Teague to formally announce congressional run Nov. 8

Posted 10/31/2007 04:54:00 PM

Former Lea County Commissioner Harry Teague plans to formally announce on Nov. 8 that he’s running for the Second Congressional District seat being vacated by GOP U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce.

Teague plans to make the announcement at 5 p.m. on that day at the Democratic Party headquarters in Hobbs, located at 604 West Broadway, according to a news release.

“The issues our country is facing – ending the war in Iraq, health care coverage for all, immigration reform and access to a high quality education – are too important to ignore,” Teague said. “The needs of the people of this district have been neglected for years, and we must have a strong voice who can fight for us on these issues and who can work with members of both parties to get things done for New Mexico and our nation. That is why I am running for Congress.”

Teague was a member of the Lea County Commission for eight years, serving as chairman for 3.5 years. He has also served as a board member for the Lea County Fair and the Boys and Girls club of Hobbs. He helped start the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program in Lea County.

“I have worked hard my entire life and have tried to give as much back as possible to my community. Now I believe it is time for me to give back to New Mexico and to our country,” Teague said.

On the Democratic side, Al Kissling and Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley are also running, and state Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, appears headed toward an announcement on or around the same day that Teague will formally announce.

No Republican has entered the race, but a number are considering it, including Sierra County Republican Party Chair C. Earl Greer; Ed Tinsley and Phelps Anderson, who both ran unsuccessfully against Pearce in the 2002 primary; state Rep. Don Bratton of Hobbs; Roswell Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Mike Kakuska; and former Roswell Mayor Bill Owen.

Chávez reaches out to progressives through bloggers

Posted 10/31/2007 04:17:00 PM

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is attempting to reach out to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party through its bloggers.

There are quite a few progressive bloggers in New Mexico, and Chávez had a dialogue with several of them on a conference call on Tuesday evening that he said he hoped was “part of an ongoing conversation.”

Chávez isn’t well liked, to put it mildly, by many progressives, who recently worked with Republicans to defeat candidates and referenda backed by Chávez, or at least some of his top staffers, in the Albuquerque municipal election. In a recent interview with me, Chávez said he gets “a bad rap” from progressives that isn’t deserved, and cited his work on combating climate change and other issues he says should earn him the support of progressives.

In the same conversation, however, Chávez said he wasn’t afraid of the possibility that U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, a favorite among progressive Democrats, might enter the race, saying Udall is “so far to the left.”

That comment was one of the points Chávez was asked about during Tuesday’s call. It upset many progressives as it circulated on state and national blogs last week.

“I was asked it in a specific context and I gave it in a specific context,” Chávez said. “… I run a city and he’s a congressman so I think (the difference) is more in the nature of the jobs we have.”

Chávez also called Udall a friend and a “great congressman.”

“If you look issue by issue I doubt you’ll find much difference,” he said. “You will find that we will vote together almost all the time.”

There was clearly some awkwardness about the conversation, but the bloggers also sounded genuinely happy to have such access to Chávez. Since he’s currently the only big-name Democrat in the Senate race, progressives have no choice but to give Chávez a serious look. And he needs them to vote for him, if not in the primary, at least if he’s going to have any chance at winning a general election against U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce or Heather Wilson.

Chávez was asked a number of other questions, many of them related to growth in the Albuquerque area. He defended his moderate, pro-growth views but turned the conversation back, at the end, to progressives’ most talked-about issues – ending the war, reforming the health-care system and working to combat climate change and increase use of alternative energy sources.

“I think most people will agree that I tend to get done what I say I will get done,” Chávez said. “… When I tell you I’m going to go up there and work to end this war, you can take that to the bank.”

Guv defends Clinton, others attack her at debate

Posted 10/31/2007 01:30:00 PM

Gov. Bill Richardson stood alone during Tuesday’s Democratic presidential candidate debate as Hillary Clinton’s only defender from the constant attacks of other candidates, and it came back to bite him at the end.

That’s because Clinton made a huge mistake at the conclusion of the debate that gave credibility to the tenacious attacks of Barack Obama, John Edwards and Chris Dodd.

