It should be good news that $1.8 billion-plus in federal stimulus money is headed our way. But we can’t help but wonder whose pockets will fill up.
So I found it comforting that former Gov. Toney Anaya is director of the newly created and temporary Office of Recovery and Reinvestment. Anaya is more traffic cop than watchdog, but it’s in his nature to be a stickler.
I don’t welcome Anaya’s reappearance in state government out of dewy-eyed sentiment. Back when he was attorney general, Anaya was the sworn enemy of a certain electric utility I served as spokesperson. Anaya made my life more difficult, and that was as it should be, said my friends in the press.
Anaya has mellowed over the years, but it’s his abrasive side that makes me glad to see the guy. Like him or not, Anaya is his own man. He’s not a good old boy or a back slapper.
“In New Mexico,” he once said, “whether it’s in the business community or the political community, people are very chummy, very buddy-buddy, and they like to make a lot of decisions based on friendship. I don’t like to make decisions on that basis.”
As a crusading attorney general, he once filed charges against two men a former co-worker described as “tried and true wheelhorses in the state Democratic stable,” for allegedly benefiting from an elaborate insurance scheme involving the state employment office. One of the men had given Anaya his political start; the other was a good friend of Anaya’s brother. Anaya admitted later it was painful to pursue the case but felt it had to be done.
(I’m not naming names here because in Tony Hillerman’s journalism ethics class at UNM I learned that there’s an informal statute of limitations on bringing up misdeeds that are far in the past.)
Three words usually used to describe Anaya are “intense,” “workaholic,” and “disciplined.” (There are some other words, but they’re not printable.) A lawyer who knew him once said, “Toney is the kind of guy who shaves on weekends.”
When Anaya ran for governor in the early 1980s, his three-and-a-half year campaign was the longest and most expensive (nearly $1 million) the state had seen. In office from 1983 through 1986, he was a liberal operating against a backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s popularity. So, given his personality and his politics, it was a controversial tenure.
Anaya established new standards for honesty in state government. One of my sharpest memories of the period is this one: After learning that a New Mexico Magazine staffer was accepting freebies from the tourism industry in return for favorable coverage, Anaya was so furious, he himself wrote the news release announcing the staffer’s firing.
However, a U.S. Attorney carried on a long, politically motivated and well publicized investigation of Anaya. It wasted a lot of taxpayer money and found nothing but did succeed in casting a shadow over the man and his family. Anaya said in later interviews that his lowest ebb in office was seeing his daughter come home from school in tears because of cruel remarks made to her about her dad.
Reading over some old interviews with Anaya, I’m surprised now how open and candid the man was with the media, even though he wasn’t treated particularly well. In one of the more dubious journalistic exercises, two reporters (one of whom is now Taxation and Revenue Secretary) asked Anaya a lot of highly personal questions and then submitted his answers to several psychologists for analysis. It backfired on the reporters and the shrinks.
Anaya’s new duties include keeping a lid on administrative costs, making spending recommendations and establishing a transparent reporting system. This is a good job for Toney Anaya.
© New Mexico News Services 2009