Sen. Robinson's money scrum
State Sen. Shannon Robinson is the volunteer coach of the UNM rugby team. The team is not officially part of the UNM Athletic Department.
And the UNM rugby club has received more than 
$450,000 in the past three years, according to the Sunday Albuquerque Journal.
This isn't the first time Robinson's propensity for pushing state funds to the UNM Rugby club have been noticed. Earlier this year, Clearly New Mexico's Parnelli Gonzales wrote about it. Gonzales cited Albuquerque Journal articles here and here from January of this year on a similar subject.
The former begins:
More than $350,000 in state money appropriated for a Southwest studies think tank at the University of New Mexico was funneled to the UNM women's rugby club to pay for tuition and travel, auditors say.
The team's coach?
State Sen. Shannon Robinson of Albuquerque, a 19-year Senate veteran, who has also been a strong legislative supporter of the think tank, the Center for Regional Studies.
On a report that aired Sept. 18, 2006, Jeremy Jojola of KOB-TV confronted Robinson about a similar issue. Robinson has apparently not changed his ways since then.
In Jojola's report, he noted the New Mexico Sports Authority spent $70,000 of $150,000 earmarked for the New Mexico Sports Authority to promote the rugby club for television. The Sports Authority was created to bring big-name sports events to New Mexico.
According to the KOB-TV report, the next-highest expenditure by the New Mexico Sports Authority that year was $10,000 for the Tour de Gila bicycle race.
Robinson is facing a Democratic primary election against Tim Keller for Robinson's Senate seat.
Comments:
Posted 05/13/2008 12:22 with
Robinson should prevail against Keller. Keller is has just recently become a D so he could run in this district. The people will realize this is just a scam to take out a real Democrat.
Posted 05/13/2008 15:15 with
Sen. Robinson is representative of the worst sort of politician. The first time I attended the NM Legislature I watched him take a walk on the Vicitms of Unborn Violence Act, sponsor legislation to legalize a medicinal marijuana cream that a company he had stock in would produce, and aid Sen. Carraro in delaying all proceedings on the floor. Recently I was told Sen. Robinson is paying 5$ per Tim Keller sign collected to high school students. I don’t know if Tim Keller was a former Republican and frankly I don’t care. He is a Democrat now and that is what counts.