Joe Monahan

Clippings that piled up on our newsroom floor during the course of a busy week....

The Kush has cut out. Steve Kush, the New Jersey native who became executive director of the Bernalillo County Republican Party only to be suspended after he made wayward comments on Facebook, is outta here--for good.

Kush was suspended after the controversial remarks, but was  reinstated June 17 by County Chairman Frank Ruvolo. That raised eyebrows since Kush's comment that a young woman asking the county commission to raise the minimum wage was a "radical bitch" was seen as fodder for the Dems. Well, no more fodder. Kush has headed back home to Jersey where he will resume his political consulting career, report our GOP insiders.....

Former ABQ Mayor Marty Chavez has been quiet about the ABQ scene since being ousted from office by Republican Richard Berry in 2009. He now works with a DC lobbying firm. Marty broke his silence this week when he took to his Twitter account to say:

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Sam Bregman

Silencing the loquacious Sam Bregman could be likened to trying to quiet a Harley-Davidson, but direct attacks on the new state Democratic Party chairman by Governor Martinez appear to be doing the trick. In her latest fund-raising email the Governor personally hammers Bregman for his role in emailgate and chides him for retreating under a veil of silence:

...Federal indictments were handed down related to the illegal interception of my personal and political emails. Those emails...ended up being published on the Internet...The same grand jury that indicted a fired former staffer who I refused to hire in the administration, also indicted a Democratic political operative whose computer was seized by the FBI in the course of the email-theft investigation. But the Democrat was indicted for something much more serious than email theft--he was indicted for the child pornography the FBI found when they raided his house. This Democrat operative...was the PAC Manager at the time of the email theft for the now Democratic Party Chairman Sam Bregman. Not surprisingly, the Democratic Party Chairman is now refusing to answer any questions about what he knew about the scheme to steal and distribute personal and political emails.

This is the second time Martinez has personally taken on Bregman, The first time was in a Facebook posting earlier this month. At the time Bregman came with this retort:

"Governor Martinez, need I remind you that as a lawyer you are an officer of the court and you have professional responsibilities...You should take a refresher course to better understand that you should not attempt to use your position as Governor to influence, inject politics into or bully the US Attorney’s office in their investigation, all while attempting to deflect the investigation of your shadow governor, Jay McCleskey and the Dirty Downs Scandal. Or perhaps your motive is to change the conversation from the miserable, sorry job that you have done as Governor when it comes to creating jobs in this state and educating our children..."Regardless, I will not make further comments regarding the criminal investigation and you should reconsider your current behavior as the Governor...”

It's that last line from Bregman--"I will not make further comments" that has Dems concerned if Bregman is permanently on the defensive against Martinez--just as the 14' re-election cycle begins.

The battle here is for the political narrative--is it about Martinez's email account being hijacked by her former campaign manager and making her a "victim" of a political dirty trick and perhaps a criminal act? Or is this really more about what was on some of the hijacked emails concerning a 25 year racino lease for the ABQ Downs and allegations of bid-rigging?

Bregman shifted the argument over to the Downs deal in that June 6 statement, but he has been silent on the major emailgate news of the week--a renewed interest by the press in obtaining travel records for a 2011 Louisiana hunting trip taken by First Gentleman Chuck Franco and two state policemen serving as his security detail.

Bregman promised a much more boisterous and effective attack on Martinez than that given by former Chairman Javier Gonzales. But on what could be the preeminent issue for giving the Governor a run for her money--the Downs deal--the question is whether Bregman has been silenced. If he has, can he still be effective without the sharpest arrow in his quiver?

As for Martinez, her decision to go toe-to-toe with her political rivals despite sporting an approval rating north of 60% is seen by political pros as her way of rallying the GOP base. They say '14 will be a low turnout election and throwing red meat out there is one way to get the R's into the voting booths and raise campaign cash. The downside is that the gubernatorial nastiness might not play well with Dems and independents so keeping it "all in the Republican family" is probably the play for now.

