King Hires Campaign Manager

Attorney General Gary King has hired a campaign manager for his race for governor next year.

Jim Farrell  is a Las Cruces resident and a veteran of many Democratic campaigns around the country.

Among the successful campaigns he's worked on are U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who unseated an incumbent Republican in 2006; Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado, (one of the few openly gay candidates to be elected to Congress); and the U.S. Senate campaign for Mark Dayton of Minnesota (who currently is governor of that state.)

One not-so-successful campaign Farrell worked on was former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential bid. He was deputy campaign manager for Richardson in the Iowa caucuses.

So far the only other Democrat in the governor's race is state Sen. Linda Lopez. (Hey, wasn't Sen. Michael Sanchez supposed to have made up his mind a few days ago?) 

Incumbent Republican Susana Martinez is not expected to have any primary opposition.

The Whistle-blower Suit Against Human Services

I got so busy late last week, I forgot to post the whistle-blower lawsuit filed by the former Human Services Department  lawyer who claims she was fired because she had complained about the agency’s handling of a controversial audit of government-funded mental health care.

Elizabeth Jeffreys says she reported her concerns to the state Attorney General in Fenruary -- months before the public heard anything about the audit that reportedly found credible evidence of massive fraud among 15 New Mexico behavioral health providers.

My story on the suit is HERE. Below is Jeffreys' complaint.

Whistleblower Suit filed by Elizabeth Jeffreys vs Human Services Dept.

Rep. Jim Trujillo of Santa Fe to Seek Re-Election

State Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, a 10-year veteran of the Legislature, is running for re-election.

Trujillo, 74, represents House District 45, which includes southwestern Santa Fe.

He is a vice chairman of the House Tax & Revenue Committee and chairs the House committee that oversees capital-outlay projects. "I've carried the capital outlay bill in the House for the last eight years," he said.

He's also carried legislation designed to give early-childhood education more money from the state's permanent fund. "I'll probably introduce that again next year," he said Thursday.

Trujillo also is a member of the House Business and Industry Committee.

Trujillo initially was appointed by the County Commission in 2003 to fill the remainder of the term of former Rep. Patsy Trujillo, no relation, who resigned to take a position in the Bill Richardson administration. Trujillo was elected to the seat in 2004 and re-elected with no primary or general election opposition every two years since.

Trujillo is a former teacher and liquor-store owner who also worked for the state Human Services Department.

Former Rep. Brian Moore Joins Think NM Board

Former state Rep. Brian Moore, R-Clayton, who ran the Washington, D.C. office of Gov. Susana Martinez, has just joined the Think New Mexico Board of Directors.

Moore, a grocer by profession, was known as a moderate Republican during his years in the Legislature.

Meanwhile, Roberta Cooper Ramo has been elected chairwoman of the think tank's board, while Edward Lujan, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, is the new vice chairman.

Think New Mexico, based in Santa Fe, is responsible in recent years for pushing legislation repealing the sales tax on food, establishing full-day kindergarten in public schools, reforming the Public Regulation Commission, reducing the amount of state lottery proceeds that go to administration and other dandy stuff.

Other board members are former Gov. Garrey Carruthers (currently president of New Mexico State University); former Attorney General  Paul Bardacke; former New Mexico First Lady Clara Apodaca; David Buchholtz, senior member of the New Mexico office of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; LaDonna Harris, founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity; and Susan Herter, former chief of staff to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.

SF County Looking for Easley Replacement

Wanna be a New Mexico state legislator?

Santa Fe County just sent a news release looking for a replacement for Rep. Stephen Easley, who died last month. His replacement will serve the remainder of his term and run for election next year.

Easley's District 50 includes parts of four counties -- Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Torrance and Valencia. The county commissions of all four will nominate someone and Gov. Susana Martinez will chose among them.

Santa Fe's County Commission will select a nominee at its Sept.  24 meeting.

Here's the news release:

Santa Fe County is Seeking Individuals to Nominate for State Representative District 50 Santa Fe – September 3, 2013 - The Santa Fe Board of County Commissioners (BCC) is seeking individuals to nominate for State Representative District 50. Representative Stephen Easley passed away on August 16, 2013, leaving the district vacancy. 

 Individuals interested in being considered, by law must be at least 21 years of age, live within the District (Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Torrance or Valencia Counties) and cannot currently hold an Office of Trust or Profit with State, County or National government at the time of qualifying. Individuals seeking nomination do not need to be of the same party as Rep. Stephen Easley. 

Santa Fe County will be accepting letters of interests and resumes until noon, Monday, September 9, 2013. The Letter of Interest should include: 

Why you would like to serve as a state representative and how you plan to incorporate the interest of the entire district. 

