Ethics Commission

After an ethics complaint was filed by Santa Fe Republican Party officer and “Stop MLG” founder Brett Kokinadis, scandal-ridden alleged serial groper Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham returned illicit campaign donations that exceeded contribution limits.

The Governor returned $4,200 to Intrepid Potash, a Denver-based mineral company, which gave Lujan Grisham $25,000 when gubernatorial candidates are only allowed $20,800 from each entity. 

According to the Associated Press, “The Lujan Grisham campaign also amended its filing to identify previously undisclosed sources of four recent campaign contributions. Those include two donations totaling $10,400 from Chevron Policy, Government & Public Affairs, a $4,000 contribution from a political committee led by Democratic state Senate President Mimi Stewart and $2,500 from the Health Care Service Corporation Employees political committee.” 

Health Care Service Corporation reportedly oversees BlueCross BlueShield of New Mexico, a state-sanctioned provider of Medicaid health care coverage.

Republican House Leader Jim Townsend (R-Artesia) is a contributor to Stop MLG. 

When Kokinadis filed the complaint, he said, “New Mexicans deserve better than this. This Governor’s habitual behavior is hurting the state and its citizens–all for personal gain for the Governor.” 

“Her illegal actions have embarrassed New Mexico for too long. From ignoring the legislature during the extended COVID restrictions, ignoring and violating her own public health orders, using campaign donations to settle alleged sexual allegations, purchasing lavish meals and alcohol, covering up issues at CYFD, and now violating ethics laws, all while New Mexicans continue to suffer from her unfair policies, it’s obvious why should accept monies in any amount–she needs them to aggressively campaign to combat her failed and unfair policies.”

Another ethics complaint filed by Piñon Post founder and editor John Block in May is still ongoing, in which Block is going after the Governor for improper use of campaign funds to pay her daughter, Erin Grisham, for hair and makeup — a direct violation of state law and Secretary of State guidance.

Gov. Lujan Grisham is up for reelection in 2022, facing off against seven Republicans, including businesswoman Karen Bedonie, Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block, state Rep. Rebecca Dow, Right to Life of New Mexico executive director Ethel Maharg, businessman Louie Sanchez, former Gary Johnson staffer Tim Walsh, and financier Greg Zanetti. Note: These candidates have been listed in alphabetical order.

On Friday, the New Mexico State Ethics Commission (SEC) agreed “​​to ask the Legislature to expand its jurisdiction to the parts of the state Constitution that prohibit profiting from public office and ban legislators from having an interest in contracts authorized by legislation passed during their term,” according to the Albuquerque Journal. 

Executive director Jeremy Farris told the Journal that constitutional provisions at issues are a “natural fit” to the SEC’s mission and not necessarily due to legislators, such as former second-ranking House Democrat Rep. Sheryl Stapleton, who is embroiled in a decades-long corruption investigation where she has been indicted on 28 federal counts. 

The Commission is seeking approval for a $1.28 million budget, which is an increase of 40% over the previous year’s appropriation. The move would increase the agency from five employees to nine. 

According to the report, the new changes in the agency’s expanded jurisdiction, if approved, would give the Commission authority over constitutional provisions prohibiting:

• Increased compensation for public officials during their term of office.

• Legislators having an interest in any state or city contract that was authorized by law during their term or for one year afterward.

• State officials who already draw a salary from drawing outside fees or otherwise profiting for their service in public office.

Farris said, “We absolutely have to have a larger staff to run this agency.” He noted, “It won’t work with five.”

Time will tell if the Commission will get its wishes, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in hot water over her alleged corrupt activity, along with many other legislators and public officials who have had complaints lodged against them. 

On Thursday, the New Mexico State Ethics Commission’s hearing officer, retired Judge James S. Starzynski, denied Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s campaign’s motion to dismiss an ethics complaint filed by Piñon Post editor and founder John Block regarding the Governor’s spending of thousands of campaign dollars to her daughter for hair and makeup. The campaign reported these expenses as “media preparation.”

