While Española Mayor Joseph Maestas’ announcement that he plans to run for lieutenant governor next year caught some city officials off guard, it didn’t exactly raise any eyebrows.
Maestas went public with his plans in a July 25 article in the Los Alamos Monitor. Maestas told that newspaper he has begun seeking “potential campaign staff and consultants” and reaching out to politicians and interest groups.
“I wasn’t surprised (that he wants to run), no,” Mayor Pro Tem Alice Lucero said. “I was surprised that he announced it like that. Telling the council beforehand would have been a nice courtesy. But I’m not surprised he didn’t offer it.”
For about the past year, Maestas has been among several politicians rumored to be interested in the post but had not made any official pronouncement before the article. In June, when asked by a SUN reporter whether he would run for re-election or for another position, Maestas said he was considering his options but had not made a decision. Earlier this year, Maestas was named to current Lt. Gov. Diane Denish’s transition team; Denish is a leading candidate for the governor’s office in 2010.
District 3 Councilor Chayo Garcia hadn’t heard about Maestas’ announcement, but added that she has “known from the beginning that (being mayor) was just a stepping stone for him, and that he had higher political aspirations.”
District 2 Councilor Alfred Herrera agreed, citing Maestas’ failed bid for a Public Regulation Commission seat last year as an example of those ambitions.
All three wished Maestas well in his campaign.
Then again, no councilors’ jobs depend on Maestas holding the mayor’s seat. That might not be the case for Acting City Manager Veronica Albin, whom Maestas reluctantly appointed to that position last summer and has defended since. Albin said she had assumed Maestas would seek re-election in the March 2010 municipal elections.
“I think the question he should’ve answered before that article is whether he was running for mayor again,” Albin said. “I think he probably should have let us know that. But again, I’m not offended. I totally support him, whatever he does.”
Herrera acknowledged Maestas’ departure could change the governing body’s dynamics.
“What I don’t know is whether it would change for the better or for the worse,” he said. “That would really depend on who fills that position.”
Maestas did not return calls for comment for this story.
That same July 28 Monitor article called into question a July SUN report on a child-support dispute between Maestas and Beatrice Navarette, his ex-wife and the mother of his 13-year-old son. Maestas’ ex-wife currently has physical custody of their son, according to court documents.
The SUN had reported that Maestas had in at least two instances failed to pay child support, and that the state Human Services Department’s Child Support Division had recently filed to enforce a court-ordered settlement between Maestas and his ex-wife.
Maestas denied in the Monitor story having ever defied a court order, despite the court record showing he had failed to twice pay court-ordered child support. The SUN article was based on public court documents, which are available for download online at http://bit.ly/18NaBB.
To date, Maestas has failed to return calls about his child support situation, or provide the same documents he showed the Monitor and said he would make available “to anyone who wishes to see them.”
The Monitor article also quoted Department spokeswoman Betina McCracken accusing the SUN of inaccuracies and denying any court-ordered intervention from the Department in Maestas’ case.
The Department’s motion to intervene in Maestas’ child support case, and a court order allowing the Department to intervene, are also available at http://bit.ly/18NaBB. The Department’s motion states that “the custodial parent applied for services to the Department” and requested that the state “establish, modify and/or enforce (Maestas’) child support obligation.”
McCracken said her comments about the accuracy of the SUN article hinged mostly on how she was portrayed. Comments she made to the SUN addressed only general policies, but did not refer specifically to Maestas’ case, she said. The SUN report suggested otherwise, she argued.
McCracken maintained that Maestas, not his ex-wife, initially approached the Department to make his child support payments through the state. Court documents contradict McCracken’s claim. At least two documents indicate Maestas’ ex-wife enlisted the Department’s child support services.
McCracken acknowledged the Department had initially filed to enforce the court order, as stated in the SUN story. She added that the Department now plans to replace that enforcement order with another to process Maestas’ child support payments only.
Calls made to the author of the Monitor story were not returned.