Jim Scarantino (Photo courtesy of KNME)

Jim Scarantino (Photo courtesy of KNME)

ALBUQUERQUE -– Democratic congressional candidate Martin Heinrich charged yesterday that recent stories in New Mexico Independent about whether or not he should have registered as a lobbyist constitute a “low blow,” and two prominent Heinrich supporters questioned the credibility of the local pundit who has emerged as one of Heinrich’s chief critics.

(See the video below to listen to Heinrich’s comments.) 

At the center of the controversy is columnist and TV talker Jim Scarantino, a Republican-turned-Democrat in 2004 who has publicly endorsed Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, Heinrich’s Republican opponent in the CD1 race. Scarantino has written critically of Heinrich on several occasions in the Weekly Alibi, arguing that Heinrich’s work history is thin and that according to the law, Heinrich probably should have registered as a lobbyist but didn’t.

The Republican-leaning group Freedom’s Watch has recently unleashed an attack squarely aimed at Heinrich that indirectly cites Scarantino, stating that Heinrich, a former Albuquerque city councilor, has “skirted the law” and should have registered as a lobbyist. The TV ad directly cites an Oct. 11 NMI story to back up the charge. The Republican Party of New Mexico has leveled a similar attack.

Heinrich supporters are denouncing Scarantino, who is about to get a more prominent platform for his views. NMI has learned that Scarantino has been hired by the Albuquerque Journal to be a regular Op-Ed columnist beginning on Nov. 6.

“I think he has a personal vendetta going with members of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and conservationists generally,” Arturo Sandoval, who succeeded Scarantino at the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness, tells the Independent.

Former Albuquerque Mayor Jim Baca, a lifelong conservationist, also assails Scarantino’s credibility.

“I don’t think Jim would be able to write anything about wilderness issues in regards to New Mexico that would be unbiased or fair,” Baca says. He cites as evidence Scarantino’s falling out with conservation groups including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance as well as the local chapter of Republicans for Environmental Protection. “He’s kept a chip on his shoulder ever since,” Baca adds.

From 2000 to 2004, Scarantino served as chair of the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness, an organization that hired Heinrich’s one-man consulting firm Heinrich Consulting to advocate for the then-proposed Ojito Wilderness. Since then, Scarantino has had a falling out with former colleagues in the state’s conservation community.

On the substance of the charge that Heinrich could put the lobbyist flap to rest by simply turning over time sheets or tax records — a charge advanced by Scarantino — Sandoval just doesn’t buy it.

“There was never any requirement in any of these contracts that we had for him to submit time sheets to pay him. We weren’t paying him by the hour,” Sandoval says. “And I’m pretty sure I had been following the pattern that had already been set.”

Sandoval further alleges that Scarantino is guilty of raising the issue during the heat of the election campaign, but not at the time the contract was active several years ago.

“I just wonder why he wasn’t asking Martin to register as a lobbyist then, when he was signing the contracts. How come he didn’t raise it then when he was in a position to do something about it?”

Sandoval says Scarantino was fired in his subsequent position as executive director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance over “vicious and apparently unprovoked verbal attacks on the NMWA board president,” a characterization Scarantino disputes. He says he resigned.

“When he writes about conservation issues, I don’t think he has any credibility whatsoever… and I think he’s dangerous because he has the veneer of rationality,” Sandoval adds. In fact, he goes further, saying “I would question his credibility on any topic.”

Scarantino, a lawyer, does have his admirers. Following a voting rights case he handled, the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union named him its lawyer of the year in 2006.

For his part, Scarantino argues that the core of the current dispute is about the philosophy of leading New Mexico conservationists, not personalities.

“They believe that wilderness is a quasi-religious end in and of itself that should be preserved regardless of its impact on humans,” he says.

Baca, the former mayor, says Scarantino is “bitter” over his departure from the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and that the soon-to-be Albuquerque Journal columnist has moved ideologically.

“He seems to have shifted to the right as of late,” he says.

 

Video by KNME producer Kevin McDonald

 

Editor’s note: NMI’s David Alire Garcia is co-host of KNME’s New Mexico In Focus, where Scarantino also works as a regular roundtable commentator.