I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Gov. Bill Richardson held a hastily called press conference Monday in which the questions he didn’t answer from reporters were more telling than what he actually said.
In his first meeting of the new year with local media, Richardson declined to say whether he had hired a lawyer or whether he had demanded an internal investigation to ensure his administration had done everything correctly in letting a state contract that under investigation by federal prosecutors.
Aside from repeating his statement from Sunday, Richardson did not talk about the federal investigation that derailed his cabinet nomination.
In response to a question of whether he had demanded an internal investigation to ensure that his administration had acted properly in doing business with California-based CDR Financial Products, Richardson said, “I am not going to answer that.” He refused to answer that question again as he was leaving the press conference. To listen to the entire press conference, go here.
Richardson also refused to say whether he had hired a lawyer. “I am not getting into any more questions on this,” he said.
The governor’s tight-lipped approach Monday was only a little more open than his performance during a press conference last month. At that press conference, he declined to answer questions regarding the federal investigation of CDR.
Richardson did talk about the conversation he shared with Lt. Gov. Diane Denish on Sunday, when he notified her of his withdrawal from the U.S. commerce secretary nomination, which meant Denish wouldn’t be taking over the governorship as planned.
“We spoke yesterday morning,” Richardson said. “I gave her a briefing of what the president-elect was going to say, what I said. We had been having conversations prior to that about, you know, a potential delay. She was disappointed. But she emphasized that she wanted us to work very closely together as we always have been. As I said, she is going to make a very fine governor someday.”
He also said that it was his idea to withdraw and not President-elect Barack Obama’s.
“I didn’t want a possible inquiry going on to delay the enormous progress we need to rebuild this economy,” the governor said.
Richardson went on to talk about his reaction to withdrawing his nomination:
Yesterday I was hurting over this decision. I lost a cabinet appointment, but I think we have to focus on what people are losing in this country. The Amercian people, people in New Mexico are losing their jobs, they’re losing their savings, they’re losing their homes. That’s the real tragedy. Mine is minor compared to that. I think what we need to do is move ahead with the agenda for New Mexico. I am fully engaged in getting my budget priorities, and my legislative package. I am meeting with the cabinet tomorrow. We’re going to have some two good announcements about continuing jobs in New Mexico on Wednesday. And so I am moving forward aggressively in what is going to be my focus on from now on — governor of New Mexico.”
A federal grand jury has been investigating a lucrative contract awarded to CDR Financial Inc., which made big contributions to political action committees formed by Bill Richardson.
The probe is “in a highly active stage,” two sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post last month. The grand jury, the Post said, was expected to hear testimony from several witnesses, including officials at J.P. Morgan, who worked with the state and the company in question — CDR Financial Inc. — and from officials with Richardson’s political action committees.
CDR won a contract related to the massive transportation-funding plan Richardson dubbed GRIP — or Governor Richardson’s Investment Partnership— in 2004. According to a Bloomberg report last month, “CDR made $1.48 million advising the authority on interest-rate swaps and restructuring escrow funds for $1.6 billion of transportation bonds issued by the agency.”
Meanwhile, in 2003 and 2004, CDR Financial gave $75,000 to Richardson’s political action committee Si Se Puede!, and the company’s head, David Rubin, gave $25,000 to Moving America Forward, another Richardson PAC.
No information released publicly prior to Sunday had directly linked Richardson to the probe, but the investigation centers on whether staffers in Richardson’s office influenced the hiring of CDR.
