Tag: Hector Balderas

Right before I sat down to write this column, I got a phone message from a guy who said he was doing a research project on political corruption in New Mexico and wanted to talk to me. Just 20 minutes later, I received an email from state Attorney General Hector Balderas’ spokesman announcing his office had indicted a sitting Rio Arriba County commissioner on three felony counts of unlawful interest in a public contract and one felony count relating to campaign finances. During his 2016 primary campaign, Trujillo accused Salazar of trying to sandbag his candidacy by asking the attorney general to look into Rio Arriba County projects Trujillo had led. The investigators also wanted documents related to county policies, county contracts and records of discretionary funds, Trujillo said. In January 2017, investigators from Balderas’ office raided Trujillo’s home. Española’s Rio Grande Sun reported at the time that an affidavit for a search warrant served at the Española Public Schools office the week before named Trujillo, who until last year had a $50,000 no-bid contract with the district for marketing services. During this year’s primary campaign, Trujillo didn’t return phone calls from The New Mexican for a profile interview. Corruption almost always is an issue in New Mexico elections. He said the strategy could well work “so long as Democrats keep the focus on the larger Republican Party rather than on Trump alone.” In New Mexico, most high-profile corruption cases in recent years have involved Democrats, though enough Republicans have been caught up, it’s fair to say this is a bipartisan problem. However, our politicians have not done a great job of sharing the graft, so that potential part of their support base isn’t as strong as it used to be.