EMAILGATE AND MEDIA

The Martinez fund-raising letter came on the same day when the ABQ Journal editorialized on the stonewalling the press and public is getting from the administration on the release of expense records for Franco's now controversial Louisiana alligator hunting trip. The trip took place at the same time the administration was negotiating the Downs racino lease. Two owners of the Downs live in Louisiana.

The administration says the Downs owners did not provide lodging or food to Franco and his police protectors nor did anyone else involved with state government or politics. But the administration steadfastly refuses to say who "privately hosted" the state policemen and Franco, arguing doing so would compromise "security."

The Journal appeared to be dragging its feet on the story after the New Mexican was first refused the Franco records, but in their editorial they joined the journalistic hunting party:

Also not forthcoming are details of expenses paid for first gentleman Chuck Franco’s 2011 alligator-hunting trip in Louisiana and copies of Martinez’ past or present calendars, so the public can know when she’s been in Santa Fe or elsewhere... The administration should reassess its position and avoid a legal battle that will likely end with the records being declared public, the taxpayers getting stuck with hefty legal bills and the public more cynical than ever.

It is key that the paper mentioned the records for the Franco trip. The NM Foundation for Open Government (FOG) has filed a request for the Governor's state police expense records under the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), but only for the three months leading up to the 2012 presidential election. The hunting trip took place in September 2011.

We had some computer glitches Wednesday and some of you may have already seen our piece on the FOG action. For those who didn't, the question we raised was why FOG is not taking legal action to get the Franco trip records and that someone ought to. Why not the ABQ Journal?

We're asking for the records of where he and his taxpayer paid escorts were lodged and fed on each night of the Louisiana vacation--even if it was complimentary and there is no "expense" record.

Well, one way or another the Franco trip records are bound to surface. Only then will we see if there is some kind of smoking gun there or much ado about nothing. Meanwhile, the Governor is starting to spend the political capital she has accumulated with her most stalwart media allies. Ultimately, they have to answer to the public--not her.

EICHENBERG IN 

Former Bernalillo County Treasurer Pat Padilla now has company in the Dem race for State Treasurer. Former ABQ NE Heights state Senator Tim Eichenberg makes his run official:

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He has yet to draw a Republican rival, but that doesn't mean Dem US Senator Tom Udall isn't taking some hits as his '14 re-election bid comes into sight. This ad attacking him on a climate change measure is popping up on New Mexicans computers courtesy of a national conservative advocacy group. Udall, who spent $7 million to win his Senate seat in 2008, is using the early hit to raise cash. From his campaign:

Dear Friend, A group called Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a right-wing special interest group run by the Koch brothers, has launched online ads aimed at me. We don't know how much they're spending. And we don't know how long the ads are going to be up online.

Meanwhile, we await a Republican foe for Udall. Former NM GOP Chairman Allen Weh said last December he would make a decision on a run by "spring." But spring has sprung and gone and the summer heat is on and still no Weh. GOP insiders say he is the only serious name making the rounds and they still think the 70 year old to get in the contest.

WHERE IS EVERYONE?

Reader John Alejandro, Jr. writes:

Hi Joe, Thanks for leading Tuesday's post with the condition of New Mexico's children, a topic that should be dutifully paid attention to by all elected officials in NM. In addition to taking a risk to solve this problem, it should also be given top-priority. Yet, I haven't read or heard a statement from the Governor or the Children Youth and Families Department....What gives? 


What gives, John, is that the political class just can't or won't deal with the enormity of the problem. For example, Governor Martinez avoided any comment Monday on the report you reference that shows New Mexico has now dropped to 50th--last in the nation in child well-being. Her press secretary told a reporter she was "unavailable for comment."

If the state's chief executive doesn't want to deal with the reality, what can you expect from those below her? Didn't she say her top priority is the welfare of the state's children? Well, it's going to take more than reading to them for a photo op to make a real difference.

