Parnelli Gonzales's Blog

In NM Perspective: Sarah Palin, Joe Apache and Lori Montgomery

Parnelli Gonzales — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:22:29 MDT

A key talking point for boosters of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is her executive experience.

By now we've all heard the bio. Before becoming Governor of Alaska in January of last year, Palin served as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (1996-2002). Wasilla is unarguably a small town. According to the official city website, the population is 6,715 (not counting the moose).

By New Mexico standards, Wasilla would rank behind Truth or Consequences, Aztec, Bernalillo, Bloomfield, Corrales, Anthony and Shiprock. It's about the same size as Raton. (NM Cities & Towns)

Raton's mayor is Joe Apache and T or C's is Lori Montgomery. Could the ascension of Palin signal the rise of more small town mayors? Might we see gubernatorial runs by Apache or Montgomery in the future? You heard it here first. Don't say we didn't tell you!

(See this delightful Truth or Consequences tourism video, starring Mayor Montgomery.)

More fascinating census factoids: The population of the entire state of Alaska is 670,053. The population of NM's Bernalillo County plus Rio Rancho is 698,371.

UPDATE: And now we have a video tour of Wasilla, Alaska, courtesy of Alex Sheshunoff at Slate. Disappointing to say the least. It's not the Cicely we came to know and love on "Northern Exposure" -- (which was really shot in Roslyn, Washington.) I vote for Janine Turner (Maggie O'Connell) to play Palin in the upcoming ABC docudrama, "Recount 2008." Janine's a righty too.

Debbie Rodella: A Case of Trickle-Down Bribery

Parnelli Gonzales — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:46:36 MDT

State Representative Debbie Rodella is in the news again, testing New Mexico's shaky ethics laws. This time it revolves around the Rio Arriba County Democrat's practice of using her campaign funds to give small gifts to voters for things like phone cards, Christmas parties and funeral expenses.

In a letter to the state Attorney General requesting an advisory opinion as to the legality of this practice, Rodella wrote that her intent was to "garner good will from these men and women and their family and friends." She further described the gifts as "random acts of kindness." (For more see Abq. Journal - "Rodella To AG: Define A Bribe")

On Tuesday, the Santa Fe New Mexican got to the heart of the problem with Rodella's campaign practices:

"Random acts of kindness" is how the representative coyly characterizes her largesse.

She's performed such acts often enough to raise eyebrows, and questions of impropriety -- mainly because it isn't her own money she's giving away; it's her campaign fund, replenished from time to time by big interests who'd like her to think kindly of them when key legislation comes up.

(Santa Fe New Mexican)

That's it in a nutshell. There is a logic to all this. Consider how it works:

* Debbie gives small gifts to win the gratitude - and the votes -- of families in her district -- "targeted" acts of kindness, if you will.

* Of course, this isn't cash out of Debbie's pocket. It's money from her campaign account - money she got in the form of campaign contributions.

* And who gives Rodella those campaign contributions in the first place? The SF New Mexican calls them "big interests." That's exactly right. Since 2004, Rodella has collected almost $74,000 from big special interests. Here's a detailed analysis by industry sector of her campaign finance reports (source: Ethics Division, NM Secretary of State):

29% - healthcare, insurance and pharmaceuticals
15% - banking and payday lending
13% - liquor and tobacco
11% - land development
10% - corporate lobbyists
10% - gas, oil and energy
7% - gambling
4% - telecommunications
1% -waste management

* Here's the kicker. So why, you ask, does big industry give Rodella so much? It's pretty obvious. She chairs the very powerful House Business and Industry Committee. That's the committee where insurance reform, environmental health and predatory lending bills go to die - or at least be amended beyond recognition. And it's where corporate-friendly bills pass through like the proverbial crap through a goose.

So when Debbie so generously peels off a crisp hundred to "help out" a voter's family with the cost of a funeral, what the recipient doesn't realize is that what they're getting is truly chump change compared to the tens of thousands Debbie has received due to the original "kindness" of her corporate clients at the legislature. Trickle down bribery.

At the end of the day, it's Rodella's constituents who are getting screwed when she promotes the corporate agenda at the expense of her district's interests on an issue like healthcare.

More backstory: Debbie's other act of kindness

This isn't the first time that Rodella provoked controversy over her use of campaign funds. There was the occasion in 2006 when she spent $7,500 from her campaign account on mailers and other materials for the campaign of her husband, Tommy Rodella, in his magistrate judge race in Democratic Primary. He narrowly won that election over five other opponents. Other than his wife's expenditures, Tommy raised a grand total of just $50 from two other donors. (see Albuq. Journal, August 8, 2007, "N.M. Candidates Can Be Two-for-One Deals")

Alas, Debbie's efforts to advance her husband's career came crashing down in May of this year, when the state Supreme Court voted unanimously to remove Judge Rodella from office for judicial misconduct. (SF New Mexican)

A bribe is a bribe is a bribe...

