Sen. Heinrich

ABQ Journal DC correspondent Michael Coleman describes Senator Martin Heinrich's maiden US Senate speech as a "pep talk," given as it was against the state's current dreary backdrop of economic and social problems. The Thursday speech--a traditionally important one for a new Senator--was indeed that as well as a celebration of the success of the immense federal presence here. There was no lamenting over our becoming too financially dependent on Uncle Sam.

(Video here. Transcript here.)

Heinrich's maiden speech placed him firmly in the camp of predecessors like Dennis Chavez, Clint Anderson and Pete Domenici. He sees his role as elevating and protecting the federal programs and science that gave birth to the modern New Mexican economy. That's job one:

Job two will be his longtime interest in the environment and climate change in particular. He told the Senate:

I have watched as too many of us in elected office, moved from being entitled to our own opinions–something which our democracy demands and relies upon– to embracing the belief that we are somehow entitled to our own facts. Mr. President, none of us are entitled to our own facts.

Heinrich, 41, told me prior to his speech that he had been reading Conservation Politics," a book on the political career of Senator Anderson ('49-'73) who was a leading environmentalist of his time.

Anderson melded his interest in building the state's economy by enhancing the national labs and defense installations with a protectiveness for the state's spectacular natural environment. He left big footprints here, certainly big enough for New Mexico's new junior Senator to follow.

THE HEINRICH FILE

Heinrich comes to the Senate after four years in the US House. He is an engineer by training and speaks like one--in that now familiar semi-monotone. His speeches plod along--much like Senator Bingaman's did. Compared to those who came before him, his professional and educational resume is thin. But he was at the right place at the right time. And he made a good gamble. He gave up the ABQ House seat for a try at the Senate. That set him apart from the pack.

Senators Bingaman and Domenici were both around Heinrich's age when they began Senate careers that lasted over 30 years. Heinrich's maiden speech was well-written for the occasion and he continues to show political growth. He seems to have the patience that is required of a Senator if he is to build power over the long term. That's as it should be. A good gambler knows when to press his luck...

And what about those myriad social and economic ills facing New Mexico? In the years ahead the new Senator may find himself confronted by those matters more urgently than his predecessors. For now he has a full plate simply working to prevent things from getting worse in this new era of budget constraints.

UDALL'S DAY

Meanwhile, Tom Udall, the state's senior senator--although he is also only in his first term--continues the long climb up the congressional totem pole. Dem Udall, up for re-election next year, announces that as a result of the passing of New Jersey Senator Lautenberg,  he is now chairman of the subcommittee on financial services. That's a subcommittee of the powerful Appropriations Committee which Udall snagged a seat on this year. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over such agencies as the IRS and SEC which have some presence in NM but not large ones.

The most critical appropriations subcommittee for NM is energy and water. Udall is on that subcommittee, but is not chairman of the panel that controls nearly $5 billion in annual federal appropriations for our state.

DEPENDENCY DEFINED

New Mexico s often described as "dependent" on the Feds for its economic lifeblood. It's more than that--much more:

The Martinez administration and the Martinez Democrats in the Legislature think that our economic saviors will ride in on their white horses now that corporate income tax rates have been slashed. That's like giving aspirin to a patient suffering from brain cancer. To the videotape:

The national food bank organization, Feeding America, says its 2013 Map the Meal Gap study shows that New Mexico is the highest for childhood hunger in the U.S and has seen hunger grow for the third year in a row. The 2013 study shows that more 30 percent, or nearly 160,000 children, are experiencing hunger. 

Three years ago, when the first Map the Meal Gap study was released, New Mexico was at 27 percent for childhood hunger. The study also looked at the overall population and its rate of hunger. It shows 417,780 people, or 20 percent of New Mexicans, do not always know where they will find their next meal.

And more tape:

On the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of New Mexico...unemployment tops 60 percent and some families are still without electricity and running water...Tribal leaders have been asking for years for the federal government to streamline permitting processes and curb oversight to address the issue.

Why would corporate executives want to relocate their families here against that backdrop when they can get the same low corporate tax rates in a dozen other states?

