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January 07, 2009 05:39 PM UTC

NM "Pay for Play" Scandal Snares Colorado Politicos

  • 10 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Uh-oh, as the Denver Post reports:

Denver political consultant Michael Stratton and state Sen. Chris Romer were reported Tuesday to be tied to the New Mexico bond contracts that have ensnared Gov. Bill Richardson and caused him to withdraw from consideration for U.S. commerce secretary.

According to an article by Bloomberg News, Stratton was paid $269,000 in 2003 and 2004 by JPMorgan Chase to help win public-finance business in New Mexico. The banking giant was the financier that underwrote the bulk of the $1.6 billion in bonds that are part of a reported grand jury investigation of whether political contributions netted state business.

JPMorgan’s lead banker on the bond deals was Romer, who has been contacted by the U.S. attorney for New Mexico.

“I voluntarily interviewed with federal investigators last fall,” Romer said Tuesday. He declined to comment further

Neither of the men nor their companies have been publicly accused of wrongdoing…

Yeah, but this scandal was enough for Richardson to back out of his nomination for commerce secretary, a major embarrassment to the incoming Obama administration that you can bet would not have played out the way it did without something credibly damaging lurking just around the corner.

In terms of the Colorado players mentioned above, Mike Stratton is one of the more seasoned political consultants in the state–this likely isn’t the first scrape of this kind he’s been caught up in, and his value and wealth of loyal connections may help him stay in business even if this goes badly (see: Scott Shires).

The person who should really be sweating this is Sen. Chris Romer. We obviously don’t know enough about the details of the investigation to know if Romer is under a harsher degree of scrutiny than Stratton, if he is more or less implicated than other persons of interest, etc. What we do know is that Romer is a state senator and therefore bound to a higher ethical standard than a mere political consultant. And it’s generally agreed that Romer has not always been the best at making friends and (more importantly) political allies since taking office–a fact that could leave him utterly friendless if this investigation reveals anything unseemly with his name on it.

Comments

10 thoughts on “NM “Pay for Play” Scandal Snares Colorado Politicos

  1. What would Sen. Romer had to have done to break the law? If he simply knew about the pay for play, but wasn’t directly involved, would that be enough to bring charges? Should the Senate ethics committee be looking into this?

    The fact that he doesn’t appear to be hiding behind his Senate office is a good sign. He certainly could have waited to get a subpoena from the US attorney’s office before answering questions (but maybe that’s just political smarts, and not a suggestion of innocence.)

  2. Lobbyist gets paid to lobby. Film at 11.

    Part-time legislator also has a day job. Shock!

    Unless there is some salacious detail we haven’t seen reported yet, there’s nothing there but a partisan witch hunt being driven by the US Attorney that Bush selected to replace the guy he fired for refusing to engage in partisan witch hunts.

    1. To think he strung out our in coming President along and made the FBI reveal the problem to Dan Gipps and the Obama team just reveals a lack of character.

      I bet the USA is looking at every Stranton contract, state ‘decision’ and when Stranton/his employer made a payment to the Richardson committee d’jour.

      I think Obama will need to continue to root out the corruption smoke that fills the backrooms of Santa Fe, Springfield, etc…

      Same thing for Don Quick on this Adams Co contractor issue.

  3. Richardson, hard as it may be to believe, may be innocent on this thing, but was thrown under the bus by Obama because they were trying to position themselves in relation to Blago/Burris.  

    See reporting at DemocracyforNewMexico.com.

    1. I don’t think so. If there was even the impression of impropriety, it was on Richardson to withdraw himself from consideration for any cabinet position.

      The transition had on its questionnaire inquiries on incidents or situations that would require the attention of a grand jury. I won’t cast aspersions, but there could be the view that Bill Richardson wasn’t completely forthcoming.

      He’s innocent until proven guilty, but any question of ethics would hurt the incoming administration.

  4. Basically the way they choose who sells government bonds has always struck me as a system where they up front say they are arbitrarily picking a dealer. By definition that leads to corruption, even if it’s nothing more than giving it to the company who’s management you like the best.

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