There you have it. Chalk all of this up as just one more case study on why we need campaign contribution limits and Clean Elections public financing reforms in New Mexico.

(Postscript: Heaven help you if you try to use the NM Secretary of State's website to access campaign finance reports. It's hit and miss at best. More on that train wreck in a later post.)

If it's Friday, it's time to bury the Perlman story

Parnelli Gonzales — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:32:27 MDT

It is being reported that Mayor Martin Chavez's right-hand man is out. Bruce Perlman, Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Albuquerque, abruptly resigned this afternoon. (NM Independent)

Chavez made no comment about his long-time friend's departure. But curiously, the Mayor's office announced that Perlman's replacement has already been named -- Chief Operations Officer Ed Adams.

Before coming in as CAO three years ago, Perlman was a chief bag man for the Mayor. He was one of the ring leaders of ABQPAC, Chavez's notorious slush fund. The City Ethics Board found Chavez guilty in that affair.

Go figure. When a huge story like this gets released late on a Friday afternoon without mayoral comment, you know that the political objective was to bury it.

Just a few weeks ago, when a highly respected City department head resigned suddenly with no warning, the subsequent mayoral press release simply said she left to "write a novel."

Can't wait to read Perlman's.

Ethics Earthquake: The old order takes a thumpin'

Parnelli Gonzales — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:52:07 MDT

The earth moved on Tuesday. The June 3rd primary election left in its wake an altered legislative landscape. While the aftershocks are only just beginning, one thing is already apparent. A seismic shift has started that is substantially brightening the prospects for passage of ethics reform in the state of New Mexico.

In Albuquerque, the ground opened up and swallowed three supposedly unbeatable Democratic warhorses - and most significantly two powerful committee chairmen. All three of them were beneficiaries of a Roundhouse culture fueled by copious gratuities from lobbyists and gobs of campaign money from industry special interests. All three of them were roadblocks to reform.

Voters send a message

In Senate District 17, Shannon Robinson, a 21-year incumbent and chairman of the Corporations Committee was crushed by political newcomer Tim Keller - 66% to 34%.

In Senate District 14, James Taylor, a 14-year legislative veteran, took a thumpin' at the hands of former Albuquerque City Councilor Eric Griego - 63% to 37%.

And in probably the biggest upset of all, Dan Silva in House District 13, a 23-year incumbent and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, was defeated by Local 1199 union organizer Eleanor Chavez - 54% to 46%.

And there were two more very close calls.

In SD 30, incumbent David Ulibarri - known as "Senator Yellowcake" for his relentless promotion of a revival of uranium mining in his mostly Cibola County district, was clinging to a five vote lead over Clemente Sanchez at the time of this post, with a recount in process. (In this three-person race, the anti-incumbent Sanchez-June Lorenzo vote combined is 63%.)

Finally, in Albuquerque South Valley's Senate District 11, Rules Committee chair Linda Lopez barely avoided another stunning incumbent downfall by a slim margin (53%). Under Lopez's chairmanship, Senate Rules became known as the Devil's Island for ethics reform bills. It's where they were sent-enced to languish and rot as the session clock ran down.

During the campaign, Lopez, along with Taylor and Silva, were stung by criticism for their advocacy of a multi-multi-million dollar taxpayer giveaway to a California based developer, SunCal. A pre-election "get out the vote" picnic sponsored by SunCal to "honor" the legislators it had in the corporate tank raised eyebrows in the media.

As is the case with Congress, the incumbent re-election rate to the N.M. legislature is well over 90%. So the toppling of three such prominent and powerful legislators - in a primary election and by landslide margins no less -- is historically unprecedented.

Yet voters in these five distinct districts all sent the same unmistakable message. It was a collective rebuke of the special interest money-driven way business has been conducted in at the State Capitol. It was a call for ethics reform.

Lest we forget that in February of this year, Santa Fe voters weighed in on this ethics fight by passing "Clean Elections" public campaign financing for city elections, joining Albuquerque, which adopted the same reform with 71% voter approval.

All of which leaves us with the big question: Will those lawmakers left standing get the message?

At the national level, at least one Democrat does get it:
USA Today, 6/6/08)

Barack Obama put his stamp on the party Thursday, announcing the Democratic National Committee would no longer accept donations from political action committees or federal lobbyists. That brings the party in line with his campaign's policy… "We are going to change how Washington works," he said.

For those New Mexico legislators and lobbyists, those "wall leaners" and "alligators" -- for anyone still stuck in the mindset of deep denial, here's a handy compendium of a few of the media and blog stories that grasp the point the voters were making so eloquently on Tuesday:

“Bidness” as Usual Express: The Eric Serna–John McCain Connection

Parnelli Gonzales — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:07:52 MDT

From Santa Fe to Austin to Washington - it's (as Molly Ivins would say) just the way they do "bidness" around here.

