Clean campaign field only way to earn trust

New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran decided to show up for work at her $85,000-a-year-job, at least some of the time, and says it’s to do the job she was elected to do.

Though she really should resign, at least in a misguided way she is honoring the will of New Mexico voters who put her in office.

But Duran is working under a dark cloud — 64 alleged violations of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and other crimes in connection with the use of campaign contributions to cover personal spending at casinos. She has pleaded not guilty and has resisted calls to resign.

If it isn’t crystal clear to her, Duran has a huge public perception and credibility problem — and so does her office since she has decided to return to work. While she has the legal right to do so at this point, Duran certainly should remove herself from one of her most important job duties — overseeing campaign reporting and enforcing campaign ethics. Her office has many functions, so finding something else to do that doesn’t smack of an obvious conflict shouldn’t be difficult.

Meanwhile, separate to the criminal case against her, impending impeachment proceedings are gathering speed by a special bipartisan House committee, which has hired heavyweight attorney Robert Gorence as special counsel.

And after Attorney General Hector Balderas got a fistful of indictments filed against Duran in late August, out of the woodwork came another handful of campaign reporting allegations against several legislators, including Antonio “Moe” Maestas, an Albuquerque Democrat who has admitted he failed to report more than $11,000 in contributions last year. He says he has since corrected his filings, but he also reports taking $1,000 cash on three occasions to reimburse himself for campaign expenses when the law clearly states that an amount over $100 must be in the form of a check to the vendor.

Duran has jumped feet first into Maestas’ situation by referring 30 possible violations or discrepancies concerning Maestas to Balderas. That’s a mistake. She should let her ethics bureau do this work. Otherwise it just looks like political retaliation.

Still, it will be interesting to see if Balderas is as zealous in investigating his fellow Democrats as he was in pursuing criminal charges against Duran, a Republican. He should be.

Now that many allegations have come to light, they should be given a thorough vetting, all substantiated violations should be corrected and punishment should be meted out if warranted. That includes criminal prosecutions. Because sweeping the campaign playing field clean is the only way to regain New Mexico voters’ trust in the system.

That’s a huge task, considering the state’s history of political corruption. But it’s worth a try.

— Albuquerque Journal