Few fireworks in debate of controversial candidates
Romero, accused of improper spending, challenges Trujillo, being investigated on harassment allegations, for legislative seat
POJOAQUE — Both candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the District 46 seat in the state House of Representatives come with a lot of baggage.
But incumbent Carl Trujillo and challenger Andrea Romero, both of Santa Fe, tried to accentuate the positive — while still taking a few jabs at each other — during a 1½-hour forum Monday night at Pojoaque Valley Middle School.
Days after taking a polygraph test to try to disprove sexual harassment allegations lodged by a lobbyist, Trujillo portrayed himself as a man of the people whose principled positions in the rough-and-tumble world of politics have made him plenty of enemies.
“When I got into the Roundhouse, putting people over politics was very interesting because you start to make adversaries when you start to do that,” said Trujillo, who is seeking a fourth two-year term. “As a Democrat, I went against a Democratic bill because I felt that it was important to put people over politics.”
Fresh off losing her job with the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities in the wake of an audit that criticized spending on alcohol and professional baseball tickets, Romero portrayed herself as someone who will stand
strong for Democratic values and against special interests.
“In the past six years in our Legislature, we’ve seen some unfortunate votes that have gone against women’s bodies, that have backed strong gun legislation by the NRA that weaken concealed carry laws in our state,” she said. “When we talk about pay to play, unfortunately, I believe that we have seen our sitting legislator, my opponent, Carl Trujillo, take money and pass bills for big telecoms like CenturyLink, and we do not see the benefit of that in our backyard, in our rural areas.”
Trujillo said Romero was “skewing the facts.”
The two are squaring off in a heated primary that has generated interest statewide because of the controversies that have shrouded both candidates.
This month, a lobbyist for Animal Protection Voters alleged that Trujillo had touched her inappropriately and sexually propositioned her. Laura Bonar, who made her allegations in an open letter to the representative, contends that after she rebuffed his advances, Trujillo retaliated by cutting off communication with the group as they worked on a bill during the 2014 legislative session.
Trujillo maintains Bonar is lying. He says the allegations are part of a political attack. While Trujillo took a lie detector test and said he conclusively passed, damage has been done. Two unions have withdrawn their endorsement of Trujillo, and three fellow Democrats in the House have called on him to resign.
“Whenever anybody is accused of any allegations and somebody is found to be guilty [in the news media] before you go through due process, it’s tough,” Trujillo said after the forum. “What’s interesting is that the constituents of the district, I think, can see right through this.”
While questions at the forum were limited to policy-related matters, Romero brought up the damaging sexual harassment allegations in her opening statement.
“It is incredibly hard for women who have been sexually harassed or abused to come forward,” she said. “There is no place for sexual harassment in government or anywhere.”
Romero is grappling with problems of her own after the audit of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities uncovered financial irregularities. She where she worked under contract as chief executive officer of the group of communities near Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The audit found multiple reimbursement payments that violated the agency’s travel policies, including the purchase of expensive wines and liquor and Major League Baseball tickets for coalition-sponsored events, as well as a lack of itemized receipts that made it impossible to determine “whether they were direct violations or not.”
The findings triggered a special audit by state Auditor Wayne Johnson. That audit has not been completed.
Romero, a Stanford University graduate who grew up in Nambé and attended Santa Fe Public Schools, said she accepts responsibility for the violations, saying she was unaware of the policies and that she repaid the unauthorized expenditures.
Romero and Trujillo are vying to represent a district that stretches from Chimayo in the north to west Santa Fe in the south. It spans from the Santa Fe National Forest in the east to the Los Alamos County line in the west.
The district includes a mix of conservative and liberal Democrats and the pueblos of Nambé, Pojoaque, Tesuque and San Ildefonso. At least three of the pueblos have contributed money to Romero’s campaign.
Trujillo said the district includes both urban and rural components and very progressive and very conservative Democrats.
“It’s all over the spectrum,” he said.