Democracy for New Mexico

(Updated) More on Rey Garduño's Run for District 6 City Councilor

Suzanne Prescott has posted of an excellent two-part interview with Rey Garduño (left), who's running for the District 6 seat on the Albuquerque City Council, on New Mexico FBIHOP. will be is now up there tomorrow as well. As explained in our previous post, Rey is one of several progressive candidates who are trying to qualify for public campaign funding under the city's new clean elections law. He needs help to be successful. You know what to do: email him at reygard@unm.edu or call 505.266-4424 or 688-698. Also be sure to check out Garduño's new campaign blog called "Elect Rey Garduño - He's running Clean!" to learn more.

O'Malley Also Needs Our Help
District 2 incumbent Debbie O'Malley, one of our most effective City Councilors, is also trying to qualify for public campaign funding. Read more about that in a recent DFNM guest blog by Suzanne Prescott. To find out how you can lend a hand call 304-3960 or email .

(Updated) Rey Garduño Seeks Public Funding for ABQ District 6 City Council Race

UPDATE: Rey Garduño now has a website: https://reygarduno.blogspot.com/
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Long-time community activist, public information specialist and small businessman Rey Garduño (right) has decided to pursue public funding for his campaign to replace Martin Heinrich on the Albuquerque City Council in District 6 in the Southeast Heights. Heinrich has plans to run for Congress in CD1 against Repub incumbent Heather Wilson and will resign his seat on the Council when his terms ends. City Council elections are set for even numbered districts this coming November.

Garduño currently serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Common Cause NM. He's also a member of the Board of the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP), and operates Rey Garduño Photography. He retired in 2005 from his post as head of marketing for UNM Hospitals, and he was a Public Affairs Representative at Carrie Tingley Hospital for nine years. Click to see his extensive resume detailing 25 years of professional experience in managing staff and resources, as well as his many years of service to the community on various boards and professional organizations. Rey has also worked hard in support of various initiatives including passage of minimum wage and clean elections legislation, the Better New Mexico campaign and ethics reform.

Like Debbie O'Malley, who's running for reelection to her North Valley City Council seat in District 2, Garduño is currently in the process of collecting signatures and $5 donations from registered voters in his district so that he can qualify for public funding. He has to gather more than 250 before the May 31 deadline. If you live in District 6 and would like to sign up, you can contact him at 266-4424 or reygard@unm.edu. He's also looking for people to help collect the signatures and donations. You don't need to be a resident of District 6 to help out.

Other reported candidates for the District 6 seat include UNM graduate student Joe Garcia, who is president of the Graduate and Professional Student Association, and Joan Griffin, who owns a local ad agency and operates a dating service franchise. Griffin served as Mayor Marty Chavez's press person during his 2005 reelection campaign.

More on O'Malley's District 2 Race
See our previous guest blog by Suzanne Prescott to learn more about the public financing program, as well as how to get involved with Debbie O'Malley's (left) campaign in District 2. According to a post today on Joe Monahan, O'Malley will have a competitor in her race to retain her seat in the form of Katherine Martinez, who has close ties to Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez:

Meantime, on the city election watch 34 year old Katherine Martinez, who is active in the mayor's ABQ Green initiative and is the government affairs director for the Central NM Homebuilders Association, has launched a campaign against City Council President Debbie O'Malley who has often clashed with His Honor over growth issues. Martinez also worked in government affairs for the ABQ Chamber of Commerce.

Martinez (Katherine Carroll), a Democrat like O'Malley, was born in North Carolina and moved to New Mexico eight years ago with her native New Mexican husband. She says she has lived in the ABQ North Valley district only two and a half years, but "it doesn't take long to get to know people."

to determine which Albuquerque City Council district you reside in.

UPDATE: Also see our later post on Rey Garduno, which includes links to a two-part interview with him by Suzanne Prescott that appeared on New Mexico FBIHOP.

Guest Blog: Albuquerque City Council Candidates to Test New Public Financing Option

This is a guest blog by Suzanne Prescott:

Maria Martinez (right), Democratic Chair of Albuquerque's precinct 162, says campaign finance reform is a good thing, and helps to insure that our elected officials represent their communities and not special interests. Listen:

Voluntary public campaign finance reform for Albuquerque municipal elections was passed by referendum in the fall election of 2005. This is the first time that the law is being put to the test. Candidates and their supporters will have to feel their way through what is at present an untested procedure set in motion by the referendum that was passed in 2005. To qualify for public campaign funding, the new law requires that a candidate for City Council get signatures and $5.00 from 1% of the registered voters in their district from May 1 to May 30  -- that's gives them less than a month.

