Gov. Susana Martinez and the company she keeps: She used to prosecute guys like this. Now she surrounds herself with them.
Gov. Susana Martinez why do Keith Gardner, Jay McCleskey, and Hanna Skandera still have their jobs?
Gov. Susana Martinez why do Keith Gardner, Jay McCleskey, and Hanna Skandera still have their jobs?
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ISPAC EDITORIAL: Sen. O’Neill’s Focus is on the Wrong Conduct
January 25, 2013 New Mexico State Senator Bill O’Neill missed the real problem. O’Neill told the media that he introduced a bill to turn New Mexico into a two-party consent state when it comes to recording conversations because he would feel “violated” if a conversation he participated in was recorded without his consent. New Mexico along with the majority of states allows for one-party consent to record a conversation. O’Neill’s focus on the act of recording is misguided. Instead O’Neill’s focus should be about prohibiting high-ranking officials from using their political connections to interfere with legal proceedings. O’Neill cites Brian Powell’s recording of Keith Gardner, Susana Martinez’s chief of staff as the reason for introducing his bill. Powell’s reason for recording Gardner trumps O’Neill’s sense of violation. It was Powell’s family that was violated by Gardner’s actions. Powell put it succinctly, “I recorded this conversation because I had reason to believe Mr. Gardner might be motivated to prevent crucial testimony by a witness at an upcoming preliminary hearing. The preliminary hearing involved my daughter as the victim of sexual abuse, and a critical witness had suddenly expressed reluctance to testify.” Instead of re-victimizing the Powell family, O’Neill should make it clear that powerful people conspiring to prevent justice is the real problem. O’Neill should drop his bill. He should then introduce a bill that holds public officials who abuse their authority by interfering in legal proceedings accountable. That is truly worthy of Senator O’Neill’s time and attention. _______________________________________________________________ Editorial: Drivers’ License Compromise
January 24, 2013 Governor Susana Martinez is now signaling compromise on her efforts to repeal New Mexico law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers’ licenses. Until now, Martinez has been absolutist in her my way or the highway approach to dealing with this issue. Her prior refusal to compromise was no surprise considering that her chief governmental and political advisor, Jay McCleskey, along with Pat Rogers, Darren White and other Martinez administration insiders have been pushing to eliminate this law for years. Getting their go ahead to sign off on compromise must have taken extensive polling by Jay McCleskey’s wife showing the damage Martinez’ refusal to budge on the issue is doing to her national political ambitions. A Los Angeles Times article on Martinez’s problems with Hispanics and Latinos in New Mexico on this issue, highlighting the work of Somos and Marcella Diaz, probably didn’t hurt to get Martinez to move off the dime. ISPAC has been on the forefront of educating the public to the fact that licensing all drivers including undocumented immigrants makes sense from a public safety standpoint. We have written extensively on the push by LAPD Chief Beck’s to grant drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants for public safety reasons. The California legislature has responded to Beck’s call and done just that. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles recently released an extensive study on accidents and unlicensed drivers are involved in a greater proportion of accidents including hit and runs accidents, that have more catastrophic injuries than licensed drivers. We have also written extensively on how Martinez’s efforts to repeal the law conflicts with the Dream Act executive orders issued by President Obama. A ticket to extended and costly litigation such as the suit filed in Arizona. Fourteen states including Texas now acknowledge that conflict with the Dream Act will require them to grant drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants. Last spring, ISPAC ran commercials showing the public safety benefit of ensuring that all drivers are licensed and tested before getting on the road. Political blogger Joe Monahan has said this best. Get the compromise done and get on to bigger issues like New Mexico’s abysmal record of job creation under the Martinez administration. A compromise can be done that protects all of us by requiring every driver to demonstrate enough experience before they get on the road while reducing fraudulent drivers license applicants. _______________________________________________________________ State Fair Commissioner Charlotte Rode's IPRA Complaint
January 23, 2013 The Santa Fe Reporter has an article on State Fair Commissioner Charlotte Rode's lawsuit against Expo New Mexico and the New Mexico Racing Commission for their refusal to produce documents pursuant to her IPRA request. The article has a copy of Charlotte Rode's lawsuit. Governor Susana Martinez has made a concerted effort to keep public records about the Dirty Downs deal secret. Almost a month after the New Mexico Attorney General's office ordered her administration to produce records regarding her husband's hunting trip to Louisiana during the procurement process to ISPAC, her administration has still not produced the documents. Laguna Development Corp. the other bidder in the deal was also denied access to documents by the administration, even after Laguna alleged that the administration had leaked Laguna's documents to the Downs at Albuquerque. The administration seems to be doing all it can to prevent the public from seeing with its own eyes just how this supposed RFP process was just a sole-source contract in disguise. _______________________________________________________________ Editorial: Influential Latinos Call Parent Involvement the Key to Reducing Latino Dropout Rates. Susana Martinez Should Quit Trying to Shut Parents Out.