Hispanics and Native Americans who compose well over a majority of the state's population have been hit especially hard by the recession. That's a chief reason we have climbed to that dubious #1 position in childhood hunger.

MISSISSIPPI WITH SCENERY

Earlier this week we reported on a Dem insider poll that shows many New Mexicans in a nearly "give up" mode when it comes to the deep social conditions crisis haunting the state. No wonder. The descent is shown in stark relief now that the economic boom that papered over some of the worst is gone and replaced by an economy that moves like a snail. Reader Jim McClure echoes what you hear a lot of in political circles: Where is the political leadership to lead the populace to expect more?:

I was not surprised that the survey you cited in Tuesday's blog that showed that New Mexicans accept our state's "Mississippi-with-great-scenery" stature. As a newcomer to New Mexico, what has surprised me most is the vigorous defense of an unsatisfactory status quo. My impression is that instead of fighting over how best to fix things, folks here tend to resist the idea that a fix is needed.

...Social-justice groups like LULAC focus on trivial pursuits like speaking Spanish in a supermarket and ignore substantive issues such as persuading Hispanic families to keep their kids in school.

Political leaders tend to be distracted by silver-bullet solutions --such as lowering corporate taxes without addressing the broad range of competitive issues such as workforce flexibility, regulation, etc.

What's needed is for political leaders to outline a vision for New Mexico's future and mobilize public and private talent in a comprehensive plan to make it happen. I'm not seeing that kind of leadership...

You wonder, Jim, if the state needs more psychiatrists and fewer politicians--psychiatrists to cure a large swath of the population of its low-self esteem. Once that's resolved, then maybe you get the political will to do something.

THE FLAT LINE

Hopefully the fires will flame out and the tourist season in Santa Fe won't take a big hit. The economy there is still pretty much flat-lined if the county budget there is any indicator:

The approximately $236 million budget represents a decrease from the nearly $240 million budget for the current fiscal year, which ends July 1.

RADIO BREAK

Former KKOB-AM radio talk show host Jim Villanucci (remember him?) has ended up in Portland, Oregon where he will host a 9 a.m. to noon talk show on KXL-FM. Also ending up in Portland is longtime ABQ radio manager Milt McConnell who has been named VP for Alpha Broadcasting in Portland which includes KXL. Villanucci, who had a 14 year ABQ run, and Milt worked together at KKOB before Cumulus Radio took over and gave them the axe. When Nucci left ABQ he headed for his old stomping grounds in Vegas, but plans for a gig there didn't pan out. Villanucci, 50, told me his pay here topped out at about $120,000 a year but had been cut in half by the time he was forced out of KKOB earlier this year by the Cumulus budget-cutters. Enjoy those gray skies, fellas...

DEM DILEMMA

Johnson

Since Gov. Martinez Democrats in the state Senate signed on to Martinez's corporate tax cut as a panacea for the state's economic woes and they were joined by the Dem leadership in the state House, they are going to have a hard time using stuff like this against the Governor in next year's election:

New Mexico’s economy grew by .2 percent in 2012, placing it 47th among the states and the District of Columbia in terms of GDP growth, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis said...The state’s GDP was $70.7 billion in 2012, up from $70.5 billion in 2011, the BEA said in its annual report on state economies...

Heather Wilson

Once they soared like Icarus over this vast Land of Enchantment and now...splat! Both former Senator Pete Domenici and his protege--former ABQ GOP US Congresswoman Heather Wilson--have fallen from grace faster than a Twinkie disappearing at a weight watchers meeting. Who would have thunk it?

Domenici was so revered that he earned the title "St. Pete," only to see his angelic garments severely soiled when he admitted fathering a child out of wedlock with the daughter of a fellow Senator during his first term in the 70.s When that news broke this year, they had to rewrite the history books.

And now Heather--Pete's surrogate daughter--is busted by federal government watchdogs for collecting nearly $500,000 in questionable contract payments from four federally funded national labs--mostly New Mexico's Sandia and Los Alamos.

