Democracy for New Mexico

Iglesias to Testify to House Ethics Committee on Pressure Call From Heather Wilson

Oh to be a fly on the wall. As reported by Jason Leopold at Truthout:

David Iglesias, the former US attorney for New Mexico who was fired last year along with eight other federal prosecutors, will testify Wednesday before the House Ethics Committee about a phone call he received from Representative Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico), who queried Iglesias about the status of public corruption cases he was pursuing in the state.

In a brief interview Monday, Iglesias said he will testify in a closed-door session of the Ethics Committee about the call he received from Wilson last October. The committee has opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that Wilson violated House ethics rules by calling Iglesias to find out about corruption cases involving Democrats weeks before last year's midterm elections. Wilson faced a tough reelection campaign last fall.

Guest Blog: Mayoral Makeover - How Marty Chavez is Working to Reinvent His Image

This is a guest blog by Keegan King (right), co-director of Young Voters NM. It was originally published as an op-ed in Albuquerque's alibi weekly.

Historically, much has been made of the fact that people under the age of 25 vote at dramatically lower rates than any other segment of the population. Apathy is partly to blame, but I believe the primary reason for a lack of youth involvement in the political process is cynicism. And much of this cynicism stems from watching politicians who manipulate the media to conceal their true policy agendas.

Take the chief executive of our own fair city, Mayor Martin Chavez. Two recent news items reveal how Chavez is working overtime to reinvent his image:

Item #1: Gail Reese, a top assistant to Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, made an on-the-air call to his radio talk show and, using a fake name, parroted the administration's talking points while flaming several city councilors. When Reese was busted for her crude attempt to mislead the public by trying to pose as just another "Jane Q. Citizen," her first response was to feign memory loss.

After Reese finally fessed up, the mayor's office swung into damage control mode by issuing a press release that spun her surreptitious call as nothing less than a valiant exercise of free speech. KKOB station manager Art Ortega was charitable in characterizing the incident as "disingenuous." The Tribune editorialized against fake "Astroturf" grassroots lobbying efforts emanating from the mayor's office.

Item #2: Albuquerque's morning daily newspaper reported that Chavez had received something called the "Climate Protection Award" at a recent meeting of the National Conference of Mayors. The story trumpeted the claim that Albuquerque had reduced greenhouse emissions by an extraordinary 67 percent since 2000, making it a "Green City."

But there were some glaring problems with the story.

For one thing, the claimed emissions reductions were for — not for the community as a whole.

That's a huge difference and it illuminates the challenge Chavez faces in refashioning his image.

Sandy Buffett, executive director of , cut right through the hype in a Journal letter to the editor: "One only needs to look at the unbridled real estate sprawl development to know that Albuquerque's carbon footprint is rapidly exploding ... If Chavez is serious about reducing Albuquerque's carbon footprint, than he needs to get serious about managing and planning Albuquerque's growth." As anyone who has lived in Albuquerque for the past few years knows, Chavez has been the developers' darling by shepherding their big-box, cookie-cutter sprawl development over and over again.

Oh, and one more thing. The story neglected to inform readers that Chavez' award was sponsored and underwritten by none other than Wal-Mart — the outfit that builds all those big-box stores that do so much to fuel the very sprawl development and car culture that is at the heart of the problem.

There are more recent examples of Chavez manipulating the media as he works to revamp his image and obscure long-held policy positions.

Last month, Chavez issued a sweeping "Executive Order" to ban smoking outdoors on all city government property. TV reporting featured footage of the mayor intoning piously about the health dangers of smoking.

Oddly, this was the very same Mayor Chavez who in 2002 brandished veto threats to block the City Council's efforts to pass an ordinance banning smoking in restaurants. His complaint then? The ordinance restricted to eating establishments was too sweeping and unenforceable. Talk about a 180!

And then there is Chavez' unveiling of his "Open Government" initiative. It calls for posting the minutes of city board and commission meetings online and reducing photocopy costs for public documents. With the ABQ PAC slush fund scandal fading from public memory, Chavez clearly has calculated that it’s time to jump on the "ethics" bandwagon.

But again, when you get past the hype, it's worth recalling that Chavez' silence was deafening during the last Legislative Session when really tough ethics reforms were being debated — contribution limits, an independent ethics commission and clean election financing (which he opposed for city elections in 2003).

This, of course, is what explains Marty's rush to makeover his image. Anticipating a gubernatorial run in 2010, but facing lagging poll numbers, Chavez is desperately trying to reinvent himself to appeal to Democratic primary voters around the state.

