Press Realease. Re. Larry Barker and KRQE Adopting Martinez Administration Agenda. 11.02.11.

8/3/2019 Press Realease. Re. Larry Barker and KRQE Adopting Martinez Administration Agenda. 11.02.11.

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Independent Source PAC - Phone (505) 250-0244 - 11024 Montgomery Blvd. NE # 128 - Albuquerque, NM 87111

Independent Source PAC Protecting working familiesby investigating andexposingthe actions, agendas, and hypocrisy ofthe political Right.

PRESS ADVISORY/RELEASEWednesday, November 2, 2011For Immediate Release

The following article appears on the website of Independent Source PAC. Documents and links referred to in thisarticle are viewable and can be downloaded from the Independent Source PAC website:http://independentsourcepac.org/

Does KRQE reporter Larry Barker have a hidden agenda, and is it the sameas the Martinez Administration's agenda?

November 2, 2011

This week, KRQE launched Larry Barker's smear campaign on Democratic Majority Whip Sheryl Williams Stapleton entitled,

Barker accused Williams Stapleto

Barker accused Williams Stapleton of continuing to earn her Albuquerque Public School salary while serving in the unpaid citizen

legislature. Williams Stapleton was, in fact, working for APS during her off-time at the legislative sessions.

ISPAC has obtained a document raising concerns that Barker knowingly misled the public about the facts of the situation in order to

damage Williams Stapleton, who is a major opponent of the Martinez Administration's push to privatize public education and send New

Mexico tax dollars to out of state corporations.

Watch the video of Williams Stapleton instructing PED Secretary Designate Hanna Skandera. Williams Stapleton was one of the

key legislators who fought back against the Martinez Administration's political push to leave New Mexico's third graders behind. Despite

the pressure on Williams Stapleton, she did not back down. Is it coincidence that Barker joined the attack on Williams Stapleton?

The 2009 document (go to ISPAC website) is a memo, restating a 2005 APS policy, addressing Williams Stapleton's unique role as

a legislator and APS employee. Contrary to Barker's fiction, the Albuquerque Public School District policy states:

"Sheryl is a legislator representing District 19. Her responsibilities in this capacity also require her time and attention as dictated by this

role. She cannot always do both jobs. To address that, Sheryl and any other employee in this situation, follows our policy and uses off

contract time to make up this work/time. To be clear, the hours identified in Ms. Williams-
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Stapleton's legislative journal make up for the job absence due to the legislative responsibilities. These are separate from the hours

above the regular workday and contract time for managing the Carl Perkins Grant. Sheryl keeps track of those "makeup" opportunities

as they come.

Further, as far as the APS Administration is concerned:

"We are appreciative of having a state legislator as an employee. To that end, we have established this process to accommodate

this situation."

Read the document yourself. Apparently for Barker, the rules of responsible journalism don't apply.

What makes it clear that Barker pursued this smear campaign as part of a political agenda, is that he compared Williams Stapleton,

who has served in the legislature for 17 years, with two first-term Anglo Republican males from Southern New Mexico. He held these

two freshman legislators up as true patriots who sacrificed everything financially to serve the public. However, Barker, neglected to tell

the public that in fact neither man sacrificed anything.

Terry McMillan of Las Cruces is a partner in a successful surgical practice that performs elective procedure nose jobs. McMillian

also owns a medical building where he collects monthly rent checks from other doctors. Barker ignored that McMillan receives rental

income and that the other doctor in his practice continues to see their patients while McMillan was in Santa Fe.

Bob Wooley was just appointed to the legislature by Susana Martinez, replacing Keith Gardner, who became her chief of staff.

According to the Martinez Administration press release announcing the appointment, Wooley is retired from Allstate Insurance

Company. He is collecting a pension, and holds a post-retirement job.

Further, had Barker actually done his work, he would have learned that both of these men he holds up as examples of selfless

citizen legislators have a past that is less than stellar.

For a five-year period, 1993-1998, McMillan's medical license was severely restricted and he had to submit to regular substance

abuse tests. While McMillan has admitted to being an alcoholic, there is obviously something much more onerous here. Typically, a

medical license is only affected to such an extent following an on-the-job incident in which a patient is harmed.

Wooley has a court filing on record in which his wife alleged that he abused her. She also filed for divorce, but eventually she asked

for the case to be dismissed as often happens with domestic abuse cases.

So, was Barker directed by the Martinez Administration to these two newbie legislators to help their re-election? Or was it simply

because they are Anglo Conservative Republicans from down south?


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And this is not the first time Larry Barker has shown deference to the Martinez Administration and provided cover for its agenda.

Remember Barker's investigation this past February on the New Mexico Super Computer? He helped the Martinez Administration

make the case that the Super Computer was a boondoggle by former Governor Bill Richardson who made a bad and excessive

investment in buying it.

However, Barker failed to mention that Martinez Administration Economic Development Director appointee and former US

Congressional candidate Jon Barela is a founder and shareholder in his company Cerelink, one of the only beneficiaries of that state

investment into the Super Computer. In fact, Barela sits on the governing board of the Super Computer.

In that case, Barker neglected to report what any cub reporter would have figured out. In this case, he has smeared another

politician Governor Martinez sees as an enemy, and has once again failed to report on the information available to him.

By the way, Barker has been AWOL when it comes to these Martinez Administration conflicts of interest. Why?

Martinez appointed lawyer Paul Yarbrough as chairman of the state personnel board. Yarbrough is a vice-president and

shareholder of a law firm with $100,000's of state contracts that represents the state against its employees.

The rigging of job qualifications to get Chief of Staff Keith Gardner's wife a job with the Martinez Administration.

Patty Matthews lawyer/lobbyist to the charter schools appointed by the Administration to regulate her own clients and who

then as regulator referred a charter school to her "former" partner.

Finally, where was Barker when the Martinez Administration laid off key Public Education Department personnel, like the

entire ethics bureau and the department's Inspector General, and then used the money freed up by the lay-offs to dole

hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to out of state companies?

Documents and links referred to in this article are viewable and can be downloaded from the Independent Source PAC

website:http://independentsourcepac.org/

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(Listen to audio files of radio ads by ISPAC on its website:http://independentsourcepac.org/.)

For further information please contact:

Michael CorwinIndependent Source [email protected](505) 250-0244

Spyglass go to:http://independentsourcepac.org/new-mexicos-spyglass.html
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Press Realease. Re. Larry Barker and KRQE Adopting Martinez Administration Agenda. 11.02.11.

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