SOS Wants Fed Help to Find Non-Citizen Voters

Secretary of State Dianna Duran this week joined with Republican elections officials from several other states in asking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help ensure that noncitizens aren’t on voting rolls.

SOS Dianna Duran campaiging in 2010

The request comes just months after Duran’s office reported that a lengthy investigation here found evidence that a handful of noncitizens had cast ballots in New Mexico.

Viki Harrison, executive director of New Mexico Common Cause, when told about a possible new effort to look for non-citizens on voting rolls, said Wednesday, “I think the real crisis in voting is that 50 percent of New Mexicans who are eligible to vote are not registered. And we’re worried about things like this?” She added that voter fraud already is a felony and those who commit it should be prosecuted.

Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler on Monday wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Monday, asking the agency to help verify the citizenship status of about 5,000 Colorado voters.

Gessler’s letter said that nine secretaries of state — including Duran — and two lieutenant governors from states where that post oversees elections “share this approach and expect to request” similar agreements with the agency.

Duran’s office on Wednesday verified that she supports Gessler’s effort and provided a reporter with the July 6 letter she sent to to Gessler.

In that letter Duran wrote:

 “The New Mexico Secretary of State’s office has recently undertaken similar efforts to ensure the accuracy of New Mexico’s voter rolls; however, without a reliable means to determine citizenship, we have been unable to determine if registered voters in New Mexico were in fact citizens and eligible to vote. ... I support this initiative and stand ready to participate with any efforts in coordinating access to federal databases that contain accurate and reliable information that will assist us in our statutorily mandated duties.”

Both Gessler and Duran want to access Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification and Entitlement database, to match against state voter rolls.

More on this in today's New Mexican.

UPDATE: Below is a copy of Duran's letter to Gessler. Gessler's letter to Napolitano is HERE (Thank you Denver Post)



762012 Duran Gessler Letter

Sen. Michael Sanchez Hospitalized

I just got this email saying Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez was hospitalize yesterday for a blocked artery procedure.

He's expected to be released tomorrow.

Here's the message from the Senate Majority Office:

 “Sen. Sanchez is resting comfortably following a medical procedure that took place yesterday to clear a blocked artery. Doctors expect him to make a complete recovery. It is anticipated that he will be released from Presbyterian Hospital tomorrow, July 12, 2012. Although he is anxious to be discharged, he is in good spirits. He and his family would like to thank the many friends and colleagues who have reached out and assure them he is doing well. ”


Get well, senator.

Obama, Heinrich Lead in New Poll

An Illinois-based polling company called We Ask America released a new poll today showing that President Obama has a double-digit lead over Republican Mitt Romney in the race for New Mexico's five electoral votes. Obama leads Romney 51 percent to 40 percent, according to the poll. Nine percent are undecided.

The same poll shows Democrat Martin Heinrich with a nine point lead over Republican Heather Wilson -- 51 percent to 42 percent. Seven percent are undecided in this race, according to the poll.

The presidential poll is generally in line with other recent polls in New Mexico. A late April poll by Democratic-leaning company Public Policy Polling showed Obama with with a 14 point lead over Romney .

However, the Senate poll by We Ask America has Heinrich with a significantly stronger lead over Wilson than he has had in other polls. The April PPP survey showed Heinrich with just a five point lead over Wilson.

We Asked America conducted this automated poll Monday and Tuesday. A total of 1,227 "likely voters" were surveyed. The margin of error is 2.8 percent.

The company apparently determined who was a "likely" voter by asking about their intention to vote. According to the web post:

"As in all of the series of states we’re polling by automated means, after qualifying each individual in regards to ability (registered) and intention to vote this fall, we asked the following straightforward questions: If the election for president were held today, for whom would you vote and If the election for U.S. Senator were held today, for whom would you vote?"

We Ask America is a subsidiary of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association. For more information on that company, check out this article in the Springfield State Journal-Register.

Gary King is Running For Governor

Update: Wednesday: My story in today's New Mexican, including King's response, is HERE.


Attorney General Gary King, long talked about as a potential candidate for governor, is now saying he will indeed run for governor in 2014.

In an interview on Albuquerque radio station KANW Monday, King said he's decided to run for the Democratic nomination and has formed a campaign committee.

Gary King Talks to State Democrats Last Year

King, serving his second term as attorney general.  is a former state representative. He's also the son of New Mexico’s longest-serving governor, the late Bruce King, who served three non-consecutive four-year terms between 1971 and 1994.

