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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Discontent Brewing in Roundhouse

By David Roybal
For the Journal
    There's restlessness in the New Mexico Legislature as the November general election approaches. And much of it is rooted in the governor's race. In truth, it's even fueled by early stages of the U.S. presidential contest.
    Democrat Bill Richardson is positioned to win re-election as governor. He has too much money— much of it from out of state— and no real competition. Too bad about the timid Republican Party. If Richardson had a credible opponent, he might be stunned by the number of voters who would register their discontent.
    Include Democrats of diverse backgrounds among the disenchanted.
    "The governor has created a fracture between Democrats," said state Rep. Luciano "Lucky" Varela, D-Santa Fe. He referred to favoritism purportedly stirred by Richardson within the party.
    Increasingly, legislators are wondering how a second term with Gov. Bill will unfold. "The record shows that in the first three years of his term we gave the executive much of what he requested," said Varela, a highly regarded Santa Fe lawmaker who chairs the powerful interim Legislative Finance Committee.
    If anyone were to call that a free ride, the ride began changing this year.
    That's enough to stir anxiety in anybody's legislature. Add to it the likelihood that Richardson will increasingly become an absentee governor, spending more time outside New Mexico campaigning for his party's 2008 presidential nomination, and veteran legislators can't help but wonder about winds that could stir in the Capitol while people grasp for steady leadership.
    Varela didn't address that latter issue directly, but in an interview last week he did talk about developing tensions and tougher sledding for Richardson in the Roundhouse.
    Richardson's chief of staff, James Jimenez, told me the governor believes Varela is abandoning "legitimate" standards in at least some of his work as LFC chair.
    Varela said Richardson has summoned him twice in recent months to voice displeasure with the LFC under Varela's leadership. "He expressed concern that the LFC was after him," Varela said. "The governor thought that we were setting an agenda that was against him."
    The LFC, said Varela, is merely meeting its oversight responsibilities established by the Accountability in Government Act passed during the Gary Johnson administration.
    "That law requires us to perform interim audits of government agencies to make sure taxpayer dollars are being used efficiently and effectively," Varela said. "It is then up to the state auditor to do the more thorough examinations at the end of every year."
    "We've given the governor much of what he wanted and now we have to see if those programs are working," he said.
    Varela and Jimenez agreed that the administration expressly complained about an audit that reported multiple problems in a program through which 5,000 laptop computers are to be distributed and used by public school students and about an audit that concluded attempts to close the education achievement gap among Native American students are falling short of expectations.
    Jimenez said reports of "so-called audits" used information out of context, were biased and veered from legitimate audit standards. He said Richardson stressed at both meetings that he wasn't questioning the LFC's oversight authority, that he merely wanted "fair" and "even-handed" examinations.
    At least some of the LFC audits point to problems in both the legislative and executive sides, and they also list positive findings. "That seems to get lost," Varela said.
    Amid it all, Jimenez asserted something startling about the administration's most-recent meeting with Varela. According to Jimenez, Varela acknowledged that he was driven by "personal interests," animosity toward Richardson. That meeting occurred about six weeks ago after Richardson concluded that new LFC audits weren't tracking with an agreement reached in the first meeting.
    No way, replied Varela.
    He said he admitted that he has personal issues with Richardson but stressed that they do not affect his work as LFC chair. House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Nambé, and Senate President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City, were at that meeting.
    "I told the governor that if he thought I was making trouble for the Democrats, the House speaker and the president pro tem can make changes in the composition of the committee," Varela said. "The pro tem spoke in my support. ... I'm comfortable with the support that I've gotten from Speaker Lujan."
    Richardson, said Varela, has seemed reluctant to let the system of checks and balances work. "We haven't been able to get the executive to work within that process," he said.
    State Auditor Domingo Martinez, a Democrat who perhaps was the first to disclose serious problems in the state Treasurer's Office, said he too has had trouble with Richardson's executive agencies leading up to annual audits.
    "A lot of state agencies are late in providing information, a lot more than there used to be. I think the administration just doesn't give it the priority it deserves," Martinez said.