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Following this year's 60-day session, two major business groups in New Mexico issued awards to various legislators. These groups are the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Commerce and Industry of New Mexico (ACI)

Considering I have been in business for 47 years, a member of the Chamber for 28 years and a member of the legislature for 21 years, I think I understand both business and the political process. Therefore, I would like to provide my non-biased opinion on this year's awards.

Out of a possible five silver bullets, I award ACI 3 1/2 bullets for their Focus Awards. I marked them down for picking so many easy votes. On twelve of the twenty bills the ACI judged, almost all House members voted the same. In the Senate, 11 of 19 votes were the same way. This easy criteria sure helped the Democrat average. When members could get around 60% just for voting on the bills everyone was for, it almost made the Democrats look pro-business.

ACI also did not count against people if they "took a walk" or were absent and did not vote on an issue. They should change this methodology because not voting for or against some trial lawyer or union bills is the way Speaker Ray Sanchez got a 100% ACI Focus rating last year. Ray did not get 100% this year because he voted on most bills the unions or trial lawyers wanted, and ACI gave him a 56% rating.

Without these no contest and missing votes Democrat leaders, Speaker Ray Sanchez and Whip Danice Picraux, would have gotten a zero. Instead Ray got 56% and Danice got 71% because they voted wrong or missed the vote on eight major bills. They should have ended up with the same grade because they voted the same on the bills that counted.

Here is a copy of ACI Focus Awards. The percentages are a 4-year average. Notice there is only one Democrat on the list.

The 1999 FOCUS Business Stars

The Association of Commerce and Industry recognizes legislators who have consistently expressed their support for business and the creation of private-sector jobs in New Mexico through their votes.

The following legislators have a cumulative FOCUS percentage score of 85 percent or higher from 1996-1999.

SENATE
Sen. Diana J. Duran R-Tularosa	99
Sen. Raymond L. Kysar, R-Farmington	97
Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Purtales	93
Sen. Don Kidd, R-Carlsbad	92
Sen. Patrick H. Lyons, R-Cuervo	92
Sen. Joseph J. Carraro, R-Albuquerque	91
Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces	88
Sen. L. Skip Vernon, R-Albuquerque	88
Sen. Timothy Z. Jennings, D-Roswell	85
HOUSE
Rep. Anna M. Crook, R-Clovis	98
Rep. David M. Parsons, R-Roswell	98
Rep. George D. Buffett, R-Albuquerque	97
Rep. Sandra L. Townsend, R-Aztec	97
Rep. Jeannette 0. Wallace, R-Los Alamos	97
Rep. Ted Hobbs, R-Albuquerque	96
Rep. Timothy E. Macko, R-Albuquerque	95
Rep. Terry T. Marquardt, R-Alamogordo	95
Rep. Lorenzo A. Larranaga, R-Albuquerque	93
Rep. Earlene Roberts. R-Lovington	93
Rep. W. C. "Dub" Williams, R-Glencoe	93
Rep. Gloria C. Vaughn, R-Alamogordo	91
Rep. Pauline K. Gubbels, R-Albuquerque	90

(There were also seventeen Republican House members who rated over 88% this year; however, they have not been in the legislature long enough (4 years) to be rated a "Business Star.")

Only three long-time house Democrats got in the 80's, - Jerry Sandel 81%, Joe Stell 81%, Don Whitaker 84%, but none received the necessary 85% for a "Business Star."

Now let's talk about the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Out of a possible 5 silver bullets, I award them one empty shell casing. Read on to see why.

On June 14, 1999, they had an awards banquet at the Sheraton Uptown. Here is a statement they had in the program.

"One of the major services of the Chamber is to provide a representative voice on behalf of it's members on issues facing the business community before the State Legislature. This voice is both an advocate of positive business Legislation and a voice in opposition to legislation harmful to the business community. We invite you to join us as we honor Bernalillo County legislators who have taken the lead in advancing positive business legislation."

Here is a list of the nine Democrat and eight Republican Legislators honored. I added this year's ACI Focus rating before each name. I do not know how or who or what standards were used to pick these award winning legislators.

