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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Dendahl Challenges Richardson's Juggernaut

By Trip Jennings
Copyright © 2006 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Capitol Bureau
    As New Mexico's governor, Bill Richardson has embraced a far-reaching agenda and pushed— sometimes at breakneck speed— to make sure it became reality over the past four years.
    The former congressman, U.N. ambassador and energy secretary has targeted everything from how New Mexicans are taxed and how they cast ballots to how they may travel in the future.
    His rival in the gubernatorial race, John Dendahl, a former chairman of the state Republican Party and considered by many as a party flamethrower, insists Richardson is using New Mexico as a steppingstone to bigger aspirations.
    But Dendahl doesn't appear to pose a serious challenge to Richardson's re-election plans. He is having a hard time raising money, and Richardson leads in the polls by a hefty margin. The most recent Journal Poll, conducted Sept. 25-28, showed Richardson favored by 60 percent of likely voters, compared with Dendahl's 28 percent.
    Political observers say don't be fooled; some serious politics remains at stake.
    Richardson wants an overpowering re-election win on the eve of what is expected to be a presidential run in 2008— one he could tout as proof he is electable on a bigger stage.
    "There are a lot of political reasons (Richardson would want) to have such a high election rate," Lonna Atkeson, a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, said of his aim to win nearly two-thirds of voters on Nov. 7.
    "It can help him attract funders in his presidential run," she said. "He can say, 'Look how good I am at attracting Republicans, in attracting ranchers and urban voters.' ''
   
Tax rate change looms
    There's no question Richardson has an ambitious agenda for New Mexico.
    The state is moving toward what some call a flat income tax, thanks to 2003 tax reductions Richardson and the Legislature agreed on after years of attempts by Richardson's Republican predecessor, Gov. Gary Johnson.
    After all reductions kick in by 2008, the highest-earning New Mexicans will have pocketed hundreds of millions of previously taxed dollars— for example, taxpayers filing a joint return on more than $100,000 in income will be taxed at a 4.9 percent rate in 2008, compared with 8.2 percent in 2002, according to a legislative analysis.
    In 2004, New Mexico stopped taxing food. Teachers in public schools are earning more. Deaths caused by drunken drivers in New Mexico have dropped 12 percent since 2004. And Richardson set the example for other states when he instituted state-paid life insurance premiums for New Mexico National Guardsmen, many of whom have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    This November, the state will convert to a paper-ballot voting system that supporters say will ensure an accounting of each person's vote but that opponents, including many Republican lawmakers, argue isn't fail-safe.
    As if that weren't enough, a new commuter train is running from Downtown Albuquerque to Bernalillo, and a proposed spaceport in southeastern New Mexico has generated international interest, although the inaugural rocket launch on Sept. 25 ended in a crash.
    "Other jobs I've had have been good and I've been honored to have— the U.N., the secretary of energy," the governor said. "But governor of New Mexico, you set the agenda and you can see the advances a state makes by something you did directly."
    Add his high-profile itinerary into the mix— negotiations with North Korea and his help in obtaining the release in September of a journalist with New Mexico ties held hostage in Sudan— and Richardson has put New Mexico on the global map, supporters say.
    "The last governor we had, he gave the image of New Mexico as very negative," said House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe.
    Lujan, perhaps Richardson's biggest ally in the Legislature, was speaking of Johnson, who was famous for wielding his veto pen.
    "This governor has changed the image of New Mexico to be forward-looking," Lujan said.
    Richardson won't say, if elected, whether he would serve out a second term.
    "After my re-election, I will sit down with my family and advisers and decide what the next political steps will be," he said during a Sept. 20 interview with the Journal.
    Dendahl said Richardson is "lying" and expects the governor to use New Mexico as a frog does a lily pad— "to jump off it for a presidential run."
    He cites Richardson's out-of-state travel. The governor has been out of New Mexico about 200 days since taking office, a pace that has increased in 2006 as he has stumped for candidates around the country as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
    But many New Mexico voters don't seem bothered by his presidential aspirations.
    Fifty-four percent of them rated Richardson's chances of winning as good or very good in a recent Journal Poll.
   
Image is everything
    From a Times Square billboard touting his tax cuts early in the term to the recent re-election campaign ads, Richardson has promoted his successes— whether altogether his or not.
    In one of his re-election campaign TV ads, Richardson credits his efforts for saving Cannon Air Force Base from closure without mentioning the efforts of the state's congressional delegation.
    And for just about every accomplishment the governor cites, there are those who accuse his administration of being better at big-splash announcements— made with an eye toward the 2008 presidential race— than the hard work of governing.
    "I think he does things very flamboyantly to get broader recognition beyond the voters in New Mexico," said Max Coll of Santa Fe, a former longtime Democratic state lawmaker who clashed with Richardson. "He takes a bow for a lot of things he didn't do. His ego seems to be driving the truck."
    Richardson dismisses his detractors as naysayers clinging to the status quo.
    "I plead guilty to moving aggressively, to shaking foundations," the governor said. "I believe when you need to change a status quo state government and status quo policies, you have to be aggressive and be bold and move fast."
    The critics rattle off issues to support their case:
   

Three years after voters gave Richardson control of the state's public schools, half still fail to meet federal standards.
   