The three – and Obama and Edwards in particular – spent most of the debate criticizing Clinton as a Washington insider, someone who won’t bring the change she promises and someone who has been spewing doubletalk throughout the campaign. Clinton spent the night attempt to deflect the criticism and, at least for awhile, was successful.

But the turn began near the end of the debate, when she was asked about Social Security. Clinton has said repeatedly in public that she would not favor lifting the cap on the tax that kicks in at an income of $97,500. But she was overheard by an Associated Press reporter recently telling a citizen after a public appearance something different.

Attacked on that issue and asked about her differing answers, Clinton failed to explain he contradictory statements. That’s when the mud began sticking.

Her face was covered in mud after a question at the end of the debate about a proposal by New York’s governor to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Clinton defended the plan at first, explaining her prior statement that it “makes a lot of sense.” During a resulting exchange in which Dodd said criticized her for supporting the plan, she said “I did not say that it should be done but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it.” She then went on to defend the plan again.

Asked again whether she supports the plan, Clinton said the question was a “gotcha” question. She then said she didn’t think the plan was “the best thing to do” but is necessary because of Congress’ failure to pass immigration reform.

Dodd, Edwards and Obama all called her out on it what was, at best, a confusing answer, with Edwards saying she gave different answers to the same question in two minutes. Suddenly, the tone of the entire night – that Clinton is a Washington insider who speaks in doubletalk – stuck. The other candidates, the debate moderators and the audience (and me – I had to rewatch it twice) were confused about what Clinton had actually said, even though they had just heard it.

Earlier in the debate, Richardson had said the attacks against Clinton were inappropriate.

“What I’m hearing is this holier-than-thou attitude against Sen. Clinton,” he said. “… We need to be positive in this campaign. Yes, we need to point out our differences, and I have big differences with her.”

Richardson said he disagrees with Clinton “on a majority of issues,” but the debate should be about the issues, not on whether Clinton is trustworthy.

Edwards jumped on Richardson.

“I completely disagree with what Bill said. … This is about whether we believe the system works,” he said, adding that the election is about ending special-interest control of Washington.

Just like that, Richardson looked like the good ol’ boy and Edwards looked like the defender of the people. When Clinton later blew her defense, she left herself and Richardson looking like the Washington insiders in whom the vast majority of the nation’s citizens don’t approve.

Richardson was asked about it in a post-debate interview and had to admit that Clinton’s answer on driver’s licenses was “confusing.” But he still defended her and said the others shouldn’t attack her character.

That was about the only part of Richardson’s debate performance that was even noteworthy. And his defense of Clinton has national pundits once again speculating that Richardson is out for the vice presidential slot or, perhaps, the Clintons’ help with a U.S. Senate run.

The headline for this article has been changed.

New growth rule doesn't help Dos Sueños residents

Posted 10/31/2007 09:17:00 AM

One of the central questions in Tuesday’s Las Cruces municipal election is whether the city’s growth is out of control. This article is the first in a two-part series that explores that question. Today’s article looks at growth in a new area, while Thursday’s article will consider infrastructure needs in older neighborhoods.

By Vicki Nisbett

People who moved into homes in an East Mesa subdivision as long as 18 months ago are still waiting for the completion of drainage systems and landscaping and are experiencing problems with weed control and trash accumulation.

Residents of Dos Sueños, which is located north of U.S. Highway 70 on both sides of Jornada Road, have phoned numerous times and met with officials from the city and Logos Development, the Philip Philippou-owned corporation that built the subdivision, but many of their concerns haven’t been resolved. The developer says its outstanding projects in the subdivision should be complete in the next few weeks.

Whether Las Cruces’ growth is out of control is a key issue in Tuesday’s municipal election. The problems in Dos Sueños may be a sign of the city’s growing pains, but a new requirement shows that the city has since made strides to ensure full infrastructure is in place before residents move in to new developments.

City officials say the developer needs to finish the infrastructure in Dos Sueños, and it must receive engineer approval, before they can take hold of the subdivision. That policy is common throughout the United States, City Manager Terrence Moore said. The city does not accept infrastructure until the proper conditions have been met.

“The developer is responsible,” he said.

