RELATED STORIES

• Politics is a family affair for AG candidates
• 2006 Voter Guide
• Jim Bibb, Republican

More Local Politics

• Red lights, cameras, action: Albuquerque program back on, but so is feud
• New Mexico hopefuls for U.S. Senate tout experience at debate
• Reports: Personal funds help some New Mexico congressional candidates

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Albuquerque Old Town
• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Candidate for attorney general

Name: Gary K. King, Republican

Age: 51

Campaign Web site address: www.garyking.org

Occupation: Attorney

Family: Spouse, Yolanda Jones King; no children

Education: Bachelors in chemistry, New Mexico State University, 1976; Ph.D. in organic chemistry, Colorado University, 1980; J.D., University of New Mexico, 1983.

Please list the experience you think would help you be a good attorney general.

I have been practicing law for 23 years. I clerked for the chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court and then started my own general practice law firm in Moriarty in 1984. I served as city attorney and prosecutor for Moriarty. I also litigated many types of cases, including domestic relations, property disputes and probate of estates. I was a guardian ad litem for abused children and have been a domestic violence hearing officer. I was chief counsel and senior scientist for a New Mexico environmental engineering firm for nine years.

I served at the assistant secretary level at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. for two years. I served six terms as a New Mexico state representative, as the House parliamentarian, the chair of the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee and a member of the Judiciary Committee.

I was a member of the New Mexico Constitutional Review Commission.

I have been active in many community organizations, such as Rotary; Manzano District Chair of the Boy Scouts of America; Torrance County Health Council; New Mexico Small Business Advisory Council; and many others.

Have you ever been arrested or charged with a felony or misdemeanor? If yes, explain.

I have never been arrested or charged with a felony or misdemeanor.

What's the best meal you can cook from scratch?

My pinto beans have won the Moriarty International Bean Cook-off several times.

Last book you read:

The last book I read was "His Excellency, George Washington" by Joseph J. Ellis.

What was your biggest mistake in life and what lesson did you learn?

In 1994, during a snowstorm, in spite of advice from my wife to stay home, I chose to drive from Moriarty to Santa Fe to present bills at a Capital Outlay Committee Hearing. In route to Santa Fe, I hit a patch of black ice and crashed into a guard rail. My injuries resulted in an extended hospital stay and several years of physical therapy and rehabilitation.

I learned many things from this accident, including an appreciation for the importance of good health in our lives, and the importance of following good advice from your spouse.

What would your top priorities be in office? What specific steps would you take to achieve them?

My top priority as attorney general will be the protection of our citizens who are most vulnerable. I will work to improve and enforce current laws that protect victims of domestic violence and stop sexual predators that prey on our youth. I will propose legislation to require paroled sex offenders to wear global positioning system bracelets and remove the statute of limitations on violent sex crimes. I will protect our senior citizens from scam artists and unfair business practices.

As AG, I will make the reporting of such practices easier through a statewide toll free reporting system and a dedicated site on the AG Web page. I will have a special unit in the office to identify and attack scam artists at an early stage. I will also continue my fight against illicit drug labs throughout the state through aggressive enforcement of laws such as the Drug Precursor Act (which I passed as a Legislator), implementation of new technologies to identify drug labs and better coordination of state and federal agencies to close down and clean up these drug labs.

Critique the current attorney general. What initiatives would you continue? What new initiatives are needed?

The current AG has implemented many good programs for the protection of our citizens. I would keep and perhaps expand programs such as the ICAC program to identify and bring to justice Internet sexual predators. I would also continue to aggressively represent citizens at utility rate hearings before the Public Regulation Commission and keep a strong Consumer Protection Division to protect New Mexicans from unfair trade practices.

I will continue to fight to protect our environment and force polluters to be responsible to inform affected communities of potential hazards and to clean up their contaminated sites.

Regarding new initiatives, I am proposing that a special Public Corruption Unit be created within the AG office. This unit would have special expertise in investigating allegations of corruption by our elected or appointed officials and prosecuting any wrongdoing. The unit would include forensic auditors (perhaps located in the State Auditor's office) and other trained investigators.

I would also propose legislation to assure "whistleblower" protection for employees who report wrongdoing within their agencies.

I would also increase the ability of the office to identify and address scams and ID theft.

Should New Mexico keep or repeal the death penalty?

Keep.

What can be done to protect New Mexicans from scams and identity theft?

As AG, I will create a special unit within the office to focus on ID theft and scams that are perpetrated on our most vulnerable citizens. We will actively search out such scams and improve reporting through the creation of a statewide hotline and a special site on the AG Web page, and provide up-to-date information to citizens through the media and Internet to help them avoid being victims.

To assist victims, I propose to create an ombudsman who can be contacted to help cut through the red tape that prevents them from reclaiming their good name.

How would you work with Mexican officials to solve crimes along the U.S.-Mexico border and to extradite fugitives from the United States?

I would actively seek to meet with my Mexican counterparts to address the border crime problem. While at the Department of Energy, I successfully worked with Mexican officials to address pollution problems on the border and to deploy new technologies to clean up contaminated sites on both sides of the border. This included the convening of international conferences in order to facilitate planning and implementation.

I would follow a similar model of communication, respect and cooperation to use new technologies to identify perpetrators who cross the border with the intention of carrying out crimes, such as drug distribution and auto theft and to arrest and convict these criminals when they are in New Mexico.