Let's start with Eric Serna. Remember him? Once upon a time he was the young up-and-coming politico who, when he ran for Corporation Commission in 1982, populated the highways with all those god awful billboards that made him look like Eddie Munster?

Most recently Serna was in the news when he resigned his post as N.M. Superintendent of Insurance after coming under investigation by the state's Attorney General. One of the many questionable acts that was being given scrutiny was Serna's 2004 grant of a controversial waiver allowing a Dallas businessman by the name of David Judd Disiere (who had been convicted of insurance fraud in Louisiana) to do business in New Mexico.

A few months later an oil production firm owned by the Dissiere's wife (Southern Management Services Inc.) serendipitously donated $20,000 to the nonprofit foundation which Serna been using his position to promote.

Just doing bidness.

When the shady deal all came to light, who should rush into the breach to assure state regulators that everything was on the up-and-up, but Disiere's attorney - gold-plated lobbyist and former Texas Congressman, Kent Hance.

Today Hance is right there on the list of 126 corporate lobbyist bagmen who are bundling campaign cash for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Birds of a feather

Hance started out as a conservative Democrat in Texas. He holds the distinction of being the only person to beat George W. Bush in an election - a 1972 race for Congress. Hance taught young W a lesson he never forgot.

Hance portrayed Bush as "not a real Texan" because of his privileged upbringing and Yale education. Hance later said in an interview that after that election, Bush vowed that "he wasn't going to be out-Christianed or out-good-old-boyed again," and developed the folksy image that eventually carried him to the White House. (from Wikipedia)

Hance famously switched to the Republican party in early '80s - following the lead of his mentor and fellow Texan congressman, Phil Gramm.

Which brings us to Gramm. He went on to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas (he defeated Ron Paul in the 1984 primary) and served from 1985 to 2002.

Currently Gramm serves as the McCain campaign's co-chair and chief economics advisor - the latter post being one that should be taken quite seriously given McCain's admission that economics knowledge is not his strong suit.

Speculation focuses on Gramm getting the Treasury Secretary slot in a McCain Administration. What kind of policies could we expect from a Gramm inspired McCainomics?

For starters, much of the blame for the current subprime mortgage crisis can be laid at the doorstep of Gramm.

Lack of Transparency: Business as usual at State Land Office

Parnelli Gonzales — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:34:16 MDT

The New Mexico Independent launched this week and not a moment too soon for a hard news hungry public. Digging for the story behind the story, the Indie's Majorie Childress looked into how the controversy about how the N.M. State Land Office handles its development leases.

Land Office explains why it enters into no-bid deals that benefit developers

When Childress inquired how one might go about inspecting the eighteen short-term planning development leases mentioned in a recent Albuquerque Journal article, the following extraordinary exchange took place:

I was told by the two offices that in order to see the leases I'd have to send a written public request including the lease number and the name of the lessee. When I asked how I could get that information in order to make the request, I was told there was no way to isolate them from the almost 900 current Land Office leases. Stranahan couldn't tell me who they were either, other than just a few developers that came to mind.

When I suggested to Stranahan that the method of selecting the developer for these cases lacks transparency and could lead to an appearance of impropriety given the campaign contributions made by many of these developers to Commissioner Lyons, he replied, "Most of these developers are successful, they all contribute to everybody, not just Pat Lyons. Here, the only issue that comes into play, the only issue that matters to us is who can make us the most money."

So much for transparency. But that's not all. Consider this choice nugget from Majorie's story:

New book recounts New Mexico lawmaker’s cult exploits

Parnelli Gonzales — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:20:44 MDT

It's not news. State Senator Mark Boitano is a member of the Unification Church - a Moonie. But a new book on the Reverend Sun Myung Moon includes a account of a 1979 incident involving the Albuquerque lawmaker that may be news to lot of people in New Mexico.

The book's title says it all: Bad Moon Rising - How Reverend Moon Created The Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom. The author, John Gorenfeld, has been reporting on Moon for years and exposed the story behind the 2004 Capitol Hill party at which Moon had himself and his wife coronated as "King and Queen of America." Boitano was there. Lobbyist Charlie Black, John McCain's chief political advisor, was on the coronation host committee.

Jim Scarantino covered the Boitano story back in a 2005 in a well-researched Weekly Alibi piece, The Messiah's Senator. He wrote:

"The Honorable Mark Boitano, state senator, New Mexico" was listed as a member of the invitation committee. In an e-mail exchange last week, Boitano wrote, "Reverend Moon is the most remarkable person I've ever met--he deserves every bit of recognition he receives."

But now here's something rather startling, this passage on pages 159-160 of Gorenfeld's new book:

April Fools Rush In... Carville and Concern Troll Joe

Parnelli Gonzales — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:05:10 MDT

Two items today… Marjorie at M-Pyre poses a burning question: whatever ever happened to Monahan's essay contest? Plus... Carville lobs more insults at Bill Richardson and the Gov responds.