Hollow posturing of this sort is exactly what turns off young voters, who are a growing force to be reckoned with. After years of lagging participation, their turnout surged in the last two elections. Young voters demand honesty and authenticity from those who would presume to lead us. That's bad news for Martin Chavez and his big bamboozle.

Editor's Note: [all emphasis above mine] This is a guest blog by Keegan King, co-director of Young Voters NM. It was originally published as an op-ed in Albuquerque's alibi weekly. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their opinions on issues of the day, and may or may not 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 on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

NY Times Editorial: Impeach Gonzales

© 2007 Stephen Pitt

Well, it would be a start. Read the editorial: Mr. Gonzales’s Never-Ending Story.

Must See TV Tonight on NOW: Repub Plan to Disqualify Dem Voters in NM, Other Battleground States

Tonight, July 27, 2007 at 8:00 PM Mountain Time on PBS' NOW on KNME: How Secure Is Your Right to Vote? Those interviewed include investigative journalist Greg Palast, who has done extensive work on the issue in New Mexico and elsewhere. (Check local listings.) NOW investigates a secret Republican plan designed to disqualify voters by various means including voter caging:

Was there a White House plot to illegally suppress votes in 2004? Is there a similar plan for the upcoming elections? NOW examines documents and evidence pointing to a Republican Party plan designed to keep Democrats from voting, by targeting people based on their race and ethnicity. Congress is investigating, and so are we. NOW speaks with David Iglesias, one of eight fired US attorneys, who says he lost his job because he refused to go along with the White House plan to suppress votes.

Was the White House involved? David Iglesias, one of the fired U.S. Attorneys, thinks so: "It's reprehensible. It's unethical, it's unlawful. It may very well be criminal." Iglesias told NOW he was repeatedly urged by his superiors at the Justice Department to investigate allegations of false voter registrations. After his investigations came up short, Iglesias said Republican officials got angry, complained to White House aide Karl Rove. Soon after Iglesias lost his job. As a result of allegations by Iglesias and others, Congress is investigating whether the White House acted unlawfully.

The NOW website also reveals key emails and documents covered in their investigation and also features an extended interview with David Iglesias, as well as one with another fired U.S. Attorney, Bud Collins. Excerpts of Iglesias interview:

NOW: It wasn't only officials at the Department of Justice who were expressing an interest in pursuing such [voter fraud] cases. You were getting requests from other individuals, correct?

DI: That's correct. In fact, there was a Republican attorney, Pat Rogers, who was a prominent local attorney who tried to pressure me to come up with cases. He would send emails to my assistant, who I had tasked with running this election fraud taskforce ... And I had lunch with Mr. Rogers last fall and he expressed his concern about what he believed to be this systemic, ongoing election fraud. I did not know at the time that he belonged to an organization called the American Center for Voting Rights. He did not disclose to me that he was representing any other interest. And I've also found out that the Republican Party was very interested in stamping out what it believed to be instances of voter fraud.

NOW: The State Republican Party or the National Republican Party?

DI: Both. But who contacted me or some of my assistants was the State Republican Party.

... NOW: In one press account you're quoted as characterizing Mr. Rogers' interest in this issue as "obsessive."

DI: Yes. I was aware of grumbling within the State Republican Party. I had friends of mine who were attorneys. One was a former federal prosecutor himself and he would tell me during the course of early 2005 through mid-2006 ... "The Republicans are still upset with you. They still expect you to prosecute cases."

So I knew there was this belief that was I intentionally not prosecuting prosecutable cases. And I knew Rogers, as a prominent Republican, who had actually represented the State Republican Party in some civil litigation related to the voter ID issue ... I knew he was interested in the issue. And then I was also aware of the emails and phone calls he had been leaving with my assistant, who I had tasked with prosecuting this. So I knew there was a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction of me not prosecuting any cases.

What I believed, however, was consistent with historic practice—that the Justice Department would insulate me from any partisan political pressure. As it turns out, they didn't do that. And that was one of the bases for forcing my resignation.

... NOW: Trying to use the office of a U.S. Attorney for partisan political purposes is unethical. But you're saying it is actually illegal?

DI: Right. That's why there has been such a circling of the wagons around Karl Rove and Harriet Miers and Sarah Taylor. I believe there to be incriminating, possibly criminally incriminating evidence contained in those e-mails and other memoranda. That's why the White House doesn't want to produce it to Congress.