Kirk Clifton, development administrator for Logos, said most of the work should be completed in four to six weeks. That includes construction of a 20- to 40-foot-wide concrete drainage ditch the city required on the north side of the subdivision.

“There’s been continuous work out there, although it might be slow,” Clifton said. “We just want to get done and out of there as quickly as everyone wants us to.”

Dos Sueños is located in City Council District 5, which is represented by Gil Jones.

“I’ve asked our public works department to keep abreast on that project,” Jones said. “They’ve made a lot of headway. If the developer has any sense, he’ll get that done as quickly as he can because all of the utility bills (for the development, not individual homes), including the light bill, are on his nickel until he gets finished. ”

Fewer issues in newer subdivisions

Moore said the city learned “a great deal” from the situation in Dos Sueños. The city implemented a new requirement in January that ensures far more infrastructure is in place before homes are built in new subdivisions. Assistant City Manager Robert Garza said new developments must reach substantial completion, which includes the finishing of all roads, utilities and drainage systems, before homes can be built.

Mike Johnson, city public works director, said one mile of a 37-foot-wide residential street costs about $2 million. Sixty percent of that is for storm drainage, water and gas.

Moore is the one who initiated the change in development requirements.

“I’m really proud of that,” he said.

Moore said there are no other subdivisions at this time with as many problems as Dos Sueños. The Sonoma Ranch area had some problems, but they have been resolved. Garza said in that development some roads were not originally completed to the point that the fire department could adequately assist residents.

Dos Sueños residents are frustrated

But the new requirement doesn’t help Dos Sueños resident Karen Gunther, who said it should have been applied retroactively. Moore said that would be illegal. Gunther said she doesn’t understand why the city continues to annex Philippou land when the developer hasn’t yet completed work on her subdivision.

Dos Sueños resident Steve Kelly moved 14 months ago into a neighborhood that had no street lights and, during heavy rainstorms, water flowing into resident’s yards. Kelly said there were numerous car burglaries before January, when the final street lights were installed.

“I had my car broken into once, and my neighbor next door had his car broken into twice,” Kelly said.

Dave Arrey, another resident of Dos Sueños, made numerous calls to the city and developer after he almost ran over someone with his car on a dark street in the subdivision. The lights have since been installed but Arrey said, in the future, he wouldn’t move into a new development before infrastructure is complete.

Clifton said he wasn’t certain about why the lights weren’t installed before residents moved in. Street lights, which include the pipe and a cement foundation, cost about $2,500 each and are required to be placed every 250 feet, Johnson said.

Work is ongoing

Sale of residential lots in the subdivision began in January 2005. The final plat had previously been approved and annexed by the city council.

Almost two years after the first lots were sold, the city provided on Tuesday a long list of items that Logos still needs to complete in addition to the drainage ditch, including cleaning of dirt and debris, installation of roadway markings, median grading, major water ponding and repair of several cracked curbs.

Completion of such infrastructure, even under the old requirements that apply to Dos Sueños, must happen before the city takes over maintenance. Moore said completion is usually done in phases.

Even upset residents say work is being done by Logos to complete outstanding issues, but they’re frustrated that it’s taking so long. Some streets have cement drainage funnel systems that were introduced by Logos after numerous complaints, but Kelly said the systems do not completely take care of the problem. The north-side drainage ditch isn’t complete.

Water flows from the Organ Mountains under Highway 70 into Dos Sueños. The city acquired land from the state in 2006 to construct a 125-acre retention pond for drainage issues not only in Dos Sueños but throughout the East Mesa. The pond will help manage flooding and drainage issues in the area, Moore said. The cost of the pond is estimated at $7.3 million.

However, the retention pond’s completion is dependent upon agreements with other developers, and won’t likely happen for several years, so Logos decided to go ahead with the drainage ditch at Dos Sueños.

“(The retention pond) was taking so long, we just completed the ditch as originally planned,” Clifton said.

In the meantime

In the meantime, residents say there are still problems. Beer bottles have been thrown into medians that aren’t landscaped, Kelly said. Some of his neighbors’ yards have been flooded and their landscaping washed away during rainstorms.

