Breaking News!

KKOB's Pat Frisch to Discuss Republican Vote Buying Scandal at 3 p.m. Today

This just in:

Former New Mexico Gov. Dave Cargo just called to say that KKOB's Program Director Pat Frisch will discuss allegations of vote buying at the New Mexico Republican Party's ward conventions.

State Sen. Joe Carraro got an e-mail from Frisch saying the topic will be discussed on the Jim Villanucci show. Villanucci is on vacation this week and Frisch is filling in for him.

DD

GOP Vote-buying Investigated

AG, Secretary of State Looking at Republican Vote Buying Allegations



By Dennis Domrzalski

The New Mexico Secretary of State and the Attorney General’s offices are looking into allegations of vote buying at the state Republican Party’s Feb. 17 delegate nominating conventions in Bernalillo County.

Former New Mexico Gov. Dave Cargo and state Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque, said they have been talking to investigators from both offices. Carraro, who has also alleged that Republic Party insiders threatened to wage a smear campaign against him if he sought the party’s nomination for the First Congressional District seat, talked with Secretary of State officials on Tuesday to tell them what he knew about the alleged vote-buying efforts.

Cargo, who served as governor from 1967 to 1971, said he talked for about an hour on Tuesday with an AG’s Office investigator. The AG’s office is the lawyer for the Secretary of State.

AG’s Office spokesman Phil Sisneros confirmed that the office is taking a preliminary look at the allegations.

The vote buying complaints stem from the Bernalillo County Republican Party ward conventions on Feb. 17. The conventions were held so party members could elect delegates to the state party’s March 15 statewide convention. Those delegates will determine which candidates will be on the ballot for the GOP’s June primary election.

There are two hot GOP races. In the First Congressional District, Carraro trying to challenge party insider favorite Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White. The two are hoping to run for the seat that is being vacated by Congresswoman Heather Wilson, R-NM.

Wilson is locked in a battle for the opportunity to run for the U.S. Senate seat that is being vacated by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, a Republican who has been in office for nearly 36 years. Domenici announced last year that he is leaving the senate because of degenerative brain disease.

Carraro said that party insiders and White’s campaign are waging a battle to keep him off the June ballot.

Cargo said he heard convention attendees say that they had been paid $35-an-hour by their campaigns to show up and vote for certain delegates.

Cargo also said that several attendees told him that the White and Wilson campaigns had paid their $30 registration fees.

The former governor says that under New Mexico law it’s a fourth-degree felony to bribe someone to vote, and to accept a bribe to vote. He says that paying people to show up at the convention amounted to a bribe under the law.

A source in White’s campaign denied the vote buying allegations. The source said the campaign paid no one to attend the conventions.

Wilson campaign spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire refused to comment on the allegations. She refused to answer our questions as to whether the campaign paid people to show up at the conventions.

Crybaby Heath

Would-be Giant of Journalism Whines About Getting Beat on Republican Vote-buying Story

Hurting Heath Saw No Story


In an extraordinary piece of "I got beat on a story" whining, Las Cruces blogger Heath Haussamen dumps on me for my piece on Republican vote buying and Laura MacCallum's resignation from KKOB radio. The beaten and unhappy blogger uses every classic excuse that reporters trot out when they've been badly beaten. Poor Heath bemoans the fact that the vote-buying story has gone national--dozens of blogs have picked it up--and insists that it isn't a story because there was no official investigation into the allegations. With that logic, you can be sure that Heath will soon be working for KKOB. Here's a sample of Heath's whining:

For days, rumors have been spreading across the Internet about an alleged vote-buying scheme at the recent Bernalillo County GOP convention. I’ve been asked repeatedly why I haven’t written about the allegations.

The answer: I haven’t found a story worth writing about.

Pissed and embarrassed that he didn't see the story in front of his face, the humorless Heath dumps on me for having fun on the blog:

Some of the liberal bloggers who have written about this have referred to Domrzalski as a reputable, 27-year journalist in spreading his article across the Internet. But his blog includes a posting headlined “What Naked Men Shouldn’t do in the Locker Room” and two online polls that ask, “Should naked men blow dry their crotches in health club locker rooms?” and “Would you refuse to fondle an implanted female breast?”

This is not a reputable journalistic site.

LP at New Mexico FBIHOP asked me for a response. Here it is. Use it as you wish.


My initial reaction was, who is Heath Haussamen, and why should I care what he thinks? Then I read his whiny, crybaby piece.

He hasn't found a story worth writing about because he's an idiot. Tell him to go back to that giant of journalism from whence he came, the Las Cruces Sun-News. Maybe he'll find a story there. Would-be reporters always react violently when a story right in front of their eyes is reported by someone else.

