Clearly New Mexico

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.)

New Mexicans can rest assured that there is no cronyism at the University of New Mexico, according to....the University of New Mexico?

As reported by the Albuquerque Journal, a recent internal investigation by UNM officials found no evidence to support a whistle-blower's charges of cronyism in the hiring and promotions of 21 employees. The whistle-blower, who requested and got anonymity from UNM, said in a formal complaint to president David Schmidly that the 21 employees - who included past state employees and relatives of state employees - had received plum positions or promotions without merit or without going through the competitive hiring practices required by state and university policy.

According to the whistleblower, the actions occurred after the arrival in 2004 of David Harris, who was then acting president and is now UNM's chief financial and chief operating officer. Since 2004, the combined raises of those 21 employees - who included the heads of UNM's human resources department and internal audit division - added up to almost $900,000, the whistleblower alleged.

In a recent meeting with the Journal, Schmidly called the investigation a vindication for the school.

But not everyone at UNM sees it that way.   Read More »

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.

As if on cue, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will gather this Thursday to mark up what should be an interesting report.

Now this isn't just any report on accounting practices or procurement problems in an obscure agency. Nope. This is a report on Jack Abramoff's contacts and connections with the White House.

A rather tenacious fellow from California named Henry Waxman chairs the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. This is a sampling of how Congressman Waxman runs his committee, especially in the face of a hostile witness and a less than supportive ranking member. Really, the guy does not pull punches.

The issue of nefarious connections between people in positions of power and those who ostensibly petition their government through lobbying has been well documented. Also well documented is the trouble this dynamic causes when the connections are built with money (gifts, travel, meals, beverages, large campaign contributions, etc.).

But, Thursday's hearing raises another dynamic-the proverbial gift that keeps on giving.

The Abramoff scandal broke before the 2006 mid-term elections, causing a backlash against the party in power at the time. Incumbents from the party in power were thrown out in favor of new faces promising ethics reform. Here we are two years later and this particular ethics scandal is still haunting Members of Congress and the White House.

Bottom line, this theme of exposing nefarious connections and striving for reform is not going away. Not in Washington and certainly not in Santa Fe.

(See the the irresistible force meet the immovable object, courtesy of TPM.)

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:   Read More »

Yesterday, the New Mexico Independent highlighted the University of New Mexico Hospital's new ban on gifts from pharmaceutical companies. It seems UNMH has correctly identified the potential conflict of interest that comes with gifts from reps of big pharma.

The New Mexico state legislature has taken action on limiting gifts. Taking a page from UNMH and banning all gifts would go a long way toward giving New Mexicans confidence in the legislative process.

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.   Read More »

The political season seems old already, because of the need for perpetual fundraising. In order to "compete" in the modern campaign, candidates for federal office must spend, on average, 4-6 hours per day calling donors.

In colloquial terms, this is known as "dialing for dollars."

The fundraising dynamic is nothing new to politics. It's just that the numbers have grown at an almost exponential rate over the past decade.

The advent of Internet fundraising has helped level the playing field in terms of giving smaller donors a meaningful way of participating. But donors, who call themselves bundlers, rangers, or any other campaign-created distinction reserved for the wealthy, are still driving fundraising for federal candidates.

So why do candidates perpetuate this madness? The short answer is because they've been told this is what it takes to win.

In all fairness, the presidential public financing system has not kept up with inflation and thus must be repaired. Candidates need to believe they are not unilaterally disarming by accepting public financing. Accordingly, when the new Congress convenes next year, there must be immediate action taken to fix the system and offer proper stipend amounts.

What makes this election year different from the past is that all of the remaining presidential candidates ostensibly support the idea of expanding public financing systems to Congressional races. Despite their rhetoric on the issue, they have all danced around the idea of using the system for the general election.

This is wrong.

   Read More »

It's already deplorable that the State of New Mexico requires so few campaign expenditure reports - just two - before the June primary, and both of them fall after voters have already begun voting with absentee ballots.

Now, the latest news that the Secretary of State's office won't have campaign information online until May 26th is simply ludicrous, after hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and sworn promises to fix this system that has been broken since... well, forever.

By May 26th, it's possible that at least a third of voters who will cast ballots for this year's primary will have already voted, without even the chance to see who is funding candidates.

New Mexicans deserve a better answer than a "sluggish database." Other states with monstrously more candidates and voters have managed to have a searchable, online and timely reporting system that is easy for both candidates and citizens to use for years.

If the primary is a test-run for the general election for the new staff at the Secretary of State's office, we're in for potentially catastrophic problems in November. In a state that seems to like razor-thin margins, that's not a good sign.

