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.
Secretary of State Mary Herrera never ordered her staff to gather petition signatures during office hours, State Elections Director Don Francisco Trujillo told KOB TV’s Gadi Schwartz in a long interview that touched all the controversies and scandals that have hit the Secretary of State’s office since the resignation of former State Elections Director A.J. Salazar.
“She did ask, yes, it’s a standard practice in government for government employees on their own time to go out and gather signature petitions, which they did,” Trujillo told KOB reporter Gadi Schwartz. “And voluntarily.”
Trujillo said that Herrera did ask for free services from some vendors with contracts with the Secretary of State’s office.
“The practice of requesting contributions from different vendors in order to help sponsor an election sponsor for the county clerks or whatever it may be for a particular agency or a particular government agency is both legal and acceptable,” Trujillo told KOB. “When we were advised that possibly we should be taking a different approach, it was simply an advisement on what approach to take.”
“Instead of asking specific companies to participate, it should be done in a more broader sense,” Trujillo said. He said this was shown in the e-mails released to the media.
Trujillo repeatedly said that any delay in releasing information, such as the Salazar resignation letter, was simply because they were reviewing what information they could release to the public and what information they would have to redact.
The interview came before un-redacted versions of Secretary of State e-mails were released to the press; KOB received the unredacted e-mails during the interview.
You can see the full interview above or on KOB’s Web site.
