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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Darren White Hoping To Turn Things Around

By Colleen Heild
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          The year was 1999, and then-New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson was calling for a national debate on drug policy.
        When Johnson began to talk about legalizing marijuana and heroin, then-state secretary of public safety Darren White drew the line. White disagreed publicly with his boss. A month later, White quit.

Darren White

        "It was a tough decision. It was a job I loved doing. But, to me, my principles were more important than a paycheck," White said. Not only had he gone against the state's top Republican, he went against the chief of the Republican Party in New Mexico — John Dendahl, who supported the governor's views.
        White returned to law enforcement after winning election as Bernalillo County sheriff in 2002, but not before taking a job as a television news reporter and even driving a cab at night to make ends meet.
        White, who has an outgoing nature and seems comfortable in the spotlight, is still speaking out — now as the Republican candidate for Congress in the 1st District.
        This time, his targets include the unpopular Congress, and at times, President Bush's policies.
        Like other Republican candidates nationally this year, White has been criticized for being in lock-step with the Bush administration. He served as the volunteer state chairman for the Bush-Cheney campaign in New Mexico in 2004.
        "I would argue that my party has lost its way in many respects," White said recently. "I want to change the process. I don't think that, as one person, I'm going to go back there and change it overnight. But my hope is that there are enough people like minded who are sick of this system willing to stand up and speak out against it and try to slowly change the culture, both Democrat and Republican."
        White is hoping voters base their vote on the person, not necessarily the party.
        "I've shown over the years that I'm someone who can work across party lines."
        He points to his good relations with the Democrat-dominated Bernalillo County Commission and notes "there's been no public disputes because we work together."
        White, 45, came from an upstate New York family of Democrats. From his father, a World War II veteran, White said he learned "to keep an open mind. To discover your own voice."
        After leaving home, White went to Fort Bragg as a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
        His son, also Darren, has followed in his footsteps and is in the Air National Guard's 150th Fighter Wing, which can be deployed at any time to Iraq or Afghanistan.
        A knee injury forced White to leave the military. He joined the Houston Police Department and later the Albuquerque Police Department. He now has more than 20 years in law enforcement.
        Yet, he said in a recent interview, "I always knew I would be involved in politics. My philosophy started to develop in the military. Ronald Reagan had a huge impact on me."
        During his seven years with the APD, White was sergeant of the child abuse unit. And he joined an APD band, The Force, that sang to Albuquerque school kids about the dangers of drugs.
        He lost a bid for a state legislative seat in 1994, but got the attention of state Republican Party leaders and served as chairman of Johnson's transition team later that year.
        In early 1995, at age 31, he took the reins of the DPS, the parent organization of the New Mexico State Police and state emergency services. He said his first priority was convincing the Legislature to eliminate New Mexico's statute of limitations on murder.
        "When I got there, it was 15 years. It was just fundamentally wrong," he added.
        As chairman of Johnson's cabinet council on crime and corrections, White said he helped craft proposals that ultimately led legislators to cut so-called "good time" for prison inmates. And he pressed legislative leaders to strengthen New Mexico's law for public disclosure of sex offenders.
        White said he still has "great respect" for Johnson despite their disagreement over drug policy. And he said he is proud he was able to get State Police "the largest pay increase in state history and the largest manpower increase."
        Yet, several months before his resignation, the New Mexico State Police Officers Association voted "no confidence" in White, 243-31. The association had about 500 members at the time.
        News reports show that officers were reportedly unhappy in part because White hadn't obtained enough equipment and patrol cars for officers.
        The vote "didn't mean anything to me," White said. "I knew where it was coming from. It was so political."
        White said he was unpopular with legislative leaders, especially then-state Senate Pro Tem Manny Aragon, who White publicly criticized after Aragon became a consultant for a private prison firm that had won a contract to run two state prisons.
        "Did I ruffle feathers? You bet I did," White said.
        As for his relations with sheriff's officers working for him now, White recently won the endorsement of the Bernalillo County Deputy Sheriff's Association in the congressional race with more than 75 percent of the vote.
        Asked to grade Bush's performance in office during an interview at Journal offices, White with some hesitancy said he would give the president a "D."
        "I look at some of the successes of the presidency, we haven't been attacked since 9/11; his tax cuts, which I support. But the failures so far overshadow the successes and the effect that they've had on the American people is pretty overwhelming."
        White added: "I would hope that we can move past this. It's going to take a lot of work. It's not going to be easy. There's a lot at stake; there's a ton at stake."