ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE BOSTON

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 8, 2009

Richardson in Boston, 2004

A lot has been written in recent days about the company at the center of a pay-to-play investigation that forced Gov. Bill Richardson’s withdrawal as commerce secretary nominee early this week. But not much has been said about the political action committee that received the bulk of those contributions, the little-known PAC that paid for his expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
In case you’ve been on another planet for the past few days, a grand jury in Albuquerque has been looking at a California firm called CDR Financial Products, which did work on the funding of Richardson’s transportation construction program.

Shortly before and shortly after the New Mexico Finance Authority chose CDR for the work, the company and its chief executive contributed a total of $110,000 to Richardson PACs.

The biggest chunk of that was a $75,000 check from CDR on June 18, 2004, to a PAC called ¡Sí, Se Puede! Boston 2004 Inc. Richardson served as chairman of the Democratic Convention that year.

According to reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service, ¡Sí, Se Puede! raised $336,000 from the time it was formed in February 2004 until Nov. 19, 2004 — about four months after the convention — when Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. of New Jersey contributed $10,000 to the cause.

Richardson’s then-political director Amanda Cooper was listed as executor director of the PAC. Other directors included David Smoak, a state Judicial Standards commissioner; Fred Duval, a Phoenix consultant; Denver lawyer Ted Trimpa; Washington, D.C., businessman Miguel Lausell; and banker and Richardson crony Guy Riordan.

Yes, that Guy Riordan. In July, a Securities and Exchange Commission administrative law judge recommended Riordan be banned from the securities industry for life for paying bribes to former state Treasurer Michael Montoya. The SEC has not made a final decision in the case, and Riordan has not been charged with any crime. But after Montoya, who has pleaded guilty in a federal kickback case, testified about accepting bribes from Riordan, Richardson donated $44,000 in contributions from Riordan to charity.

CDR was the biggest donor to ¡Sí, Se Puede! Other companies that were part of the team responsible for the state’s transportation bonds — UBS Financial Services, RBC Dain Rauscher and George K. Baum and Company — gave Richardson’s PAC a total of $55,000.

Other large contributions to ¡Sí, Se Puede! include Amgen, a California-based biotechnology company, $25,000; Rancho Viejo, $25,000; Las Campanas, $20,000; AKAL Security, $20,000; Northern Trust Co., Chicago, $10,000; and the G-Tech Corp. of Rhode Island, $10,000.
G-Tech, a company called “baldly sleazy” by Fortune magazine in 1996, ran New Mexico’s lottery from 1996 until November. G-Tech, according to a 2006 study by Santa Fe think tank Think New Mexico, charged this state drastically higher fees than those paid by other states with similarly sized lotteries.

So how did ¡Sí, Se Puede! spend its money?

As makes sense, a large portion of the expenditures was for hotels and airfare. More than 10 members of Richardson’s staff — including his political staff, three press spokesmen and state police officers on his security detail — went. (The state, not the PAC, paid for the police expenses.)

It’s difficult to determine just how much was spent on hotels. Several hotels are listed — Doubletree, Hilton, Hotel Marlowe, Hotel MIT, Hyatt, Ritz Carlton, Sheraton, Wyndham and the “Northeastern dorms.” However in later reports, several of these refunded money to the PAC.

The PAC also paid a limousine company called Lifestyle Transportation International more than $13,000 for convention transportation.

One of the biggest single expenses was $23,000 to Grand Canel, an Irish pub, for a “special event” during the convention.

Mike Contarino — a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire and brother of Richardson’s then Chief of Staff Dave Contarino, was paid a $500 consultant fee. (Mike Contarino later would become a foreign policy adviser for the 2008 Richardson presidential campaign.)

Michael Jacobs, an Albuquerque photographer, was paid $2,419.

State Public Education Secretary Veronica Garcia was paid $985 for “convention related travel and per diem spending.” Garcia on Wednesday explained she had been asked by the John Kerry campaign to speak about education at the convention. Her ticket was expensive, she said, because she’d booked a flight for later in the week but was told by the campaign they’d rescheduled her speech for the next day. “I flew in, gave my speech and flew back the next day,” Garcia said.

