We may not always agree with Rio Arriba County Clerk Fred Vigil, when it comes to public document access, but his eight years as Clerk have been monumental in Rio Arriba County’s climb out of the dark ages. Vigil took over from an embattled office, rife with election corruption. David Chavez had left under the cloud of pleading to voter fraud, some of the city’s elite was indicted as well and we still had dead people voting.
Vigil stepped in and immediately cleaned house. He hired some great deputies, researched the law and brought the office up to respectable standards in no time. The first election he presided over had few hiccups. He purged the voter list of dead people, verified people’s addresses and existence, ensured proper precinct residency and trained poll workers.
In Hillsborough County, Fla. election night reflected what Vigil encountered when he entered the fray. They were still counting Thursday, hundreds of people were given half the ballot and when reporters challenged county clerk Buddy Johnson in the wee hours of Wednesday he said, “Everything is fine. This is a great day for voters.” When pushed on the issues his patent temper came to the surface and he threatened a reporter.
Buddy was voted out of his office that night by a large margin.
When Vigil took over, elections became much more fair, better-watched and voter participation soared. Yes, we have our local politicos who still insist on funky voter registration games, voter assistance shenanigans and “helping” early voters get to the polls. Vigil can’t do much about it but let these fine, upstanding leaders know he’s not happy about their manipulating the system. He’s also not above calling State Police, the Attorney General or the Secretary of State’s office.
In short, Vigil has made it tough for crooked politicians, easier for honest voting folks and a more efficient streamlined system. If the state constitution allowed, we’d endorse Vigil every four years, despite his deference to the county manager regarding public records requests.
But Vigil must move on and voters have elected a politician firmly in the pocket of the County machine. It’s not the Emilio machine by a long shot but it’s still a machine. County Commissioner Alfredo Montoya and his right-hand man Lorenzo Valdez have had firm control of the County for a decade. Newly elected county clerk Moises Morales was their hand-picked successor to Vigil.
As stated here previous to the primary, Morales isn’t faintly qualified for the position. Many in the County question his ability to do basic tasks in the office. That’s okay because he has some very well-educated and well-trained deputies in the office. The question is will he let those better-qualified to do his job actually do it and how will he handle an election when under pressure by the machine to perform for them?
We’ll get that answer in the next school election, where the County grooms its up and coming “leaders.” We’ll be happy if Moises can keep the dead people from voting, the politicians from running the early voting and helpful family members bringing drunks to the polls. Above that, don’t expect nearly the performance we got from J. Fred Vigil.
It was a lark he got into the position. His uncomfortable relationship with Valdez’ mandates and the machine’s requests probably kept him hopping. Morales will just do what he’s told.
Fred we’ll miss you on many levels.