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BUFFETT'S BULLET 91
August 9, 2004

ALL ABOARD
(Next Stop Washington)

A year ago, on Sunday, July 20, 2003 there was an interesting paragraph on the editorial page of the Albuquerque Journal. It mentioned that Governor Richardson according to the Washington Post had stopped off at one of his "old haunts" in Washington on his way back to New Mexico from a vacation on Cape Cod. It said that on July 11 Richardson had received a haircut, manicure and pedicure at Zahira's Salon at the Watergate Hotel. He had been in Washington to speak to the American Federation of Teachers. The paper said Angela Zahira herself took care of the Governor's manicure and they talked politics.

This raised some interesting questions:

1) Does anyone remember Richardson ever taking a vacation in New Mexico or in any of our neighboring states?

2) How long has he been going to this "old haunt" for these services? All the time he was in office in Washington?

3) Does he ever have these services done in New Mexico? Our state government pays to have him in ads telling people to come spend money in New Mexico, but he goes elsewhere and spends.

4) He is a 57 year old with good looking black hair. Do you think the color has been enhanced? If so, some day it will probably change fast like Clinton's did after he was elected. Politicians always want to look young and dynamic until they get elected to a higher office then they want to look presidential.

5) Zahira's hair salon price list quotes:

6) How many cowboy boot wearing New Mexicans do you know that would actually get a pedicure?

7) Consider that these treatments are to make him look great for his public. Does he charge one of his three known campaign funds for it?

As I said above, Governor Richardson has at least three campaign funds according to different newspaper articles. This I think is very interesting. But why three different funds, who is he trying to confuse?

The three campaign funds are:

1) His personal campaign fund that he used in the last election. He ran $7 million through that fund to get elected Governor. That is twice as much as any one had ever spent before in a governor's race in New Mexico.

2) Si Se Puede! Boston 2004 Inc. This new Committee draws part of its name Si Se Puede from a Spanish phrase meaning "yes we can" from a rallying cry of Caesar Chavez who formed the United Farm Workers Union the Albuquerque Journal reported. This Committee is a 527 Committee and was formed in February and has raised $191,000. More than 2/3 of it comes from companies from California and other states involved in the $1.6 billion transportation bond project for the State of New Mexico. (This is to build a commuter railroad service between Belen and Santa Fe by the NM Finance Authority and the Department of Transportation.)

Billy Sparks, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Governor was reported in the Albuquerque Tribune saying, "The companies were chosen independently in an objective process that had nothing to do with anything relating to any contributions past, present or future." The money is being used to pay (among other purposes) for Richardson's staff expenses that could not be charged to the National Fund that financed the Democrat National Convention.

3) Moving America Forward Committee is another one of Governor Richardson's Political Committees. On Sunday, July 18, 2004 the Albuquerque Journal reported that a Little Rock law firm, Cauley, Geller, Bowman and Rudman had contributed $79,000 to Richardson's fund and partnered with lawyers from Texas and New Mexico who had contributed another $90,350 for a total from the group of $169,350. These two law firms who gave the most money of any other group to Richardson's Committees were then awarded a potentially lucrative contract to represent the state in securities fraud cases.

The Albuquerque Journal also quoted Billy Sparks "the Governor's office did not in any way influence the contracting process and said the Governor's Political Action Committee, Moving America Forward, would return the $5,000 contribution that was made during the award process."

As my old Swedish Grandfather would say, "the wicked flee when no one pursues."

Another campaign fund that isn't directly tied to Richardson is America Coming Together (ACT). ACT is a new type of Committee, a so-called "527 Political Action Committee" that can accept and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, individuals or labor union donors. This Committee cannot support a candidate for President but it can be used for or against issues that are identified with a candidate such as, war, abortion, guns, medical care, the environment, uncontrolled growth and drugs. They then can call it a "non-partisan" Committee. This fund reports to the Federal Election Commission, not our Secretary of State, which makes it harder to check on who's giving and what it is used for.

This Political Action Committee has a budget of $2 million to contact 200,000 New Mexico voters to tell about issues that are identified with President Bush so they will go against President Bush when they vote. This Committee spokeswoman is Courtney Hunter, former political director of the Democrat Party of New Mexico. There are 72 canvassers working in Albuquerque now and the goal is 200 canvassers by October in the rest of the state.

I think Governor Richardson is doing everything he can to make a complete Democrat sweep of New Mexico federal positions. It looks like he is getting money from everyone to make this happen. His fund raisers are shaking the trees for everything they can get from everyone.

Could this be why Governor Richardson did not try to reapportion the U.S. Congress seats like they did in Texas during the last legislative session? Some major Democrat politicians in Santa Fe had wanted to rewrite reapportionment legislation but Richardson said no. If they had, Heather Wilson's district would have been a weakened Republican seat but Pearce's seat would have then been a very safe GOP seat. All this money raised by the 527 Committee is now aimed at both Wilson and Pearce. Richardson bet the farm on this.

Richardson wants to be able to go to Washington next January and say that he sent two new Democrats to Washington. If Richardson is able to do this it will help him four years from now in his quest for the Presidency. Everything in the state is "for sale" for campaign funds or influence in this election

Another idea to think about is the commuter train that Richardson is pushing could be a gold mine for campaign funds. The taxpayers are going to go into debt for a lot of money to put in a commuter train between Belen and Santa Fe. They talk of $1.6 billion now but it will be more, a lot more. Albuquerque can't even run a bus company that breaks even, what makes the New Mexico Transportation Commission, who the Governor appoints and can fire anytime, think they can run a railroad. Few railroads are solvent.

Since I was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 1978 we have had studies of trains between Santa Fe and Albuquerque in 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991, and 2 studies in 1992 by the State and 2 by Bernalillo County in 1994 and 1996. All of these showed that it was not practical but big spending Bureaucrats never give up. So Richardson's crew got it through (remember the Governor was the one that lead the charge to raid the Permanent Fund last year.)

This train will be a force to help generate large campaign funds for Democrats. It has already been shown that people who give campaign donations get results in the Richardson administration (appointments, jobs, and contracts so supporters of the train will be standing in line to donate.) But what happens after Richardson goes to Washington? (It sure won't be on a train.) The train's primary customers will only be Albuquerque and Santa Fe workers going to work and home from their government jobs. The state's taxpayers will be stuck paying off all the bonds and operational cost when this is completed. How many bad roads will not be fixed when Richardson is using road money for this train! Everyone will think we got railroaded or at least run over by a train.


Sincerely,

George D. Buffett


P.S. On the front page of the Sunday, August 1, 2004 Albuquerque Journal there was a major story on Governor Richardson hiring eleven new money managers for our two permanent funds. Six of these have contributed $105,500 to Richardson's political action funds and more than one-half of them contributed after they were hired. One is even a director of a Richardson Political Action Committee.

According to the Albuquerque Journal "State Investment Officer, Gary Bland, … "political contributions played no role in choosing the managers and will not be a factor in whether a firm is fired for poor performance." "People get access (for contributions) but they don't get protection and contracts."

Remember Richardson has acknowledged knowing who his political contributors are and said… "Corporations and others who give "get goodwill, that's all." I can not see people giving $30,000-$50,000 just to make the Governor feel nice about them. A box of candy would be a lot cheaper.

P.P.S. We have been working on our mailing lists. If you know of someone that would like to receive Buffett's Bullets, please send us their names. Also, let us know if you receive duplicate copies of this Bullet.

Paid for by George D. Buffett Committee

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