In late 2004 and even into 2005, the PAC still was paying bills. But there was plenty of money left over. ¡Sí, Se Puede! ended up donating $87,827 to the Democratic Governor’s Association, of which Richardson was elected chairman in December 2004 and which would be the conduit for much of Richardson’s travel expenses for the next two years.

THE RUNAROUND

Looks like Trip Jennings of The New Mexico Independent had a frustrating day trying to corner the governor for some questions.

We feel your pain, Trip.

CLICK HERE

FOR THOSE TIRED OF THE CDR SCANDAL ...

Here's a little news about a time-honored New Mexcio tradition from yesteryear: cockfighting.

From a news released from Peter Olson at the Department of Public Safety:

Drugs, Gambling, Animal Cruelty Arrest

Albuquerque—Working together DPS Special Investigations Division and State Police agents arrested an Albuquerque man on multiple charges involving narcotics, gambling and extreme animal cruelty.

State Police officers originally uncovered a cockfighting operation in rural Valencia County on January 3rd. Further investigation led them to the residence of Martin Elias ... on Foothills Road SW in Bernalillo County. State Police and SID agents executed a search warrant today and found dead and dying roosters, guns, narcotics and evidence of illegal gambling.

Agents found 77 roosters in poor health, cocaine and marijuana. Elias has been charged with 38 counts of extreme cruelty to animals, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, possession of controlled medication, illegal possession of a firearm, tampering with evidence, commercial gambling, tampering with evidence, and obstructing or evading an officer.

The medication and gun charges will be referred to the ATF for further investigation and prosecution. SID agents will continue the investigation into illegal alcohol sales/service and commercial gambling. State Police agents will continue to investigate the animal cruelty and narcotics charges.

The Attorney General’s Animal Cruelty Task Force and Bernalillo County sheriff and animal control officers also assisted.

CDR SAGA CONTINUES

I did a story about the Justice Department subpoenas of records from University of New Mexico bond sales, which involved CDR Financial Products. These bond transactions, the first ones at least, took place before Bill Richardson was governor. See the story HERE.

The story also mentions that Albuquerque lawyer Paul Kennedy, a former state Supreme Court justice, is counseling former NM Finance Authority director David Harris in the grand jury proceedings. Kennedy, of course, said he couldn't comment on the case itself.

Though the national media furor is dying down somewhat, Bloomberg still is on the story. They report today that Richardson's former chief of staff Dave Contarino's name has come up in the questioning of at least one witness. It's been rumored that Contarino is one of the bigger fish the grand jury is looking at. I tried unsuccessfully to get ahold of the lawyer said to be representing Contarino yesterday but got no reply.

Contarino himself did email a comment to Bloomberg.

“As chief of staff and co-chairman of the Governor’s Finance
Council, it was my job to be involved in GRIP and many of the administration’s economic and financial initiatives,” Contarino said in an e-mail statement. “In all of my actions, I acted appropriately and I am confident that the investigation will bear out that fact.”

It's getting more interesting.

DULL SCANDALS?

Naturally the Richardson withdrawal is all over the Web. In the New York Times, I learned that the state offices here are made of adobe. T.J. Sullivan, who took photos of the CDR buildings past and present for The New Mexican yesterday, even blogrolled my story on the Los Angeles MBC blog.

But another post on that site caught my eye and made me chuckle. Sara K. Smith, who sometimes writes for Wonkette, posted a piece headlined "Dems Usher in Era of Dull Scandals."

Of our own "dull scandal" (which hasn't been that dull for us local yokels), she writes,

... the portly and affable Bill Richardson, who couldn't be Secretary of State because he would have been murdered, personally, by the Clintons, so instead he settled for Commerce Secretary before he got roped into a grand jury investigation. Apparently some brilliant financial company that advised Jefferson County, Alabama into near-bankruptcy was also hired to work its magic on the state of New Mexico after it donated 100 grand to various political action committees formed by Bill Richardson.

So now Richardson has said to Barack Obama, "Pls do not consider me for Commerce, as I have this little grand jury problem to deal with." This is really too bad, because Bill Richardson spoke Spanish! Also he was very smart, and experienced in talking with nasty dictators. Now Obama will have to find some other sucker to help him revive the economy and control the weather.

