Postcards from Dianna

SOS Duran with thousands of returned
postcards  recently mailed to "inactive" voters

Secretary of State Dianna Duran has been taking heat from Democrats over her recent effort to purge inactive voters and voters who moved away.

At the root of the controversy are nearly 178,000 postcards that Duran’s office sent out early this month to voters around the state who had been flagged by county clerks as “inactive” after election-related mail was returned as undeliverable.

Duran in an interview yesterday said the effort was instigated by the U.S. Justice Department, (See letter below). So if this is a conspiracy to disenfranchise voters, the Obama Justice Department is in on it.

She stressed that currently classified "inactive" voters are still allowed to vote -- in fact, voting should take them off the inactive list -- and that the Secretary of State's office by law cannot remove any voter from the rolls.

See my story in today's New Mexican HERE.
DOJ Letter 09 14 11

Michelle Malkin to Speak to Local GOP

Michelle Malkin, a nationally known conservative syndicated columnist, author, blogger  and televidsion pundit, will be the keynote speaker at a gala sponsored by the Santa Fe Federated Republican Women Saturday Aug. 11 at Buffalo Thunder Resort in Pojoaque.

Malkin has written several books, including her recent Culture of Corruption. She is a frequent guest on Fox News talk shows.

Several state Republican leaders are scheduled to speak at the "Ladies of Liberty Gala,"  including Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who will receive the Ladies of Liberty Award.

For more information email  LadiesOfLibertyGala@gmail.com .

Two Arrested in Audit Scandal

The state Regulations & Licensing Department this morning announced the arrest of  the former controller and the current chief operating officer for the New Mexico Finance Authority in connection with the forged audit scandal.

John Duff's booking shot

I haven't seen the actual criminal complaint yet, but according to the news release, Gregory M. Campbell, the former controller for NMFA, has been charged with eight counts of securities fraud, four counts of forgery and one count each of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Campbell's name has been out there for awhile. But also arrested this morning was John Duff, the current chief operating officer for NMFA, who was the immediate supervisor of Campbell.

Duff is charged as an accessory on eight counts of securities fraud and racketeering. Duff, also is charged with conspiring to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity by fraudulently misrepresenting the financial statements of the NMFA to ratings agencies, investors, bond buyers, and the State of New Mexico, according to the criminal complaint.

“These two corporate officials had strong accounting backgrounds yet they cooked the books to make their financial statements looks stronger than they actually were,"   Daniel S. Tanaka, Director of the Securities Division said in the news release. "Accurate disclosure of the true financial condition of a company is crucial to ensure that all investors have the information they are entitled to by law,” said Tanaka.

The arrests come one week after investigators from the state Securities Division seized documents, computers, compact discs and other items from the Finance Authority's office in downtown Santa Fe.

Greg Campbell

Campbell and Duff were booked into Santa Fe County Jail and are subject to a $20,000 cash or surety bond. A date for an arraignment at the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe has not yet been set.


The news release, referring to the criminal complaint, says that  Campbell admitted to forging the 2011 audit report. “Campbell stated he obtained the audit reports from the fiscal year 2010 audit and ‘copied and pasted’ the letterhead and signatures onto a printed copy of the PDF file. Campbell stated he then copied the entire report and scanned it into a PDF file in order to disseminate copies of the financial statements and forged reports to external and internal recipients” as the 2011 audit report, the complaint alleges.

The independent auditors, hired by NMFA to perform that function, told investigators that they never completed an audit of the 2011 financial statements and there was no exit conference held to go over the audit results.

The criminal complaint also alleges that Campbell, with the explicit knowledge and permission of Duff, misrepresented approximately $40 million in the financial statements for NMFA for 2010 and 2011. Instead of reporting a loss of $40 million in revenues, they are accused of concealing that loss by fraudulently reporting it under grant expenses.

