Ok, so let’s pretend Attorney General Patricia Madrid never received a letter from Jan Goodwin. And let’s pretend that the Attorney General’s attendee at the Board of Finance meetings never mentioned so much as a word about the concerns expressed in various meetings about the corruption going on in the State Treasurer’s office. Are we now supposed to also pretend that the Attorney General never reads a newspaper (subscription)?
Questions were raised publicly about the Treasurer’s Office about a month before Goodwin’s letter was written. In a December 2001 Journal story [emphasis added], Johnson assailed an investment deal involving Montoya and Nelson, calling it the “stinkiest” thing he had come across while serving as governor.
In case you’re wondering, the 808 word article published on December 12, 2001 was headlined, ‘Stinkiest’ Financial Deal Irks Johnson, and began:
SANTA FE Gov. Gary Johnson on Tuesday called state Treasurer Michael Montoya’s investment of $400 million in a mutual fund the “stinkiest” thing he has come across as governor. He said he was especially irked that the state, through Montoya, paid an $88,000 commission [to Kent Nelson] on the deal. Johnson, in his seventh year at the Capitol, made his assessment after the State Board of Finance decided Montoya violated New Mexico’s investment…
C’mon Patricia Madrid fess up. Just say, “I don’t like to investigate fellow Democrats. No matter how stinky or illegal their practices may be.”