As for Wonkette, itself:

There’s some corruption in New Mexico! (Allegedly.) A California business got a contract maybe through some agency (?) in New Mexico, and this is tied to the Governor’s Department, and Bill Richardson is (still) the governor of N.M., so now he is bowing out of the Commerce Department cabinet post because of the Great Cloud of Scandal, which could get its Taint on Big Bill, and that’s it for Hispanics in Politics, the end. This is all Rod Blagojevich’s fault!

LOOKING AT CDR

I did a story about CDR Financial Products, the company at the center of the grand jury investigation into the Richardson administration, for today's paper (CLICK HERE). I leaned heavily on a 2006 profile in Bloomberg. Also I quote a new article at OpenSecrets.org that talks about CDR's campaign contributions to Bill Richardson and other politicians..

One fun part of working on this story Monday was talking with former New Mexican reporter T.J. Sullivan, who lives near CDR's old headquarters in Beverly Hills and offered to photograph the building. Thanks to T.J. I learned that the firm actually has moved from the building in Beverly Hills -- the one that was raided by the FBI a couple of years ago -- and relocated to a building in a less fashinable section of Wilshire Boulevard a few miles away. The old address is still on the Web site though. And for some reason the paper ran one of T.J.'s shots of the old building.

Sometime Monday evening, after I'd checked out the CDR Website, the company published this letter there about the New Mexico investigation.

Also, check out Kate Nash's story, which includes an interview with Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and coverage of the governor's press conference Monday morning.

RICHARDSON MEETS THE PRESS

For the first time since mid December, Gov. Bill Richardson met with New Mexico reporters.

He gave a brief statement, basically saying the same thing he did in his written release on Sunday.

I asked him what Lt. Gov. Diane Denish's initial reaction was. "We had been having conversations prior to that about, you know, a potential delay. She was disappointed, but she emphasized she wanted us to work closely together as we always have been. And as I've said, I think she's going to make a very fine governor some day."

Richardson refused to answer a question whether his administration had conducted an internal investigation of the CDR contract. He also wouldn't say whether he'd hired a lawyer. (I wrote about that a couple of weeks ago.)

The governor almost showed a bit of emotion at one point during the news conference. "You know, yesterday, I was hurting over this decision," Richardson said, speaking uncharacteristically slowly as if he was deliberating over each word. "I lost a cabinet appointment."

Then he resumed his political personality. "But I think we have to focus on what people are losing in this country. You know the American people, people in New Mexico, are losing jobs. They're losing their savings. They're losing their homes. That's the real tragedy. You know, mine is minor compare to that."

Here's the audio.

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MORE ON THE RICHARDSON WITHDRAWAL

I have to admit I was caught off guard Sunday morning by the news of Bill Richardson's withdrawal of his Commerce secretary nomination.

I've been off work for the past week and was expected to go back to the office on Monday. Shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday, I received a call on my cell phone from my Capitol bureau partner Kate Nash asking if I'd heard the news. When she said that Richardson was withdrawing, I assumed she was razzing me about having to go back to work Monday. No, I'm serious," she said. "It's on MSNBC."

Vacation over.

Before I even had the chance to go to my living room to turn on the TV, the phone rang. It was MSNBC. Even though I knew absolutely nothing about Richardson's withdrawal, they wanted to interview me about the background on the CDR grand jury.

Just seconds after I finished with MSNBC, the phone rang again. It was CNN radio seeking an interview. I did that one and a couple of hours later a brief interview with a radio station in Washington, D.C.

Later I discovered several messages on my work phone voice mail from ABC and CBS, while an editor relayed a request to me from the Fox Business Network. Sorry guys.

Somehow through all this I actually wrote a couple of stories of my own for The New Mexican. You can see them HERE and HERE. You also should read Kate's story about how this news affects Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and the upcoming session of the Legislature. That one's HERE.

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Speaking of Denish, the Lt. Gov was on the mind of uber-pundit Larry Sabato, with whom I was e-mailing Sunday afternoon.

Poor Diane Denish! What must it be like to think you’re going to be governor, prepare a transition, and then discover you’re stuck being the fifth wheel of a wagon! The royal coach turned into a pumpkin. I would have loved to have heard that call from Bill to Diane.

You and me both, Larry. Something tells me there was no happy chatter about working together "to tackle challenges at home, to craft a workable budget with the legislature and to strengthen our economy to make sure that every New Mexico family has the opportunity to succeed," like Denish's Sunday press release was talking about.