For Debbie O'Malley, running for City Council from District #2, that means collecting 300 signatures.  A question worth raising is whether it's worth the effort to get the signatures if a candidate is running unopposed. At present O'Malley has no opposition, but that could change. Collecting the signatures now could be good insurance if an opposing candidate decides to enter the race at a later date. If O'Malley is unopposed and decides not to run a campaign, then the money that has been collected would have to be returned to the initial signators.

ith an official campaign organization just getting off the ground, and with no explanatory literature to hand out, it may not be easy to quickly gather the needed signatures. The first week of collecting signatures is already over -- close family members, and friends have been mined for their support.  Now the hard work begins of explaining the new law and reaching out to those less familiar with the candidate.

Some observers say that with the money in hand there would be at least two advantages to running a campaign: First, it would allow O'Malley to get her name and credentials before a larger audience. This could be useful later if O'Malley were to decide to run for another elected office and there seem to some available. Second, O'Malley's collection of 300 signatures is a good opportunity for supporters to actively engage registered voters in a discussion of public campaign financing and its merits. There are still voters who are not sure what public campaign financing entails and why it's important.

Get Involved
Signatures are already being collected. Registered voters in District  #2 who support Debbie O'Malley can sign a form by calling 304-3960 or emailing . Anyone who is not a registered voter in District #2 and who would like to become one of the 300 signators must register to vote by the end of the month and also sign the form and submit the $5.00. Use the contact information above to become a registered voter. You don't have to live in District #2 to help O'Malley round up signators who will donate $5.

Those who qualify would receive $1 for every registered voter in their District that would be used to finance their campaign. Click for a copy of the issued by the Albuquerque City Clerk.

Editor's Note: Albuquerque will be electing City Councilors from Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 in November, 2007. :

District 2: Debbie O'Malley is running as an incumbent. No other candidates have announced.

District 4: Brad Winter running as an incumbent. No other candidates have announced.

District 6: Incumbent Martin Heinrich will not run again so that he can enter the Congressional race for CD1. One candidate who has announced he will enter this race is Rey Garduno, who has said he will pursue qualifying for public financing. A subsequent post will provide more information on his campaign.

District 8: It's not known if incumbent Craig Loy is planning to run again for his seat.

This is a guest blog by Suzanne Prescott. Guest blogs provide an opportunity for readers and others to express their views on issues of political interest to DFNM. 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 main page.

(Updated) Taos Democrats for Clean Elections Files Challenge to Taos County Party Election

As reported on the Democratic Party of New Mexico website, the Party's Judicial Council will be convening today at 3:00 PM by conference call to hear a challenge filed on behalf of a group called the Taos Democrats for Clean Elections. A PDF of the challenge and appeal documents can be found here on the DPNM website.

The complaint alleges that the methodology used to apportion precincts for the Taos County Central Committee was "fundamentally flawed and violated the rules of the Democratic Party of New Mexico." The challenge requests that the Taos County State Central Committee members not be credentialed for the April 28, 2007 DPNM State Central Committee meeting and that a new election of Taos County Central Committee members be held. The requests are based on the claim that the use of an invalid methodology means that all actions and decisions coming from the Taos CCC, including the election of state central committee members, are also invalid.

For more information, contact the Democratic Party of New Mexico at 505.830.3650. The meeting is open to the public but those interested in attending should call the Party to make sure where they can be accommodated.

UPDATE 1:42 PM: The Democratic Party of New Mexico has informed me that two rebuttals of the complaint have now been posted on their website and suggested that I link to them as a matter of fairness. The rebuttals can be found here.

Editor's Note: For some background on what led up to this challenge, see our previous posts:

• March 26, 2007
• April 10, 2007
• April 11, 2007

Iglesias Points to Rove, Special Counsel Responds

Once again, all roads lead to Rove (who also doesn't believe in global warming and hates it when Sheryl Crowe touches him). This L.A. Times article reports that the Office of the Special Counsel will be investigating Rove and other elements of the Bush administration's political operation in the White House:

... the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House.

