Part 7: Editorial: Good #Riddance to #Santa #Fe pol

Editorial, New Mexican, September 29, 2011:

Goodbye, and good riddance                     

Finally, good news for #New #Mexico taxpayers.

COMMENT: ARE YOU HOLDING SOMETHING BACK?

      Jerome Block Jr., the embattled public regulation commissioner, has agreed to step down from his $90,000-a-year post rather than force the state to remove him from the office. As part of the deal, Block will plead guilty to multiple felonies.                                                                                      Best of all, New Mexico taxpayers will not have to foot the bill to make the guy go away.  Block is pleading guilty to two separate embezzlement charges, fraudulent use of a credit card, theft of identity, violation of the state Election Code, Campaign Reporting Act and Voter Action Act. An added bonus? He has agreed never to seek another public office and will repay the state for all improper charges on the gasoline credit cards.

COMMENT:  IS THIS SOME EDITORIAL CHORTLING?                     This deal, worked out by Attorney General Gary King's office, likely has saved taxpayers more than a million dollars — what Block's legislative impeachment trial was expected to cost.                                                          It's the best end to a sorry saga of a corrupt official elected because voters were too lazy to figure out just who was on the ballot. Many of the voters in Block's Public Regulation Commission district thought they were voting for his dad, especially in the Democratic primary. Jerome Block Sr. previously had served on the PRC, which regulates rates and services for utilities, insurance and motor carriers.

      With confusion on his side, Block won the six-person primary back in 2008 and has since continued to embarrass himself and the people who put him in office. His primary win was particularly galling considering he lied to reporters about past brushes with the law, was caught misspending campaign cash and even was found to be behind on child support.

COMMENT:  THIS GUY CAN DO NO RIGHT.

     He won the general election against a Green candidate, proving that party loyalty can trump good sense.

COMMENT:  BAM, BAM AND BAM.

        But after all that arguing and saying he would quit, Block Jr. continued to draw his salary and not step down.  Then the final news, which appeared in the paper after it was announced that 88 people had applied for the $90,000 a year job, which may or may not come with a state credit card.                                                                  COMMENT: BETTER NOT.