ALBUQUERQUE — Darren White entered the race for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District with better name recognition than his Democratic opponent, Martin Heinrich, and one of the best backgrounds a candidate can have — law enforcement. So it was little surprise when White’s campaign released an internal poll a year ago that showed the Republican with an 18-point advantage.

But so far at least, White has been lagging behind Heinrich in independent polls. And White’s time in uniform doesn’t appear to have helped overcome the Achilles’ heel of all Republican candidates this year: his ties to President Bush.

You won’t see it in his campaign literature, but White was chairman of the Bernalillo County Bush-Cheney re-election committee in 2004.

He also was implicated in the firing of David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, though he came out unscathed in a recent report by the Department of Justice. White was among New Mexico Republicans who complained about perceived inaction by Iglesias’ office on potential voter fraud cases starting in 2004, but the report provides no evidence that White was involved at the same level as other state GOP officials including Sen. Pete Domenici, Rep. Heather Wilson, party attorneys Mickey Barnett and Pat Rogers, and state party Chairman Allen Weh.

“I was just doing my job,” White told The Associated Press after the report came out last week.

His fellow officers largely support White. The Albuquerque Police Officers Association and the New Mexico Fraternal Order of Police have endorsed him, though neither organization returned calls to talk about their candidate.

Still, White’s ties to the Bush administration seem to have affected how some in the law enforcement community view White’s candidacy. The sheriffs of Santa Fe, Valencia and Sandoval counties publicly support Heinrich.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano told the Independent that he was disappointed mainly in White’s refusal to protest federal cuts in law enforcement funding, which he said has gone from “billions to millions under the Bush administration.”

“I’m not supporting Martin Heinrich because he’s a Democrat,” said Solano, a Democrat himself, “but because he’s committed to increasing [law enforcement funding].”

White’s career: From beat cop to top cop to taxi driver

While Heinrich’s primary mission has been to become better known in a district that has never sent a Democrat to Congress, White has the advantage of superior name recognition. The Republicans’ problem is that the headlines White has made as a public servant have not always been flattering.

White was a street cop in Houston before moving to Albuquerque and joining the police department in 1987. He was a sergeant when he made a stab at elective politics in 1994, but lost his bid for a state House seat in the Republican primary.

But White had apparently caught the attention of GOP higher-ups. Later that fall, newly elected Republican Gov. Gary Johnson named White to his transition team. Soon thereafter White was named director of the state Department of Public Safety, overseeing a staff of more than 750 and a $59 million budget, according to news reports at the time. He was 31 years old.

His time at DPS wasn’t entirely smooth, as Heinrich has pointed out in ads. White hadn’t even been confirmed as secretary in early 1995 when he became embroiled in a legislative tussle over Johnson’s plan to eliminate a $440,000 citizen panel, the Organized Crime Prevention Commission.

White and Johnson prevailed on that one, but early the next year White had to backtrack on another streamlining effort — to consolidate New Mexico State Police dispatch centers and eliminate nearly 50 dispatchers. The plan drew fire from police officers wives.

“The desire to save money, cut expenses and play the word games of politics has resulted in policies that endanger the lives of our husbands and fail the citizens of New Mexico,” a group of wives wrote to White and his state police chief, Frank Taylor.

The State Police Association newsletter also slammed White’s housecleaning effort, saying “the State Police family is being attacked and dismantled by an outside entity, i.e., DPS.” Association President Norman Rhoades continued, “It has always amazed me how one politically appointed position can possess so much authority with little or no accountability.”

In 1996, state legislators questioned White’s use of $66,000 in federal drug-enforcement grant money to buy himself and three aides new Ford Crown Victorias, which he said were needed to administer the drug enforcement programs. White reconsidered his plan after talking it over with federal auditors, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported at the time.

He was in the headlines again in 1998 over an episode involving the use of public equipment and state employees to raze an old ranch as a favor to radio personality Don Imus. White and Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn were investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office for their roles in arranging the demolition of historic buildings on state-owned land, but then-Attorney General Tom Udall found no criminal intent.

White’s troubles continued through 1999 with a series of prison inmate deaths — six in less than a year, followed by a prison riot in August 1999 in which a guard was killed. In September the State Police Officers Association voted 243-31 that it had no confidence in White. Rhoades told The Albuquerque Journal that officers felt White wasn’t providing his troops with adequate equipment and cars.

The following month, White denounced Gov. Johnson for his repeated calls to legalize marijuana and other drugs, calling it “a morale killer” for state police.

In November, White resigned. Johnson said he was taken aback by the move, saying it wasn’t necessary. The State Police Association welcomed it, however, Rhoades told the New Mexican. “It’s going to take some work to get us out of what Darren got us into, so I don’t have any remorse about his resignation.”

Nick Bakas, who was hired to replace White and who now is director of Albuquerque’s Aviation Department, said he found the DPS in good shape when he took over in early 2000. “My sense is he was a good leader,” Bakas said of White in a recent interview with the Independent. “I didn’t sense that were any issues there, per se. He was fine.”

White spent the next two years in a variety of jobs, including working as a TV crime reporter and taxi driver, but couldn’t stay away from law enforcement. In 2002 he was elected Bernalillo County sheriff with 55 percent of the vote. Four years later, he trounced his Democratic opponent with 64 percent to win a second term.

His years as sheriff have been politically smoother than his time at DPS, though White and his department have been sued several times over the actions of his deputies — including allegations that they roughed up car-racing legend Al Unser Sr. during an arrest in 2006 and wrongfully shot to death an emotionally disturbed 21-year-old woman in her home as her parents watched in 2007.

But White seems to be paying a price for one decision of his own making as sheriff: stepping into the limelight as the Bernalillo County chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in 2004. Heinrich and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have hammered away at it, and now refer to White in ads as “President Bush’s favorite sheriff.”