... The question of improper political influence over government decision-making is at the heart of the controversy over the firing of U.S. attorneys and the ongoing congressional investigation of the special e-mail system installed in the White House and other government offices by the Republican National Committee.

... [Scott J.] Bloch [head of the Office of the Special Counsel] said the new investigation grew from two narrower inquiries his staff had begun in recent weeks. One involved the fired U.S. attorney from New Mexico, David C. Iglesias. The other centered on a PowerPoint presentation that a Rove aide, J. Scott Jennings, made at the General Services Administration this year. [emphasis mine]

Responding to Alberto Gonzales' testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, David Iglesias has pointed a finger directly at Rove, accusing him of being behind the firings. From McClatchy Newspapers:

Gonzales' testimony Thursday left senators convinced he wasn't behind the plan or its execution and in fact knew far less than a department head should have about the details. Former and current members of Gonzales' staff who've been interviewed by congressional investigators also have said their roles were limited or nonexistent.  Absent another explanation, the signs point to the White House and, at least in some degree, to the president's political adviser, Karl Rove.

David Iglesias, the former New Mexico U.S. attorney and one of the eight fired last year, said investigating the White House's role is the logical next step - one that would follow existing clues about Rove's involvement.

"If I were Congress, I would say, `If the attorney general doesn't have answers, then who would?' There's enough evidence to indicate that Karl Rove was involved up to his eyeballs."

Iglesias said another clue that the White House may have been the driving force is the relative lack of Justice Department documentation for the firings in the 6,000 pages of documents turned over to Congress.

"If you want to justify getting rid of someone, you should have at least some paper trail," Iglesias said. "There's been a remarkable absence of that. I'm wondering if the paper trail is at the White House."

Yup, if Gonzales and his staffers don't know (or won't say) how the list was created, who does that leave as the culprit in selecting the U.S. attorneys that needed firing? You don't think Bush came up with it on his own, do you? Political decisions based on political considerations (virtually all decisions in the Bush administration) would naturally be made by the main political operative in the White House -- Karl Rove. No wonder The Decider doesn't want Rove to testify under oath. And no wonder Rove "lost" all those emails. Can it get any more obvious?

At last, it looks like a wide-ranging and cohesive investigation will look into the possible illegalities committed by political operative Rove and his inside-the-White-House campaign office. Let's hope Scott Bloch is true to his word on how deep and comprehensive his probe will be. Don't hold your breath, though. Bloch may be another Gonzales, ready to cover for his bosses, according to this.

Richardson Names Reinstituted Ethics Reform Task Force

With the intent to call a Special Session on Ethics Reform later this year, Governor Bill Richardson has named a 23-member Ethics Reform Task Force to once again study and recommend legislation concerning such issues as limiting campaign contributions, creating an independent ethics commission, requiring improved campaign reporting and public funding of statewide elections. They'll also analyze why the NM Legislature balked at passing most of the major ethics and campaign reforms introduced this year.

Last year the Governor named an 17-member task force charged with similar tasks and used many of their recommendations to create a legislative package for the 2007 Legislative Session. Unfortunately, only a couple of elements of that package gained passage -- including public funding for Court of Appeals and Supreme Court judicial elections and limitations on gifts -- despite Richardson's call for a special session to consider the rest of the ethics bills, along with other legislation. All of the ethics package bills passed the NM House, but were held up on the Senate side, most of them by inaction in the Senate Rules Committee chaired by Sen. Linda Lopez.

In a press release issued on Friday, Gov. Richardson had this to say:

I am pleased that so many members of the first task force have agreed to continue their service, and grateful to the new members who give a fresh perspective to the work of the group,” said Governor Richardson. “The work of this group is critical, and I expect the task force to meet quickly and begin their work as soon as possible. Republicans and Democrats, business and government, non-profit and public, I believe this diverse group will help ensure the public’s best interests are well represented.