On one occasion after a rain, Kelly said he and some neighbors called the city and developer numerous times to clean up the mud and debris on the streets. Logos eventually came out, he said, to sweep it into piles next to residents’ rock walls. Clifton said it is difficult to find a street sweeper, but Logos has found one contractor whose sweeping maching only works “half the time.”

The developer is not responsible for landscaping its subdivisions, Clifton said. Brian Denmark, city facilities director, said there is no city funding for landscaping the subdivision; however, there is a pilot project to provide temporary irrigation to sustain native plants. There are also programs that donate trees, and Denmark said he is looking into obtaining trees for Dos Sueños.

Adjacent to some corner lots, there are semi-circular rock planters that are full of weeds. Kelly said he and two of his neighbors recently shared the $200 cost to buy plants, landscape paper and rocks for one of the corner planters.

Near some houses weeds are more than 5 feet tall. Clifton said Logos does send crews to Dos Sueños to try to control the weeds.

Meanwhile, “We’re paying city taxes,” Kelly said about the overall problems in the development. “The city and the developer keep pointing fingers at each other and nothing gets done.”

Meeting with residents

Moore said city officials and representatives from Logos met with residents on Sept. 7. Since that time, the city has made specific requests and offered direction to the developer to expedite some of the improvements that need to be completed as part of the development’s final approval.

Moore suggested at the meeting that residents who have specific, immediate concerns directly contact the developer. He said he thinks the process is moving along fairly well and wants the residents’ individual issues to be resolved, and said the developer has already responded to some draining and lighting issues.

Kay said letters sent from Logos to some residents three weeks after the meeting did address some individual concerns, but others are outstanding. Clifton said representatives from Logos plan to meet with residents again on Nov. 13, and the development should be complete soon thereafter.

Nisbett is a reporting intern for Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics.

Pearce Senate campaign tour to hit Mesilla on Sunday

Posted 10/31/2007 07:13:00 AM

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., will be in Mesilla on Sunday to formally tell voters in Doña Ana County that he’s running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici.

Pearce will make the announcement at noon on the Mesilla plaza, according to an e-mail from the Doña Ana County Republican Party.

Pearce plans to make his campaign official on Friday with an announcement in Hobbs, and stop in other cities around New Mexico during the weekend, but he hasn’t yet released other details about the trip.

Pearce will face U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson in next year’s GOP primary. The Democrats who have announced they are running are Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez and three lesser-known candidates, Don Wiviott, Jim Hannan and Leland Lehrman. A Santa Fe teacher, Zach Boatman, is also trying to get on the ballot as an independent.

Ethics reform, Part Dos

Posted 10/31/2007 07:07:00 AM

By Carter Bundy

A few weeks ago I wrote about limiting gifts to legislators but also giving them a decent salary for the massive job they do. This week, I’m going to take on lobbyist regulations and sunshine laws.

Coming clean: lobbyist disclosure

Let’s tackle the simplest reforms first: There’s no question that we need more transparency so that legislators, voters and other lobbyists can all know who is doing what for whom. The Governor’s Task Force on Ethics Reform had three great suggestions:

First, with computers being nearly ubiquitous in New Mexico (or at least access to free computer time, like at libraries), there’s no reason to not have a state-of-the-art, web-based filing and reporting system.

A second proposal is far lower-tech: lobbyist badges. There are so many well-connected friends of legislators lobbying at the Roundhouse that it’s hard to tell what’s a friendly chat and what’s business. I lobby for AFSCME, and make no secret of it. Other lobbyists shouldn’t have anything to hide, either.

Finally, the members of the ethics task force got it right when they said that the amount spent on lobbying by each organization should be reported. Not individual salaries, just the total spent by each employer. The public ought to know who is paying how much to influence the public’s elected officials, regardless of the cause.

Cooling off Tauzin

Another ethics task force recommendation is a “cooling off” period of one year during which recently retired legislators could not immediately be paid to lobby. That rule currently applies to all state government officials and employees except legislators.

What’s wrong with a legislator taking his or her hard-earned skills and knowledge and putting them to use soon after retirement? The Medicare Part D legislation offers the clearest example of how easily government can be corrupted without that rule.

