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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Double Dipping, Shopping Trips and a Massage
By Thomas J. Cole
Journal Staff Writer
State Rep. Jane Powdrell-Culbert of Corrales says it was all a big oops. Poor bookkeeping, she says.
Powdrell-Culbert says she doesn't usually review her campaign-finance reports after they are prepared by her accountant and before they are filed with the Secretary of State's Office.
A New Year's resolution to change that habit might be in order for the Republican lawmaker.
Here's why.
In 2006, 2007 and 2008, more than $2,000 from Powdrell-Culbert's campaign account was used to pay registration fees, airfare and other transportation expenses for out-of-state government conferences, according to her campaign-finance reports. She then was reimbursed by the state for the same expenses, but there is no record that she paid the money back to her campaign account.
So is it a crime in New Mexico to spend campaign money on an expense that doesn't actually exist, since the state picked up the tab? We asked the Attorney General's Office, which had no interest in discussing that kind of "hypothetical" question.
Also for those conferences, another $2,300 from Powdrell-Culbert's campaign account was used to pay for her lodging and meals, according to the reports. She received a per diem allowance from the state to cover lodging and meals, but again, there is no record of her reimbursing her campaign account.
Oh, if that were the end of it.
Powdrell-Culbert's campaign-finance reports show that more than $400 was used in 2007 to pay for a massage, a gym fee, car washes, water and shopping trips for clothes, jewelry and more at department stores in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Florida.
The legislator says she doesn't recall the massage, but says it and the other purchases weren't actually paid for with campaign funds.
Powdrell-Culbert says she must have accidentally included some receipts for personal purchases when she gave receipts for campaign items to her accountant. She says she was unaware the personal purchases had been included in a report to the Secretary of State's Office.
"I've tried pretty hard to stay aboveboard," Powdrell-Culbert says.
The representative's accountant has prepared an amended campaign-finance report that excludes the personal items.
Officials are required to report how they spend campaign contributions, but there is great latitude in what they can spend the money on.
As for the travel expenses paid by her campaign account but reimbursed to Powdrell-Culbert, she says she wasn't trying to enrich herself by not paying back the campaign account.
"I'm not paying attention on my part. A lot of times I get so busy," she says. "It's not even an attempt to make money ... cheat the state."
She says she will reimburse the campaign account once she and her accountant figure out exactly how much she owes.
Powdrell-Culbert, 59, a consultant, was first elected to the House in 2002 and is a former executive director of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. She comes from a large family famous for its barbecue.
Pay for spouses
Some have questioned why Barbara Richardson, wife of Gov. Bill Richardson, and Herb Denish, husband of Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, are listed as employees of state government, each earning a token salary of $2.08 a year.
Here's the answer from Nicole Gillespie, a spokeswoman for the Department of Finance and Administration:
"The reason is that this gives them authority as state employees to perform their duties as public officials, hire and supervise their staff, etc. ... It also ensures that they are covered with public liability insurance as a public employee in the case something happens in the performance of their official duties."
Barbara Richardson has an assistant who earns more than $107,000 a year. Herb Denish has no state-paid staff.
Thom Cole can be reached in Santa Fe at 505-992-6280 or at tcole@abqjournal.com. UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column.
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