The members of the Governor’s Task Force on Ethics Reform are:

Co-Chairs

• Governor Garrey Carruthers, Dean, NMSU College of Business
• Suellyn Scarnecchia, Dean of the UNM School of Law

Members

1. Diane Denish, Lt. Governor State of New Mexico
2. Stewart Udall, Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior
3. Governor Charlie Dorame, Governor, Pueblo of Tesuque
4. James Lewis, NM State Treasurer
5. Stuart Bluestone, NM Chief Deputy Attorney General
6. Dede Feldman, NM State Senator (D-Albuquerque)
7. John Ryan, NM State Senator (R-Bernalillo, Albuquerque)
8. Ken Martinez, House Majority Leader, NM State Representative (D-Grants)
9. Jeff Steinborn, NM State Representative (D-Las Cruces)
10. Don Tripp, NM State Representative (R-Socorro)
11. Bill McCamley, Dona Ana County Commissioner
12. Jim Noel, Executive Director, Judicial Standards Commission
13. Doug Brown, Principal, Brown and Brown Ventures (former State Treasurer)
14. Leonard Sanchez, CPA, Moss Adams LLP
15. Norman Thayer, Attorney, Sutin Thayer and Browne
16. Tom Keesing, Realtor, Santa Fe Agency Real Estate
17. Geno Zamora, President, Zamora Strategic Advisors (former Democratic candidate, Attorney General)
18. Fred Nathan, Executive Director, Think New Mexico
19. Matt Brix, Policy Director, Center for Civic Policy (former Executive Director, Common Cause NM)
20. Claire Weiner, Public Member (who served on the Election Reform Task Force)
21. Maralyn Budke, Public Member

Editor's Note: Our posts on the handling of the ethics and campaign reform package in the 2007 NM Legislature can be found among the contents of our archive of posts on the topic, as well as in our 2007 Legislature archive.

Number Of White House Officials Allowed To Intervene In DoJ Cases Jumps By 10,325 Percent

Think Progress has video and a transcript of an amazing exchange between Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Gonzales from yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Go see. Talk about compare and contrast ...

Gonzales Squirms

You can listen to the Senate Judiciary hearing with AG Alberto Gonzales on NPR radio or watch it on C-SPAN 3 TV (which will probably repeat it tonight). These sources also have coverage on their websites. In fact, C-SPAN.org already has a download available of this morning's session. Here's their special page devoted to the attorney firings, which contains numerous links to news, documents and videos. Here's the NPR.org website.

I watched an early portion of today's Gonzales hearing and my first reaction was that he isn't smirking much anymore. You know the infamous smirk. It usually appears when Gonzales is being coy with the facts. This morning, however, the smirk was much more rare, replaced with grimacing, sweating, fumbling, mumbling, knocking into the microphone and squirming in his seat as he got grilled on his involvement in the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. In the part I watched, Sen. Arlen Specter was the roughest on Alberto -- breaking in repeatedly to contest what Gonzales was saying and pressuring him to answer the questions. He also stated that Alberto's opening testimony continued “a pattern of not being candid.”

Gonzales' fall back line appears to be, "I can't recall," and he's using it often. He's also claiming that his involvement with evaluating and criticizing some of those fired was somehow separate from "the process" used to decide which attorneys to can that was led by his Deputy, Kyle Sampson. Gonzales says his criticisms were merely part of his usual job of supervising the attorneys. Right. Talk about desperate compartmentalizing.

According to a report on NPR.org:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' claim that he had only a limited role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys was challenged repeatedly Thursday by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a highly contentious hearing, Gonzales insisted that the firings were proper and not part of a political effort to interfere with ongoing prosecutions.

But lawmakers from both parties appeared incredulous at Gonzales' failure to recall numerous meetings and discussions that led up to the firings, and his insistence that he relied on subordinates at the Justice Department in coming up with the list of who should be fired.

As to the firing of David Iglesias:

Gonzales also acknowledged that he had had a conversation with White House political adviser Karl Rove and President Bush about complaints that former U.S. attorney David Iglesias was not pursuing voter fraud cases more aggressively in New Mexico. But Gonzales said he did not know how and when Iglesias' name was added to the list of those recommended for firing, although he said he was not "surprised" to see the name there.

Good for the Goose But Not for the Gander?
Another bone of contention? Gonzales claims that U.S. Attorney Carol Lam of San Diego was fired in part because she wasn't getting enough illegal immigration convictions in her border state, and that she was devoting too much time to white collar crime. At the same time, Iglesias reportedly was shut down on his request to hire more attorneys to conduct illegal immigration cases because the Justice Department wanted him to concentrate on white collar crime.