During the debate over prescription drug coverage, there were incredibly anti-market, anti-senior, anti-taxpayer proposals: First, that Medicare must only purchase drugs from the domestic market, even if Canadian drugs, for example, were manufactured and packaged in America.

The second proposal was to prohibit Medicare from negotiating bulk discounts. Medicare just became the largest single purchaser of prescription drugs in the world, and obviously bulk rates would make sense – especially given the low marginal costs of additional pills.

Both pharma-backed proposals to artificially inflate drug costs passed by one vote. Heather “I-play-a-moderate-on-TV” Wilson and Steve “Tom DeLay’s-a-commie-next-to-me” Pearce each voted for the amendments, making each of them directly responsible for hundreds of billions of dollars of additional taxpayer/senior burden. Nothing conservative or compassionate there.

The real story, though, was the man who carried the absurd amendments to bar bulk negotiations and free-market purchases. Louisiana Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin led the GOP in these anti-taxpayer, anti-senior, anti-market battles.

Just days after Tauzin delivered these half-trillion-dollar gifts to the pharmaceutical industry, he did something virtually unheard of: He retired in good health and without indictments, in the middle of his term. Why? To accept a multi-million dollar job lobbying for, you guessed it, pharma.

I don’t intend to imply that any particular New Mexico legislator is even remotely like Tauzin, but pharma, developers, insurance and other trillion-dollar industries play big in New Mexico. Until there’s evidence that our elected leaders are immune from the pressures and incentives that other American politicians feel, why not limit their exposure as much as possible?

Let’s be fair to our legislators and give them a set of rules that remove some of those pressures and incentives. Couple those rules with a salary commensurate with legislators’ long hours of hard work, and you have more trust in our system and fairer treatment of public servants.

Let the sun shine in

Regardless of politics, almost all of us agree that transparency and accountability make for good government. Unfortunately, New Mexico is one of a handful of states that shuts its citizens and press out of the legislative process when it often matters most: in conference committees.

Some legislators feel that the public won’t like or appreciate the compromises that are necessary to make legislation. Pretty reasonable concern, and for some voters, that will be true. But I think we underestimate New Mexicans when it’s implied that we can’t understand democracy and compromise.

First, compromise happens all the time in regular committee work and on the floor. Voters, citizens and the press have little trouble understanding that, at times, bills have to be watered down or changed to pass.

Second, open hearings are a chance for legislators to show voters their core beliefs. Instead of a secretive process that leads to gossip and unfounded accusations about who pushed for what and how hard, an open process allows legislators to go on record with their priorities.

Since most legislators tend to represent their district’s priorities well, open conference committees offer an opportunity for them to show what they truly stand for. Under the current system, anything bad gets blamed on all legislators – unfairly – because no one knows anyone’s real positions.

Congress and legislatures in a solid majority of states hold their key deliberations in the warm light of public hearings. Their citizens, press and legislators aren’t better than us. I have faith that our dedicated, decent New Mexico legislators in both parties will shine in an open democracy. Legislators, give yourselves that chance. You deserve it, and so do we.

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com.

Teacher needs 16,000 signatures to run for Senate

Posted 10/30/2007 04:54:00 PM

A Santa Fe High School teacher has decided to try to gather the signatures necessary to run as an independent for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici, the Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting.

Zach Boatman, 41, joins some lesser-known Democrats and giants in the Democratic and Republican parties in vying for the seat, which is open for the first time in about three decades.

Boatman told the newspaper he decided to run after a recent conversation in one of the English courses he teaches turned to politics, and the students complained about the process.

“There’s nobody to vote for,” Boatman told the newspaper. “They’re all the same.”

As an independent, he’ll need more than 16,000 signatures to get on the ballot. He plans to have a Web site ready in a couple of weeks.

I’ve written before about the problems minor-party and independent candidates face in terms of ballot access in a system designed to prop up the two-party reign of Democrats and Republicans. It’s ridiculous that Boatman has to gather 16,000 signatures to get on the ballot. If you get the opportunity, help him out by signing his petition.

State senator questioned by FBI in ongoing probe

Posted 10/30/2007 04:15:00 PM

A federal probe that has included the questioning of state Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe, is the talk of politicos in Santa Fe.