January 21, 2013 Susana Martinez is still trying to eliminate a parent’s right to make critical decisions about his or her own children’s education. Martinez’s efforts run counter to calls by nationally prominent Latinos, who call parental involvement the key to reversing high dropout rates among Latinos. In a special report entitled “How Latinos are Changing America”, Parade Magazine, the most widely read magazine in America, interviewed several influential Latinos including Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, Texas on ways of reversing high drop out rates among Latinos. Castro stated that the secret of his educational success was, “parents who acted, almost like watchdogs”. Linda Alvarado, the CEO of Denver’s Alvarado Construction and a co-owner of the Colorado Rockies told Parade, “we need parental involvement” to reduce the dropout rate. Alvarado described a program in Denver where public school teachers meet with parents in the family home, as one key form of outreach. There is definitive research that shows that children who are forced to repeat third-grade have a higher dropout rate than those who continue on to fourth-grade. So with clear-cut evidence and nationally prominent Latinos calling for more parental involvement why are Martinez and Hanna Skandera, Martinez’s education secretary-designate, pushing so hard for mandatory retention? (continued) ______________________________________________________________ New Orleans Pay to Play Similar to the Dirty Downs Deal
January 19, 2013 The US Attorney for Louisiana indicted Ray Nagin, the former mayor of New Orleans, on multiple corruption charges stemming from alleged pay-to-play contract awards. The US Attorney brought charges under Title 18 of the United States Code, Sections 666(a)(1-2). This code is enforceable by US Attorneys throughout the US. There are some similarities between the conduct Nagin was indicted for and the actions of Governor Susana Martinez, high-level members of her administration and individuals close to her regarding the awarding of the contract in the Dirty Downs deal. (continued) _______________________________________________________________ The Things You Hear in Restaurants
January 17, 2013 Restaurants have food and beverages. In Santa Fe during the legislative session they also have lobbyists and government officials. What restaurants do not have, especially in dining areas open to the public, is any expectation of privacy. Speaking loud enough that people at other tables to hear you clearly makes what you say fair game. Yesterday, during a meeting with a few folks at the Rio Chama in Santa Fe, several men sat down at the table behind me. They looked and sounded like lobbyists, and a bit like the country club set from southeastern New Mexico. A few minutes later, there was a very loud voice that greeted the men at the table behind me. The voice, probably the most recognizable in New Mexico thanks to the now famous recording made by Roswell Firefighter Brian Powell belonged to Susana Martinez’s chief of staff Keith Gardner. Gardner told some loud jokes a few at the expense of Tim Jennings, the former Senate Pro Tem who in Powell’s recording Gardner called every name in the book, and Carrie Menapace, the young APS lobbyist who accused him of physically and verbally abusing her during last year’s legislative session. Gardner laughed and the men with him chuckled. (continued) _____________________________________________________________ ISPAC Editorial: Government As a Force For Good
January 10, 2013 According to the US Department of Labor, the Albuquerque Metro area lost more jobs from November 2011 to November 2012 than any other metro area in the country. During this same time frame, the majority of metro areas in the country experienced job growth not loss. New Mexico is also one of five states with the highest level of people leaving the state for greener pastures. People have to go where the jobs are and they are certainly not here. (continued) _______________________________________________________________ ISPAC Editorial: No Agenda Based on Collective Punishment is Worth Supporting
January 8, 2013 Governor Susana Martinez continues to refuse to cooperate on her overtly political agenda, eliminating driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants and requiring mandatory retention of third graders not reading at grade level. Republicans typically champion individual responsibility over collective punishment. However, Martinez’s agenda is solely based upon collective punishment. Martinez turned down compromise bills last legislative session on both the driver’s license issue and third grade retention. The police chief of the Los Angeles Police Department has publicly gutted her argument that eliminating driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants improves public safety. The California legislature listed to Chief Beck and decided to grant driver’s licenses to potentially millions of illegal immigrants. (continued). _______________________________________________________________ NM AGO ORDERS MARTINEZ ADMIN TO RELEASE RECORDS RELATED TO LOUISIANA HUNTING TRIP
January 3, 2013 The New Mexico Attorney General’s office has spoken loud and clear. The Martinez administration must now produce public records it sought to conceal. The Attorney General is charged with the authority to enforce the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. In a determination letter regarding a complaint we filed against the administration over the denial of public records, the AG’s office determined that the administration did not have a valid reason for withholding the records, and “accordingly, we direct the Department to furnish Mr. Corwin with the records sought in his request.” Read the determination letter here. The records in question that the administration, specifically DPS, must now release relate to the members of the New Mexico State Police Governor’s security detail who accompanied the governor’s husband on his hunting trip to Louisiana in September 2011. Despite claiming to be “Sunshine Susanna”, her administration refused to cooperate with the AGO’s efforts to obtain information about these records as, “repeated efforts by this Office over multiple months to seek information from the Department regarding the denial have gone entirely unanswered.” In April 2012, ISPAC made a written request for those records concerning that trip to both the governor’s office and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. We did so after it was learned that the out-of-state hunting trip was taken in a government vehicle and paid for using a government-issue gas card. (Continued) _______________________________________________________________ ISPAC Editorial
On Newtown and the Demonization of Public School Teachers December 19, 2012 To most people teachers are heroes. The tragedy that unfolded in Newtown, CT showed just how accurate that belief has been. Teachers engaged in significant acts of heroism in putting their students lives ahead of their own. (continued) _______________________________________________________________ ISPAC Special Investigation: Ryan Cangiolosi Falls Far Short of the Minimum Requirements for the UNM Health Sciences $125K Position.
December 13, 2012 _______________________________________________________________ ISPAC EDITORIAL
Journal Editorial Ignores Skandera Conflicts: Paper calls on APS to Cut Astronomical Costs Incurred From Skandera’s Cronyism December 13, 2012 _______________________________________________________________ Journal Ignores Skandera’s Insider Deal Costing Taxpayers Tens of Millions of Dollars
December 7, 2012 _______________________________________________________________ |
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Click here to listen to ISPAC radio ads exposing Martinez Administration ethical issues. |
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Disclaimer
Paid for by Independent Source Pac and not authorized by any party, candidate or candidate's committee. Contact us at:
Independent Source Pac
11024 Montgomery Blvd NE #128 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111.
(505) 250-0244.
Michael Corwin, Treasurer.
Paid for by Independent Source Pac and not authorized by any party, candidate or candidate's committee. Contact us at:
Independent Source Pac
11024 Montgomery Blvd NE #128 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87111.
(505) 250-0244.
Michael Corwin, Treasurer.