Interested residents will need to submit a resume and letter of interest to: 
Katherine Miller, County Manager 

Santa Fe County Manager’s Office 

102 Grant Ave. Santa Fe, NM 87501 

Documentary on Behavioral Health Shakeup

A group called New Mexicans Fighting to Save Behavioral Health has produced a 30-minute video about the shakeup of the state's mental-health system. It features interviews of several lawmakers who have been critical of the state Human Service Department's suspension of Medicaid funds for 14 providers of behavioral-health services and several of the providers themselves.

It does not have any interviews with department officials to explain their actions or discuss the audit that reportedly found evidence of fraud on the part of the providers. So it's one-sided, but they lay out their case pretty well.



Here's a story I wrote about a protest rally at the Capitol Friday over the behavioral-health situation.

And here's a story published Sunday about a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by a Human Services lawyer who says she was fired after she went to the Attorney General to complain about the controversial audit early this year.

The Legislature's Behavioral Health Subcommittee is meeting today in Las Cruces.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: A Big Gay Box of Pandoras

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Sept. 1, 2013

Unidentified woman releases several
Pandoras from box

Only a couple of weeks ago, there was no place in New Mexico where gay couples could get married. Things have changed.

At this writing (Friday morning) six counties in the state, including Santa Fe County, allow such marriages.

I’ve observed that the backlash against these developments has been relatively muted. Gov. Susana Martinez, an opponent of same-sex marriage, said in a TV interview that she doesn’t like the patchwork approach and reiterated her belief the issue should be settled by voters. The state Republican Party organization has been completely silent on the issue.

But it would be wrong to say there has been no backlash.

For instance, the Portales News-Tribune reported Thursday that Curry County Clerk Rose Riley said allowing same-sex marriage is like “opening Pandora’s box. If they can force county clerks into giving same sex-marriage licenses, what’s next? Incestual marriage? Bestiality? Where does it stop? … I think it’s wrong. It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the law says.”

Doesn’t Riley realize that the proper phrase in New Mexico is “box of Pandoras”? I thought the late Gov. Bruce King settled that decades ago.

Sen. Sharer

What’s so great about Alexander? Meanwhile, state Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington — who was among several GOP lawmakers filing suit Friday against the Dona Ana county clerk for issuing same-sex marriage license — wrote a blog post on his own website that got quoted last week in The Huffington Post.

Sharer wrote, “Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) married a Bactrian woman — [from] modern-day Afghanistan. Alexander may have engaged in homosexual activity, but he married a woman.

A.T.Great

“He directed his officers to stop ‘whoring’ around and find a local woman to marry. … It is only through blood relations that hatred and war will end.” In other words, Alexander the Great thought that marriage was about creating and raising the next generation.

“This is the reason for Marriage — The creation and raising of children who have the best chance to grow to be peaceful, responsible citizens.”

This prompted Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, the only openly gay legislator, to demand an apology because of the “whoring” line.

Gall in the family: Besides Alexander, Sharer’s blog post mentions several other historical figures — not in the context of engaging in homosexual activities, or even for “whoring,” but for being in favor of marriage.

One of these was the Greek philosopher Aristotle, of whom Sharer said, “Aristotle fully believed that marriage, between Greeks, was fundamental for civilization — marriage between a Greek man and a Greek woman to make virtuous Greek babies. It was only with virtuous Greek babies that Greek civilization could succeed.”

I was reminded of the recent CNN documentary Our Nixon, in which the 37th president, on a recently released White House tape, made a different point about Aristotle.

In the tape, Nixon is grumbling with his aides H.R. “Bob” Haldeman and future Santa Fe resident John Erhlichman about a then-new television series called All in the Family. Tricky Dick was not amused.

I’m not sure about the particular episode of the show that set him off, but Nixon said, “The point that I make is that goddamit, I do not think that you glorify, on public television, homosexuality! You ever see what happened, you know what happened to the Greeks? Homosexuality destroyed them. Aristotle was a homo, we all know that. So was Socrates.”

At that point, Ehrlichman chimed in, “But he never had the influence that television has.”

Nixon ignored that. “The last six Roman emperors were fags,” Nixon continued. “You see, homosexuality, immorality in general, these are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the communists and the left-wingers are pushing it. They’re trying to destroy us.”

Somehow civilization withstood Archie Bunker.

And I’ve noticed that even though hundreds of gay and lesbian couples were married in New Mexico in late August, the sun keeps rising every morning.

Blog bonus: Nixon on Archie Bunker, Aristotle, etc.