Democracy for New Mexico

Joanie Griffin Campaign Admits Negative "Push Polling" in ABQ District 6 City Council Race

Below is a release from the Rey Garduño campaign reporting on negative telephone "push polling" that the Joanie Griffin campaign has allegedly admitted it is behind. When the Garduño campaign learned of the calls, they got voters in District 6 to record info from them and passed it on to Dan McKay of the Albuquerque Journal. According to Garduño, McKay followed up and Griffin (above right) eventually admitted she had paid for the anonymous push polling.

Those familiar with Albuquerque politics may remember that similar push polling was done against Martin Heinrich and Debbie O'Malley four years ago. Funny how push polling and other negative campaign tactics often get employed against candidates who are not to Mayor Marty Chavez's liking, isn't it? No proof. Just saying.

From Rey Garduño for City Council:
ALBUQUERQUE (Wednesday, September 26, 2007). Starting early this morning voters in City Council District 6 received an anonymous "push poll”-- or calls that pretended to be a poll but whose purpose was to include negative information about Rey Garduño. Push polling is universally denounced as an unethical campaign tactic.

In violation of the city’s ethics code, the calls were anonymous and when voters pressed the caller to disclose who was paying for the calls, the caller either hung up or said they could not disclose that information. Later it was revealed that candidate Joanie Griffin paid to have the calls made.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 26, the Albuquerque Journal asked Griffin if she was behind the anonymous push poll, which she admitted she was. As late as 7:30 PM, Griffin did not change the phone script to include a disclosure nor did she stop the calls from being made.

"Push polls are universally denounced as unethical campaign tactics. They mislead the public to think they are participating in a legitimate poll when are in fact the purpose is only to malign candidates. I am disappointed that she stooped to this level," said Rey Garduño.

"The fact that she did unethical push polls was bad enough. Even though she admitted to the wrong doing she still allowed the calls to continue in violation of the city’s ethics code. At a minimum, Griffin should apologize to the voters in District 6 for engaging in unethical dirty campaigning," said Rey Garduño.

Albuquerque's municipal election is set for October 2nd, 2007. Both mail-in (absentee) and in-person early voting is going on right now. To read our previous posts on the city election, visit our archive. You might also want to see a previous post about other rather shady practices used by the Griffin campaign.

Senate Ethics Probe of Domenici Intensifies

Uh oh. According to a report by Jason Leopold and Matt Renner of Truthout, Sen. Pete Domenici could be facing more bad news about his late 2006 phone call to then U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico. Iglesias has testified before Congress that he interpreted the call to his home as "pressure" by Domenici to rush an indictment in a corruption case as election day neared. Excerpts:

The US Senate Select Committee on Ethics has stepped up its probe of Pete Domenici, the Republican senator from New Mexico ... Over the past couple of weeks, the Ethics Committee has been interviewing witnesses - including staffers from the US attorney's office in New Mexico - who were privy to a phone call Domenici made to Iglesias last November ... according to the senior staffers.

... According to some senior staffers working for lawmakers who sit on the Ethics Committee, the six-month preliminary investigation into Domenici has turned up enough evidence to open a formal, public investigation into the New Mexico senator, having determined that Domenici acted inappropriately and that he may have violated Senate Ethics rules when he called Iglesias to ask whether Aragon would be indicted before the state's voters went to the polls last year.

But it's unclear if the Ethics Committee will end up launching a formal probe. A sticking point, Ethics Committee staffers say, is the long-standing "ethics truce" between Democrats and Republicans that dates back to the mid-1990s where lawmakers from both political parties agreed not to file ethics complaints against each other.

Oh that's a good excuse, isn't it? Just what we need, an "ethics truce." You might want to contact members of the Senate Ethics Committee to urge them to responsibly carry out their duties instead of playing patsy with their friends across the aisle.

The Truthout piece also reports that the House Ethics Committee is continuing to pursue its preliminary investigation into similar claims involving Rep. Heather Wilson (NM-01).

If you'd like to help defeat Domenici and Wilson, consider making a donation -- no matter how small -- to the New Mexico netroots Beat Back Bush New Mexico fundraising page at ActBlue that supports the candidacies of Don Wiviott for Senate and Martin Heinrich for Congress.

To read our previous posts about the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, visit our archive.

All Three NM Repubs Make CREW's Most Corrupt in Congress List

Today, the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its third annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress. The report, entitled Beyond DeLay: The 22 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and two to watch), catalogues the corruption in the 110th Congress and documents the unethical and possibly illegal activities of its most tainted members. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules.

The misdeeds of New Mexico's entire Republican Congressional delegation -- Sen. Pete Domenici, Rep. Heather Wilson (NM-01) and Rep. Steve Pearce (NM-02) -- placed them among the top 22 offenders out of 535 members of Congress.