At Last! Leahy Subpoenas Rove (and Jennings)

You can find the subpoenas, cover letters and Sen. Patrick Leahy's floor statement today (video and text) right here. The vibrations in the battle against a lawless White House just moved up an octave in intensity and speed ....

"... Stonewalling this congressional investigation is further demonstration that this Administration refuses to abide by the rule of law."

“... The evidence shows that senior White House political operatives were focused on the political impact of federal prosecutions and whether federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases.  It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a cover up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort,” Leahy said.  “The Bush-Cheney White House continues to place great strains on our constitutional system of checks and balances.  Not since the darkest days of the Nixon Administration have we seen efforts to corrupt federal law enforcement for partisan political gain and such efforts to avoid accountability.”

"... E-mails show that Mr. Rove initiated inquires at least by the beginning of 2005 as to how to proceed regarding the dismissal and replacement of U.S. Attorneys.  The evidence also shows that he raised political concerns, including those of New Mexico Republican leaders, about New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias that may have led to his dismissal.  He was fired a few weeks after Mr. Rove complained to the Attorney General about the lack of purported “voter fraud” enforcement cases in his jurisdiction."

"...With our service of these subpoenas, I hope that the White House takes this opportunity to reconsider its blanket claim of executive privilege, especially in light of the testimony that President was not involved in the dismissals of these U.S. Attorneys.  I hope that the White House steps back from this constitutional crisis of its own making so that we can begin to repair the damage done by its untoward interference with federal law enforcement.  That interference has threatened our elections and seriously undercut the American people’s confidence in the independence and evenhandedness of law enforcement.  Mr. Rove and the White House must not be allowed to continue manipulating our justice system to pursue a partisan political agenda.  Apparently, this White House would rather precipitate an unnecessary constitutional confrontation than do what every other Administration has done and find and accommodation with the Congress. If there are any cooler or wiser heads at the White House, I urge them to reconsider the course they have chosen.

"There is a cloud over this White House and a gathering storm.  I hope they will reconsider their course and end their cover up so that we can move forward together to repair the damage done to the Department of Justice and the American people’s trust and confidence in federal law enforcement." [emphais mine]

You really, really should read or watch the entire statement. Constitutional crisis, here we come.

Thursday: Michael Cadigan on 'We The People'

WE THE PEOPLE: Thursday, July 26, 2007, 6 PM
Albuquerque City Councilor Michael Cadigan will discuss 'Government via Clean Elections: Do policies behind our current election system affect society?'

Live on Albuquerque Cable TV Channel 27! Worldwide On The Net! Click for Streaming Media: https://quote-unquote.org/. Call-in: (505) 346-1633. We The People is broadcast every Second and Fourth Thursday at 6-7 PM MDT. It's an innovative call-in television show looking for TRUTH and TRANSPARENCY in local, state and federal governments. THANKS FOR WATCHING, Mickey Bock/Judith Binder - Hosts

Pete Domenici: Running Scared

According to the scuttlebutt that's making the rounds, Commander Bush will be in Albuquerque on August 27th to squeeze wealthy Repubs to donate cash to Sen. Pete Domenici's campaign coffers. The usual Repub contribution requirements will apply: $1000 to eat lunch in the same room as King George. $5000 to have  your picture taken with The Decider. Everything's "private." No ordinary citizens allowed.

Very telling that Domenici's campaign is willing to risk a visit by the incredibly unpopular president in order to drum up funds. Obviously, they're worried about Pete's drooping approval ratings, his ethics problems connected to the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and his chances in the 2008 election. Why else would they bring in a failed president with an Iraq occupation strategy so misbegotten that even Domenici himself has been critical? After all, it's difficult and essentially hypocritical to be distancing yourself from Bush's dismal and damaging position on Iraq while welcoming an appearance by The Decider on your behalf.

Pundits and Repubs alike are poo-pooing the Dems' chances at winning Domenici's Senate seat come November 2008, but I think they're dead wrong. The throw-the-Repub-bums-out mood of New Mexicans matches the strong backlash against Bush rubberstamps that characterizes the mood nationally. This will be what's called a "change election" -- the kind of presidential contest year where the policies of a failed chief executive and his bootlickers are rejected wholesale, and the opposition party's favored presidential candidate can be expected to have long coat-tails indeed.