At this point, Rodriguez is not accused of any wrongdoing, but she has been questioned by the FBI in connection with a probe related to the Pojoaque Pueblo’s political dealings. Several members of the pueblo have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury next week, the Santa Fe New Mexican and Albuquerque Journal are reporting, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has demanded the pueblo’s financial records related to political donations for the last 11 years.

Rodriguez told The New Mexican for an article published Friday that she hadn’t been served a subpoena and didn’t know what the FBI agents who recently visited her home wanted. She has apparently worked as a consultant for the pueblo since 1993, and is paid about $45,000 per year, she told the newspaper. She works on federal legislation and other issues.

It’s not clear what or who the investigation is targeting. The Journal reported that investigators also want the pueblo’s files on recipients of educational funds. The pueblo’s governor has accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office of retaliation because he wrote an opinion piece published in April in The New Mexican denouncing former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who was fired last year.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens on Tuesday. Since we’re talking about a probe that might touch public officials who deal with the pueblo, it’s worth nothing that the pueblo is located in the Senate district of Carlos Cisneros, D-Santa Fe, and the House district of the speaker, Ben Lujan, D-Nambé. I don’t know if that means anything, but it’s worth mentioning; however, this pueblo is well-connected, and its reach extends far beyond its own representatives in state government.

And, since Rodriguez works on federal issues for the pueblo, we don’t even know whether the probe relates to the pueblo’s dealings with state or federal officials.

Cervantes appears headed toward congressional run

Posted 10/30/2007 02:24:00 PM

Though he isn’t confirming it, state Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, appears to be headed toward a congressional run.

Since news leaked two weeks ago that U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., would vacate his seat to run for U.S. Senate, Cervantes has been actively considering whether to run for the open seat. He told me last week that he would announce his decision before Sunday.

That has changed. Cervantes told me today that he will make the decision shortly after the Las Cruces municipal election being held a week from today.

“We think the public is focused on the city election and we want to wait until after that. We’ll have an announcement immediately after the city election,” Cervantes said. “I have made the decision.”

He would not say what the decision is.

However, here’s the conventional wisdom: You don’t worry about the public’s attention if you’re planning to announce that you’re not running. You also don’t wait more than a week to get it out there. You get it done and get on with business. And, once you’ve publicly set a date, you don’t change the date unless you’re worried about your big announcement being overshadowed by something else.

Cervantes’ words appear to indicate a larger plan. This is pure speculation on my part, but it sounds as though he’s running. In addition, many Democrats – some of them after having conversations with Cervantes – have said they believe he is running.

We may know more on Saturday. The Democratic Party’s State Central Committee will gather for its fall meeting. Candidates for federal races will be given time to speak. Don’t expect Cervantes to give a speech – if he says it will happen after the city election, that’s when it will happen – but expect him to be bombarded with questions. If he’s decided to run, he may quietly tell that to at least some Democrats at the meeting.

Cervantes would join Al Kissling, Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley and former Lea County Commissioner Harry Teague in the primary.

No Republican has entered the race, but a number are considering it. Sierra County Republican Party Chair C. Earl Greer told me today that he has taken the next step toward a run by forming an exploratory committee.

“That doesn’t mean that I’m running, and I’m not collecting any money at this point,” Greer said. “But we are moving forward.”

Greer said he didn’t expect to enter another race this soon after losing a hot Public Regulation Commission race in 2006, but he found that, because there’s no obvious Republican candidate to replace Pearce, “there’s a lot of support for me out there, and it’s got me rethinking things.”

Other Republicans considering running include Ed Tinsley and Phelps Anderson, who both ran unsuccessfully against Pearce in the 2002 primary; state Rep. Don Bratton of Hobbs; Roswell Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Mike Kakuska; and former Roswell Mayor Bill Owen.

Update, 3:30 p.m.

Tinsley released this statement about his consideration of the race:

“Meredith and I will have time to visit about the race and its impact on our family this week since she has just returned from her trip. I anticipate a decision within a week, or close to it,” he said. “However, out of respect for Steve’s announcement tour scheduled for this weekend, I will wait to say anything further until next week.”

