RECIPE FOR DESPICABLE

 While the soon to be departed Mayor of Albuquerque, RJ Berry, is going around collecting money for his campaign from out of city voters, a recent article caught our Eye.

 

We know the list is almost endless as to what's gone wrong since Berry became mayor, but it's worth repeating: we've lost more jobs (3,900) proportionally than any other city in the country, we have fewer people employed now than when Berry took office in December 2009, APD is under DOJ investigation, the person responsible for APD's demise is being allowed to walk away with a fat 90% of gross income pension, real estate prices have yet to recover to their pre-2009 prices, crime rate is higher than ever before, more people are leaving Albuquerque than moving in, cover up after cover up plagues the city in gross disparity compared to other cities, APD's issues continue to bewilder even the most honest fan--low staffing, increased expenses, bottomless morale, and expensive hi-price toys being run by people with little or no law enforcement experience, and the list goes on.

 

With the city in such a disastrous state, why would anybody want to invest money here? Obviously they wouldn't. And in fact that little bit of information was buried in yesterday's Albuquerque Journal. You see venture capital is at an all-time low and has continued it's slide into non-existence since, you guessed it, Berry's election. (READ IT HERE)  Folks, you can't make this stuff up.  These are facts and all have verifiable sources to prove these facts.

What is venture capital? In basic terms it's simply money private people or investment groups invest in private companies to get them off the ground. It's a reflection of the optimism in a given economy. People invest their money with the expectation of a return and here in Albuquerque, it seems there is NO HOPE for a return thanks to the policies of RJ Berry. No seed money, no growth. It's that simple.

 

And while we have Berry to thank for implementing his failed policies, we have the cast of official and unofficial advisers surrounding him. It is much as their advise as Berry's implementation that have brought this city to it's knees. So a vote for Berry is a vote for the despicable. 

RECIPE FOR DESPICABLE

 

RJ Berry, Rob Perry, Kathy Levy, Paul Kennedy, Tito Madrid, David Tourek, Jay McCleskey, Sherman McCorkle, Susana Martinez, Allen Weh, Darren White, TJ Wilham, Allen Banks, Heather Wilson, and of course Ray Schultz.

Here is the big question: is this a recipe for cooks or crooks?  We all know the real answer...

Governor to Change "Ethical" Judicial Standards Commission, to "Unethical" Judicial Standards Commission

Newly elected Governor Martinez ran a strong race only to politically shoot herself in the foot. Martinez appointed Albuquerque’s Public Safety Director, Darren White, to the Judicial Standards Commission. This commission must be comprised of a person’s high ethics. Governor Martinez, this appointment gives you an "F." It is also rumored that White is set to be appointed to another commission for athletics. White has a string of questionable ethics violations dating back to his first political appointment.

White in 2003 partnered with current Senate Candidate Heather Wilson and TruTouch to develop an alcohol detection machine. White used $1,100,000.00 to develop and purchase three machines. White never used the machines claiming that TruTouch never showed them how to use them, however, in a signed Bernalillo County document; White claimed that his department was part of the field trial use of the machines. NMDOT later purchased a similar type of machine for $13,000.00 each from TruTouch compared to White who paid $126,500.00 per machine. When including the development of the machines, White spent approximately $366,000.00 for each machine he authorized his department to purchase. Our current ethical Sheriff, Dan Houston, has called for an investigation into the matter by the New Mexico Attorney General.

White was investigated by the New Mexico Attorney General in 2008. White allowed APS high ranking officials to use the NCIC data base to conduct background checks on their girlfriends and whistle blowers in APS in order to harass them. In one article located by the Eye it claims, “The Attorney General's Office found that Darren White, personally, had broken the law, the NMIPRA, in his effort to suppress the truth.” You get that part about "suppressing the truth" Governor Martinez? In 2008 White also received money from TruTouch for his campaign for Congress. White was trampled by Congressmen Martin Heinrich. The money TruTouch gave to White was not immediately disclosed causing other troubles for White and the County.

More recently Darren White was at the center of another debacle where Sheriff White and the County of Bernalillo will have to pay out $3,000,000.00 for the Sheriff's Department illegally seizing money from different people. The City of Albuquerque Police Department under the watchful eye of Chief Ray Schultz already paid out an additional $882,900.00, as reported in the Albuquerque Journal. $3,000,000.00 Governor; let's spell this out in plain clear language, Three million dollars!

The newest questionable ethical caper by White is the Brad Arensfield federal trail. It is alleged that White may have leaked information to a target via his girlfriend, now wife. In a story only seen here on the Eye, we talked about Arendsfields’ recent appeal. The story states in part, "In the appeal, Mr. Bryan admits that the information received by his wife was via White's wife. Mr. Bryan states that he was provided intimate details from White’s wife, which was provided by her husband, Albuquerque’s Public Safety Director, Darren White. Mr. Bryan considered Darren White to be a friend, another allegation White denied on the stand."

And last but not least, White has received two "NO CONFIDENCE" votes. The first one was from the New Mexico State Police and the second blow was a vote of "NO CONFIDENCE" by the men and women of the Albuquerque Police Department. White should have three; one was scheduled to be conducted by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department but White left before it was done. Governor, if the cops think he is unacceptable, you should be following the facts presented.