Big sweeps are often the norm in such years -- and the anger and profound disapproval erupting against Bush, his party and his apologists are at record levels with no end in sight. Anything is possible, especially when an aging, long-time incumbent Senator like Domenici has clearly lost his edge and much of his clout on The Hill with a Dem takeover of Congress. Moreover, there's a growing anti-politics as usual movement that favors creative, common sense candidates ready to challenge the status quo over Beltway insider, conventional wisdom politicos.

If you want to help get Domenici out of the way of our forward progress, a good place to start is supporting one of the candidates for the Dem nomination who want to take him on in 2008. Sign on as a supporter and/or give a few bucks to the New Mexico Dem Senate campaign of your choosing:

• Don Wiviott
• Jim Hannan
• Leland Lehrman

See our previous post on Bush's trip to New Mexico on behalf of Domenici. For more on the 2008 race for the Senate in New Mexico, visit our archive of posts on the topic.

Guest Blog: Ben Luce on Why He Launched "Break The Grip!"

This is a guest blog by environmental activist Ben Luce of Break the Grip!:

For the past ten years I have tried as hard as I could to work through our existing political system, as a mostly polite and "professional" environmental advocate, to bring about policies that support renewable energy development and energy efficiency. I collaborated with the Richardson Administration and the utilities, to the extent that this was possible, to "move the ball forward" as people say. Mind you, this was not an easy process, I sometimes sparred publicly with the Administration and the utilities, and often sparred with them behind the scenes, but I mainly pursued the usual channels of lobbying politely, participating in PRC cases, etc.

We did make some progress, to be sure, getting things such as solar tax credits and stronger solar rights through, and the initial renewable energy standard and some other things. I am still very happy and proud about those things.

But I did fight many quiet wars, things were often delayed or compromised to a great extent, and I was always bothered by the pervasive and blatant undue corporate influence that I saw around me at the Legislature in general.

Then, in the recent Legislative Session, I experienced undue corporate influence to the extreme: The Richardson Administration, to my great sadness and dismay, basically teamed up with PNM to exclude citizen advocacy at all costs and try to gut the effectiveness of the new renewable energy standard, of course while making it look good for Richardson. They also tried to strip out crucial renewable energy provisions from the Renewable Energy Transmission Authority (already an extremely scary piece of legislation), and force a clean coal incentive down our throats. The Administration even had a PNM lobbyist working inside and officially representing the Administration (Art Hull), who was assigned to work on the Transmission Authority. Similarly, the clean coal incentive was forced us by a coal-industry connected LANL person named Charryl Berger, who was "on loan" to the Legislature.

Moreover, I sadly watched as the Democratic Leadership put a PNM lobbyist forward and bully citizen advocates to pass a PNM originated bill that rolls back protections for low-income people, and also try to force a $60 million tax incentive through for the Desert Rock Power Plant.

All of this obscene abuse of power was finally too much for me. After mulling it all over, and writing down my experiences over the past ten years (and storing this for safe keeping with others), I finally decided to go public about what actually happened. More than that, instead of just issuing an angry "rant" (as the Administration characterized my first press conference), I decided to launch, with other concerned citizens, a new campaign called "Break The Grip!". This will hopefully be a persistent citizens' campaign to systematically expose as much of the corporate political monopoly over New Mexico as possible, and call for a wide range of reforms.

I spent a few weeks developing the web site , which now contains much detail about the past relative to my own experiences, and we launched the campaign on Tuesday, June 19th (Tuesday being associated with the Greek God of War).

Since that time, AP coverage of the event has spread widely, including nationally, so I think we've made some impact.

We've also received tremendous support from the public: It seems that many people feel the way I do.

But we will need lots of help from the public on keeping the buzz going. We already used up a lot of publicity capital in our first press conference, so we need people to write letters-to-the-editor, join our network , etc. Don't let these guys hear the end of it!

The forces that be are already fighting back: A Richardson appointee named Gregory Green already crashed my press conference on behalf of the Administration and attempted to blunt our coverage by playing dumb about what happened during the session (he was a lobbyist for my former organization during the session), and apparently conveniently managed not to mention that he is currently a Richardson Appointee to the powerful Environmental Improvement Board. This is the kind of unethical response that needs to be countered. Who knows what else they will try? I've certainly written my fair share of embarrassing emails in the past, and I expect to start seeing them turning up in public. Do I care? Sure, things will likely be painful for me. But I'm persona non grata now anyway (at least among the corrupt! I've gotten lots of support from people on the inside too).

So, please help us rid our state of the obscene grip of corporations over our political system here in this state. Now is the time. Visit , read through the materials there, join the network, and await news of further opportunities to participate. We intend to take this campaign to the doorsteps of the powerful, and not back down.