Democrat Representatives	Democrat Senators	Republican Representatives	Republican Senators
72 Danice Picraux 76 Kiki Saavedra 79 Rhonda King 74 Raymond Sanchez 69 Mimi Stewart 74 Avg. Score	75 Dede Feldman 73 Michael Sanchez 74 Manny Aragon 78 Richard Romero 75 Avg. Score	97 Rob Burpo 95 Terry Marquardt 96 Ted Hobbs 94 Pauline Gubbels 95.5 Avg. Score	100 Mark Bortino 100 Sue Wilson 98 Bill Payne 88 Skip vernon 96.5 Avg. Score

But here's what I do know. First I'll talk about 3 Democrats who got the Leadership Award from the Chamber;

1) Speaker Ray Sanchez, Democrat, is very charming and very smart. He is also a trial lawyer and has always been supported by unions. He appointed himself (against the rules) to a committee that had a tie vote so he could vote and kill Representative Terry Marquardt's bill repealing Little Davis Bacon.

2) Senator Pro Tem Manny Aragon, Democrat, is very smart, has a sense of humor, is a trial lawyer and is always supported by the unions. He appoints all committees and runs the Senate just like Ray runs the House.

3) Representative Danice Picraux is the Democrat Whip (third in House Democrat leadership) and is always supported by the unions and trial lawyers.

These three Democrat leaders back in 91-93 were also getting rated by ACI Focus.

	1991	1992	1993
Raymond Sanchez	15%	25%	47%
Manny Aragon	29%	11%	55%
Danice Picraux	0	22%	50%

I think a pro-business group giving Leadership Awards to these Democrats would be like Saddam Hussein of Iraq giving General Colin Powell and General Norman Schwarzkopf the "Red Badge of Courage" after "Desert Storm."

Other Bernalillo Democrats were given awards called: (1) "Crime Fighting Award" (2) "Water Award" (3) "Rookie of the Year Award," and (4) two "Education/Work Force Development Awards." Senator Michael Sanchez from Valencia County was given a "Special Award for Efforts on Electric Utility Deregulation" (he is Speaker Sanchez' brother). Eight Republicans, who averaged 20 points higher than the above Democrats, were also given some of the same awards.

Pictures were taken of these award winners as they got these awards. Don't be surprised when you see these pictures in their next election's campaign literature to tell their constituents how pro-business they are, "they got an award from the biggest business chamber in the state."

You won't see in their literature the facts that these Democrats were financed in their elections by trial lawyers and endorsed by unions.

Also you won't see that these Democrats have also been given credit in the newspapers by the Union Leaders for stopping Right to Work Law and Little Davis Bacon and for passing the 1aw raising the minimum wage. (Johnson vetoed it.)

The ACI Focus report mentioned another two bills, SB212 and HB522. ACI and the business community were for these bills, however, they were killed in committee by Democrat votes:

1) HB522 Computer Date Failure Act would have protected businesses from being sued for punitive damage awards associated with a computer date failure "Y2K."

2) SB212 Limit Punitive Damages would have limited punitive damages to $300,000. The trial lawyers were against these two bills. They both were killed in committee so we did not have a chance to vote for or against them on the floor.

In the March 25, 1999 issue of the Albuquerque Tribune an article highlighted the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce seminars on ethics. This brings up a question: is the Chamber of Commerce Board showing ethics by giving these leadership "awards" for "business issues" but only telling their members and the public half the truth?

Does the Chamber tell:

(1) What else these legislators voted for that was anti-business???

(2) How much campaign support these legislators received from trial lawyers and unions???

For over a year the Chamber has pushed "character counts" to the children of Albuquerque.

Is the Albuquerque Chamber Board now demonstrating the principles of "character counts" by giving these awards and not telling the "rest of the story?" Don't Chamber members and the public have a right to expect the whole truth from the Chamber Board?

For over 16 years, I have tried to encourage various Chamber wheels to have two Political Action Committees (PACs), one for the Republicans to support Republican candidates and one for the Democrats to support Democrat candidates. I have had no luck in this endeavor, but will keep it up because I think it is the only ethical answer. The business community must have a legitimate political voice to fight the money and power of trial lawyers and union bosses.

Sincerely,

George Buffett

P.S. Two final thoughts:

1) If Boards of corporations are responsible if they make decisions that hurt the shareholders, does it follow that the Chamber Board should be held responsible for decisions they make that hurt their members??

2) Is the Chamber Board being hypocritical in talking so much about ethics and "character counts" when they, by their actions, are not taking care of their members' best interests??

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