The history buffs already had Heather's US Attorney scandal as a major drag on her future standing, Now this gets plopped on top. Looks like she'll be remembered as fondly as Albert Fall. Now she belongs to the School of Mines in South Dakota where she was named president earlier this year. That is, if they decide to keep her around as talk swirls of a possible criminal investigation. And no wonder:

The report also says it found no evidence that work performed by Wilson under contracts with the labs was completed, although the payments to Wilson made by the labs were reimbursed by the federal government.

Wilson came with this:

The report confirms that the labs were satisfied with my work,” Wilson said. “The work was done in full compliance with the contracts we signed and under the direct supervision of lab sponsors.”

So far, Heather's new employer is standing behind her.

When the Domenici love child scandal broke it was the hypocrisy that had the denizens in the bleacher seats retching, They had watched for years as Pete preached "character counts," all the while hiding his major character defect. And now it's Wilson getting the same guffaws. She always maintained an "above it all" superior countenance that she used to brush off her critics. Now it turns out the Rhodes Scholar from New Hampshire was just another politician with her hand out.

And to think back when she and Domenici called up then US Attorney Iglesias and demanded to know when former state Senator Manny Aragon was going to be indicted so it could help her electoral chances. Move over, Manny. You may have a new cellmate.

The payments to Wilson for "consulting" services that could not be documented were given to the former five term congresswoman from 2009 to March 2011. In June 2008, she lost the GOP US Senate nomination to Steve Pearce and in January 2009 she vacated the House seat she held for five terms. Shortly after the payments stopped in March 2011, she began her pursuit for another US Senate seat. She won the GOP nomination but lost to Martin Heinrich in 2012.

Wilson is a transitory figure in state history, but Sandia and Los Alamos Labs are economic linchpins for the entire state economy. That their management could be so flippant in doling out what appear to be influence payments is a real blow to the battle in Washington to keep the labs adequately funded.

Some of us who have been vocal about the need to keep the money flowing to the nuclear labs have been tiring of the arrogance and sense of entitlement that surround them. Sandia and Los Alamos need to make real friends--not ones bought and paid for and that reveal a culture of corruption that puts our state's economic fortunes at risk.

The kicker is that Los Alamos was preparing hundreds of layoffs while they were paying off Wilson and pleading poverty. Sandia was also scaling back contracts and travel as budgets grew tight--but apparently not tight enough to keep them from doing their darndest to keep their "Senator-in-waiting" flush with cash.

PADDLE AWAY

Will Senators Udall and Heinrich now demand that management heads roll at the national labs over what the Department of Energy says are out-of-bounds payments to Wilson? (Lockheed Martin, manager of Sandia, and Bechtel, manager of Los Alamos, have had to pay back to the government the nearly $500,000 Wilson received.)

The Alligators freaked out when UNM President Frank recently made a move to have his school have a larger management role at Sandia. They feared it could become a political dumping ground. Turns out it already was.

Over the years Domenici and Wilson looked mostly the other way when the labs lost their way and these contracts for Wilson are easily seen as payback for that service.

Udall and Heinrich have their work cut out for them as the budget cutters add the "Wilson card" to their
pile as they move to scale back lab funding. Maybe if they kick some management butt they can keep it in the deck and out of the game. Does that mean companies other than Lockheed and Bechtel should be brought in to manage the labs? Why not, Senators?

ALLIGATOR STRIKE

One of the Alligators, a longtime foe of Wilson, found his moment to strike when the latest news broke about the former GOP Congresswoman:

I like the fact that we can now call heather Wilson an “Undocumented Worker," he poked

THE HEALTH OF UNM

We have readers who care deeply about the University of New Mexico. Several of them are of the "Senior Alligator" variety--our most trusted sources on what is really happening there and elsewhere.

Today two of them weigh in on the political struggle that has broken out over control of the UNM Health Sciences Center--a vast organization with a $1.5 billion annual budget. UNM President Frank says the Center has strayed from under the control of his office and he wants and needs it back if he is to lead effectively.

(But in a turnabout Wednesday, Frank said he was backing off from trying to take more control of UNM Health Sciences. Hmm. Who talked to him?).

Both of our longtime UNM sources--with decades of experience in the inner workings of academia-- sympathize with to Frank's plight. Our first Senior Gator starts us off with a history lesson on how UNM became a highly politicized institution beginning a decade ago and how that has led to the situation today:

Things have really deteriorated at UNM since then Governor Bill Richardson, in 2003 decided to intervene in UNM with hardball Washington-style partisan politics, asking for signed, undated letters of resignation from all Regents and appointing his buddies Mel Eaves and Jamie Koch to the Board of Regents. They in turn then picked Friend of Bill Louis Caldera as UNM president.

In the BC era (Before Caldera), UNM presidents had worked cooperatively with deans and vice-presidents at the UNM Health Sciences Center to coordinate activities and to narrow the canyon between the main campus and the north campus.

Since the BC era UNM has had presidents who could not care less about UNM, its various parts, and its primary functions--only about themselves and politics. The Regents were micro-managing the University, even ordering an office and a staff on campus. Those who played ball with Richardson, Koch and Eaves were richly rewarded. Others, who were suspected of having loyalty to former presidents, were "retired" or transferred. Paul Roth (a fine administrator) was one of the favored ones.  He was rewarded with an interim presidential term and better yet the exalted title of "Chancellor" of the UNM Health Sciences.

When UNM President David Schmidly came in he gave up his chief operating officer function to Friend of Bill politico David Harris. Instead of having the Provost and the Chief Academic Officer being second to the UNM president--as is customary at most higher education institutions--Harris was and is clearly the second in command. Several directors who were "compatible" were promoted to VPs, Associate and Assistant VPs, including the Athletic Department director who became a Vice President.

UNM had become more fragmented. Its leadership lost sight of their obligation to serve the faculty and students in the core functions of teaching and research, and became self-serving. The Regents micro-managed more and more and made many bad decisions, including allowing or encouraging the UNM Health Sciences to drift even farther away and for athletics to become seemingly the most important function of the state's flagship university.

It will take a long time to undo the harm done since 2003. It is hoped that UNM President Frank has the insight, values and ability to make things right again.

Our second Senior Gator weighs in with this:

The UNM main campus can be compared to a dog with two tails: the UNM Health Sciences Center on the North Campus and the Athletic complex on the South Campus. Both campuses can provide important benefits to favored friends and alumni.

Free basketball tickets or opportunities to get close to star athletes are sought after. At the Health Sciences Center it goes without saying, they can save one’s life. Since the Center has some of the finest medical care in the country, this is no small benefit to friends of UNM. And then there are the endowments and investment companies and construction contracts to be given at a Center with a $1.5 billion annual budget.. Whoever controls all this is powerful. “Follow the money." The money and influence should be transparent and in the control of the UNM President and not hidden within a bureaucratic maze with Chancellors and subsidiary boards.

Does President Frank--who took over at UNM last June-- need new players in his inner circle who can break him free from the politics of the gubernatorial past, as well as the present?

MICHELLE AND UNM

Rep. Lujan Grisham

ABQ Dem Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham landed a blow against Paul Roth and UNM Health Sciences when last month she questioned why the jobs of 57 medical transcriptionists had to be outsourced from the Center when it has millions in cash reserves. It's not the first time the congresswoman was involved with Roth. Back in 2008, when she was leaving a cabinet post under Governor Richardson, this story broke:

Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration approached the University of New Mexico about hiring controversial Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham just before she left her cabinet post, according to a tape recording made before the start of a regents meeting. “The governor....called me last night ... to hire Michelle Grisham. He fired her,” then-acting university President David Harris could be heard saying on the tape prepared by UNM officials and included in the official record.... While she gave her resume to both Harris and Paul Roth, UNM’s executive vice president for health sciences, Grisham wasn’t hired.“I think it dispels the notion of cronyism at UNM,” Harris said....

Grisham at the time said she was not "fired" by Big Bill. Harris said he had misspoke when he said she had. Harris also evoked smiles and chuckles among the Alligators when he gave that assertion that because UNM did not hire Michelle it showed there was no "cronyism" at UNM. You have to appreciate the chutzpah.