According to the complaint, "...Campbell represented that the decision to reclassify the reduction in appropriations revenue as 'grant expense' was in fact a misrepresentation of the fiscal year 2011 financial statements as it did not reflect the true financial condition of the NMFA. Campbell accepted the characterization that the action to fraudulently misrepresent the financial statements was in fact 'cooking the books' of the NMFA."

J. Dee Dennis Jr., Superintendent of the State Regulation and Licensing Department. said in the news release, “The action of these two individuals has risked the credit rating of New Mexico. We want to send a clear and strong message to the Wall Street, rating agencies, bond purchasers and investors that we will get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible to once again restore their confidence in our state."

Tanaka added, "Today we took swift and appropriate action, making significant progress towards the ultimate resolution of this case. These arrests send a clear signal to Wall Street, the investing public, and the citizens of New Mexico that we will not tolerate fraud in our financial institutions. ...The investigation will bring to light the extent of the wrongdoing and at the end of the day we will make our findings known and will work with all stake holders to restore confidence in the NMFA. The investigation continues. ”

Here are the criminal complaints:


NMFA criminal complaint

Susana Gets Speaker Slot at GOP Convention

Gov. Susana Martinez will speak at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. this month, Reince Preibus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, announcedc today.

She'll probably get a fancier podium in Tampa

Martinez was among several high-profile Republicans named by Preibus who will address the GOP convention, where Mitt Romney is expected to be nominated for president.

Other speakers include U.S. Sen. Jon McCain, who was the previous Republican nominee in 2008, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Some commentators have noted today that the selection of Martinez, Rice and Haley is a sign that despite speculation and rumor, none of them will be chosen as Romney's running mate. Several GOP leaders who are believed to be on Romney's short list for the number two spot — Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — were conspicuously absent from the list of speakers.

Martinez, who became governor only last year, has consistently maintained that she is not interested in running for vice president this year, even though many national pundits have maintained that as a female Hispanic she might be helpful to the ticket. A spokesman for Martinez said last week that the Romney team was not vetting Martinez for the position.

The Republican National Convention begins on Aug. 27.

UPDATE: 10:32 am I just noticed this RNC press release quoting our governor:

"The Republican National Convention will give Mitt Romney momentum for securing a critical victory for our country this fall. Americans want to work. They want to build their businesses, compete and succeed in order to create more jobs and a secure future for their families. Mitt Romney knows that is the formula for our economic growth - not more government roadblocks. We will share this message in Tampa in a few weeks, and the American voters will make their voices heard on this at the polls in November."

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: When NM Politics Had Sparkle

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Aug. 5, 2012

After the bizarre situation earlier this year, in which 10 legislative candidates from both major parties — including veteran lawmakers like Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings — had their nominating petitions challenged in court mostly over technical violations, at least one state senator is talking about doing away with the petition system altogether and going back to the old system of candidates having to pay a filing fee.

That’s what Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, recently told reporter Milan Simonich of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership. Morales told Simonich that he will introduce a bill next year to do away with the nominating petitions, a system he called “flawed and outdated.”

Sparkle with sparkler

This brings back memories of 1972, the first election in which I was eligible to vote. That year a federal court, backed up by an opinion by the state attorney general, struck down a New Mexico law that required congressional and statewide candidates to put up a $2,500 filing fee. This angered former New Mexico Attorney General Fred Standley. This meant that any ham-and-egger off the street could run for office!

So Standley and a group of friends, dubbed by then-Gov. David Cargo as “The Bull Ring Gang,” came up with a colorful idea to draw attention to the situation. They convinced a 28-year-old Bull Ring cocktail waitress and aspiring actress named Sparkle Plenty to file for Congress. (At that time Santa Fe was part of the 1st Congressional District, represented by Republican Manuel Lujan Jr.)