The motion to dismiss by Lujan Grisham’s campaign, New Mexicans for Michelle (NMFM), claimed Block had no “actual knowledge” of the details of the complaint and that because the Ethics Commission signed a joint powers agreement with the Secretary of State (SoS), that it had no authority to rule. The Secretary of State’s office previously claimed the use of the funds was legitimate, despite state law and the SoS’s own guidelines saying exactly the opposite.

In response to the motion to dismiss, Block wrote, “The law clearly states, ‘The commission may share jurisdiction with other public agencies having authority to act on a complaint or any aspect of a complaint.’ … According to the Joint Powers Agreement signed by the Secretary of State’s office and the State Ethics Commission, the Ethics Commission does, in fact, have the authority to investigate this complaint and any such argument from the respondent’s council otherwise is an attempt to usurp… the Commission’s authoritative duties enacted by the Legislature.” 

Block added in his response letter that attempts at poking holes in what he believes to be a clear-cut case just “undermines New Mexicans for Michelle’s frail argument, which is bound together by obscure interpretations of state law and conjecture.”

In a prior jurisdiction determination following the motion and Block’s response, Ethics Commission Executive Director Jeremy Farris said the Lujan Grisham campaign’s “argument is unconvincing.  The Commission did not decline to exercise its jurisdiction over this matter.”

Now, Lujan Grisham is facing another blow from Starzynski, who wrote the following in his September 16 ruling:

NMFM correctly points out that the State Ethics Commission Act requires Block to have “actual knowledge of the alleged ethics violation”, that is, of the facts upon which he relies in his Complaint. See NMSA 10-16G-10(A).  It thus argues that  “Block did not have actual knowledge of the purposes of the expenditures he claims were impermissible,” and therefore lacked the actual knowledge required to submit a complaint to the Commission. See Motion at 7. Instead, NMFM argues that Block only “reviewed publicly filed campaign reports, found expenditures for hair and make-up, then used public records of the Governor’s calendars to conjure up events that he believed were related to the expenditures.” Id. 

To begin with, NMFM’s listing of the payment of $1,040.00 for “media preparation” can be construed as an admission of the activity in question.  Erin Grisham’s statement in her LinkedIn profile (as recited by Block in the Complaint 7) that she provides services as the “stylist and cosmetology consultant for Michelle Lujan Grisham for Governor”, see Complaint at 2, serves as another admission by one of the participants in the alleged campaign violation.  In consequence, reading those admissions provides [Block] the “actual knowledge” he needs to file the Complaint.  

Actual knowledge” is defined as “[d]irect and clear knowledge, as distinguished from constructive knowledge[.]” Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019). Courts generally discuss the term in the context of determining whether a party’s knowledge of some fact or condition triggers (or defeats) a statute of limitations defense or some other legally-significant condition precedent. 2 “[Actual knowledge] does not mean first-hand knowledge, but only ‘knowledge’ as the word is used in common parlance[.]” Collins v. Big Four Paving, Inc., 1967-NMSC-019, ¶ 13, 77 N.M. 380, 423 P.2d 418. 

Even if the listing of the payment and the publication of the LinkedIn profile are not treated as admissions, Block has satisfied the State Ethics Commission Act’s “actual knowledge” requirement.  Block’s allegations are based on his review of NMFM expenditure reports and Erin Grisham’s LinkedIn profile. These allegations support a plausible inference that NMFM paid Erin Grisham for hair and make-up expenses. The State Ethics Commission Act does not require Block to have witnessed the make up being applied or the hair styled, and the receipt of a check, as a precondition to submitting a complaint. 

Starzynski added that “in order to fairly dispose of the Complaint, there must be a factual investigation by General Counsel. For that reason, the Motion to Dismiss filed by New Mexicans for Michelle should be denied, and the General Counsel should initiate the requisite investigation.” 

This is just the latest win regarding this complaint, which was originally filed in May, and it appears to be advancing to the final stages, where a concrete determination can be made on whether the Lujan Grisham campaign did, indeed, break state law.