He’s referring to Pearce’s Friday announcement in Hobbs that he’s running for Senate, and a trip that will follow to cities around the state.

A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that Pearce is running for Congress.

Guv defends Clinton as his poll numbers drop

Posted 10/30/2007 01:22:00 PM

The bad news continues for Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign. I wrote on Monday about his decline in the polls. Today, three new polls further confirm his sinking support.

To top it off, the National Journal has moved Richardson from fourth in its rankings among Democratic presidential contenders to sixth. In addition to being behind Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, he’s now also ranked by the publication behind Chris Dodd and Joe Biden.

“The issue we have with Richardson is that he’s a terrible liberal; it’s not in the guy’s DNA,” the National Journal states. “He’s trying to become the anti-war candidate but doesn’t seem like a credible messenger.”

Three American Research Group polls released today have Richardson at 7 percent in Iowa, 5 percent in New Hampshire and 1 percent in South Carolina. All three are drops from the group’s September polls. Meanwhile, Biden has climbed to 5 percent in Iowa, 4 percent in New Hampshire and 6 percent in South Carolina in the new polls.

In the face of all the bad news, Richardson came to Clinton’s defense today, saying he regrets the “negative tone” Obama and Edwards have taken in accusing her of being too close to lobbyists, according to the Associated Press.

“I think that Senators Obama and Edwards should concentrate on the issues and not on attacking Senator Clinton,” the news service quoted Richardson as saying. “It’s OK to get aggressive on the issues, but to make personal attacks on somebody’s attachments to lobbyists, that’s not the kind of positive tone I want to see.”

Richardson – a guy who has accused all three frontrunners in recent months of deceiving the American people with their Iraq plans – also predicted he’ll win the nomination because he’s running a positive campaign.

But his defense of Clinton is raising eyebrows in part because it comes on the same day that Clinton, on her campaign’s official news Web site, took the unusual step of putting up video of and information about the attacks by Obama and Edwards. Clinton also included a link to a news release from her campaign that essentially says she’s being unfairly attacked.

Richardson and Clinton defending Clinton from attacks on the same day? While Richardson is sinking in the polls? What does it mean?

Maybe nothing. Maybe much more than that. It will be interesting to see whether the two are chummy at tonight’s debate.

Frietze is trying to divert attention, accuser says

Posted 10/30/2007 11:31:00 AM

The woman who has filed an ethics complaint against Las Cruces City Councilor Jose Frietze says she does not believe she had to keep it confidential, despite Frietze’s claim to the contrary, and said he’s trying to deflect attention from his own actions by accusing her of having political motives.

Jackye Meinecke said she hesitates to “add to the fire” by saying much more because Frietze has “increased the decibel level of this complaint” with talk of a deposition and his own accusations.

Meinecke filed the complaint on Oct. 17 alleging that Frietze violated the city ethics code by failing to disclose land transactions between his non-profit and Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou during council meetings at which he voted to approve Philippou’s projects.

On Friday, Frietze’s attorney filed a motion seeking the immediate dismissal of the complaint or, in the alternative, that the city require an immediate deposition, under oath, for Meinecke, and order that she preserve all documents, phone records and electronic communications related to the complaint. Frietze said that would prove the political motives behind the complaint.

Frietze’s attorney contends that the complaint “raises unfounded, unsubstantiated and frivolous charges” that amount to “willful misuse of the entire process for publicity and political gain.” He claims in the motion that Meinecke was required to keep the complaint confidential.

That’s not true, Meinecke said.

“(Frietze) is trying to move the discussion from his failure to reveal his Philippou connections to character assassination of the messenger,” Meinecke said. “As the citizen here, I am not required to explain my personal life, associations or motives.”

The confidentiality discussion

In addition, Meinecke said, while the city clerk is required to keep such complaints confidential through the early stages of the investigation, she sought legal advice and asked the clerk “about the confidentiality of the filing. According to both sources, I could do with the complaint as I saw fit.” Though she says she didn’t release the complaint to the Las Cruces Sun-News and other media, as Frietze’s attorney alleges, Meinecke said she did discuss it with another citizen – a retired journalist – and said the complaint was released to the media by that person or at that person’s request.

