FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT JONAH COHEN
DECEMBER 1, 2006 505-298-3662
(Albuquerque, NM) – Ordinarily after an election, after all the millions of dollars spent on campaign ads and campaign promises, the public expects to see some improvement in governance—perhaps not radical change but at least a fresh determination to correct past negligence and blunders. Not in New Mexico. Following the November 8th election, government scandal hasn’t missed a beat. Witness recent state history.
On November 20th, the Albuquerque Journal reported that “well-paid N.M. officials lived rent free in housing intended to help the poor. As if we were reading a Charles Dickens novel, we find implicated in this swindle of the underprivileged no less a personality than our legislature’s most powerful figure: House Speaker Ben Lujan.
On November 22nd, KRQE News 13 revealed more astounding government crimes, namely, the courthouse corruption kickback scandal or, as it has come to be known, constructiongate. Larry Barker claims this “may be one of the biggest public corruption scandals New Mexico has ever seen” and he says it “reads like a who’s who in New Mexico politics.”
On December 1st, the superb ratiocination of a local blogger pieced together a number of disparate clues that revealed yet more government shenanigans: the New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC) has, under dubious circumstances, handed the oversight of tens of millions of dollars worth of investments to an apparently makeshift company that has only been in existence for three months—yes, just three months. Worse still, the company was founded by an individual who worked for the previous advisory company that was irresponsibly let go by the state because, according to New Mexico Business Weekly, they refused to render an opinion on deals that the SIC wanted it to consider. Apparently warning against poor investment returns gets you fired in this state, while ignoring bad financial planning gets you state business or even elected to office.
All of these scandals come on the heels of an election which once again reinstated one-party Democrat rule, and none of these scandals are small. It makes us wonder when New Mexico Democrats will stop voting straight party ticket, bring in a two-party system, and end this culture of corruption.
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