I'm trying to be impressed with Heath's massive seven years as a reporter. Maybe when he gets to seven-and-a-half years, I'll think of him as the god of journalism that he sees himself to be.

I didn't realize that the requirement for publishing stories was that there be an official investigation. I guess Heath learned that in his seven years of reporting.

The stories stand. The quotes are accurate. Heather Wilson's spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire flatly refused to answer questions about whether they paid people to show up and vote at the conventions.

Dave Cargo is a New Mexico hero. He's battled corruption here since he arrived in ... maybe Heath knows the year. Quick Heath, answer it without Googling Cargo.

You would also think that this journalistic giant would get his facts straight. He refers to me as "a reporter for KOB TV in Albuquerque." I don't work for KOB, never have, and am not a reporter for them. Heath should fire himself for such a huge mistake.

In regards to polls about blow-drying crotches and fondling implanted female breasts:

In all my 28 years of reporting, I never realized that one of the job requirements was to lack of a sense of humor and to be unable to take a joke or to make one. I have never blow-dried my pubics with a communal hair dryer in a health club locker room, and I never will. I will, however, gladly and aggressively fondle implanted female breasts.

Heath might someday be the journalistic giant he sees himself as. Right now he's a midget.

He should get used to it.

Dennis Domrzalski

Laura MacCallum Unleashed; Cites Ethical Lapses at KKOB

No longer has to wash off slime

Laura MacCallum resigned last Thursday as drive-time news anchor for KKOB Radio. She quit because News Director Pat Allen pulled her stories about an alleged vote buying scheme at the state Republican Party ward conventions (see my post below). Here are MacCallum’s thoughts on the matter--DD

By Laura MacCallum

In life, you either have integrity or you don't. There's no gray-area here. Nor should there EVER be.

In my work over many years as a print and broadcast journalist, the point was always to get to the truth, no matter whose toes it stepped on, or who got angry.

Truth rules.

I have spent my entire adult life looking for the truth in situations, in politics, with governmental agencies, with law enforcement, injustices (think Elton Richard), etc.

Being an ethical journalist carries a responsibility. You should have a sense of justice, a strong sense of right and wrong—a conscience—have the drive and resourcefulness to bring to light information in a truthful, objective way; to have an internal driving force that compels you to help people by giving them as much truthful information as you can. To abuse that responsibility is an abomination.

Those who do abuse it are not journalists. They play to whatever side is winning, to whoever complains the loudest about coverage; they bury the truth in ad sales, or potentially pissing off advertisers.

Let's say there was a car dealer who was finding ways to rip off buyers. The newspaper, radio station or TV station learns about the scam and does a story. Problem is for some of these journalist wannabes is this: The car dealer is a huge advertiser. He calls and bitches. Loudly. Threatens to take his money elsewhere. The news department now folds to those complaints. Readers, listeners and viewers are now done a disservice by cowardly news departments and managers who are afraid of losing ad revenue.

As I wrote in my letter of resignation to KKOB-AM last week after my pieces on alleged delegate-buying were canned by News Director Pat Allen:

This is not journalism. It is extortion.

At that February 17th Bernalillo County GOP Delegate Convention, which only I and KOAT-TV Anchor/Reporter Mike Garofalo attended, it was clear that Bernalillio County Sheriff Darren White had tied himself to Heather Wilson. "On her coattails" was obvious. They worked the room together; White showing up at Ward tables with slates, getting his votes from people who'd never been involved in the party's politics before that very day. White has some serious skeletal baggage that WILL be exposed.

This isn't the first time that KKOB-AM News and Programming management breached the ethical line with me. Obviously, it will be the last. It's something I'm proud of and I have absolutely no regrets.

The first time occurred several months ago when Phil Sisneros took over as spokesman for Attorney General Gary King. News Director Pat Allen told us we were not to put Sisneros on the air. Why? Because he'd previously worked for KKOB-AM owner Citadel Broadcasting and was in the process of suing Citadel for wrongful termination. That lawsuit, by the way, continues after nearly four years.

I said at the time, I had an ethical problem with this decision. After all, Sisneros is the goddamn spokesman for the A/G's office! News Director Pat Allen said, and I quote, "This comes from the top. You can only put him on as a last resort if there's no one else to talk about an issue."

What I learned from experience is that, if you cross top management, there will be a high price to pay.

This is not journalism. It is extortion.

