Two million missing from Vigil-Giron audit
From Sunshine Review
15 May 2008--A federal audit is being conducted to see if former New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron properly paid more than $6 million owed in federal election money. The $6 million was intended to be spent between 2004 and 2006 on voter education advertising.[1] The various public-service ads, which featured Vigil-Giron, ran about 44,000 times on New Mexico television stations.
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[edit] The audit report
Democratic consultant, Gutierrez & Associates Inc., paid by the state to produce TV spots about the Help America Vote Act can't account for more than $2 million paid to him. The consultant was budgeted to have spent $4.8 million on television ads but can only substantiate for $2.6 million spent.
Telephone numbers listed for the company in Albuquerque and Corpus Christi, Texas, have been disconnected. The firm's Armando Gutierrez didn't respond to an e-mail from The New Mexican on Wednesday, though he told the Independent in an e-mail he is "unaware of any such report."
A summary of the draft audit says the Secretary of State's Office, under Vigil-Giron, paid the Gutierrez company a total of $6.3 million; including a $1 million administrative fee that is not listed in the contract between the state and Gutierrez. The document also says the amount paid to Gutierrez for voter-education ads was $323,000 more than the contract allowed; the state made a duplicate payment of $186,000 for a video used to train poll workers; Gutierrez billed the Secretary of State for $373,000 for state gross-receipts taxes but only paid $55,400 in taxes; and the state's required "match" of $751,500 was not deposited in the proper fund.[2]
[edit] Past political campaigns
The Gutierrez firm, founded in Albuquerque by Gutierrez, has worked on several presidential campaigns. According to the company's Web site, these campaigns include the 1996 Bill Clinton re-election, for which he was responsible for "Latino advertising and marketing." He produced Spanish-language ads for the 2000 Gore campaign and was the "agency of record" for Gov. Bill Richardson's gubernatorial race.
[edit] Passing the blame
Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who is running for Congress in Albuquerque, calls the release of the Election Assistance Commission draft audit a politically motivated attack on her to damage her before the June primary.
