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 mayoral candidate Richard Romero is taking aim incumbent Mayor Martin Chavez by calling attention to possible pay-to-play practices under his administration.
On Monday, Romero trotted out the allegations made under oath in a deposition by city contractor John H. Bode, whose firm operates the city-owned Double Eagle II Airport. Bode has alleged in the deposition that Chavez’s staff repeatedly attempted to get free or reduced air travel for the mayor.
“It is well past time to lift Albuquerque out of the sewer of corruption that our current Mayor continues to drag us in,” Romero said in the statement sent out Monday. “As Mayor, I pledge to you now, I’m going to restore honest government to Albuquerque.”
The Chavez campaign responded with a short statement Tuesday morning.
“We are saddened that Mr. Romero has continued to mystify everyone with his foulness and clearly his campaign is desperate,” Chavez campaign spokesperson Joanie Griffin stated.
Romero’s press release signals the embrace of a new issue by Chavez’s challengers who so far have struggled to find an issue that sticks to their chief rival. Chavez, of course, is seeking a third consecutive term as the city’s chief executive, and two-term state lawmaker Richard Berry also is running for the city’s top job.
Bode’s deposition was taken as part of a lawsuit in which the contractor accuses the mayor of refusing to renew Bode Aero Services’ airport contract in retaliation for Bode declining to provide free or discounted air travel to Mexico and New Mexico destinations on several occasions.
The Independent broke the story July 24 about the detailed allegations contained in Bode’s deposition. According to Bode’s 391-page deposition, Fred Mondragon, currently the state’s economic development secretary, repeatedly pressured Bode to provide free or reduced-price air travel for Chavez. At the time, Mondragon worked as Chavez’s economic development director before becoming the state’s economic development czar.
At one point during the deposition, Bode is quoted as saying he knows Chavez is holding up the renewal of the contract in question. He says he has two city officials on videotape telling him as much in 2007 — that the mayor was responsible for holding up the leases.
Chavez has called Bode’s lawsuit “absolute garbage” and accused Bode of trying to win a no-bid, long-term contract.
Mondragon, meanwhile, has called Bode’s allegations “completely untrue.”
Romero also implies in the press release that Bode’s allegations carry echoes of another scandal in Chavez’s past — ABQPAC.
That group raised more than $100,000 from city contractors, developers and other contributors and a large portion of that money went to help the mayor earlier this decade. The committee spent as much as $50,000 on Chavez to retire campaign debt, pay for cell phone bills and cover travel expenses for Chávez family trips to Japan, China and Mexico as part of the Sister Cities goodwill program.
Chavez eventually repaid more than $50,000 after the Albuquerque Journal reported on the committee’s activity and the help it gave the mayor.
A city ethics board eventually reprimanded the mayor for his involvement with ABQPAC.
“It was a dark episode in the City’s history and a stain, among many, on the legacy of Mr. Chavez,” Romero said in his press release.
All in all, Romero goes after Chavez aggressively in Monday’s press release, saying “In a nutshell, John Bode, in a sworn deposition, testified that Chavez aimed to shake down his company for free travel in exchange for the city contract to operate Double Eagle airport.”
But Bode’s deposition is more nuanced, with Bode never suggesting that the mayor did the asking but that instead he used emissaries. That does not mean that Bode says the mayor wasn’t the source of the requests. On one occasion in the deposition, as the mayor and others were returning from Mexico, Bode is quoted as saying Chavez asked if they were taking a side trip. This was after Mondragon had asked Bode on that trip to set up a side trip to a Mexican coastal city for a future trip. The implication was that the mayor thought they were taking a side trip but was mistaken.
Beyond accusing Mondragon, Bode alleges that other city staff requested free or reduced-fare flights for Chavez, including on two occasions — to Las Cruces and Carlsbad — during the mayor’s brief run for the U.S. Senate in 2007.
On another occasion a city employee other than Mondragon called to ask Bode to set up the flight to Las Cruces for a fundraiser, Bode alleges in the deposition.
Bode is quoted as saying that Mondragon made his first overture for free or reduced air travel at a Guadalajara bar following a business meeting that morning. Mondragon asked Bode to price a trip and to comp the expenses.
Bode acknowledges that the mayor, who was standing nearby at the time, may not have heard Mondragon’s overture.