King is the first Democrat to say he's running. Assumedly the Republican nominee will be Gov. Susana Martinez, who is serving her first term as governor.

Martinez hasn't formally announced she's seeking re-election. But last year, during a controversy about her 2010 campaign committee paying for radio ads about driver's licenses for  illegal immigrants, her campaign committee argued that it now serves as Martinez's re-election committee. The committee argued that "... radio spots to promote the governor's issues and ideas and that the promotion of such issues and ideas are standard campaign activity."

This will be the third time Gary King has sought the governor's office. He ran in 1998, losing the Democratic primary to Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez. Four years later he tried again, but dropped out of the race before the primary after a poor showing against Bill Richardson in the pre-primary convention and difficulty with findraising..

Gary King also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004 against Republican incumbent Steve Pearce in the southern 2nd Congressional District.

King and Martinez  recently have been feuding over the use of private email for state business. King's office recently has been investigating Martinez's Public Education Department over the practice and for compiling lists for Martinez's political director.

The state Republican Party has blasted the attorney general as "King of  Hypocrisy" for using his campaign email to communicate with a campaign contributor about an official legal opinion being sought.

Roundhouse Roundup: Political Ads: Demise or Salvation for Public Radio?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
July 8, 2012

Will public radio and television soon cease to be an oasis from the sound and fury of political advertising?

It’s quite possible, though thankfully nothing’s likely to change before this election. And the local public radio station has assured its listeners that despite the temptations of filthy lucre from the politicos, KSFR will not accept political ads even if the practice becomes legal.

The future face of public broadcasting?

Last April a three-judge federal Appeals Court panel in San Francisco struck down as unconstitutional the decades-long ban on political ads on public broadcasting outlets. On June 29, the U.S. Department of Justice requested the appeals court rehear the case, saying the April decision “threatens the noncommercial, educational character of public broadcasting.”

KSFR and KPBS, a San Diego TV station, are the only two public broadcast stations across the country I could find that have created a policy against accepting political ads.

“It is a time-honored tradition of public broadcasting to be independent of controversial, one-sided advertising,” KSFR’s board said in a statement shortly after the court decision. “At KSFR News, especially, our editorial position is to be as objective as humanly possible. … The board and staff remain committed to keeping Santa Fe public radio safe and secure from the manipulations of outside interests so that we may continue to serve the public interest.”

(Full disclosure upfront: I’ve been a volunteer with KSFR for nearly 20 years. For most of that time, I’ve produced two weekly music shows. (THIS and THIS) I don’t even know most of the station’s board members and I am not paid for my work there.)

KSFR’s news director, Bill Dupuy, was on the air Thursday afternoon during the station’s fundraiser using the station’s stance as a fundraising talking point. This raised a lot of positive comments from donors, Dupuy said later, including an email from a listener who wrote, “I support KSFR’s position on this issue entirely. I have just put my own money where my mouth is, so to speak, by pledging to KSFR for the first time.”

“It sets a bad precedent,” Dupuy said. “It could undermine the whole idea of public radio.”

Richard Towne, general manager of KUNM radio in Albuquerque, agreed. He said Thursday that while his station hasn’t taken an official stand on the court ruling, “I don’t think anyone in noncommercial [broadcasting] wants to see this happen,” he said. “It would fundamentally change our sound.”

Both Towne and Dupuy expressed concern that a lift on the political ad ban might mean stations would be required to accept ads from candidates. Proponents of the idea could argue that denying someone’s ad would be contrary to free speech. Robin Hagen Cane, writing in a blog at Findlaw.com last week, doesn’t think so, however.

“Public broadcasting stations would not be required to take political ad revenue under the ruling, but stations that are struggling would probably be tempted,” Cane wrote.

Indeed, getting a share of the political ad pile could mean big cash bucks for a public station. Cane quoted Laura Martin, an entertainment and Internet analyst for New York investment bank Needham & Co., who told the Boston Globe that spending on political ads on local television stations alone could reach $3.2 billion this year.

That’s a lot of tote bags.

The Globe in April quoted a consultant for the Democratic Party saying public radio advertising could be great for liberal and moderate candidates in radio markets dominated by conservative talk shows. It would be “better than Christmas, better than winning the lottery,’’ consultant Michael Goldman said, because public-radio audiences generally favor Democrats.