By now, you've all read News Director Pat Allen's e-mail to me, describing why the stories were pulled. By now, you've all reached your own conclusions based on reading his own embarrassing, shameful, banal and loaded words. He said it wasn't a worthwhile story because the bloggers hadn't picked it up, nor had other news agencies; that it was an inside politics story that our listeners wouldn't be interested in.

What he didn't say was what I actually WITNESSED for those two days last week...that Heather Wilson's campaign called to complain two days in a row when my pieces aired. I personally took a call from State GOP honcho Adam Feldman. He proceeded to scream at me on the phone about the stories, which he admitted, when I questioned him, he hadn't actually heard! I told him that if he didn't have anything to worry about, why was he calling?

Last time I checked, journos were supposed to serve the public interest. Last time I checked, it was a responsibility to inform voters of what some candidates were doing to influence the ability of OTHER qualified candidates from the SAME PARTY to run for office, and to alert them to any possible illegal...if not just plain cheesy...tactics to win. Things that were not ethical. Things that could affect voters in making their choices at the polls. Things that are now being investigated by the A/G's office.

State Senators Mark Boitano, Joe Carraro and Janice-Arnold Jones have all corroborated that White's campaign thugs have threatened them. Only Carraro continues running for the 1st Congressional District in spite of White's threats. Apparently, he feels he has nothing to hide (the threats don't work very well under those circumstances) and a 20-year record of quietly doing the serious business of New Mexicans in the State Senate.

Dennis, a hard-core journo in his own right, and I have discussed all of this at length. Somewhere along the line, the way news is covered changed. If you have ethics in the news business, you're rapidly becoming a dinosaur.

The Left is just as guilty. If you don't believe it, think back a few weeks ago when Chelsea Clinton, who is not only openly campaigning for her mother, but who is 28 years old, was given a pass by the media because Hillary got pissed off! Hillary personally called news organizations, complained and threatened for a hands-off deal for Chelsea. Excuse me? She's on the campaign trail spewing for Mom Hillary, but no one is supposed to put her on the spot as an obvious campaign spokeswoman?

Honesty and guts in journalism, print or broadcast, is becoming a thing of the past. Here in Albuquerque, the city's now-only newspaper has refused to cover this story. I must wonder why.

Here's the thing. While I may be unemployed today, I have no trouble sleeping. My conscience is clear. And, I certainly don't worry about washing off any of that residual slime.

Guest column: How is Hillary a feminist?

by Dorothy Cole

Okay, here is my obligatory disclaimer. I don't dislike, let alone hate, Hillary Clinton. I didn't vote for her husband, but that was because I preferred the men he ran against. I am after all a moderate-to-liberal Republican. Yes, Ann and Rush don't want you to know this, but we exist. Although I never went out of my way to watch or listen to her either as first lady, senator from a state I don't live in, or presidential candidate, I found her intelligent, sympathetic and dryly funny, if somewhat unimaginative.

Her background is similar to my own, although she followed most of the rules that I did not, like doing her homework and graduating from college in four years instead of staying up late drinking, and attending a prestigious law school instead of working at a series of poorly paid jobs. Then again, she has to borrow anecdotes about employment and housing insecurity from others, while I have got plenty of good stories of my own. I'm not saying she doesn't know how it feels to be poor, but I bet she never had to decide whether to buy groceries, put gas in her car or pay for her daughter's school field trip.

Whether I like her or not, though, isn't the point. What I want to know is, how did Hillary Clinton become the standard-bearer for feminists? I'm sorry, but that is sort of like saying the two doubting Thomases -- Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas -- are the natural heroes of civil rights. After all, they are black. Excuse me, African-American.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a woman, and she may well espouse a genuinely feminist view of life. If so, she hasn't acted on that view. There is no point in her biography where she gave anything up in order to be true to her feminist ideals. Quite the contrary. She made the choice years ago to put her own aspirations on hold in order to marry a man she really loved and help him attain his hopes. There was nothing wrong with that choice. Feminists who came before her helped clear the way for it. Her husband's successes, in which she was clearly and closely involved, enabled her to pursue a career of her own. She never had to put a roof over her head or quit a job to be there for her daughter. That's all fine.

Clinton may well be qualified to be president of the United States. I'm not sure she is any better qualified than my congresswoman, Heather Wilson, who served as an Air Force officer and held positions of authority in state government before being elected to congress as a moderate Republican. Wilson's career has certainly never depended on her husband; I'm not even sure what his name is or what he does for a living. I have never heard her call herself a feminist, and she faces a tough fight every other year to be re-elected in a state and a district that is by no means solidly Republican. In other words, she'd use it if she thought it would help.

