After the Sept. 5 boat accident at Elephant Butte State Park involving Governor Bill Richardson, his chief of staff Brian Condit and other staffers, both Richardson and Condit stayed “in the vicinity” for 30 minutes, a gubernatorial spokesman said over the weekend.

One member of the governor’s party that day, state budget chief Katherine Miller, did return to the scene after the accident to make sure everything was OK, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Gallegos’ statement to the Journal expanded on what Richardson told the Independent on Friday — that the governor and his party, which had included Condit and Miller, had stayed 30 minutes.

The accident occurred shortly around 5:15 p.m. Sept. 5, according to an incident report.

Another unanswered question in the Independent’s e-mails was, if the governor and Condit were in the vicinity for 30 minutes following the accident, where were they in relation to the dam site marina, where the accident occurred?

Condit has acknowledged causing the accident. He piloted an 81-foot houseboat that sideswiped one houseboat and then smashed into another. He was cited for operating a vessel in a negligent manner and damaging another person’s property.

Gallegos told the Journal that immediately after the accident “Condit left his cell phone number with (Leon “Skip” Fay, the owner of the houseboat Condit had piloted) and was available for the rest of the evening.”

But unlike many of the witnesses who spoke with investigating officers the same day as the incident, the report notes that Condit didn’t call officer Chris Bolen until two days later, on Monday, Sept. 7.

Bolen writes in the report, “I then asked Mr. Condit if he had been drinking alcohol that day. Mr. Condit stated that he had not been drinking alcohol and was not under the influence of alcohol prior to or during operation” of the “Bloody Mary.”

The exact whereabouts of Richardson and his party following the boat accident has become a source of curiosity.

The story, by the Houston bureau chief of the Times, James C. McKinley Jr., does not mention the Labor Day weekend houseboat accident at Elephant Butte, nor does it give any hint of dark clouds moving in the direction of the Governor’s mansion.

It mentions Richardson’s August trip to Cuba and speculation that he might be appointed special envoy to the communist isle, as well as a recent visit of North Korean diplomats to Santa Fe.

But the end of the story paints the Guv in a light perhaps unfamiliar to some New Mexicans, he appears as a man who merely wants a real life:

He looks forward, he said, to finishing out his term. Then he plans to take some time off to travel the country in a car — driving himself for the first time in years — to fulfill his longtime dream of visiting every major league baseball park.

“I look forward to becoming a normal person,” he said.

The press release sent out by the party is, of course, meant to exploit the current unpleasantness buffeting the governor; mainly a host of media stories about the accident and why the governor’s party left the scene so soon after the incident.

Here’s an excerpt:

“This week news broke that Bill Richardson and his entourage fled the scene of a boating accident which reportedly caused more than $10,000 in damages. The negligence which caused the crash and the governor’s seemingly dismissive response, serve as a vivid metaphor for the way Bill Richardson has handled his responsibilities during the last six years as the state’s chief executive.”

“It is unfortunate that Governor Richardson and his companions decided to flee the scene of an accident rather than to stick around and take responsibility for their actions— this seems like a basic human reaction,” noted GOP State Party Chairman Harvey Yates Jr.

Here it may be appropriate to remind the reader that it was Richardson’s chief of staff, Brian Condit, and not the governor, who piloted the houseboat that sideswiped one houseboat and then smashed into another.

Yates goes on to wax poetically as he paints a picture of the ship of state stranded on the shoals due to six years of Richardson and his administration.

“The image of a boat running off course with members of the Richardson team behind the wheel is a perfect analogy for the economic and reputational damage that this administration has inflicted upon our state,” Yates said. “The Richardson-Denish team inherited a budget surplus of over $400 million and yet this administration’s legacy will be tainted by: fiscal ineptitude and runaway spending which resulted in a $400 million budget shortfall; a federal pay-to-play investigation; and national scrutiny of the administration’s investment practices where political insiders seemed to reap the benefits of state contracts.”

“New Mexicans aren’t interested in seeing more of the same failed and reckless policies championed by the Richardson-Denish administration; we’ll need to elect a new captain who can steer the state toward economic recovery,” Yates concluded.

Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa said Thursday he didn’t know about the 48-hour reporting period and supported changing the statute.

“If you are involved in automobile accident, clearly the law mandates that you should not leave the scene of the accident,” Cisneros said in a phone interview with the Independent. “I think it is imperative that individuals report immediately, not one or two days afterward.”

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Dona Ana County District Attorney and Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez also urged a change in the law:

This incident … raises the bigger issue of how boating crashes are handled under current law. The legislature should seriously consider strengthening the boating laws to close any loopholes that allow operators to leave the scene of a crash before law enforcement is contacted, arrives, and investigates. Investigations into boating crashes should not be handled any less seriously than those involving motor vehicles.

The law that Cisneros and Martinez referenced allowed Gov. Bill Richardson’s chief of staff, Brian Condit, to wait two days before he called an officer to discuss a boat accident at Elephant Butte State Park over the Labor Day weekend.

State officials have cited Condit with operating a vessel in a negligent manner and damaging another person’s property. He was at the helm of a houseboat that sideswiped one houseboat and damaged another, according to the incident report.

One eyewitness told NMI that the governor, Condit, state budget chief Katherine Miller and others in their party left the scene of the accident within minutes of the houseboat docking.

A change to the law might have to wait a year or more, however. The coming 30-day legislative session in January 2010 is reserved for only budgetary and financial matters. Richardson, however, could alter the session agenda to allow state lawmakers to consider such legislation.

“It would not be germane to the session–unless the governor puts it on the call,” Cisneros said, adding, “I think it makes sense.”

The governor’s office did not respond to an e-mail sent Thursday morning by the Independent asking whether Richardson supported such a change to the law.

State officials cited the statute on Wednesday in response to questions from the media about why Condit had called the officer investigating the boat accident two days after the Saturday accident, even though the officer had spoken to many witnesses the same day.

There is no explanation in the incident report of why Condit left the scene or why it took him two days to contact the officer.

Bolen and another officer investigating the incident at Elephant Butte State Park interviewed several witnesses, with many of them recalling the same sequence of events, according to the incident report:

A man later identified as Condit was seen operating “Bloody Mary,” a houseboat owned by Leon “Skip” Fay of Rio Rancho. Condit piloted the houseboat into the marina, but came too close to C-dock, sideswiping Shaw’s houseboat. Then the “Bloody Mary” accelerated. At this point Fay took control from Condit, but it was too late, witnesses said. The houseboat, thrust by momentum, headed across the slip toward D-dock and smashed into a second houseboat, “The Floating Irish.”

The incident report estimates the damage to “The Floating Irish” at more than $10,000. The reporting officer writes also that the owners of the Dam Site marina told him that underwater structures below D-dock were damaged. Shaw’s houseboat suffered very minimal damage.