Dan McKay reported in last Friday's Journal that Mayor Martin Chavez is taking on the issue of ethics at City Hall. McKay writes:

Mayor Martin Chávez says he wants to transform the ethical culture at City Hall-- starting with new training for employees, independence for the city clerk and termination for those who flout the rules.

Chavez says, "…we want to weed out the bad apples."

Also on Friday, this website featured an investigative report by Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen Welsome about Chavez's relationship with Marc Schiff, the architect who pled guilty to felony charges connected with the Courthouse scandal. That cozy mayoral connection appears to have resulted in the public getting overcharged millions of dollars for the design and construction of the Balloon Museum.

And yet, as if cue, this morning's Journal editorial rhapsodized about the Mayoral ethics initiative - "City Takes Lead Again, This Time on Ethics."   Read More »

Last Thursday, the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics issued its "Public Letter of Qualified Admonition" to Senator Domenici for pressuring then US Attorney David Iglesias to move quickly on the Bernalillo County courthouse scandal.

It's worth noting that this same committee issued the exact same type of letter - the "Public Letter of Qualified Admonition" -- to Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, for his misconduct in a public restroom last summer.

I wonder - can a legislative body police itself effectively? It's an honest question, and one that is in play as the New Mexico legislature struggles with the question of whether to constitute an independent ethics commission to handle alleged ethics violations of its members. So far, the Legislature has failed to pass this ethics proposal.

The US Senate's issuance of these two letters proves that at minimum, the body is capable of raising strong questions about the actions of its members. On the other hand, there is a legitimate argument to be made that the "Admonition" letters do not do justice to the actions they attempted to address.

The New Mexico Legislature actually has a similar, in-house ethics body. It's called the "Interim Legislative Ethics Committee" and it "convenes only upon the receipt of a complaint or a request for an advisory opinion." A quick check of the state's website reveals no previous agendas or previous minutes posted for this committee. I've only been in New Mexico for 13 years but I talked to a lot of folks during the past two legislative sessions about this Interim Ethics Committee. No one could recall this committee taking up a serious ethics issue in recent history.

However, those with really long memories remember the case of State Representative Ron Olguin.   Read More »

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:   Read More »

During the first three months of 2008, the race to determine who will become the 44th President of the United States has had no shortage of compelling stories. To simply review the peaks, valleys, turns and twists would likely be worthy of a separate post.

Instead, I'd like to focus on the individuals who have been at the helm of two of the campaigns: McCain campaign manager Rick Davis and the recently demoted (or not?) Clinton "chief strategist" Mark Penn.

We've already gotten an up-close look at Rick Davis on Clearly New Mexico, so perhaps we should start with Mr. Penn.

Mark Penn has been a Clinton family confidant for the better part of twelve years. Originally recruited by former Clinton advisor turned Fox News analyst, Dick Morris, Penn started out by providing polling and strategic consulting services to the 1996 Bill Clinton reelection campaign. Since then, Mr. Penn assisted with the 2000 Hilary Clinton U.S. Senate campaign and (up until today) the Hillary presidential operation.

Pretty straightforward consulting resume, right?

Not so fast.   Read More »

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.   Read More »

When New Mexicans think about John McCain, I'm guessing most have a pretty vague, but favorable opinion about him. I certainly did, primarily because of his efforts on campaign finance reform several years back. But now, under the scrutiny of the Presidential race, I'm beginning to see McCain in a different light because of the ambiguity created by our current campaign financing system.

Media Matters reports that McCain has 24 staffers or advisors that were either registered lobbyists in 2007 or were previous lobbyists, including pretty high up positions such as his campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager and his senior policy advisor.

And his campaign co-chair and national finance committee co-chairman, former US Representative Thomas Loeffler (R-TX) is a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on trade issues, according to the Houston Chronicle.

As a lobbyist myself for things like public financing and health care reform, I'm not criticizing the hiring of lobbyists. But I wonder if the clients of McCain's team of lobbyists portend a shifting of the sands under McCain's formerly sturdy legs. Is McCain revealing his true identity as the front man for pharmaceuticals, oil and gas and insurance companies? Or is he just doing his best to raise money in an insane system? With the current system creating a campaign financing arms race, it's virtually impossible to tell whether the person or the system is to blame.

In what is being hailed as "one of the most significant changes to ethics rules in history", the House of Representatives approved a bill to create an independent Office of Congressional Ethics by a vote of 229 to 182.

Two of New Mexico's congressional representatives, Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, voted against the landmark bill.   Read More »

It seems like coming out against business as usual is all the craze these days in state capitals across the country.   Read More »

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.   Read More »

In the March 4th municipal election, Santa Feans will have a chance to join the ranks of states and cities across the nation that have opted for Clean Elections public financing.   Read More »