The state remains home to one of largest percentages of people in the United States without health insurance, although Richardson has expanded Medicaid eligibility to cover more children and other initiatives.
   

New Mexico raised the gross receipts tax on other items to compensate for lost revenue caused by eliminating the tax on food.
   

New Mexico has experienced a net tax increase under Richardson when state fees are factored in, according to a 2005 legislative analysis.
   

Hundreds of state employees and state contractors weren't paid on time because of poor planning before the state started using its new computer accounting system.
   

Some predict the state will have to subsidize a money-losing commuter train for years to come.
   

And even some of his allies question the wisdom of investing in a spaceport.
    "People in this state believe mistakenly that any high-profile thing that is good for him is good for us. They have gulped that Kool-Aid," said Mark Mathis of Citizens' Alliance for Responsible Energy, a frequent critic of Richardson.
   
Charges of patronage
    Dendahl, for his part, has accused Richardson of cultivating a "pay-to-play culture" in state government and notes that Richardson is leading New Mexico at a time of big scandals.
    Richardson has doled out more than 100 state government jobs, many of them high-paying, to campaign contributors or family members of financial backers. And on occasion he has returned large contributions given to his campaign or his political committee because the company or a subsidiary was seeking state business at the time.
    Meanwhile, earlier this year, Richardson friend Guy Riordan was implicated but never charged in the corruption trial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil. Former Treasurer Michael Montoya testified that Riordan paid him up to $100,000 in kickbacks for state business. Montoya pleaded guilty to a single count of extortion.
    Vigil was convicted Sept. 30 on one count of attempted extortion after a second corruption trial.
    "His conduct in hiring (political) employees, the pay-to-play scheme and ruthlessness in telling people they can't support political candidates, it's corruption," Dendahl said.
    Richardson's campaign responded that it was the governor— not anyone else— who empaneled a task force that presented to him a report Oct. 4 recommending ways to tighten the state's campaign finance and ethics laws.
   
Short on cash
    Dendahl, a Santa Fe businessman and a Cabinet secretary in the late 1980s for GOP Gov. Garrey Carruthers, has admitted wanting to make a stronger run for governor.
    Dendahl's campaign has yet to exploit the tensions between Richardson and his critics, mostly because of lackluster fundraising, the candidate said.
    The Republican has received a single $25,000 contribution from the Republican Governors Association and taken in just less than $270,000 total— compared with the $8 million Richardson has taken in between May 2005 and Oct. 2 of this year.
    He also entered the race late as a replacement candidate and, earlier this month, saw a key campaign aide sidelined because of a brutal attack.
    Dendahl has launched a couple of rhetorical attacks on Richardson in news reports but has yet to produce a comprehensive platform on the issues or put ads on TV.
    And the single agreed-to debate between the two candidates appears to be off after Richardson refused to debate Dendahl on live television despite newspaper editorials and public criticism.
    But the one-time Olympic skier is competitive and earned his reputation as a GOP attack dog during his eight-year tenure as the state party chairman.
    Some Republicans say June's withdrawal of J.R. Damron as the GOP's gubernatorial candidate to make way for Dendahl was a move to draft a more aggressive critic of Richardson.
    "I think party leaders thought Damron would not be dirty enough," said former Republican state lawmaker Earlene Roberts of Lovington.
    Dendahl disputed that he is merely a convenient replacement and said he is running to win.
    "My goal since I accepted the belated campaign is to win," Dendahl said.
    He cited his goal of pushing for state tax credits for people who donate to organizations such as Educate New Mexico to help create school choice.
    Such organizations, he said, give scholarships to students who otherwise couldn't afford to attend the schools of their choice.
    The Republican also advocates the adoption of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, similar to what Colorado approved more than a decade ago, with some changes. As Dendahl envisions New Mexico's version, it would place an annual cap on state spending, indexed to population growth and the inflation rate, and would enable the state in certain years to refund surplus revenues in the form of rebates to taxpayers.
    Asked for a comprehensive platform, however, Dendahl directed a reporter to his Web site to see his position on education and said his health care plan will be out soon.
    "I do not have a comprehensive platform yet," he said.
    Dendahl said that, given the disparity in resources it's hard to penetrate the noise created by Richardson's multimedia juggernaut— a combination of slick television ads, campaign appearances and a dose of technological prowess: Richardson's Web site allows visitors to click on each of the state's 33 counties to see how his leadership has benefited them.
    And Dendahl has stumbled politically, making his run more difficult. Most notably, he said early on that the state's public-school teachers skimp on the basics because they are too busy teaching the "three S's— sexuality, self-esteem and socialism."
   