CREW also has re-launched the report’s website, BeyondDelay.com. The site offers short summaries of each member’s transgressions as well as the full-length profiles and all accompanying exhibits. I'm providing a summary of the transgressions of New Mexico's Republicans, but be sure to click on their names to access the complete reports:

Summary: Former NM U.S. Attorney David Iglesias has claimed that Sen. Domenici contacted him before the November 2006 elections to pressure him about an ongoing corruption probe into state Democrats. Iglesias previously stated that in mid-October, he was pressured about the pace of the investigation by two NM lawmakers. Initially, when asked about Iglesias’s allegations, Domenici stated, “I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Apparently, Rep. Heather Wilson first called Iglesias and Domenici called a week later. Domenici later admitted that he called Iglesias, stating “I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were looking at."

Summary: The former U.S. Attorney in Albuquerque, David Iglesias, stated that, in mid-October 2006, two members of Congress from New Mexico pressured him about an ongoing corruption probe of state Democrats. Apparently, Rep. Wilson first called Iglesias and Sen. Pete Domenici called a week later. After Domenici admitted that he called Iglesias, Wilson finally admitted that she too had called the U.S. Attorney. Wilson stated that she contacted Iglesias to complain about the pace of his public corruption investigation. She claimed, “I did not ask about the timing of any indictments and I did not tell Mr. Iglesias what course of action I thought he should take or pressure him in any way. The conversation was brief and professional.”

Summary: 1) Rep. Pearce was the president of Lea Fishing Tools, Inc. In the fall of 2003, Pearce sold the company’s assets to Texas-based Key Energy, in exchange for 542,477 shares of common stock, but failed to include the transaction on his 2003 financial disclosure report. In that report Pearce indicated that he was the president of Trinity Industries, Inc., “F/K/A Lea Fishing Tools, Inc.,” and that he held between $5 and $25 million of stock in the company. Given that all of Lea Fishing Tools’ assets were transferred to Key Energy, it appears that Trinity Industries may be a holding company for the Key Energy stock, but this is unclear.

After selling Lea Fishing Tools’ assets to Key Energy, Pearce was required to report the sale on his financial disclosure form as a transaction, but he failed to do so. By failing to list the sale, Pearce appears to have violated the Ethics in Government Act.

2) Rep. Pearce has been a consistent and strong advocate of drilling in Otero Mesa, NM despite environmentalists and the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) assertion that only a minuscule amount of oil and natural gas lie beneath the grasslands. Pearce, however, contends that drilling in the area would keep natural gas prices level and create jobs thereby stimulating the state’s economy. Initially, the BLM opposed opening the area arguing that drilling would both directly and indirectly destruct the habitat for wildlife. In 2000, however, BLM reversed its decision and proposed a plan that would open nearly 1.4 million acres to drilling. The BLM turnaround coincided with the largest lease holder in the Otero Mesa, Yates Petroleum, donating over $230,000 to the GOP over the last three election cycles.

Yates Petroleum also has been the single largest donor to Pearce’s campaign committees since 2002 with $32,490 in donations. Individually, members of the Yates family have contributed $78,379.99 to Pearce since he first ran for office in 2002. If Rep. Pearce advocated opening up Otero Mesa to drilling in exchange for campaign contributions, he may have violated the bribery statute or accepted illegal gratuities.

Bad Company
The complete list of the most corrupt members of Congress according to CREW:

Members of House:                     Members of the Senate:
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)               Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM)
Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-CA)        Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)               Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)            Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)       Dishonorable Mention:
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)                Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-CA)            Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
Rep. Timothy F. Murphy (R-PA)
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA)
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM)
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY)
Rep. David Scott (D-GA)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL)
Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-NM)

“Every year CREW creates this compendium of corruption to expose and hold accountable those members of Congress who believe they are above the law,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. “With the third edition of Beyond DeLay it has become abundantly clear that many public officials believe that the rules don’t apply to them.”

Several members in the study are already under federal investigation including: Reps. Calvert, Doolittle, Feeney, Jefferson, Lewis, Miller, Mollohan, Murphy, Renzi and Young, as well as Senator Stevens.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit, nonpartisan legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, you can visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Naomi Seligman Steiner at 202.408.5565 or nseligman@citizensforethics.org.

Make Your Voice Heard: Panel Discussion on Ethics Reform Set for 9.15.07

From Common Cause New Mexico:
During the 2007 legislative session, Common Cause was instrumental in the passage of a judicial public financing bill and a bill limiting gifts to public officials. Despite these important victories, much work remains in the area of ethics reform: we need contributions limits, an ethics commission, more disclosure for lobbying activities and voluntary public financing for more offices. 