BREAKING: RICHARDSON WITHDRAWS NOMINATION

That's what MSNBC is reporting. More later.

UPDATE 11:32 am: Here's the MSNBC story CLICK HERE

In the past few minutes I've been interviewed by MSNBC and CNN radio. I still don't know what's happened.

UPDATE 11:56 am: Calls to Richardson spokesmen by both Kate Nash and me have not been answered. No statement from the gov's office has been emailed.

UPDATE 2:15 PM: Gilbert Gallegos did finally get back to Kate. He gave her the same statement he gave the national media:

For nearly three decades, I have been honored to serve my state and our nation in Congress, at the U.N., as Secretary of Energy and as governor. So when the President-elect asked me to serve as Secretary of Commerce, I felt a duty to answer the call. I felt that duty particularly because America is facing such extraordinary economic challenges.

The Department of Commerce must play an important role in solving them by helping to grow the new jobs and businesses America so badly needs. It is also because of that sense of urgency about the work of the Commerce Department that I have asked the President-elect not to move forward with my nomination at this time. I do so with great sorrow. But a pending investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico state government promises to extend for several weeks or, perhaps, even months.

Let me say unequivocally that I and my administration have acted
properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact. But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process. Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the President-elect and his administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done.

So, for now, I will remain in the job I love, Governor of New Mexico, and will continue to work every day, with Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish, to make a positive difference in the lives of New Mexicans. I believe she will be a terrific governor in the future. I appreciate the confidence President-elect Obama has shown in me, and value our friendship and working partnership. I told him that I am eager to serve in the future in any way he deems useful. And like all Americans, I pray for his success and the success of our beloved country.

UPDATE 2:26 pm: A statement from Lt. Gov. Diane Denish:

Santa Fe – Lt. Governor Diane Denish is currently in Washington DC to attend the swearing in of the New Mexico congressional delegation and to strategize with them on economic stimulus opportunities for New Mexico, specifically infrastructure projects. The Governor and Lt. Governor talked early this morning about the Governor's decision to withdraw his name from consideration for Commerce Secretary at this time.

The Lt. Governor made the following statement:

"Governor Richardson postponed taking a position in the administration to ensure that President Obama and the American people face no delays in getting to work to fix our ailing economy, and the President-elect said he looks forward to Governor Richardson joining his administration in the days ahead. In the meantime, Governor Richardson and I will work together, as we have over the last six years, to tackle challenges at home, to craft a workable budget with the legislature and to strengthen our economy to make sure that every New Mexico family has the opportunity to succeed."

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND WELCOME TO MY NEW POLITICAL BLOG!

There's no Roundhouse Roundup column in The New Mexican today because I'm off this week, but here's something even more exciting: ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: THE BLOG.

For the past five years, all my blogging has been over at steveterrell.blogspot.com (except during the Legislature, when I've run separate blogs). Now the old blog will continue on as my music blog, where you can find my Terrell's Tuneup columns, playlists for my KSFR radio shows, my podcasts, etc.

Meanwhile, this place will be the new home for my Thursday political column, as well as other political observations, insights, wisecracks and links to my newspaper stories and other noteworthy sites. This also will serve as my Legislature blog during the upcoming 60-day session.

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KCHF, Channel 11 on Wednesday afternoon, aired Diane Kinderwater's interview with me on her show "Issues and Answers," which was taped a couple of weeks ago. We discussed the past year in politics. It show will run again 10 am and 10:30 pm Friday 3:30 pm Saturday and 6:30 p.m. Sundays.

We actually taped two shows. The second one will begin airing on Jan. 7.

You always take a change when you tape in advance that something will be outdated by the time it airs. It happened here. On one of the Kinderwater shows, I forget which, we spoke briefly about the plan to start Webcasting the state Senate floor sessions. Later I learned that wasn't going to happen, despite the fact the Sentate had spent thousands of bucks to buy and install camera equipment -- and even though the Senate voted by a wide margin in early 2008 to start Webcasting. See my story on that HERE.

Too bad. If somehow the Senate changes its mind, I'll link to the Webcast on this blog.

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Speaking of year-in-review media appearances, I was on a panel of state reporters talking about the golden year of 2008 on KUNM, 89.9 FM. The show aired Sunday, but you can listen to it HERE.