2015 Headline “Can New Mexico Break Its Cycle of Corruption?” 2025, Didn’t Happen
2020 Corruption Report: New Mexico Top Five Most Corrupt State, Scoring High for Illegal and Legal Corruption
A Culture of Corruption
I moved to New Mexico in 1980 as a Democrat. A few years later, I switched to Republican after the details of Governor Tony Anaya’s “Pay to Play” scandal became public knowledge. In retrospect, Anaya’s scandal seems almost quaint compared to what followed.
New Mexico entered the big leagues of corruption under Governor Bill Richardson. His allies siphoned off tens of millions for personal gain, and some of the funds were used to support his presidential ambitions. Large sums disappeared from state investment funds through kickbacks to financial firms, the tried-and-true pay-to-play schemes, funneling contracts to friends, and bolstering loyal public employee unions. Only the New York Attorney General's office stumbled across Richardson’s administration's corruption while investigating their own state’s corruption.
While the New York and Florida DOJ investigated Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operations in their state, New Mexico’s DOJ continued to pretend Epstein’s notorious Zorro Ranch, just miles from NM center of power, was on another world. An individual described to me that he was at the Zorro landing strip when Epstein stepped out of a twin-propeller aircraft, followed by three attractive and very young women in matching dresses. How did Epstein avoid scrutiny? When Richardson was asked about his relationship with Epstein, he initially responded that he had only visited The Ranch twice with his wife. Still, he later admitted to multiple visits alone—to offer him political cover?
One of the darkest moments of the Richardson era was his race against Republican John Dendahl. Richardson, ambitious for national office, saw Dendahl as a threat. After a late-night political event, Dendahl’s spokeswoman was assaulted when she stopped to fix the flat tire on her car. Her jaw was broken, her face bloodied, and the message was clear: stop attacking Richardson. Although Dendahl lost, he kept Richardson below the 60% mark in the election, helping to end his presidential hopes; however, the violence went unpunished.
Richardson’s successor, Republican Governor Susana Martinez, formerly the District Attorney of Doña Ana, never investigated Richardson’s scandals of kickbacks, pay-to-play schemes, funneling contracts to friends, sex trafficking, or the brutal assault against his political opponent.
2015 Headline: Can New Mexico Break Its Cycle of Corruption?
In December 2015, the website "Governing" published an article by Alan Greenblatt, an editor of Governing and an award-winning reporter for NPR and Congressional Quarterly, titled "Can New Mexico Break Its Cycle of Corruption?" The article discusses the conviction and incarceration of former Secretary of State Dianna Duran and examines the Richardson Administration. It also delves into the history of political corruption in New Mexico.
There was hope that Governor Martinez, being a former District Attorney of Dona Ana and Republican, would lead the effort to clean up the long history of corruption by the Democratic Party Machine. Instead, she provided cover for Richardson and the rest of the bunch.
2025 Headline: New Mexico’s Corruption Is Too Big to Ignore
When the Federal DOJ discovered nearly eighty percent of a multi-million-dollar grant was embezzled (then-House Speaker Sheryl Williams Stapleton and her business partner were charged and are awaiting trial). Then what percentage of Albuquerque Public Schools’ $1 billion in annual expenditures are being siphoned off?
When New Mexico legalized marijuana under state law, it created a two-tier system: legal cultivation and distribution, and illegal cultivation and distribution. The unlawful cultivation and distribution are primarily controlled by transnational criminal organizations and largely ignored by the New Mexico Department of Justice (NM DOJ).
New Mexico officials began using the term “accidental overdose,” and now the surviving families are using the term. But it is not accidental, it is murder, and states and cities (including Indianapolis) have Overdose Death Task Forces to track down who is responsible for selling drugs that are killing their buyers.
In the 1990s, law enforcement played cat and mouse with Seven Seas and Cherry Blossom (hidden from view on Edith and reported in the Albuquerque Journal) massage parlors for prostitution. Today, the massage parlors are scattered throughout Albuquerque with their “Open” signs blazing late at night.
The recently uncovered DUI scandal involved defendants paying an attorney who then bribed arresting officers not to appear in court. The decade-long bribery scheme was exposed and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Meanwhile, the cartels have millions for police, attorneys, and politicians.
New Mexico’s sanctuary policies have effectively created free enterprise zones for transnational criminal organizations. A police officer in Española died of a fentanyl overdose. Local law enforcement seems to be absent from major drug busts. A Hells Angel member who moved here complained of the lowlifes roaming our streets.
New Mexico has nearly $60 billion in investment funds, but who ensures we’re getting sound investment advice without kickbacks? I spoke with an individual who was in New Mexico, reporting to the New Mexico State Investment Council. I shared with him the Richardson administration’s record. He not only knew but was prepared to protect himself and his firm.
New Mexico’s legislature allocates $1 billion annually for capital outlay, with most of the money spent behind closed doors. New Mexico has replaced nearly all publicly opened bid proposals with negotiated, qualification-based, and third-party qualified contracts. All conducted behind closed doors.
New Mexico, Culture of Corruption and Legacy of Misery
Every year, the Governor and Legislature point to increasingly larger budgets as evidence of their commitment to addressing New Mexico's challenges. But every year, New Mexico ranks at the bottom of all the states. It never changes.
Why? Corruption!
Past New Mexico Speaker of the House Sheryl Williams Stapleton, a longtime teacher and member of the New Mexico House, has been charged and is awaiting trial for fraud and embezzlement of federal funds for a student program. I don’t believe the Speaker was thinking this would hurt students; I assume she was thinking no one would miss a few million dollars.
However, those millions have accumulated, and now I expect the total siphoned off to be well into ten to twenty percent of the state budget, or simply one to two billion dollars a year. No wonder the drug trade, sex trade, and the gambling trade are flourishing, because what little hope they had was siphoned off with all the billions
New Mexico needs its own Donald Trump.
On a personal note.
Mick Rich Contractors has been building the communities of New Mexico for over forty years. We recently submitted a price proposal to Bernalillo County for $4.5 million; however, the county’s procurement office awarded it to a competitor of $5.2 million, as it was deemed the best value. But all the bidders bid on the same building plans, specifications, and terms— only the prices varied.
It has come to my attention that Albuquerque Public Schools has awarded a no-bid contract for a school construction project to the same contractor. The reasoning was that the contractor receives superior pricing compared to its competitors.
APS has lamented that there are budget shortfalls on existing projects, and construction costs have doubled since 2019, which is why APS is seeking approval for $350 million in general obligation bonds this fall. It is time APS’s procurement department goes back to the basics (transparency, low bid, and holds its contractors accountable), too.
