Ad attacks Martinez on missed oil well inspections

Previous administrations’ practice has been halted, spokesperson counters

The latest in a series of TV ads attacking Republican Gov. Susana Martinez for her environmental record cites Journal stories from 2013 about the state’s allowing oil and gas companies to skip required state inspections of electrical systems at their well sites.

It’s the third such ad from the ProgressNow NM Education Fund, and this time it’s done in conjunction with Conservation Voters New Mexico Education Fund.

They say they want to highlight the “unfettered influence” that Martinez’s donors have on public policy. The ad says the governor took almost $1 million from the oil and gas industry when she was first elected in 2010. Data from the National Institute On Money In State Politics puts that figure at $973,885.

“Government should keep our communities and environment safe. But under Gov. Martinez, not everyone has to play by the rules,” the ad says.

The Journal reported in April 2013 that the Construction Industries Division set aside more than 500 requests from southeastern New Mexico for electrical inspections in a special computer file — referred to by a CID official as a “fictitious inspector” — because there weren’t enough inspectors to do the work.

When belated inspections were done, 85 percent of 276 inspected sites got a “failed” grade, according to a follow-up story. Correction notices were issued, but none was ordered to stop operations.

The Regulation and Licensing Department says the practice at CID dated to previous administrations, and when the governor found out about it she ordered it halted and directed inspections to be done and sites brought into compliance.

A spokesman for Martinez called the ad “another shoddy and deceitful attack by a public official who rakes in dark money and uses his government position to do the bidding of his dark money donors” — a reference to ProgressNow’s executive director Pat Davis, who is on the Albuquerque City Council.

“Gov. Martinez has fined polluters more than any other governor in New Mexico history. That’s a fact, and her agencies have even fined companies that have contributed to her campaigns,” said spokesman Michael Lonergan.

The ad runs through Sept. 29 on broadcast, cable and satellite in the Albuquerque and Las Cruces markets.