I would pursue cooperative agreements that would facilitate extradition of criminals who fled across the border, although the successful completion of such agreements may require cooperation from the federal governments of both countries.

What specific improvements would you recommend to the state's Inspection of Public Records Act and Open Meetings Act?

As a legislator, I sponsored the Inspection of Public Records Act and upgrades to the Open Meetings Act. I will maintain close contact with agency attorneys, who are commissioned by the AG, to assure they are trained on the provisions of the acts and that they are actively assuring that their agencies are complying with the law. If necessary, I will bring actions to enforce the law.

How much authority does the attorney general have to regulate payday and title loans? What would you do about this issue?

The AG may have authority to address some payday and title loan issues through the Unfair Trade Practices Act, but I do not believe the authority is sufficient to adequately address abuses of the system. I am proposing a two-pronged approach to dealing with predatory lending practices in New Mexico.

First, we must have legislation that regulates unfair lending practices, by controlling interest rates and limiting the "renewal" practices that lead to loss of a home or car as a result of borrowing a small amount of money initially.

I believe we also need to address the issue of lack of access to capital in underserved rural and/or minority communities. We must develop a "micro-loan" program to assure that all of our citizens have access to needed credit.

Both candidates say they are tough on crime. What specifically have you done to fight crime?

As city attorney for the city of Moriarty, I prosecuted DUI cases and other violations of city law for a period of approximately six years. As a legislator I helped strengthen many of our criminal statutes.

As examples, I personally drafted substantive improvements to our DUI law in 1993. These amendments led to a significant decrease in the DUI rates in New Mexico from 1993 to 1998.

I passed the Drug Precursor Act that allowed, for the first time, law enforcement agencies to attack drug labs before the drugs were produced and distributed in our communities.

I sponsored the Family Violence Protection Act, which has been the primary tool for fighting domestic violence in New Mexico since 1987.

When I left the legislature in 1998, I served as a domestic violence hearing officer in the Seventh Judicial District and crafted domestic violence protection orders in numerous cases.

As a lawmaker, I introduced and passed more than 20 pieces of anti-crime legislation, including the DNA Identification Act, the Private Prison Tax Act, and Sexual Offenses & Materials bill.

Plus, to protect our pets, I introduced the Cruelty To Animals Penalties measure and the Pet Dealer Act.

New Mexico has seen problems lately with corruption or perceived corruption in state government. How would you stop those who abuse the public's trust?

As noted above, I will create a special unit within the AG office to identify and prosecute public corruption.

As a legislator, I advocated zero tolerance for public officials who abused the public trust, and advocated the expulsion of a member of the Legislature when the facts indicated the legislator solicited a bribe.

I have successfully advocated for ethics reform in the past, such as a limitation on gifts and contributions from regulated entities and public campaign financing for the Public Regulation Commission, and I will continue to do so as AG.

In my six terms as a legislator and two years of service in Washington at the U.S. Department of Energy, I worked to develop a reputation as an honest and hard working public servant. I believe that as attorney general, I can help improve the public trust by continuing to provide a good example.

I have a deep knowledge of the workings of government from my many years of experience at all levels of government and have the stature to successfully advise and direct public officials regarding our laws and ethics regulations to keep the officials from violating them in the first place.

Are New Mexico's anti-methamphetamine laws strong enough?

The New Mexico laws that apply to the production and distribution of methamphetamines and other illicit drugs are strong. As the author of the act that is the primary tool for fighting drug labs, I recognize that we must continuously evaluate the law to make sure it addresses any new threat that can be concocted by the criminal element. Our Legislature recently added provisions that limit bulk sales of a key component in a common manufacturing pathway. This provision has been helpful in reducing the number of active labs in New Mexico. And to further attack the problem, I have just unveiled a plan to create the Meth-Offender Registry on the Internet.

The registry will list the names, other identifying factors, and offenses of convicted meth manufacturers, users and traffickers. Currently, the biggest deficiency in the fight against meth labs is in the enforcement of the law.

I propose to significantly increase the resources available to fight the proliferation of labs throughout the state. This would include an increase in funding for law enforcement personnel and equipment, and if necessary an increase in the number of judges and prosecutors to assure that no criminal be allowed to avoid conviction because of technicalities, such as the inability of the courts to provide a speedy trial.

I also propose creation of a statewide "safe communities initiative," similar to the program in Albuquerque, to provide a special strike force to assist rural law enforcement agencies to identify and close or dismantle drug labs wherever they may be located within the state.

A new state law calls for longer probation for some sex offenders, but it appears not all judges were aware of it. What will you do to make sure everyone knows about changes in state law? Are changes to the laws governing sex offenders needed?

As a legislator, when we enacted significant changes to the DUI laws in 1993, I participated with the other authors of the law in a series of seminars presented to judges around the state to immediately inform them about the substantive changes in the law.

A similar process should have been used to educate judges about the changes in sentencing for the sex offender laws. As AG, I would work with the state bar and the administrative office of the courts to provide a series of educational workshops following each legislative session to inform judges throughout the state of substantive changes in the law.

As noted above, I am proposing several additions to the laws regarding sex offenders that are designed to increase the protection of our children, such as GPS monitoring of paroled sex offenders and removal of the statute of limitations for certain violent sex crimes.