Nearly half of King’s fundraising came from four contributions: two $12,500 donations, one from Patricia Carpenter and one from William Carpenter, both of Albuquerque, on Sept. 21; and two $5,000 contributions. One $5,000 check came Sept. 28 from Chris Sabatella of Introcapital Asset Management LTD of New York, the report shows. The other $5,000 contribution came Sept. 13 from Paul Blanchard of The Downs Racetrack & Casino in Albuquerque, the report shows.

Of the $275,000 King spent over the four weeks covered by the report, $230,000 of it went to Georgia-based Luc Media for two media buys, the report shows.

King is being challenged by Republican Matthew Chandler, whose campaign had not filed his report by Monday afternoon.

Campaigns must file their reports by Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m., Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo II told the Independent.

But that could change if the system needs additional work. Under a state pricing agreement with Albuquerque-based RealTimeSites, the amount paid by the state covers all maintenance, service and web hosting for the first year of operation, State Elections Director Don Francisco Trujillo told The Independent.

But that price tag could jump dramatically if changes are needed.

“In the event we should need to enhance the system between now and the end of the first year, there would need to be a new contract to pay for those enhancements and maintenance and support,” Trujillo said.

Here’s the story, posted in full, with KUNM’s kind permission (listen to the audio here):

It’s becoming clearer that there are personnel problems within the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office that may be creating high turnover in the Elections division.  On February 26th, Bureau of Elections Director A.J. Salazar resigned from the position, the latest in a string of resignations from the post that has once again left Secretary of State Mary Herrera without an elections chief just months before an election.

Salazar’s resignation appears to have a lot in common with the departures of other Elections Bureau employees.  In his resignation letter published this week by the Rio Grande Sun, Salazar gave several reasons for leaving the Elections Director position; among them, allegations that Herrera’s administration ordered staff members to gather petition signatures for her re-election campaign, and that Herrera insisted office employees seek donations from companies that have contracts with the Secretary of State.

Herrera called the allegations “false and misleading” and says she can’t get into specifics because it’s a personnel matter.  Through her lawyer, Herrera has told the Santa Fe New Mexican Salazar quit because she refused to allow him several days off around Spring Break.  Salazar denies that. And in his letter, he also slams Deputy Secretary of State Francisco Trujillo for mismanaging the office, alleging Trujillo had Elections staff report to him, undermining Salazar’s ability to run the Bureau.  Salazar says Trujillo created contradictory organizational charts, confusing the chain of command.

KUNM has spoken with other former Elections employees and people who at one point were in line for positions in the office.  Each of them preferred not to go on the record at this time, but each corroborated Salazar’s contentions, saying Trujillo had hired Elections staff without involving the Elections Directors, and told directors their staff wouldn’t report to them, but would report to Trujillo instead.  Each said they quit their positions primarily because of that interference.

Former Elections Director Gerald Gonzalez, whose tenure lasted just three months in late 2008, told KUNM “I don’t think my management style was a good fit for the office.”

Neither Trujillo nor Herrera responded to KUNM’s requests for comments for this story.  KUNM has requested the resignation letters for other former Elections Directors.  Trujillo has responded by saying the documents “require further legal review and time to compile.” Attorney General Gary King has said the resignation letters are public documents.  His office is reviewing Salazar’s allegations that Herrera and her administration violated the Governmental Conduct Act.

Photo by Justin Marty/Flickr

New Mexico Secretary of State Mary Herrera claimed in a guest column published today in the Albuquerque Journal that her agency’s computer systems “are now secure,” that no data was lost and that development of a new campaign finance reporting system is “back on track.”

But Brad Allen, an information technologies employee who has been on leave since the secretary of state’s Web site and computer systems went offline two weeks ago, said one key vulnerability remains: There is no encryption on the log-in page for Uniform Commercial Code filings.

That means when people log into the system to file required business reports, their usernames and passwords could be visible to hackers, Allen said.

“Password data should always be encrypted, no matter what,” he said. “Everybody does it. It’s not that hard to do.”

http vs https

Prior to the recent problems, the log-in page used the more secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https at the start of the Web address), which utilizes something called SSL encryption, Allen says. Now it’s using the less secure hypertext transfer protocol (http at the start of the Web address).

