Editorial: AG Should Step Aside From Governor’s Probe

Apparently state Attorney General Gary King can’t see the conflict-of-interest forest for the political-advantage trees.

King, a Democrat who recently announced he will take a run at unseating Republican Gov. Susana Martinez in 2014, says he doesn’t see a problem with his office investigating whether administration officials used government resources for political purposes in violation of the state Governmental Conduct Act by creating lists of public school teacher email addresses, then giving them to the governor’s political adviser.

A Public Education Department spokesman has said a list of all teacher emails had been generated prior to the adviser’s request, but a list of nonunion teachers was culled from that list after the request was made.

Granted, the attorney general’s job is to represent the state and investigate allegations about public agencies and actions of public employees, but this is one situation from which King should step aside. If he goes forward, he opens himself up to a more than typical barrage of charges that his actions are politically motivated.

He clearly would have an interest in finding dirt on his opponent, if it exists, or in keeping the issue front and center.

And his conflict of interest has led to major delays in the corruption prosecution of former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron after a judge kicked his office off the case. In fact, it has seriously jeopardized the case.

At most, his office might do a preliminary examination to figure out whether a real investigation is warranted, and if so immediately hand it off to a special prosecutor.

King has a rash of unfinished cases hanging around. He should attend to them and as a candidate for governor leave any investigation of the incumbent’s administration to others.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.