investment Officer Gary Bland, state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia, and former acting state treasurer Doug Brown.

The companies named in the suit are Aldus Equity, a Dallas company which served as the investment adviser to the ERB and State Investment Council for several years until being implicated in a pay-to-play scheme in New York and Vanderbilt Capital Advisors, a Chicago firm that is the center of the Foy lawsuit.

Also listed as defendants are “John Doe #1,” who is described as a former chief of staff and campaign manager for Richardson‘s presidential run, and “John Doe #2,” who is described as “a Santa Fe broker,” the son of a Richardson friend and political contributor and the husband of Richardson’s former international protocol officer.

Sound familiar? These descriptions match former Richardson chief of staff Dave Contarino and broker Marc Correra respectively. Both have been named in the Foy lawsuit.

Like “John Doe #2,” Correra made millions in finders fees for ERB investments. Between his fees for the ERB transactions and those by the State Investment Council, Correra shared in some $22 million. Correra’s lawyer has denied wrongdoing.

Asked why the suit doesn’t come out and name either Contarino or Correra, Cuneo replied, “Without confirming or denying identities, we recognize these are sensitive allegations and involve allegations of political influence peddling linked to highest levels of the New Mexico government. We wanted to be responsible and diligent and obtain confirmatory discovery before revealing that part of our case.”

UPDATE: Here's my story in The New Mexican.

Meanwhile, here's the suit for yor reading pleasure.

2010 01 02 Hill v Vanderbilt Complaint

Another Town Hall

Did you miss the last Santa Fe town hall hosted by local legislators? (Read about that HERE)

Well, you can go to another one tonight. Eldorado Democrats will host a town hall with state Sen. Peter Wirth and state Rep. Brian Egolf at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 12, to discuss issues pertinent to the upcoming legislative session.

Like they did last week with Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, Egolf and Wirth will answer questions and give a preview of the session, which starts Jan. 19.

The event will be held at the new fire station at the corner of Old Las Vegas Highway and U.S. 285 (Hondo Station 2, 645 Old Las Vegas Highway, near the Eldorado entrance ramp to Interstate 25).

The public is welcome, and the event is free. For more information, send an e-mail to eldoradodemocrats@gmail.com or call 660-5905.

Reduce Gov's SIC Presence, Consultants Say

The State Investment Council needs to decrease the influence of the Governor's Office, train its members better, provide more documentation, tighten ethical standards and become more engaged in the investment process.

Those are among the recommendations of a Chicago-based consulting firm hired to review state investment practices and policies.

Representatives of Ennis, Krupp & Associates presented their recommendations to the SIC on Monday. My story on that is HERE

The Ennis Krupp consultants stressed that their report was not a forensic audit or an "investigation" of the SIC, which in the past year has been the subject of a federal investigation of its use of third-party placement agents. One consultant also said at the SIC meeting Monday that nobody found any "smoking gun" during the review.

So far the study isn't online. If and when it does, I'll post a link.

Little argument about the findings were expressed at the SIC meeting. But the question remains: Will these recommendations be implemented? Gov. Bill Richardson already vetoed (technically he "pocket vetoed") one bill that would have reduced the governor's influence on the SIC. Another such bill is in the works (CLICK HERE) but I wouldn't bet against it receiving the same fate.

Janice's Campaign Contributors

Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, has raised about $52,000 for her gubernatorial campaign, which I reported in today's paper. She joins Democrat Diane Denish in reporting her contributors several months before it's legally required.

A couple of political names up on Arnold-Jones' contributor list. State Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, gave her $500. In 2008 both Boitano and Arnold-Jones told reporter Dennis Domrzalski that the state GOP strongly discouraged -- and that's being polite -- from running for the Congressional seat then being vacated by Heather Wilson. The state party then was headed by Allen Weh, who now is running for governor.

Arnold-Jones also got a $500 check from one of her former House colleagues, ex-Rep. Benjie Regensberg of Cleveland, N.M. The surprising thing here is that Regensberg is a Democrat. He lost his re-election race in 2004 when Hector Balderas beat him in the primary. Balderas has since been elected to state auditor.