Miss Plenty was born Cheryl Lana Boone, but the year before, she’d legally changed her name to “Sparkle Plenty.” The name change itself was on the front page of The New Mexican. She was one of nine candidates to file for the Democratic congressional primary. If Standley and his pals thought she might get some attention, they were right. Besides her work at the political watering hole, her résumé listed her experience as law student, legal secretary, airline stewardess and Playboy bunny.

Some of her coverage was blatantly sexist. One report in this very paper described her as “leggy,” while many stories about Plenty dutifully referred to her campaigning in a leather mini-skirt.

But her mentor, Standley, soon lost interest in the Sparkle bandwagon. Not long after filing day, the state Supreme Court, responding to a legal challenge by Standley, reinstated the filing-fee requirement. “Veteran political observers feel that the Standley crowd should be sued for breach of promise” for pulling the rug out from under Plenty, said New Mexican columnist Will Hoffman.

“Our purpose was accomplished,” Standley told Hoffman. “We’ve demonstrated that this is the most ludicrous situation we ever got into. She accomplished what she wanted — publicity.” (Indeed, her campaign got the attention of national publications, including The New York Times.)

The filing fee requirement immediately thinned the herd running for Congress. Four of the nine candidates dropped out. But not Sparkle Plenty. Even though the Bull Ring Gang wasn’t taking her candidacy seriously, Sparkle herself was. “I’m not in this for the publicity,” she said. “Even if I should get a movie contract, I would use the money to start ecological foundations.”

The first Sparkle Plenty was from
the Dick Tracy comic strip

She came up with the filing fee, thanks to a contributor, Larry Hunt of Cerrillos, described by this paper as “a self-styled multi-thousandaire and a former sea captain.” She assembled what the paper called “a campaign staff of earnest but bumbling amateurs.” And she won the endorsements of a couple of respectable environmental groups.

But she lost the primary, coming in fifth out of five in the contest won by Santa Fe lawyer Gene Gallegos, whom nobody described as “leggy,” and who went on to be defeated by Lujan in the general election.

Before the end of the ’70s, the filing fee again was declared unconstitutional, and it was replaced by the current screwy petition system. Who knows. Perhaps Morales’ bill will spark another Sparkle in some future election.

Sparkle Plenty is the subject of an upcoming Centennial Journeys radio spot produced by The New Mexico Centennial Steering Committee. Keep an eye out for it HERE..

Eeeek! A Mouse!

"I hate those Meeses to pieces!"

Unwanted rodents can strike anywhere. Including the Governor's Mansion.

I wrote a little story in today's paper about a recent problem discovered at 1 Mansion Drive. You can find it HERE.

In the story I quote the governor's spokesman Scott Darnell saying that an exterminator regularly visits the mansion.

That's one way to deal with it.

Here's another:

More "Susana for Veep" Navel Gazing

The Politico once again has raised the possibility of Mitt Romney choosing Gov. Susana Martinez as his running mate on the GOP presidential ticket.

Yes, it is slow season on the political front.

Here's what they said:

Martinez, the first female governor of New Mexico and the first female Hispanic governor in the country, was elected two years ago and immediately deemed a rising star in the Republican Party. She’s been mentioned in some circles as a potential running mate for Romney and could help him win over Hispanic voters in some of the most important battleground states — like Florida and Nevada — this fall.

But Martinez has been low on most pundits’ lists, in large part because Martinez doesn’t even seem to want the post: asked this spring whether she’d be willing to join the GOP ticket, Martinez said she “just couldn’t do it” because of family concerns. It’s an answer she’s consistently given since then. Many Republicans are also wary of a largely unknown governor on the ticket after the Palin experience four years ago.

Yawn. I don't see anything new here.

For the record, earlier this week I asked Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell whether anyone from the Romney campaign had begun the vetting process on the governor. He said no, just as Martinez herself told me the week before.

Only a few more weeks at the most of Romney veep speculation.


UPDATE 5:29 pm I have corrected an embarrassing typo in the headline. My apologies to those in the U.S. Navy and thank you for your service