Pushing too hard?
    The only shortcoming Richardson could think of in a recent interview while pondering his first term was "tactical mistakes" he made on pushing some of his priorities during the 2006 legislative session.
    "I should have prepared the Legislature better before we proposed them," he said. "There should have been more consultation."
    That lack of consultation factors in the growing tension between the executive and legislative branches.
    Bridling at what some call Richardson's imperial style, the Democratic-controlled Senate decided during the final hours of the last legislative session not to act on a state minimum wage increase, additional tax cuts and rules regulating the payday loan industry— all Richardson priorities.
    State lawmakers also occasionally complain about hardball politics and strong-arm tactics.
    Richardson used his line-item veto authority to kill GOP-sponsored projects twice as often as Democratic-backed ones— and Democrats perceived as disloyal didn't fare much better, according to a Journal analysis.
    Examples of what some consider his hardball governing style in the executive branch include his demand— and then retreat from— requiring pre-signed letters of resignation from university regents.
    In 2004, he vetoed the budget for rent, phones and postage for the state Retiree Health Care Authority after its director resisted the governor's efforts to wrap it into a larger agency with other state health care departments.
    The governor swats away complaints from legislators.
    "Let me tell you a little bit about the Legislature," Richardson said to a reporter, leaning in close. "They have been oriented so much to preserving the status quo. Under Gov. (Gary) Johnson, they were a Say No Legislature. Nothing ever advanced. A lot of legislators accumulated a lot of power by being able to say no. I came in and set the agenda for the state. So they don't like it."
   
Limited support
    By any measure, Dendahl faces a hearty challenge taking on Richardson, a truth perhaps best exemplified by his own party: More than a third of Republicans in New Mexico— as well as 44 percent of self-described conservatives— supported Richardson in the Journal Poll conducted Sept. 25-28.
    Richardson and his allies attribute that support to the governor's policies and to Dendahl's divisive tenure as GOP party chairman.
    Dendahl agreed with then-Gov. Johnson on liberalizing the state's drug laws and fomented intraparty squabbling by targeting what he considered disloyal GOP candidates, critics say.
    "He served eight years as party chairman and he was lousy then," former GOP lawmaker Robert W. White said of Dendahl. "I don't want to see what the state would look like if Dendahl were in charge."
    Dendahl acknowledges that Richardson has eaten into his political base but says GOP voters have a choice, regardless of what is fueling the crossover— the state income tax reductions, the governor's positions on issues or his own term as party chairman.
    "They have to decide whether lining their own pockets with government largess or stopping the rampant corruption is more important," Dendahl said.
    Richardson, for his part, would rather not talk about Dendahl.
    He says he is focused on second-term goals: making health care more affordable, insuring more New Mexicans and increasing the state minimum wage.
    He also wants to raise the state's bar on how much electricity is generated by alternative sources, such as wind and solar power.
    "New Mexicans are optimists, because we have made significant gains in jobs, attracting business. Our schools are better. We are insuring more children," Richardson said, leaning back on his office couch. "We are moving from the bad list to the good list."
   
Bill Richardson (i)
    POLITICAL PARTY: Democrat
    PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Santa Fe
    AGE: 58
    EDUCATION: B.A., political science and French, Tufts University, 1970; M.A., international diplomacy, Fletcher School at Tufts University, 1971.
    OCCUPATION: Governor, 2003-present.
    FAMILY: Wife, Barbara.
    POLITICAL/GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE: Governor, 2003-present; U.S. secretary of energy, 1998-2001; U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, 1997-1998; member, U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd Congressional District, 1983-1997.
   
John Dendahl
    PARTY: Republican
    PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Santa Fe
    AGE: 68
    EDUCATION: B.S., electrical engineering and business administration, University of Colorado, 1961.
    OCCUPATION: Various positions, Eberline Instrument Corp. and Thermo Electron Corp., 1967-83, including CEO of Eberline, 1975-81, and VP of Thermo Electron, 1981-83; real estate development and consulting, 1983-85; president, First National Bank of Santa Fe, 1985-88; former New Mexico secretary of economic development and tourism; former state Republican Party chairman.
    FAMILY: Wife, Jackie; five daughters.
    POLITICAL/GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE: Chairman, Republican Party of New Mexico, December 1994 to May 2003; member, Republican National Committee; gubernatorial candidate, 1994; state secretary of Economic Development and Tourism, 1988-90; member, State Investment Council, 1987.