Does that mean that New Mexico isn't considered a border state with numerous illegal immigration problems, just like Southern California? Or just that Bush's Justice Department was interested in pursuing white collar crime only if those indicted were primarily Democrats, as was the case with Iglesias and the courthouse indictments? Remember, it was Carol Lam who prosecuted the outrageous corruption of Repub Rep. Duke Cunningham. She was fired, it just so happens, when the corruption case widened to include subpoenas of other powerful Republicans. Iglesias, on the other hand, was berated for not going fast enough on indictments that primarily targeted Democrats. It's been widely reported that indictments of Democrats have heavily outnumbered indictments of Republicans in recent years. Reeks of politics to me.

The NPR.org site also has links to selected audio clips of the testimony today.

Domenici Got Bush Involved in Iglesias Firing

A copyrighted story in Sunday's Albuquerque Journal is getting big play in the media and on the net. Entitled "Domenici Sought Iglesias Ouster," the article's opening paragraph reveals for the first time that Bush was involved in the decision to fire Iglesias, at the direct request of Sen. Domenici:

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici, who had been unhappy with Iglesias for some time, made a personal appeal to the White House, the Journal has learned.

The article explains the process this way:

In the spring of 2006, Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out. Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president.

At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.

Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue. The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7. [emphasis mine]

Iglesias' name wasn't on an October 2006 list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired. In October, a few weeks before the November 6th election, Domenici phoned Iglesias at home and asked if indictments in the metro court investigation would be issued before the election. Iglesias said no. Iglesias' name suddenly appeared on another version of the list dated November 15, 2006. Domenici had called Rove after the election, then called Bush. Given what Gonzales told Domenici as reported in the Journal story -- that he'd fire Iglesias only on the order of the president -- it's logical to assume that Bush must have given an order to fire Iglesias sometime between November 6th and November 15th, when the list was created.

As Josh Marshall writes at Talking Points Memo:

No one disputes that Domenici's call to Iglesias was at best inappropriate. But there's been a lack of direct evidence that Iglesias's refusal to bow to political pressure led directly to his firing. Now we have that evidence. And it's not Kyle Sampson or even Alberto Gonzales whom Domenici went to to get sign off for Iglesias's ouster. It was right to the president. And the available evidence now points strongly to the conclusion that the final decision to fire David Iglesias came from the President of the United States.

Political motivation for Domenici's calls and Iglesias' firing? You might say.

Marshall also reports on an interesting exchange from today's White House press gaggle. And just think, AG Alberto Gonzales is set to testify under oath to Congress tomorrow.

Another View On Unfair Apportionment in Taos County

This post was submitted by Claudia Kuhns of Colorado:
I have been following the precinct elections and the county re-organization in Taos County both this year and in 2005.  It is appalling that the gains in organization and equality have been obliterated by one group of so-called Democrats cheating to get their man elected as county chair. It is even more appalling that this appears to have been done with the complicity of the state Democratic Party which has not even followed its own rules in apportioning precinct representatives as well as allowing election fraud in some precincts while disenfranchising citizens in other precincts. Is there really any democracy in New Mexico?

This seems to follow the same pattern of oppression by some members of the Democratic Party in New Mexico in 2004 when an outrageously exorbitant fee was established for a recount in the Presidential election. This fee was established by then Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Governor Bill Richardson, both Democrats. It has since been statistically proved that there were gross irregularities in a significant number of precincts in New Mexico. The stopping of the recount was subsequently ruled illegal by the New Mexico Supreme Court.

More recently in the CD 1 race Patricia Madrid narrowly lost to Heather Wilson.  Again democracy was thwarted as no recount was done. In many states the narrow margin in this race would have triggered an automatic recount. One wonders why Ms. Madrid conceded so quickly.

Where are the real Democrats in New Mexico? Is the Democratic Party being run by Republicans in Democrats' clothing?  Sure sounds like that might be the case.

Claudia Kuhns
Executive Director
The Public Integrity Project
Be the Change USA

Editor's Note: See our previous posts on this topic here, here and . This post was submitted by Claudia Kuhns. Guest blogs such as these provide an opportunity for readers to express their opinions on political topics and do not necessarily reflect the views of DFNM. If you'd like to submit a post for possible publication as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link in the upper left-hand corner of our main page.