Governor Martinez appears to be a very bright, sharp, educated and a seasoned professional with a potential to rise to a much higher level. Now that she has a self inflicted political gunshot wound to her foot by her own choosing; her chances of running again or gaining support for anything is dismal at best. Did Governor Martinez do her homework? Is the Governor going to now change the name of the commission to the "Unethical Judicial Standards Commission?" Does the Governor really want her name tied to Darren White? White out of respect for himself and every citizen of this State needs to resign and step down. Governor Martinez, wake up, based even on the appearance of impropriety you should rid yourself of this cancer. If you leave this appointment; the "bar" will be lower than dirt. Bear in Mind Governor Martinez; you are only as strong as you weakest link. This newest link is as flimsy as a cheap single piece of toilet tissue.

Eye Poll: Neck and Neck

After an extended Eye Poll Eye readers are almost evenly split between Heather Wilson -53% and Steve Pearce - 47% in our unscientific poll (See the results here). Our gut feeling tells us that this is a pretty accurate picture of the Republican primary with both candidates running neck and neck.

This week we focus on how you feel about your safety in Albuquerque. APD's manpower levels have and continue to be an issue, but the real problem is our high crime rates. In addition, it's also important to determine public perception because perception often mirrors reality. Don't forget to vote!

Eye Poll: Not that it Matters

Last week's Eye Poll looked at the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate between Tom Udall and Marty (I'm still looking for my next job) Chavez. As everyone knows by now Tom Udall vanquished the Almighty Alcalde faster than the U.S. military deposed Saddam Hussein and with nary a shot fired, but in this week's Eye Poll Marty pulled it out by a single vote - not that it matters.

Of course the now ex-candidate sent out a get out the vote email to his supporters urging them to vote in our little unscientific poll, a fact that we had planned to reveal in this posting but Marty went and dropped out of the race before we could expose his shenanigans.

We're starting to wonder if we're starting to develop an Eye Poll curse similar to the Madden curse or the Chunky soup curse in football. Only time will tell as we take a look at the Republican side of the senate equation this week. Don't forget to vote!

Anybody but Marty

We've been watching with some amusement as the liberal side of the blogosphere has been working itself into a lather over the Almighty Mayor's senatorial campaign. Of course their dreeeam candidate is busy trying to become Hillary's Veeep as he sees his presidential aspirations slipping away (Heath Haussamen).

His Largeness in Santa Fe (or Iowa, or New Hampshire, or Nevada) is seen as a sure thing if he were to jump into the senate race and the SurveyUSA poll conducted for KOB-TV earlier in the month seems to support that idea. However, "progressives" and the blog left aren't taking any chances and have started a Draft Udall campaign that is complete with a Draft Udall website.

Meanwhile Marty and company are busy trying to tout a poll that was supposedly conducted for former CD1 candidate Patricia Madrid by Lake Research. Chavez's people claim that the poll shows Chavez edging out Heather Wilson by 1 point (Democracy for New Mexico).

"Celinda Lake of Lake Research is the Chavez campaign's polling consultant (see our previous post), so even these selective data should be taken with a grain of salt. But the real question is why the complete polling results haven't been released."

- Democracy for New Mexico

For those of you who don't already know Democracy for New Mexico would be considered a little left of Mao and a bastion of "progressive" thought (or lack thereof). More importantly they embrace Democrat candidates as a matter of course.

(Sidebar)
In our opinion the website would be more appropriately named New Mexico for Democrats because democracy and freedom have nothing to do with their positions or the candidates they endorse... but we digress.
(End Sidebar)

The point is this "progressive" website is shall we say, less than enthused about the chief Martycrat running for U.S. Senate, despite (or perhaps because of) his official registration as a Democrat. This is precisely the group that the Almighty Mayor has been wooing with his green city initiatives and his indoctrination... uh, "training" flick "An Inconvenience to Albuquerque (city employees)."

"Unfortunately for Chavez, in recent SurveyUSA polling, Chavez has far less support than either Wilson or Pearce. Largely due to the fact that many progressive Democrats just don't trust the Mayor."

-NMFBIHOP.com

Despite sounding like a cross between federal law enforcement and a breakfast restaurant, NMFBIHOP is another way left of center blog. They too seem to have big problems with Marty and are actively advocating a Udall candidacy.

From what we've read, the issue comes down to trust. Progressive Democrats don't trust that Marty is really one of them and they're afraid (with good reason) that if the mayor of Albuquerque were to prevail in the Democrat primary, he'd turn around and lose to either of the major Republican candidates. Even more troubling for the "progressives" is their suspicion that if Chavez were to somehow win the Senate race, that he'd turn around and ignore them the way he has for most of his time as Mayor of Albuquerque.

Eye Poll: Blowout Heather

In what turned into a blowout, Congresswoman Heather Wilson blew out her competition in this past week's Eye Poll. In our unscientific poll Wilson received 51%, Martin Chavez 29%, and rounding out the poll with 20% is Congressman Steve Pearce (See the results here).

Granted Congressman Pearce has not officially announced and we didn't include the lower tier Democrat candidates, but we were surprised by the 22 point margin tilting Heather's way. It will be interesting to see how events unfold as the Republican candidates head into a primary for Pete's seat.

On the D side, our Eyes tell us that Democrats are putting tremendous pressure on Congressman Tom Udall to take on Marty in their primary. We're also told that His Largeness courteously introduced Mayor Chavez at his first New Mexico presidential rally as the Mayor of Albuquerque; notably omitting Chavez's senate bid even though he's the only major candidate to have announced for the Democrats.

This week we'll take an early look at the 1st Congressional District race. We've included all of the candidates that have committed to the race thus far. Don't forget to vote!