Solomon Pena, a 19-time convicted felon, bobbed and weaved as I questioned him about his candidacy for the state House of Representatives.
It was August, and Pena felt the heat. His record included a term of almost seven years in prison for burglary, larceny, receiving stolen property and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Though he’s a Republican, Pena knew he couldn’t sell himself as another tough-talking candidate for law, order and extra-long prison sentences. Pena needed a different strategy in New Mexico, even though I rate it as the most corrupt state in America.
Pena’s crimes occurred in Albuquerque, home to the legislative district he wanted to represent. He needed to persuade voters he was a changed man. But would voters flatly reject a candidate with a long criminal record?
“If you’re dealing with a child rapist, sure,” Pena told me.
Unwise Solomon went nowhere by downplaying his criminal record. Pena lost the election in a landslide.
If police and prosecutors are correct, Pena’s criminality escalated to violence after his defeat. He is charged with hiring four men to fire bullets into the homes of four Democratic politicians. Police say Pena himself participated in one shooting.
The crimes were chilling. Bullets penetrated a bedroom wall where state Sen. Linda Lopez’s 10-year-old daughter slept. The gunman attempting a drive-by political assassination could have killed a little girl.
Pena is charged with 14 felonies and one misdemeanor in the shootings. If any of his suspected cohorts flips to the government’s side, he likely will have run his last political campaign.
Pena’s arrest turned the country’s attention toward New Mexico. Here was a Trump-loving Republican accused in violent attacks on Democrats.
Unknown to most of the national audience was that New Mexico had already outdistanced more populous Illinois and New Jersey to lead the country in corruption. No state with so few people has so many crimes by politicians as New Mexico.
Skeptics might say the Chicago City Council is a nest of corruption. That’s less true now than in the days of machine politics.
Another factor is the Chicago City Council has 50 members, heightening the odds of corrupt politicians being caught.
In New Mexico, Sheryl Williams Stapleton, former Democratic leader of the state House of Representatives, awaits trial on fraud and racketeering charges. She is accused in what might be a seven-figure theft scheme in Albuquerque’s school district.
Former state Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, went to prison for fraud, bribery and other crimes in a rancid real-estate deal involving a state-owned building.
Even more public money was stolen by Democrat Manny Aragon, who was a 29-year state senator and eventually president pro tem of the chamber. He skimmed cash intended for a courthouse in Albuquerque. The scales of justice were seldom so uneven.
There’s more, of course. Then-Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican, embezzled campaign funds to feed her gambling addiction.
Four crooked state treasurers, lawbreaking sheriffs in Northern New Mexico and drunken state legislators who could have turned their cars into bullets have filled other news columns.
In the last four years alone, three then-state lawmakers were arrested and convicted of drunken driving. Two of them — Republican Monica Youngblood and Democrat Georgene Louis — tried to influence arresting officers by gratuitously mentioning their legislative offices.
Then-state Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Ojo Caliente, was a sloppy drunk who claimed to be sober when he plowed his car into a Jeep, seriously injuring two innocent people. The first question State Police Officer Lance Peper asked aloud was whether other cops had anything to cover up Martinez’s specialty license plate identifying him as a state senator.
That too is political corruption, a cop trying to protect a politician who broke the law.
Still other forms of corruption don’t end up on police blotters. Republican Pete Domenici was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. A married man, Domenici fathered a child with another senator’s daughter in 1978, the year Domenici first stood for reelection.
Domenici covered up the scandal for decades to save his political career. Had voters known he was not the straight arrow he claimed to be, Domenici might have been a one-term senator. Deception kept him in power for six terms.
The state’s latest cases against Pena are different from most others. They involve violence rather than white-collar theft or deals to help a crony.
Many readers have asked me why the state Republican Party sat back and did nothing while Pena ran for the Legislature under the GOP banner. The answer is simple: The Republican chairman, Amarillo Steve Pearce, and his crew didn’t care.
Pena ran in House District 14, a heavily Democratic section of Albuquerque. Pearce had a candidate in a district where no other Republican wanted to take a guaranteed beating.
Pearce’s camp offered one of the clumsier statements after Pena’s arrest in the shooting cases. “If Pena is found guilty, he must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” it said.
No, if Pena is convicted, he must go to prison.
The state doesn’t find people guilty and then prosecute them again on the same charges. Even New Mexico, national leader in corruption, has some standards.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.