It's bipartisan neglect. For decades we've been in the cellar in the social conditions rankings and no one has really stepped up with an all-out effort to reverse the trend.

What's different this time, John, is the severity of the crisis. Being 50th now is worse than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Because of the economic implosion, a larger percentage of our population is impacted. And the state's overall quality of life is now seen as inhibiting business from locating here, adding insult to injury.

It's not like we're a bunch of sloths when it comes to the social conditions crisis. Thousands of New Mexicans each day are fighting for a better life for their neighbors--educators, social workers, engaged parents, law enforcement and the list goes on. But much of what we are doing doesn't seem to be working. The news that the state has stopped funding to 15 providers who treat drug abusers and the mentally ill because of possible fraud only adds to the desperation felt by those in the trenches. It also strengthens that old arch-rival of New Mexico progress---apathy.

ADD IT TO THE PILE

Gosh, we don't want to spoil the pool party fun today, but this stuff just keeps coming:

One day after a study ranked New Mexico the worst state for child well-being, another dismal report shows the state is lacking in dental care. The Pew children's dental report ranks New Mexico as having the fourth worst dentist shortage in the country. The study found 24.2 percent of residents live in areas that are under served. Five counties do not have a single practicing dentist...The federal government says there would have to be more than 6,000 new dentists to alleviate the shortage.

And that brings us back to building a dental school at UNM. We could create incentives for graduates to spend a year or two in the under served areas, not to mention that we would be adding members to the sparse professional class here--especially among Hispanics and Native Americans.  Former Senator Bingaman and Governor Richardson advocated for the idea. Can't UNM President Frank pick up this ball and run with it?...

It is the aftermath of the housing crash that still haunts the economic scene in the metro. Reader Joe Craig points out this news that shows years later it is still exacting a toll:

Albuquerque’s 87121 ZIP code area, which generally covers the West Mesa north and south of Interstate 40, had one of the highest foreclosure home vacancy rates in the country at 28 percent, RealtyTrac reported....

And keeping it on the econ scene for a moment, why can't ABQ do something like this?:



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No more "Thank God for Mississippi." New Mexico is now ranked dead last--50th in the USA--in child well being rankings, according to the latest respected study. Not that Mississippi  has anything to brag about, either. They're ranked 49th. And over in Arizona, they have the 47th spot (complete NM data here).

Our decent to the very bottom of the bottom is no surprise to those who hang around here. Our fists have turned ruby red from all the pounding on the table we've done over the social conditions crisis that has long been part of the state's backdrop. But it worsened dramatically with the onset of a Great Recession that still lingers.

One supposes State Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith, Governor Martinez and the rest of the nest of fiscal hawks in Santa Fe will be shaken by the news--but for how long? Our body politic tends to slip back into benign neglect after these periodic shocks.

That's why at this stage a constitutional amendment that would allow the people to directly decide if they want to reverse this course is the best way to go.

The amendment--which passed the House last legislative session but failed in the Senate--would allow funds to be taken from the $13 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund and invested in very early childhood education and other programs to halt the death spiral that we are seeing.

We are not going to get out of this dilemma without taking risk. It means spending money in new and different ways (that's how Mississippi got out of 50th place). It means some of the money not be effective, but most of it--hopefully--will. It means having a "Peace Corp" mentality in addressing the crisis--from R's and Dems.

Cutting taxes and regulations--while often commendable--can no longer be offered up as solution to a decades-long misery that is being exacerbated by the forlorn economy. The human toll can no longer be papered over by esoteric talk of tax tables.

The good thing about New Mexico is how it can be a sea of tranquility in an increasingly chaotic world. The bad thing about New Mexico is that the tranquility has too often led to complacency. And so here we are.

EMAILGATE 

On Monday we asked why the ABQ Journal, one of the more aggressive newspapers in the country when it comes to transparency issues, isn't asking for records of the controversial 2011 Louisiana hunting trip taken by Chuck Franco, the husband of Governor Martinez, along with a security detail of two state policemen.