I guess one way for listeners and viewers to fight back against stations that start running political ads: During the next fund drive, instead of pledging money, pledge to vote against any candidate who advertises on your favorite public station.

King Claims Intimidation by GOP

Attorney General Gary King told reporters today that he believes the state Republican party is trying to "intimidate" him with a recent public records request, perhaps so he'll back off of an investigation of possible violations of the state Government Conduct Act.

That investigation is in response to a request by two Democratic legislators concerning a May 2 email sent from a Public Education Department spokesman’s private email account to Martinez’s political director Jay McCleskey and several administration officials on personal email accounts.

Here's what King said today:



UPDATED 5:13 pm. As he says in the video, King responded to the GOP request and delivered some emails. But he said he would need more time to go through his personal email (since January 2010) to see which ones might involve state business.He said he'd produce any of those within 45 days.

Here's a statement by State Republican Party Chairman Monty Newman:

“The Attorney General’s letter shows that there is no consensus among the branches of government on just what the rules are concerning private email accounts. The Attorney General cannot say whether or not his private emails concern public business. This points up the need for a legislative and regulation fix looking forward. ”

There will be more on this in Saturday's New Mexican.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: Waiting on Wapner & Other Tidbits

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 24 2012


Following the Supreme Court’s decision on Obama’s health care reform Thursday, former Gov. Gary Johnson, now running for president of these United States on the Libertarian ticket, tweeted, “If [Mitt Romney] is elected, says he would give us [Supreme Court] Justices like John Roberts. I will give us Justices like @Judgenap.”

For those not fluent in Twitterese, @Judgenap is the Twitter handle of Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge who is a legal analyst for Fox News. Napolitano has strong libertarian views, describing himself as “the Ayn Rand of Fox News.” He hosted a show called Freedom Watch on Fox Business Network for a few years.

Personally, I’m waiting for the candidate who will give us Supreme Court justice like Judge Wapner.

Speaking of Johnson: The former Republican governor, who switched his party registration from Republican to Libertarian early this year, won’t be attending August’s GOP convention in Tampa this year. However, this week organizers of what is being called “The Ron Paul Festival” announced that Johnson will be speaking at the shindig, which takes place in Tampa right before the Republicans convene there. The man whom the festival is named for, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, also is speaking.

The event’s website says The Ron Paul Festival will feature “Music, Entertainment and Activism.” I have to admit, I’d never heard of any of the bands scheduled to play at the festival. But I do like their slogan: “Unite for Freedom and Party Like It’s 1976.”

Johnson spoke at a similar event for Paul and his supporters before the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota. But I can’t help but think this might be a little bittersweet for Johnson. Early last year he was hoping to be Paul’s heir as the Republican Party’s champion of libertarianism.

But that hope was crushed when Paul himself announced he was running for the Republican nomination just days after Johnson made his announcement that he was seeking the GOP nomination.

I doubt if Johnson is counting on Paul’s endorsement. But there will be thousands of Paul supporters there who could be receptive to Johnson’s message.

Conventional wisdom: So Johnson is going to Tampa next month, but Heather Wilson isn’t.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill made lots of headlines recently and got the chattering class chattering about the fact that she’s skipping the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina. And now Republican Senate candidate Heather Wilson has made the same choice for her party’s convention.

“Wilson spokesman Chris Sanchez said that the former congresswoman does not plan to attend the convention in August and will be campaigning in New Mexico at the time,” the National Journal reported Wednesday.

McCaskill is facing re-election in a state where President Barack Obama isn’t very popular. Wilson is running in New Mexico, where Obama is way ahead in the polls. Coincidence?

That’s why Wilson, who veered right in the primary, especially when Lt. Gov. John Sanchez was still in the race challenging her conservative credentials, currently is stressing her “independence” in her general election campaign.

New conservative website: Check out the new site called New Mexico WhoSaidYouSaid.

“We want to aggregate, promote and produce key video on New Mexico politics,” said Tom Intorcio of Denver, who was in New Mexico last week to announce the project and recruit videographers and writers for the site.

He’s with a Colorado version of WhoSaidYouSaid, which has been operating since 2009. The focus of that site is “fiscal responsibility and free enterprise,” Intorcio said. That’s the plan for New Mexico, too, though, at least as of the middle of the week, not all the stories on the site had an obvious partisan slant.

Intorcio was a field director for Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign and has worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures.