Scrutiny of Padilla signals cultural shift in New Mexico
Harassment allegations against lt. gov. hopeful come amid national moment of widespread revelations
Just a month ago, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Michelle Lujan Grisham danced handin-hand with state Sen. Michael Padilla at his annual matanza.
But on Friday, she called for him to drop out of the race to become lieutenant governor over years old lawsuits alleging he harassed women. Whether that will be enough to knock Padilla out of the contest, much less from his position in Senate leadership, remains unclear.
But the Democratic congresswoman’s statement nonetheless may have marked New Mexico’s arrival into a unique moment in American politics, when sexism in institutions of power is under particular scrutiny.
For anyone who has closely followed New
Mexico politics, the allegations against the South Valley senator, dating to 2006, were not revelatory; nor was his strenuous denial of sexual harassment. Even Democrats have wielded the cases against him in primary elections for his state Senate seat.
So why did Lujan Grisham and several other women in Democratic politics only take a stand against Padilla last week?
Timing, it seems, with a change in public attitudes portending what could be an even bigger cultural shift.
Last week, amid allegations of sexual harassment by Minnesota Senator Al Franken and the ongoing controversy surrounding accusations against Alabama senate hopeful Roy Moore, Lujan Grisham told The Associated Press sexual harassment “is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated by me or in my administration.”
“Congresswoman Lujan Grisham has known and worked with Michael in his current capacity and has been clear, as have members of our campaign team, that his actions were not defensible,” Sarah Elliott, communications director for Lujan Grisham’s campaign, said Monday. “When asked by a reporter, she made her position clear to them as well.”
But Republicans were quick to argue Lujan Grisham has not gone far enough.
“If mistreatment and harassment means Padilla can’t run a political campaign, it certainly means he can’t serve in the New Mexico Senate,” Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi said in a statement.
Cangiolosi argued that if Lujan Grisham believed Padilla’s actions were wrong, she should call on him to step down from the state Senate, not just get out of the race for lieutenant governor.
Padilla, who specializes in call center management, has been accused in two separate lawsuits of creating a hostile work environment during the six weeks the city of Albuquerque tasked him with overhauling its problem-plagued 911 dispatch.
Women who worked in the center accused Padilla of asking women out on dates despite repeated rejections and telling employees that women belonged at home raising children and making tortillas.
Padilla did not respond to a phone call seeking comment for this story.
He has denied engaging in sexual harassment, maintaining the complaints stemmed from ruffling feathers while shaking up operations at the 911 dispatch center.
The city of Albuquerque settled one of the lawsuits. In the other case, a jury in federal court sided with Padilla’s accuser. They found the city of Albuquerque was liable for subjecting the woman to a “sexually hostile work environment.”
Padilla faced questions about the allegations when he ran for state Senate in 2012 but went on to win over his South Valley district. And heading into this year’s legislative session, Senate Democrats elected him whip, making him one of the highest-ranking members of the Legislature.
Republicans occasionally used the cases to taunt Padilla. And some Democrats worried the lawsuits would prove a liability if he ran for statewide office.
But he seemed to be riding high this year, scoring national media attention for legislation on school lunches for children in poverty and announcing in July that he would run for lieutenant governor.
For the moment, Padilla’s place in the Senate Democratic leadership seems secure.
“There’s going to be a discussion in the caucus,” Majority Leader Peter Wirth, a Democrat from Santa Fe, said Monday when asked about the allegations against Padilla.
But when asked what position he will take in that discussion, Wirth said: “I’m going to wait and see.”
“Any allegation of sexual harassment or creating a sexually hostile work environment is concerning to me,” he said.
Wirth added, however, that he would need to learn more about the cases against Padilla.
Meanwhile, Wirth said he wants the Legislature to revisit its policy on sexual harassment. He said he is not aware of any problems involving sexual harassment in the time he has been in leadership. (He was elected majority leader in the last year.)
The New Mexico Democratic Party on Monday said it is developing a program requiring sexual harassment training for any candidate seeking its support, such as help with communications or access to voter databases.
The slew of allegations nationally, with woman after woman stepping forward with stories of harassment at the hands of powerful political leaders, points to a frustration with how institutions have handled misconduct by men in power, said Kelly Dittmar, an associate professor of political science at Rutgers University and a scholar at its Center for American Women and Politics.
“I think we are at a bit of a moment of reckoning with what we have accepted in the past,” Dittmar said.
Voters do not want to see misconduct dismissed, minimized or ignored, she said. In turn, leaders see a liability of associating with politicians who have been accused of sexual misconduct.
“It’s a political risk to be associated with anybody who has these stories in their past or in their present,” Dittmar said.
Allegations against some public figures followed by yet more accusations raise the question in such cases of what else a person might have done that has so far escaped scrutiny but could emerge in the future, she added.
“We can’t just sweep it under the rug or assume it will be dealt with,” Dittmar said.