The Governor refuses to release those records, claiming doing so would compromise the Governor's "security." The Santa Fe New Mexican asked the Governor's office directly for the records and were refused.  The Associated Press reports it has had legal requests pending before the administration for six months for state police expense records for the  months leading up to the 2012 presidential election and still has not received an answer.

The Journal has been unusually quiet on the records battle, but that was not the case when it came to Democratic Governor Richardson and his state police security detail. In fact, a reader sends emails documenting how the Journal went after the very same records for Governor Richardson's security detail that we and others want to see from this Governor:

From: Thom Cole [mailto:tcole@abqjournal.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:45 PM
To: Olson, Peter D., DPS
Subject: expenses

Peter, This is a request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act to inspect all records of all expenses for members of the Governor's security detail since Jan. 1, 2009. If any other agency also has such records, please forward this request to them.
Thanks, Thom

From: Thom Cole [mailto:tcole@abqjournal.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 9:19 AM
To: Gillespie, Nicole, DFA
Subject: ipra request

Nicole, In response to a request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act, you recently provided copies of the Bank of America credit card statements indicating the purchases made in 2009 on the procurement cards by active members of the Governor's security detail. The most recent statement provided was for statement date 08-27-09. This is a new request under IPRA for all more recent statements. That is, statements with statement dates of September, October and November.....
Thank you, Thom Cole

So what's different this time? That's the question, isn't it?

The attorney general says the records can't be withheld on the basis of security--that they should be released.

Franco took his hunting trip at the same time the administration was negotiating a lucrative 25 year racino lease with the owners of the ABQ Downs. Two of the Downs' owners live in Louisiana,.

The Governor's office says Franco and the police were "privately hosted" and say the free lodging and food they received was not given to them by anyone who has conducted business with the state or is involved in state politics. Since it was free, they say there are no expense records, but there are records of where they stayed and ate--even if it was for free.

Release of the records of Franco and the  state policemen would help verify the Governor's assertion that the trip had nothing to do with the Downs. If there is nothing to hide and the attorney general says security is not a reason for withholding the records, why won't Governor Martinez, who pledged a new level of transparency when she campaigned din 2010, release the records? Why indeed?

THE STONE WALL

Reader Mike in Corrales weighs in with this:

Joe, Remember candidate Martinez's vow to end the culture of corruption in Santa Fe? She apparently meant only the Richardson culture of corruption. Now thirty months into her first term, she's stonewalling IPRA requests, and allegedly threatening (if true, successfully thus far) the state's largest newspaper to stay away from covering the ABQ Downs racino deal.

In the end, who cares what the Journal thinks or doesn't think--what's important is what the US Attorney thinks. And if he thinks there's enough to take the case to a grand jury and indictments are handed down, the Journal will have to cover it--or become even more irrelevant than it is today.

QUIET DEMS 

State Dems have been handed an open government issue with the Franco records that you think would be an easy lay-up, but where are they? Dem Party Chairman Sam Bregman who said he would be holding the Guv's feet to the fire has said nothing on the Franco trip--the same for Dem members of the state legislature. Some of them probably received campaign donations from the Downs so perhaps feel compromised, but what about the others?

State Auditor Hector Balderas, running for attorney general and Attorney General King, running for Governor, have both had the Downs deal in front of them for nearly a year. Federal authorities have questioned former Martinez campaign staffers about the Downs deal.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

Now that the jobs drought here appears to be slowly ending, you would think there would be much cause for celebration. While year-over-year job growth is always welcome (maybe we'll order extra cheese on our enchiladas today) there is a dark side.

The state reports the strongest employment growth between last April and this April was in the leisure and hospitality sector, which added 3,000 jobs. That's good, but it means we are coming out of this recession not with high paying jobs, but those mostly at the bottom of the pay scale.

