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.
One of the more dramatic moments in Thursday night’s gubernatorial debate between Diane Denish and Susana Martinez was when Denish produced a printout of an invitation (pdf) to a fundraiser hosted by a high-powered lobbyist and a former state Attorney General. Denish said it was an example of the payday loan industry backing Martinez.
Hal Stratton and Mickey Barnett are familiar names to Republicans around the state.
Barnett is a registered lobbyist for the New Mexico Independent Finance Association — in other words the payday loan industry. Barnett is also a lobbyist for the tobacco industry and the New Mexico Industrial Energy Consumers, a group of large corporations from throughout New Mexico.
In an article from the Santa Fe New Mexican on March 6, 2005 (accessed via Lexis), the NMIFA backed HB 65 in 2005. There were a number of high-powered lobbyists that backed the bill. “What this means is that there’s a strong push against any good regulation of payday loans,” Denish told The New Mexican at the time.
From The New Mexican’s 2005 article:
The bill would limit payday loans to $1,000, give borrowers 24 hours to change their minds, impose limits on delinquent fees and returned-check charges and consider the loan forgiven once a customer has repaid twice what was originally borrowed.But consumer advocates say the bill is full of holes, because it doesn’t eliminate triple-digit interest rates common in the industry and doesn’t prohibit “rollovers” and “back-to-back loans,” which they say keep payday borrowers in a cycle of debt.
Among the lobbyists working for the bill are former lawmakers, including House Speaker Raymond Sanchez, who represents Cottonwood Financial Ltd.; former Rep. Joe Thompson, who represents Community Financial Services Association; and Mickey Barnett, a former Republican National committeeman and former state senator who represents New Mexico Independent Financial Services Association.
The bill easily, passed by the House, died in the Senate without being heard on the floor. Two years later, a similar bill was passed and signed.
Barnett also was involved in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. The Independent reported on October 21, 2008, “[Republican lawyer Pat] Rogers and another prominent Republican, Mickey Barnett, met with the Department of Justice’s White House liaison Monica Goodling in Washington in June 2006 to complain about Iglesias’ record on voter fraud.”
Iglesias was fired several months later.
Stratton received a job in the George W. Bush administration as head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. That Stratton received a job in the Bush administration is no surprise; he co-chaired the “Lawyers for Bush” group in 2000.
His tenure there was not without scandal.
While head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Stratton “repeatedly accepted gift travel for events from industries subject to CPSC enforcement, the Washington Post reported in 2007. According to the paper, the travel included an “$11,000 trip” to China and Hong Kong which “was paid for by the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, an industry group based in an office suite in Bethesda whose only laboratories are in Asia.”
Capitol Report New Mexico got in touch with Stratton last night after the debate and quoted Stratton as saying that he is not a lobbyist, but a lawyer. He added that he didn’t represent anyone who issued payday loans.
Stratton told Capitol Report that he “represents interests in the consumer loan industry but said there is a distinct difference between “payday” loans (that commonly charge high interest rates for very short periods of time) and installment or consumer loans that can offer longer-term loans, sometimes with no collateral.”
Denish has called for an outright ban of “predatory practices of payday lending.”
Stratton also told Capitol Report, “I’m disappointed it would be something that she brought up tonight and that the campaign has sunk to this level of desperation.”
Stratton is a co-founder of the Rio Grande Foundation, which funds Capitol Report New Mexico.
Stratton works for a high-powered Washington D.C. law firm that has an office in Albuquerque. Stratton’s bio shows that he is part of the company’s Government Relations Group. The lobbying firm’s website describes the GRG as:
a full-service lobbying, public policy and legal representation practice that helps companies, associations, non-profits and other organizations interpret federal government actions, solve challenges and seize opportunities through interaction with government officials. Our work includes legislative consulting, lobbying, policy development, public relations strategy and representation in front of the Congress, federal agencies and regulatory bodies.
Update:
More information from The Santa Fe New Mexican on the 2005 legislation was added for context.