As a means of getting up to speed on the key ethics issues in New Mexico, I encourage you to attend an important panel discussion on Saturday, September 15 at 2:00 PM at Room 2401 at the UNM Law School.  The panel will feature three members of Governor Richardson's Ethics Task Force, as well as state legislators. Here are the details for the panel discussion:

• When:  Saturday, September 15, 2007, 2:00-4:30 PM
• Where:  UNM Law School, Room 2401 (click here for a map or driving directions)
• Invited Speakers:
  • State Senator Dede Feldman
  • State Senator Michael Sanchez
  • State Representative Mimi Stewart
  • Chief Deputy Attorney General Stuart Bluestone
  • Matt Brix, Policy Director, Center for Civic Policy
• Moderator:  Patricio Larragoite

For information, call Mary Sue Gutierrez at 899-4642 or Zora Hesse at 265-3031. Public comments and questions are encouraged. Please do not pass up this opportunity to have your voice heard! 

Thank you, I hope you can make this important panel discussion on September 15!

Sincerely,
Jack Taylor, State Chair, Common Cause New Mexico

Editor's Note: This forum is organized by Progressive Women Issues Matter. See our previous post.

Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias Signs Book Deal

This can't hurt Dems' chances against Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson. According to TPMmuckraker:

The book promises to focus on Iglesias' experiences as a U.S. attorney in the Bush administration and his role in the scandal, before and after the firing. It's anticipated to be released in April, 2008.

Also, we hear that the book will spend some time discussing Iglesias' handling of voter fraud cases -- how the administration directed Iglesias' focus on the issue, and how that direction made Iglesias uncomfortable. Remember that Republicans all the way on up to Karl Rove and President Bush were frustrated with Iglesias' failure to indict liberals for alleged instances of voter fraud. Apparently Iglesias was no stranger to such pressure.

Mayor Chavez Openly Working Against Re-election of Councilor O'Malley

Current Albuquerque City Council President Debbie O'Malley is running her re-election campaign under the city's new Clean Election public funding option. In other words, if (and when) she wins another term, she won't be beholden to special interest donors. Instead, she'll be free to work for genuine progressive core values -- and for ordinary citizens and the common good -- something she's been doing for most of her life as a native New Mexican.

One of her opponents, Katherine Martinez, is taking another route, urged on by Mayor Marty Chavez. Martinez will depend on private donations, including a bunch that will no doubt be raised from among Marty's donor base that includes many members of the big developer and Republican communities. Martinez is currently the Director of Government/Community Affairs for the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico and has only lived in the district for a little more than two years.

The mayor is hosting a fundraiser for Martinez on August 27th in Corrales, at the home of Steve Nakamura of Rachel Matthew Homes, Inc. We all know why. He's now publicly trying to unseat one of his main critics on the City Council, who repeatedly pushes for things Marty doesn't really value, and who insists on legitimate Council oversight of city actions. Democrat O'Malley has gone up against the Mayor's resistance to things like more affordable housing for our citizens, a raise in the city's minimum wage and a budget that puts the infrastructure and other basic resident needs first. O'Malley has also questioned the wisdom of spending for his expensive vanity projects like a panda from China, sister-city video screens on Civic Plaza and a Balloon Fiesta Park reflecting pool, all designed to enhance the Marty Chavez "brand."

Councilor O'Malley has been known to insist that the Mayor doesn't have the right to operate a virtual kingdom from the top floor of the City-County building -- that he has to come to the Council for approval on any number of intiatives he'd rather have the only say on. This irks Marty no end. It interferes with his efforts to unilaterally line up personal "achievements," no matter how substanceless, that he can trumpet in his planned campaign for the governorship in 2010.

For instance, after fighting tooth and nail any effort to shape and moderate development on Albuquerque's West Side, he's now touting himself as the greenest of the green in "sustainable" building and development. Sorry, Marty, that milk's already been spilt. Badly designed, energy hog sprawl developments have sprouted like ugly mushrooms on the city's Western horizon, many of them created and built by Marty donors. Many of these energy inefficient houses now sit empty, bought up as "investments" by people from places like California and Texas-- and unaffordable for many ordinary Albuquerqueans. The man who mounted one of the most single-minded campaigns to push a road through the Petroglyphs so more sprawl development could explode on the other side is now claiming to be into public transportation, green development and low energy use. Marty's nothing if not shameless in his boasts.

How We Can Help
What can we do to help keep Debbie O'Malley's voice of the people on the Council? We can help her walk precincts and volunteer for other mundane tasks that are essential to running a successful grassroots, publicly funded campaign. We can do this even if we don't live in her district. You can contact the campaign at debbie.omalley@usa.net.