THE BOTTOM LINES

In blogging about ex-Governor Martinez campaign staffer Anissa Ford Tuesday, we linked to a Web site that listed Ford as a project manager for "Safer New Mexico Now," a traffic safety group. Ford concluded her work there two years ago. The site is out of date.

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New Mexicans have not given up on their state, but they accept the economic and social decline and don't point fingers at the current crop of politicians.

That was the sobering finding of a poll recently conducted for a Democratic politico who reports--get this--that 59% of the voters polled think New Mexico is headed in "the right direction."

That number is probably skewed some because voters are a bit more conservative than the population at large, but still it reflects an acceptance--or acquiescence--to New Mexico's bottom of the barrel rankings in just about every conceivable social and economic standing.

"When it comes to the jobs problem, people told us it is a problem everywhere. When it comes to the state's dismal rankings on education, poverty and such, they seem to accept it as 'the way it has always been..." reports our politico.

But people also vote with their feet. The state's population growth has shriveled in recent years, as the recession bit deeply, according to the US Census.

Anecdotal evidence continues to suggest that the electorate has not been stirred enough to wage a vigorous 21st century attack against the low living standards that afflict such a large swath of the citizenry here.

With so many believing that today's problems are beyond the government's reach, it is going to take a passionate campaign by statesmen--not run-of-the-mill politicians--to stir the populace to action.

TURNING IT AROUND

Sen. Smith

You don't turn 49th and 50th rankings into 39th overnight and not without significant investment, but the fiscal hawks of Santa Fe are not about to loosen the purse strings.

State Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith debated Allen Sanchez, president and CEO of St. Joseph Community Health, on KNME-TV recently about the proposed constitutional amendment that would allow funds from the state's $11.5 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund to be directed to very early childhood programs. The idea being that the state faces a systemic and generational crisis when it comes to poverty, education, crime and all the rest.

But Smith remains locked down on sending the amendment to the voters for their consideration. It passed the House, but Smith refused to have a hearing on it in the last session. Now he is likening to children those who support the amendment. He told the TV audience:

When it comes to spending money, if I turn to my kids and my children they want me to spend more money. The Legislative Finance Committee and Senate Finance Committee has to do what is fiscally responsible.

Smith refused to give the amendment a hearing in his powerful finance committee, saying it did not have the votes to pass. But is that an acceptable reason for no debate? Why not let committee members vote it down in public?

Smith, leader of the Martinez Democrats, and other austerity hawks remain convinced that New Mexico's deepening social conditions crisis can be solved without investment. He added:

There's a perception out there that more money fixes everything...and I am not of the school that subscribes to that...

Yes, there is a perception that spending money effectively solves problems. Because it does. Simple history demonstrates that irrevocably. But Smith is Santa Fe's Big Daddy to his legislative children. Like the population at large, they appear intimidated by the sheer immensity of he problems here. Better to let Big Daddy wield the paddle, while others look away.

DOWNS DEALING

We recently noted that Dem Attorney General Gary King and Dem State Auditor Hector Balderas have been pretty tame when it comes to the hyper-controversy over the awarding of the racino lease to the ABQ Downs--a lease that a number of public sources now say is under investigation by federal authorities. ABQ Dem state Senator Tim Keller whose district includes the racino on the state fairgrounds in the middle of ABQ and who is now running for the Dem nod for state auditor, says he has not been laid back:

Joe, you may be referring to statewide Democrats on the ABQ Downs when it comes to a response, but my district and I have long been very outspoken on this. For example, from this Santa Fe Reporter article:

Sen. Tim Keller has pushed unsuccessfully to add oversight to the State Fair and make its commission more independent from the governor’s office. But he says that proposal “frankly has been blocked by the fourth floor”—a reference to the governor’s office in the capitol building.“This shows that there’s a problem with sort of walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to all the campaign rhetoric that came out of the Martinez administration,” Keller says.

