ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A Republican lawmaker asked the attorney general’s office Tuesday to investigate whether an ethics law was violated by a quickly withdrawn legislative staff request for law enforcement records on a Democratic legislator’s election opponent.
Attorney General Gary King’s spokesman Phil Sisneros said the office will review the request by Rep. Monica Youngblood of Albuquerque and likely will look into the matter.
Legislative Finance Committee Director David Abbey requested records on March 6 about possible hunting and fishing violations by a man running against Democratic Rep. Patricia Lundstrom of Gallup, according to a report by the Albuquerque Journal (https://bit.ly/1holdP7 ).
Abbey withdrew the request for records on Olin Clawson the same day, after Lundstrom said there had been a “miscommunication” between herself and a legislative staffer.
Lundstrom said she had asked the legislative staff how the records could be legally requested. She said she had the request for records withdrawn after learning it had been made.
Rep. Monica Youngblood of Albuquerque said in a letter to the attorney general that the request appeared to violate the Governmental Conduct Act by using legislative staff for political purposes to “dig dirt up” on Lundstrom’s Democratic primary election opponent.
GOP Gov. Susana Martinez’s office also contends the request by legislative staff was inappropriate.
“The LFC shouldn’t be in the business of doing political campaign research on those who are running against its members,” Martinez spokesman Enrique Knell said in a statement.
Knell said Abbey’s request was made under a state law intended to make information available for official state business.
The flap over the Lundstrom request comes in the wake of criticism by top-ranking lawmakers of a new Martinez policy directing that legislative information requests be funneled through Martinez’s office.
In the days before Abbey sent his request, an LFC analyst contacted a Game and Fish staffer on behalf of Lundstrom.
Game and Fish Deputy Director Dan Brooks then told Lundstrom and the LFC analyst they would have to file a public records request.
No such request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act was filed, either by Lundstrom or the legislative agency, according to Game and Fish.
Public records requests are authorized in a different section of law from the one allowing the Legislature to ask for data and documents.
Clawson, one of the three Democrats running against Lundstrom, acknowledged he has faced hunting-related allegations in the past, including a trespassing charge.
He told the Journal that those charges were dismissed, however, and that he had not heard of the request for his violation record until being contacted by the newspaper.
Meanwhile, the LFC’s chairman, Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, said that he has cautioned legislative aides to be cautious about lawmakers’ requests for certain types of information.
“We have to be careful we don’t start looking for political information and requesting the staff (to help),” the Santa Fe Democrat said.
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