If you need motivation, just think what the towering ambition of Marty Chavez will be unleashed to do if he gains a majority of supporters on the City Council. He's also working behind the scenes to push his preferred candidates in the other City Council districts that are in contention in this year's October municipal election. He means business, and given his record, it's obvious he works primarily to benefit big business concerns.

Other Races
We need to maintain a strong counterbalance to Chavez's power in the city, so now's the time to step up and help Debbie O'Malley in District 2, as well Rey Garduño in District 6, who's also running with Clean Elections funding against, among others, a Marty-backed candidate, Joanie Griffin. It should be noted that Joanie Griffin was a registered Republican until right before she declared as a City Council Candidate!

Marty's also rumored to be behind the effort to recall Councilor Don Harris, who often votes with O'Malley and others, in District 9, and the candidacy of Paulette de'Pascal, who's running against incumbent Brad Winter in District 4. Unless more progressive and reasonable forces keep control of the Albuquerque City Council, we can kiss the people's power goodbye for the next two years. You know what to do.

(Photo credit: Suzanne Prescott)

Progressive Women Offer Forum on Ethics Reform

From Progressive Women Issues Matter:
We welcome you to a forum for an important discussion:
“Ethics Reform”
Saturday, September 15, 2007
UNM Law School, Room 2401, ABQ
2:00 - 4:30 PM, No charge

Panelists:
Senator Michael Sanchez
Senator Dede Feldman
Representative Mimi Stewart
Stuart Bluestone, Attorney General’s Office
Matt Brix, Center for Civic Policy
Dr. Patricio Larragoite, Moderator

Opportunities for questions. For more information please call:
MarySue Gutierrez 899-4642
Zora Hesse 265-3031
Imogene Lindsay 299-7454

The End (and Beginning) of Rove

Watch till the end to see the future "brain of Bush" working at Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President in 1972.

Ah, sweet sorrow, as reported in the Washington Post:

Rove's voice and face betrayed emotion as he then offered his farewell. "I'm grateful to have been a witness to history," he said. "It has been the joy and the honor of a lifetime." Rove added that when he leaves, he will become one of those "ordinary Americans who tell you they are praying for you."

... Rove, 56, who escaped indictment in the CIA leak case, has been under scrutiny by the new Democratic Congress for his role in the firings of U.S. attorneys and in a series of political briefings provided to various agencies across government. Citing executive privilege, he defied a subpoena and refused to show up for a congressional hearing just two weeks ago on the allegedly improper use by White House aides of Republican National Committee e-mail accounts. Fellow Bush advisers have said they believe the congressional probes have been aimed in part at driving Rove out.

But, but, "The White House said Rove's departure was unrelated to the investigations." Right.

Here's what Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy had to say in a statement today:

“Earlier this month, Karl Rove failed to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s subpoena to testify about the mass firings of United States Attorneys. Despite evidence that he played a central role in these firings, just as he did in the Libby case involving the outing of an undercover CIA agent and improper political briefings at over 20 government agencies, Mr. Rove acted as if he was above the law. That is wrong. Now that he is leaving the White House while under subpoena, I continue to ask what Mr. Rove and others at the White House are so desperate to hide. Mr. Rove’s apparent attempts to manipulate elections and push out prosecutors citing bogus claims of voter fraud shows corruption of federal law enforcement for partisan political purposes, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its investigation into this serious issue.

“The list of senior White House and Justice Department officials who have resigned during the course of these congressional investigations continues to grow, and today, Mr. Rove added his name to that list. There is a cloud over this White House, and a gathering storm. A similar cloud envelopes Mr. Rove, even as he leaves the White House.” [emphasis mine]

The plot thickens ....

Guest Blog: Take the Greed Out of Politics

This is a guest blog by Judith Binder of Skills for Democracy, Albuquerque:
Universal Health Care - Since the early 1990s, Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D. Economist from Princeton University, has maintained that "greed" must be taken out of politics if we are to have appropriate health care in this country. The pharmaceutical industry, hospitals for profit, insurance companies, and corruptible politicians should not be allowed to control the legislation.

Clean Elections will create a healthy nation—an economically stable nation.

Reinhardt was in Albuquerque in 1992 or 1993 keynoting a health care forum. You can find his views at RSNA News (PDF), page 10.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Judith Binder. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their views on issues of interest, and don't necessarily express our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Rep. Tom Udall to Cosponsor Gonzales Impeachment Resolution

The plot thickens. An AP story reports Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM3) will join other House Dems today in introducing a resolution directing the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether to impeach Alberto Gonzales:

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who was a prosecutor in Washington state in the late 1970s and 1980s, is the lead sponsor of the measure.

Co-sponsors of the resolution include Democratic Reps. Xavier Becerra of California, Michael Arcuri of New York, Ben Chandler of Kentucky, Dennis Moore of Kansas, Bruce Braley of Iowa and Tom Udall of New Mexico.