The code of ethics requires that a complaint, once filed, be considered by an independent attorney. If that attorney finds grounds to proceed, a board will be formed to consider the complaint. Only if that board finds a violation and asks the city council to consider it does the code state that the city will make the complaint public.

The code is silent on whether citizens who file complaints have to keep them secret, and it’s not clear whether the city would have authority to require that even if the code attempted to assert it.

The city isn’t commenting on this point, but it’s likely that the complaint is in the hands of an independent attorney who is investigating.

The timing of the complaint

The complaint comes as the Nov. 6 election approaches, and Frietze is facing three challengers. Philippou is a controversial topic in the election because the council approved in May a 6,000-acre Philippou development that could add 30,000 homes to Las Cruces. Galvanized citizens who believe the project was approved without careful consideration and adequate citizen input are working to defeat Frietze and some other incumbents who are champions of the city’s growth.

Meinecke told me when the complaint was filed that she does believe the city’s growth is out of control, but said her motive isn’t political. She said she filed the complaint as soon as she learned that Frietze had failed to disclose several land transactions between his non-profit and Philippou that have occurred since 2005, a time in which the council voted on several Philippou developments.

At issue are two provisions in the city’s ethics code. The first states that a conflict of interest exists when an official’s personal interests conflict with public duties or “when, to a reasonable person, it would appear that the actions of a public official are partial, biased or otherwise compromised due to the public official’s private interests or personal gain being in conflict with the public interest.”

The second provision states that an official should disclose any situation that could be a conflict of interest, “be it real, potential, perceived or alleged,” during a pubic meeting of the city council. It’s then up to the council to decide whether the official can participate in discussion or a vote on the agenda item in question.

Meinecke reiterated what she has said previously – that she would have filed the complaint earlier, putting more distance between it and the Nov. 6 election, if she had obtained the information earlier. She filed the complaint the same week the information was revealed publicly, for the first time, in the Albuquerque Journal.

Frietze has not returned a call seeking comment.

It's crunch time: With debate tonight, guv airs new ad

Posted 10/30/2007 08:02:00 AM

It’s crunch time, and the first Democratic presidential candidate debate of the home stretch – the final weeks before the primary contests begin – will be held tonight. For Gov. Bill Richardson, it’s a chance to stand out while the frontrunners, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, bombard voters in Iowa and New Hampshire with advertising.

The official Democratic National Committee debate will be broadcast on MSNBC beginning at 7 p.m. MST.

Meanwhile, Richardson will begin running a new television advertisement in Iowa today that will air in tandem with an ad about his rescue of American hostages from Iraq that I wrote about last week. The new ad appears to be the culmination of the brilliant ad campaign Richardson’s firm has put together – some ads poking fun at the governor, others highlighting his experience.

The new ad attempts to be an intimate, honest look at the governor and a plea for support. It makes vague references to the mistakes he’s made on the campaign trail, then turns the focus to what he’s done in a lifetime of public service.

“I am Bill Richardson, and when I began this campaign for president, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Richardson says in the ad. “I knew I would not have every answer, but I will always tell you what I really believe, and I will never mislead you.”

“I knew there would be differences between the candidates, especially on Iraq. I’ll get every soldier out. You cannot say you will end the war if you plan to leave thousands of troops behind,” he says. “… If you are wondering if anyone can really do all this, just look at what I have done in my life and how I’ve done it – not by dividing people, but by earning their trust. And that’s really where we need to begin in Iraq. There is a way out.”

And the kicker, the moment of truth:

“I approved this message because I’m sure not the best looking, or the flashiest, but I know who I am, and I know how hard I will work for you,” Richardson says at the end of the ad.

Campaign Manager Dave Contarino said in a news release that Iowans have learned about Richardson’s humor and experience, and they’ve learned about his bravery in rescuing hostages from Iraq.

“This new ad allows Gov. Richardson to tell voters in Iowa what he is about and why he has been so successful in bringing people together to get things done,” Contarino said. “Bill Richardson is the only candidate in this race with both experience and a real vision for change.”

You can learn more about the new ad by clicking here. Here it is: