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Sunday, April 11, 2010
Developer Spread Around Donations
By Sean Olson
Journal Staff Writer
There's nothing like an announcement of plans for a master-planned community with thousands of homes and thousands of jobs to get people's attention in economically challenged New Mexico.
And if for some reason the politicians aren't paying attention, there's nothing like big campaign contributions to make sure of their interest.
Coast Range Investments and the company from which it came, RS Investments, did all that in connection with its Rancho Cielo project in north Belen.
RS Investments and, later, Coast Range, have been very generous to local politicians, with the developers and supporters of Rancho Cielo doling out more than $300,000 in campaign cash since 2004 — the same year RS Investments purchased the land for Rancho Cielo.
The state Democratic Party has been the biggest recipient, with $125,100 in donations, including a $100,000 donation in 2006 less than a month before a general election, according to followthemoney.org.
Gov. Bill Richardson has received nearly $110,000 — including a single donation of $75,000 in 2006. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has received about $58,000, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has received $5,000, Rep. Elias Barela, D-Belen, has received $4,700.
In contrast, Rep. Andrew Barreras, D-Tome, and Senate Majority Leader Michael S. Sanchez, D-Belen, have received $500 each.
Richardson stayed neutral on an effort led by Sanchez to take back state money for the development in this year's legislative session because the project had not moved forward.
Sanchez has been a vocal critic of the project and its developer.
Denish released a plan from her governor campaign last month that calls for the state to recoup all unspent appropriations if not used in the year they were given, which would have hurt the developer.
Barreras and Barela have been supporters of the project. Barreras sponsored an amendment that ensured Coast Range would keep its state appropriations.
SEC trouble
Coast Range Investments was the real estate department of RS Investments, a California company that agreed to pay $25 million after the Securities Exchange Commission alleged the company violated insider trading regulations in 2004.
Former RS Investments CEO George Randall Hecht and former CFO Steven M. Cohen each paid $150,000 in penalties, although they did not admit to their involvement in a scam that let some of the company's clients use inside information, according to SEC documents.
RS Investments was sold to The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America in 2006, but the real estate department bought itself out of the company and started operations as Coast Range Investments with James Foster and Vincent Saunders as partners. Jim Wood is a company vice president and local liaison for the Rancho Cielo development.
None of Coast Range's principals was cited in the SEC civil proceedings against RS Investments.
Coast Range operates out of San Francisco.
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