Thanks and best wishes,
Ben Luce

Editor's Notes: This is a guest blog by Ben Luce, the former Chair and Policy Director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy (CCAE). Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their opinions on political issues, and they may or may not represent 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 right-hand corner of our main page.

Click to read a previous post on the formation of Break the Grip!

Guest Blog: Patrick Lyons Needs to Answer Questions About Campaign Contributions

This is a guest blog by Stephanie L. DuBois of Las Cruces:
"Fair and honest" are the words used by Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons. He was the same Patrick Lyons that thought buying a pick-up truck with campaign funds was acceptable.I am sure he believes he was fair and honest. I can't say with any certainty that Mr. Lyons has done anything illegal according to New Mexico law.

We, as New Mexican voters, extend to our elected officials a certain amount of trust and we have the expectation that trust will be honored. Some of the comments attributed to Mr. Lyons might cause one to think there is a credibility gap. On one hand he says "everything we do is fair and honest" and he is doing everything he can to raise money for state trust funds. On the other hand he doesn't feel compelled to answer questions about campaign donations given by the same developer before and after the bid was awarded to him. When called by an Albuquerque Journal reporter about those donations he told the reporter, "don't call me back again." He then hung up. I think the commissioner doth protest too much.

To my knowledge, there is no bid process on state trust lands, yet Mr. Lyons created a Request for Proposal process with a reported deadline of February 1. He awarded the bid to a Las Cruces developer on December 26. Mr. Lyons claimed that this contractor had by far the best proposal. Question: How could Mr. Lyons know it was the best proposal if he didn't see any of the others? And why would he go against his process by awarding the bid almost a month early?

The contractor can donate to any campaign he wishes, as long as he doesn't have some expectation of some kind of return. For me, I think there should be an investigation of all transactions made while Lyons has been in office. Unlike the legislature, which must have a majority vote to pass legislation, Lyons is able to make decisions unilaterally and arbitrarily. We learned in the recent past that behavior isn't always wise. Let's have answers to the right questions.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Stephanie L. DuBois. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their personal opinions on relevant political issues. 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 right-hand corner of our main page.

To learn more about the controversy over Patrick Lyons' handling of a development bid in Las Cruces and campaign contributions he received from the chosen developer, try these for starters:

• Lyons Got Donations After Vote, Albuquerque Journal, 6.16.07
• Land Commissioner on Shaky Ground, Albuquerque Journal, 6.19.07
• On trip to Las Cruces, Lyons defends land lease, Heath Haussamen, 5.16.07

PARTICIPATE: Governor's Task Force on Ethics Reform

The next meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform is scheduled for Wednesday, June 27th, at 9 AM in Room 307 at the State Capitol in Santa Fe. Once again, public participation is urged. Even though it sure seemed like it was certain members of the Democratic leadership in the NM Senate who stopped many of the recommended bills that came out of last year's task force, there's still hope these critical reforms have a real chance for passage at the 2008 Legislative Session. This is especially true IF we keep the pressure on by showing there's strong and unwavering public support for genuine change. The public comment period is tentatively set for 3:00 PM, but that can change depending on how much time other agenda items take up. Here's the tentative agenda:

Tentative Agenda: Governor's Task Force on Ethics Reform
Wednesday, June 27
Room 307, Roundhouse, Santa Fe

• 9:00 AM  Call to Order: Governor Garrey Carruthers and Dean Suellyn Scarnecchia, Co-Chairs
• 9:05 AM   Approval of Minutes
• Working Group Reports:
  • 9:15 AM  Ethics Commission
  • 9:45 AM  Campaign Contribution Limits
  • 10:15 AM  Gift Limitations
• 10:30 AM  Break
• Working Group Reports Continued:
  • 10:45 AM  State Treasurer/State Auditor Appointment
  • 11:15 AM  Public Finance
  • 11:45 AM  Legislative Compensation
• 12:00 Noon  Lunch
• Working Group Reports Continued:
  • 1:30 PM  Elections Commission
  • 2:00 PM  Procurement Practices
  • 2:30 PM  Transparency in Government
• 3:00 PM   Public Comment*
• 3:30 PM  Discussion of Task Force Next Steps
• 4:00 PM  Adjourn

*SINCE PRESENTATION TIMES VARY, PUBLIC COMMENT MAY BE HELD AT A DIFFERENT TIME THAN THAT SCHEDULED.