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.
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday vigorously defended his former presidential campaign chairman and ex-chief of staff.
Dave Contarino, the governor said, has the “utmost integrity, talent” and is “responsible for some of the successes of my administration.”
But when questions were put to the governor himself about a federal investigation that has seemingly hijacked the news in New Mexico, Richardson became terse.
“I’m not going to make any more statements,” Richardson said after a reporter asked if he were a target, a witness or a suspect in a federal inquiry that cost him a cabinet post in President-elect Barack Obama’s administration.
The investigation in question appears to have shoved its way into the governor’s office if reports are to be believed that federal prosecutors are asking whether Contarino, 47, a man Gov. Bill Richardson once described as “my most senior and trusted aide,” might be involved in the alleged pay-to-play scheme.
Contarino served as Richardson’s chief of staff from 2003 to April 2006 and has run several of Richardson’s campaigns.
“Dave Contarino is an outstanding public servant who has served in federal government, in the Congress he was my chief of staff,” Richardson told the reporters over the cacophony of bustling traffic on nearby streets and the cars cruising overhead on the soaring roadways of the Big I. “So I have the highest respect and regard for Dave Contarino.”
The governor didn’t respond directly when asked if he and Contarino had talked about the inquiry, or whether Contarino had told him personally that he had done nothing improper.
Instead, Richardson went out of his way to defend state officials involved in the deal federal prosecutors are now investigating –- lucrative work given to a California company that gave sizable contributions to two political action committees Richardson started.
“In my view the state, state officials, have done nothing wrong,” Richardson said. “They’ve behaved with the best intentions, the best conduct. This contract was achieved through a competitive basis,” he said.
Richardson repeatedly was asked how he knew that no one in his administration had acted improperly. The question of whether an internal investigation has been ordered to ensure that nothing was done improperly was put to him five times Wednesday. But he ignored it each time it was asked, as he did Monday when he twice refused to answer that question.
The inquiry that has Richardson facing questions is focusing on work awarded to California-based CDR Financial Products, Inc. The work the company did fell into separate areas and not every service was competitively bid, as Richardson suggested Wednesday.
One area CDR did work for the state included “SWAP and GIC brokerage, advisory and management services.” That project was competitively bid in early 2004, but it appears from state documents, including e-mail, that no contract was signed for the work done.
The other work CDR performed for the state was related to the escrow fund for GRIP, short for Governor Richardson’s Investment Partnership, for which CDR received a “one-time sole source” contract, according to the minutes from New Mexico Finance Authority’s June 30, 2004 meeting.
A sole source contract is one that is not competitively bid.
Richardson appeared not to want to face the media’s questions Wednesday. He gave the slip to several reporters wanting to ask questions at the second of three public appearances he made.
But it was beneath the Big I, at the junction of I-25 and I-40 and the third of the governor’s three public appearances, that Richardson finally faced reporters to acknowledge the big news of the day.
He took questions for about a minute and a half before he cut the impromptu press conference short.
While the question and answer session was short, Richardson did surprise some reporters with one response he gave.
Richardson has repeatedly said that he wouldn’t discuss the federal inquiry. But on Wednesday he let some of his frustration show vis-a-vis the investigation.
“I’m concerned about a lot of leaks coming out,” he told reporters. “It’s important that we remember one thing: no one has been accused of any wrongdoing; it’s an inquiry.”