To be fair, I've never heard Clinton call herself a feminist either. That's left to people like Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong, who have now used up any shred of credibility they had to argue -- what? That women who vote for Obama, or God forbid McCain, have no self respect? That those who choose to vote differently want to hold back all members of our gender? Give me a break. I know plenty of women who voted for Clinton in the primary because they agreed with her positions on the issues. I'm sure some if not all of them were also influenced by her being a woman. Sure, it's a factor, but only one factor.

I don't agree with her positions on the issues, and I don't think she has the mental and emotional flexibility to be a good president. There are women out there who do possess the flexibility and imagination to be leaders of the free world, like Patricia Schroeder and Janet Napolitano, and there are men who do not, most notably George W. Bush. That's my choice; it's an informed choice and it has nothing to do with gender. I know all about painful choices, having voted for Al Gore in 2000, enthusiastically, and for John Kerry in 2004, reluctantly. Others are free to choose differently, and I will not accuse them of betraying any group they belong to by birth or by background.

One more thing. If Hillary Clinton's campaign had been based on a true and honest assessment of her life story, she might have lost the votes of the knee-jerk identity mongers. But we will never know how many eventual Obama supporters she could have won over if she'd said the following: "I stood to the side for years while ideologues and other unreasonable men made decisions that weren't good for the country. It's my turn now, and I'm finally getting the opportunity to implement the real solutions that the men never had the courage to try." Instead, she ran as a version of the woman-behind-the-man, on unverifiable stories of her experience as co-governor and co-president with her husband.

Where is the feminism in that story?

Radio Station Caves to Heather Wilson's Campaign

KKOB Radio News Anchor Laura MacCallum Quits After Station Pulls Stories About Alleged Republican Vote-Buying Efforts

Ex-anchor Says Station Caved to Pressure From Heather Wilson’s Senate Campaign

Station Says Story Had No Legs

By Dennis Domrzalski

KKOB Radio afternoon drive time news anchor Laura MacCallum quit her job last Thursday after the station’s news director pulled her stories about alleged vote-buying efforts at the recent Bernalillo County Republican Party delegate nominating conventions.

MacCallum, a 32-year radio and TV news veteran who has worked in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, said the station caved to complaints from Congresswoman Heather Wilson’s Senate campaign about the stories. Wilson campaign spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire called the station to argue the unfairness of stories alleging that many delegates to the ward conventions were paid by Wilson’s and other campaigns to show up and cast their votes for certain delegates.

Critics of the alleged vote-buying effort say it was an unfair scheme to lock out any challengers to Wilson’s senate and Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White’s congressional campaigns

KKOB News Director Pat Allen said the stories were pulled, not because of the campaign’s complaints, but because he felt they lacked corroboration and that a source in some of MacCallum’s stories, former New Mexico Governor Dave Cargo, was bitter because he wasn’t elected as a delegate to the upcoming state Republican Party nominating convention.

“I talked to Heather Wilson’s campaign and they expressed concerns that the stories had no basis in fact,” Allen said, adding that he also talked to sate a Republican Party official about MacCallum’s stories, which were broadcast last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

MacCallum was outraged by the situation.

“I had an ethical problem with the stories being pulled because Heather Wilson’s campaign put pressure on newsroom management,” MacCallum said. “They allowed political pressure to dictate the news. As journalists we can’t do that. The news has to stand alone. That a political candidate can inject herself into news department management is just mind blowing. Should we just be doing the Heather Wilson news? And as soon as we make her angry she’s going to call and start giving everybody trouble?

“If a political campaign can bring pressure on a news department to change how they cover the news, that is a disservice to everyone who listens. We are not there to make everybody happy; we are there to do the news. And if we don’t do that if we are serving as the biggest PR agency in the state of New Mexico and we are not doing our jobs.”

Flabbergasted by Memo; Bloggers Didn’t Have the Story

MacCallum was also flabbergasted by a memo she got from News Director Allen on Thursday morning before she quit. The memo said that because there were no official investigations of criminal wrongdoing into the matter, the story would go nowhere. It also suggested that the story wasn’t valid because bloggers and other news outlets hadn’t picked it up. Here’s Allen’s memo:

“From: "Pat Allen" <pat.allen@mail.citcomm.com>
Reply-To: <pat.allen@mail.citcomm.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:22:27 -0800

laura,

i pulled the cargo stories. i'm troubled by his motivation as he was not selected as a delegate. unless there is an official investigation of criminal wrongdoing related to these meetings then the story is going nowhere.
it's also a very inside politics story that i don't think has much importance to our listeners.

also, don't you think if there was anything to it the bloggers would have picked this up, let alone other news agencies?
this is the kind of story that has to be fully developed and verified before it can air.

pat allen news director 770 kkob radio, Albuquerque”

“We’ve billed ourselves as the news leader, and now we can’t do stories unless other news outlets and bloggers do them? That’s not right,” MacCallum said. MacCallum wrote her resignation letter after reading Allen’s memo.