ABOUT ANISSA

Anissa Ford, the former campaign staffer for Governor Martinez, saw her name burst into the headlines. when her attorney declared that she had been interviewed about the ABQ Downs deal. One of the GOP Alligators has some Ford background for us:

NEW MEXICO GREED

It was the biggest Ponzi scheme in NM history and at its center was Doug Vaughan, the ABQ real estate kingpin now behind bars. The story is quite fascinating and was the subject of  a recent episode of "American Greed" on CNBC TV. NM FBI agent Daniel Tanaka gets a good chunk of the interview time and his account is gripping. But is anyone more compelling than veteran actor and "America Greed" narrator Stacy Keach? He is truly "the voice of doom" slowly closing in on the culprits of the hour.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

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Susana and Chuck

So the Guv's husband--First Gentleman Chuck Franco--takes a hunting trip to Louisiana in 2011 and has two state police officers with him for security. But the administration says it can't release info on taxpayer money the officers spent on hotels and other expenses. Why? Because it would jeopardize the "security" of the Governor. The state says:

Disclosure of procurement card statements create security risks to the Governor and the Governor’s family...Procurement card statements for the Governor’s security detail identify the officer assigned to protect the Governor and/or her family on specific dates and include transaction-level detail, including the transaction date, vendor name (e.g., hotel or restaurant), and city and state of the transaction...

But earlier, records on gasoline expenditures for the Franco trip identified the security detail. Their names are public record.

The Downs is owned by Paul Blanchard of Albuquerque, Bill Windham of Bossier City, Louisiana,  and John S. Turner of Shreveport, La. They each own a third.

It's natural for the public to be curious about the Franco trip. At the time of the six day journey the state was negotiating a lucrative 25 year racino lease for the ABQ Downs with its Louisiana owners. That lease has turned hyper-controversial with ex-campaign staffers for the Governor saying they have been interviewed about it for the FBI and an attorney for one of them saying the FBI is clearly investigating the deal.

The state says Franco paid his own expenses for what the Governor's office says was a hunting trip. Las Cruces reader Greg Lennes has examined the receipts for the gas stops that were released for the Franco trip. He picks up the trail with Franco's first gas stop in Louisiana:

Chuck Franco had what seems to me a fast-paced and perhaps puzzling vacation in 2011. Chuck Franco's first stop for gas in Louisiana was on Sept. 6 in Natchitoches. Coincidentally, Natchitoches is the headquarters of ABQ Downs owner John S. Turner's Dimension Development Company. That company owns hotels in a number of states, including numerous ones in Louisiana. Franco went from Natchitoches south to Lake Charles on Sept. 7; east to Scott on Sept. 8; east to LaPlace on Sept. 9 ; north to Brookhaven, Mississippi  also on September 9 and west to Tallulah, LA on Sept. 10. He gassed up that morning and headed to Texas and back to New Mexico.

So to clear the air why doesn't Governor Martinez dismiss the claims of "security" and order the release of the officers' hotel and restaurant tab--as well as those of Franco? The payroll records for the officers' trip have already been made public.

How does letting us know where state policemen spent taxpayer cash on hotels and restaurants 900 miles away in Louisiana jeopardize gubernatorial security? Is that a bunch of baloney, or not? Sounds like a question for the NM Foundation for Open Government.

DUBIOUS LOANS?

We get this from a "concerned reader" who raises some questions on another topic the press might want to pursue:

The US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has a loan program called the Section 108 Loan Guarantee Assistance Program. The program provides low interest loans to companies to create jobs. So far so good? The catch is that loan funds will flow from HUD to New Mexico to a specific county and then to private contractors. The arrangement requires the state to pledge future allocations of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding in case the loan goes bad. 

The loan program is generally used by other states to develop real estate in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The collateral for such loans consists of the real estate in development. In New Mexico, loans are in the pipeline for some unviable manufacturing projects of high tech products. No bank will touch these loans because the collateral will consist of intellectual property. No other state has pledged their CDBG funds to guarantee loans under these circumstances (not even Arkansas or Mississippi).

What are the odds that these loans will be considered a savvy investment in New Mexico's future? Everything about these loans and cast of characters seems dubious.

SUSANA'S HAUL