While there are other ways to secure information stored in the secretary of state’s databases — methods that wouldn’t be obvious to someone viewing the site — Allen said the use of SSL encryption is the only way to ensure the security of information sent from a person’s Web browser to the secretary of state’s server.

In an e-mail, Herrera wrote that it would be “unwise and not prudent” to have an unsecure site and said “the information you are been given regarding SSL encryption with respect to the secretary of state’s Web applications is untrue.” She did not elaborate.

This is all Herrera said in today’s guest column about the Web site’s security:

“My No. 1 priority is to ensure that our network is properly secured in order to protect the integrity of all information submitted to our office. I am pleased to confirm that all of our systems are now secure, no data has been lost, and our goal to implement a new campaign finance reporting system is now back on track.”

Allen said he is publicly talking about the lack of security on the site because he is concerned about the potential harm hackers could do, not because he wants to point a finger at Herrera or others in her office.

Allen is under investigation

Allen was placed on administrative leave around the same time unspecified problems knocked out all systems in the office, including the new campaign finance reporting system he had been developing.

Officials completed work Thursday on efforts to restore the Web site and other systems but have still not fully explained what caused the problems.

Without naming Allen, Herrera wrote in today’s guest column that an employee in her office is under investigation because of “actions which occurred and information learned” during a recent security review that coincided with the problems with computer systems. She wrote that those problems “revealed that our network was vulnerable to potential interference.”

“This investigation involves potential criminal violations and is a personnel matter,” Herrera wrote. “In order to preserve the integrity of the investigation and also protect the rights of this employee, I will not at this time discuss the details of this investigation and will allow the proper authorities to proceed according to their protocol.”

While Herrera did not name the employee, her statement builds on what Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo II told the Independent earlier this week. He said the agency had started an inquiry into Allen based on information gleaned by the security test.

Trujillo did not mention Allen by name but acknowledged that the inquiry involves the only agency employee who is on paid leave, which is Allen. When asked if the investigation involved law enforcement, Trujillo said, “We have begun an investigation which involves other agencies. I won’t discuss it any further.”

Prior to that, the agency had said Allen was not under suspicion despite being on leave.

Herrera refused to comment on Allen’s employment or answer questions about the criminal investigation today because it’s a personnel issue. Allen also declined to comment on the status of his employment and the investigation.

The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) searchable database is back online, as is the system for UCC filings. And the searchable databases of campaign contributors and candidates and political committees receiving contributions are also back online.

The systems went down earlier today. A.J. Salazar, the secretary of state’s elections director, said at the time that the office was in the process of upgrading the systems and they would be back up shortly.

Officials have been working to restore the Web site and systems in the office for about two weeks, since unspecified problems knocked out a new campaign finance and disclosure system that has been under development. Officials haven’t specified how the problems with the new site relate to the office’s problems with its other computer systems and Web site.

As of the publication of this posting, the UCC system is offline, as are the databases for campaign contributors and candidates and political committees receiving contributions. There is no note on the home page of the Web site notifying visitors that the systems are down.

“Upgrades are currently being made and the application will be up again momentarily,” said A.J. Salazar, the secretary of state’s elections director.

Officials have been working to restore the Web site and systems in the office for about two weeks, since unspecified problems knocked out a new campaign finance and disclosure system that has been under development. Officials haven’t specified how the problems with the new site relate to the office’s problems with its other computer systems and Web site.

As of the publication of this posting, the UCC filings database is operational. But it appears to be back online using the less secure hypertext transfer protocol (http at the start of the Web address). Prior to last week’s problems that led to all systems in the secretary of state’s office going down, the searchable databases used the more secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (https at the start of the Web address).

In addition, the databases for campaign contributors, candidates and political committees receiving contributions, lobbyist reports and financial information disclosure reports are still offline.

Herrera and two other high-ranking officials in her office have not responded to an e-mail sent earlier Thursday seeking a status update.

Officials have been working to restore the secretary of state’s Web site and systems in the office since last week, when unspecified problems knocked out a new campaign finance and disclosure system that has been under development.

Officials haven’t specified how the problems with the new site relate to the office’s problems with its other computer systems and Web site.