Allegations of Vote Buying

The allegations of vote buying stem from the Bernalillo County Republican Party ward conventions on February 17. The conventions were held to nominate delegates to the state party’s March 15 statewide convention. At that convention, the delegates who were who were elected on Feb. 17 will select candidates to be on the GOP’s June primary election ballot.

Cargo says he noticed something different when 59 people showed up at the Albuquerque Marriott to elect delegates from the 31^st ward in Albuquerque.

“This is probably the biggest ward in the city, by far. Normally we have between 9 and 15 people show up,” Cargo said. “And so along comes the convention on Sunday and 59 people show up.”

Cargo began passing around a signup sheet. “I said ‘I’m going to pass around notebook and would like to have you write down your names and address and phone number so I can call you and put you to work for the party,’” Cargo said. “Then one gal got up and said, ‘We aren’t working for any party; we’re here only this one time and we won’t be back.’”

Cargo said that over the course of the meeting many of the participants said they were from Wilson’s senate campaign and from Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White’s congressional campaign. Several people told him they were being paid $35-an-hour (for two hours) by their campaigns and that the campaigns had also paid their $30 registration fees.

“I told them that this was known as vote buying, that it was illegal and that it was fourth-degree felony,” Cargo said. “I said, ‘You can’t buy votes. We’re not in Chicago or St. Louis.’ They just blinked and looked at me. They didn’t see anything wrong with it.”

MacCallum attended Cargo’s convention and said she heard many participants say that they had been paid to show up and vote for a specific slate of candidates. Cargo ran for a delegate spot, but didn’t get enough votes.

State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, said she saw the same thing in the 24^th Ward’s convention. Many of the participants said they had been paid to attend and vote for certain delegates, she said.

“They were free about telling us why they were there and what they were trying to do,” Arnold-Jones added. “Some people said they had been paid to participate in the convention. It was clear that some of them had no stake in the process and that they were not coming back for the convention.”

Denials and Non-answers

White is running for the First Congressional District seat that is being vacated by Wilson. A source in his campaign flatly denied paying campaign workers to attend the conventions and vote for certain candidates.

Wilson’s spokeswoman Cheshire refused to answer our questions about the issue.

“I’m not going to respond to anything Dave Cargo says unless you have a tape recording of him. I’m not going to have any comment on this until Mr. Cargo puts his complaints in writing to the Republican Party,” Cheshire said.

For Cargo, the affair smells of vote buying and constitutes a fourth-degree felony. Two portions of the state’s election code apply, he says. They are:

“1-20-11. Offering a bribe. (1969)

Offering a bribe consists of willfully advancing, paying, or causing to be paid, or promising, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable consideration, office or employment, to any person for the following purposes connected with or incidental to any election:

A. to induce such person, if a voter, to vote or refrain from voting for or against any candidate, proposition, question or constitutional amendment;

B. to induce such person, if a precinct board member or other election official, to mark, alter, suppress or otherwise change any ballot that has been cast, any election return, or any certificate of election; or

C. to induce such person to use such payment or promise to bribe others for the purposes specified in this section.

Whoever offers a bribe is guilty of a fourth degree felony,” and:

“1-20-12. Accepting a bribe. (1969)

Accepting a bribe consists of knowingly accepting any payment or promise of payment, directly or indirectly, of money, valuable consideration, office or employment for the unlawful purposes specified in Section 1-20-11 NMSA 1978.

Whoever accepts a bribe is guilty of a fourth degree felony.”

Cargo said that Wilson’s and White’s campaigns strong-armed the conventions in an attempt to lock out challengers come March 15:

“Of the 14 delegates elected from my ward, only two are active in the party. They shut everybody out and they will never be back. This is no way to run a democracy; it’s a raw deal.”

Money, Power Politics Kills NM Ethics Reform

Eye on New Mexico

New Mexico state Sen. Joe Carraro and Common Cause New Mexico Executive Director Steven Robert Allen appear on the Eye on New Mexico program to blast the state legislature for failing to pass an ethics reform package. Carraro says it's all about big money wanting to keep its power, while Allen says regular people need to take back government from the politicians. Dennis Domrzalski co-hosts with Nicole Brady from KOB-TV, Channel 4