The state lost 200 professional and business jobs year-over-year and dropped another 800 government jobs. Those are jobs that pay well and provide decent benefits. Manufacturing lost 1,000 jobs--another source for high wage jobs. The construction industry added 2,100 jobs, but it lost so many in the slump that it could be decades--if ever--before we claw back to the employment levels we saw at the peak of the housing mania.

Have you noticed the abundance of thrift stores in the metro? And that most of the new restaurants opening up are for the budget minded? And that the state's premier retail spot in ABQ Uptown is occupied by discounter Target? That is all representative of the new New Mexican economy, where high wage jobs vanish and are replaced by those that pay enough for a nice juicy hamburger, but not enough to start a savings account.

REAL MONEY

A friend who recently returned from a visit to the SE NM oil fields reports there are plenty of high-paying jobs there and a housing shortage to boost. "Some of the hotel rooms were going for $200 a night."

There are still not enough houses or apartments to house the energy workers in Lea and Eddy County.

And that boom is key to keeping the state's finances under control. Millions in royalties are flooding in and making up for the malaise that is "the new normal" in other quadrants of the state.

EMAILGATE 

The big news last week was the administration's refusal to release complete travel records for Guv husband Chuck Franco for a now controverisal 2011 hunting trip he took to Louisiana--the home state of two of the owners of the ABQ Downs racino.

Franco took the driving trip--accompanied by a security detail of two state policemen--while the state was negotiating a lucrative 25 year racino lease with the Downs.

The Guv says her hubby was "privately hosted" and did not stay with anyone in Louisiana who was doing business with the state or involved in state politics. However, that still left much unanswered about the trip which we covered here.

The Governor refused to release complete details of the trip and cited  "security" when asked for the records by the Santa Fe New Mexican. Their story was picked up here and by The Associated Press which added its own angle on  the problems it is having getting a variety of records from the administration.

Notably absent in the coverage was the ABQ Journal, traditionally an aggressive news outlet when it comes to anything doing with government transparency. The paper, including its columnists, have yet to mention the Governor's latest refusal to release records on the Franco trip, nor did the Journal carry the AP dispatch.

In addition, the NM Foundation for Open Government (FOG) whose slogan is "Democracies die behind closed doors," has not been heard from on the Franco trip or on the months-long records quest of The AP. (At least we've heard or seen nothing). The president of FOG is ABQ Chamber of Commerce CEO Terri Cole.

MEDIA MANUEVERS

Several former Martinez campaign staffers and one of their attorneys have identified themselves and gone on the public record and said that they have been interviewed by the FBI about the Downs deal.  They said the inquiries were not part of the FBI probe of campaign emails allegedly hijacked from the Guv's campaign account.

Other sources are telling some media that there is no separate FBI investigation of the Downs dealing. However, those sources have not publicly identified themselves.

One of our sources who has had contact with reporters at the Journal says that he has been told that the Governor through her political arm has warned the paper that they are in danger of getting "egg on their face" if they aggressively pursue the Downs dealing. In support of that, they are said to have cited to the paper its breathless pursuit of former Governor Richardson's campaign finance dealings. That all ended with no federal indictments and had the paper's critics charging over zealousness.

Is this line of reasoning influencing coverage? Who knows, but for the Journal to let the Franco story slip by is certainly out of character and perhaps to the benefit of competing news organizations.

SPOUSE IN THE HOUSE

Meanwhile, on the east coast there's a story breaking that will be of interest to New Mexicans following the Downs dealing here:

Federal authorities are asking Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s associates about previously undisclosed gifts given by a campaign donor to McDonnell’s wife that total tens of thousands of dollars and include money and expensive designer clothing, according to people familiar with the inquiry. The questions are part of broad federal and state investigations into gifts to the governor and his family and whether McDonnell (R) took official action on behalf of anyone who gave gifts, people with knowledge of the investigation have said.