UPDATE: I just noticed some more politicians contributing to the Arnold-Jones campaign.

There's House Republican Caucus Leader Anna Crook of Clovis, whose campaign organization gave $100. Former state GOP Chairman Ed Lujan kicked in $150.

And there's another Democrat -- Albuquerque lawyer Eric Sedillo Jeffries, who for a brief time was seeking the Democratic nomination for attorney general. He dropped out of the race in late 2005, backing fellow Democrat Gary King, who went on to win the primary and general election. Jeffries gave Republican Arnold-Jones $100.

The Furlough Song

Now that state employees have a little more personal time -- thanks to the recently imposed unpaid furloughs -- at least one of them used it in a creative way.

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There are more lyrics (sung to the melody of "The Banana Boat Song"):

Work at my state job all day long.
Friday come and we gotta stay home.
Work real hard, don't do nuthin' wrong.
Friday come and we gotta stay home.

Come Mr. Governor help me with my pay check.
Friday come and we gotta stay home.
My poor bank account looks like a train wreck.
Friday come and we gotta stay home.

Well it's one day, two day, three day, four.
Friday come and we gotta stay home.
Five days this year, next year more/
Friday come and we gotta stay home.

Furlough, furlough. Friday come and we gotta stay home

One employee union leader says they're looking for a sponsor to make this the Official State Employee song. Whoever holds the copyright to Harry Belafonte's hit might have a problem with that, but who knows?

"Go on. All of you. Go on to jail."

The state Supreme Court today is going to take up the case of Taos District Judge Sam Sanchez, who last November ordered the arrest of more than 30 people in his courtroom on charges of contempt of court following a brief disturbance following a hearing.

The high court, one day after the incident, ordered the release of all those jailed -- almost all of whom were members of Taos Pueblo. And Sanchez, a couple of days later dismissed all charges of contempt of court. But the court wants Sanchez to explain "the appropriate procedure for a judge to follow when contemplating contempt for unruly behavior in a courtroom."

The Nov. 19 hearing in Sanchez's court was about a request to reconsider the sentence of Dominic Bau, who pleaded guilty to raping an underage relative at a hotel in 2007. Bau was sentenced to 12 years in prison in April. Sanchez, literally about a minute before he ordered the mass arrest, ruled against Bau's request for a reduced sentence.

My story in today's New Mexican is HERE.

Did Sanchez overreact as those he jailed have said? Or was there real concern about the safety of the rape victim, her family and court staff?

Decide yourself. A tape of the incident can be heard on the player below.

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Solano Drops out of Lt. Gov Race

Sheriff Greg Solano, who has been running for lieutenant governor since the summer of 2007, has dropped out of the Democratic primary.

True to his character, the "blogging sheriff" laid out all his reasons in a lengthy blog post this weekend. And it's an interesting story.

Solano talks about the difficulty he had getting a meeting with the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

I had reached out to Lieutenant Governor Denish in the weeks prior to my announcing my run for Lieutenant Governor and we were not able to meet. In early 2008 I made more attempts to meet with her and we had sill not been able to meet. This was the first of many roadblocks I began to encounter.

(It's not clear from the blog whether such a meeting ever did take place. He still praises Denish saying he thinks she "is in touch with the plight of middle income residents of New Mexico and will represent them well.")

Solano also talks about the frustrations of being an outsider candidate (as he puts it, lacking "strong connections to statewide politics" ) and trying to raise money.

The interesting thing to me was how many business owners were not outright saying it but they seemed to be in fear that if they donated to the wrong person it could affect their business with the state. Now I am not saying it was any type of pay to play or corruption but rather cautious large business owners who needed to keep a good relationship with the upper levels of state government and feared making a mistake in their donations.

It was obvious that Solano had an uphill battle to win the nomination for lieutenant governor. As he candidly states in his blog, last October's campaign finance reports, which showed him trailing the rest of the field, forced him to reconsider the race.

I just hope the remaining candidates take a cue from Solano's candor and accessibility.