Marjorie calls out Monahan

Yes, Marjorie at M-Pyre blog reminded us today that the date for Joe Monahan's lobbyist sponsored essay contest (publicity stunt) quietly came and went without so much as a grunt from Concern Troll Joe.

As you will recall, Monahan was savaged by a firestorm of protest from the blogosphere when he tried to peddle the peculiar notion he claimed to have gotten from an anonymous Roundhouse source (his "alligator") that the main obstacle to achieving key ethics reforms in New Mexico is the efforts of ethics reformers themselves! His response to his takedown by the bloggers was to announce a lobbyist sponsored "essay contest" for college students to come up with a lobbying/PR plan for ethics reform.

Here's Marjorie's money quote:

The time has never been more right for comprehensive ethics reform, given the highly publicized ethics violations and corruption in this state. But according to Monahan, we should take baby steps over many years, because not only were legislators not swayed when they should have been, the public is too confused by the proposals and therefore can't weigh in adequately. As you may remember, I couldn't help but ask in response what person in their right mind doesn't know what "campaign contribution limits" means? The fact is that the public is a lot savvier than Joe likes to suggest.

(the complete post here)

(And in an earlier post here, the conjecture was offered up that Monahan's alligator source is Bruce Donisthorpe.)

The Carville vs. Richardson slugfest

James Carville just won't let it go, continuing to fire shots at Bill Richardson over the NM Governor's recent endorsement of Barack Obama.

SunCal's Perverse Socialism

Parnelli Gonzales — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:00:57 MDT

Today's Albuquerque Journal reports the latest development in the taxpayer handout to SunCal story.

From the Journal:

SunCal Companies defaulted on $184 million in loans-- losing five properties in foreclosure. At least nine lawsuits are pending in those states.

Moody's last month removed a bond rating on one SunCal company responsible for four developments in Southern California.

Mayor Chavez receives recognition on Kos

Parnelli Gonzales — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:16:00 MST

Before turning in for the night, Daily Kos noted the presence of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez on the campaign trail in Texas yesterday:

Concern Troll Joe and The Great Alligator Hunt

Parnelli Gonzales — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:06:51 MST

The firestorm of blogosphere pushback against Joe Monahan for his attack on ethics reform advocates continued this week M-pyre, DFNM). Stung by the criticism - and the less than fawning reception he received during his appearance on the Insight New Mexico radio call-in show - Monahan responded with a pivot-and-spin defense.

THE ETHICS FIGHT: Is Monahan just a shill for little birdies & alligators?

Parnelli Gonzales — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:14:59 MST

Here's one you don't see every day. The DFNM blog takes on Joe Monahan for shilling for legislators who are trying to kill ethics reform. DFNM nails this one dead-on the money. M-Pyre is on it too. Bravo!

So it seems that earlier today Monahan scolded Common Cause for pushing too hard on ethics reform and even went so far as to call upon the organization's donors to rethink their priorities. Monahan's source, as usual, was one of his trademark "alligators."

Insider politics at the legislature

Parnelli Gonzales — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:24:00 MST

The media is focusing increasing attention on the power of corporate lobbyists at the legislature. In the midst of the intensifying battle for ethics reform in Santa Fe, this post by Marjorie at SWOP Blogger offers a view from the netroots at how business is really conducted at the Roundhouse.

Super Tuesday in New Mexico

Parnelli Gonzales — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:28:40 MST

Voting begins at NOON for the Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus. Here's where you can find a list of voting sites:

Contemplating Klan Radio

Parnelli Gonzales — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:54:08 MST

Right-wing talk radio's hate spew has become an accepted part of the media landscape. In Albuquerque we have 770 KKOB-AM radio - home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage for seven hours every weekday.

Marty "Duck and Cover" Chavez

Parnelli Gonzales — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:30:11 MST

Back in June 2007, the Albuquerque Journal and local blogs reported that the City of Albuquerque's claim that its red light camera program had reduced crashes at intersections was false. Who took the heat for the cooked books? APD spokesman John Walsh and Chief Ray Schultz.

Contra Monahan

Parnelli Gonzales — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:19:13 MST

Political blogger Joe Monahan may be the go-to darling of the local MSM, but a great post at Democracy for New Mexico puts these matters into proper perspective.

Senator Robinson's Rugby Team

Parnelli Gonzales — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:10:43 MST

State Senator Shannon Robinson is a true throwback. Huddling with lobbyist cronies in his State Capitol office, the Albuquerque lawmaker holds court in a "smoke-filled room" from whence clouds of tobacco mephitis waft into the hallways, defying the smoking ban in public buildings. It's the unofficial smoking section at the Roundhouse.