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Gary King took the reins of the New Mexico Attorney General's Office in January, knowing he would have to focus much of his effort on rooting out government corruption. Six months later, King is making a difference.

The indictments last month of the wife of state Rep. Richard Vigil and three others on government corruption charges were an indication that King, who like Vigil is a Democrat, places the law above politics.

Other investigations are ongoing. King's office is scrutinizing Land Commissioner Pat Lyons' decision last year to bypass his own bidding process and lease thousands of acres of land in Las Cruces to a developer who gave $20,500 to a political action committee that passed most of it on to Lyons' re-election campaign. The developer later gave Lyons another $6,000.

King's office is also looking into a $3 million budget shortfall in the Secretary of State's Office that occurred last year, during the tenure of Rebecca Vigil-Giron.

And his office is actively investigating allegations that led this year to reform of the state's housing authority system, which has been mired in scandal since the Region III authority in Albuquerque defaulted last year on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. Subsequent reviews have found that:

Almost $900,000 that was to be spent on affordable housing went instead to the former director of the Albuquerque authority as salary, benefits and a questionable loan.

Homes in Las Cruces were being sold to investors instead of those who qualified for low-income housing.

Homes in the Albuquerque area were sold to two Region III employees and a board member who may not have qualified for low-income housing.

A Bernalillo County metro judge and an aide to the speaker of the House were living rent free in homes owned by Region III.

King has hired Lorenzo Garcia, a respected accountant who ran for auditor last year and treasurer in 1994, to work in his government accountability division. Garcia is working on the housing authority case and will soon travel to Las Cruces as part of the investigation.

King has also announced a number of ethics reform proposals he wants approved next year. He wants the Legislature and governor to:

Increase penalties for public corruption and disqualify public officials from holding office after conviction.

Create a whistle-blower law that would protect public employees from retaliation when they report government corruption.

Give the attorney general, instead of district attorneys, primary jurisdiction to prosecute statewide elected officials for corruption.

Make the Governmental Conduct Act, which regulates the conduct of state officials and employees, apply to local governments.

In cases of corruption, have the statute of limitations begin when crimes are first investigated, not when they occurred.

King's office has also responded quickly to lawmaker requests for formal opinions on a number of hot topics. And he has created a Web site - www.ago.state.nm.us/divs/civil/civil_oma-ipra_complaints.htm - that discloses complaints of open meetings and public records laws violations and the outcome of investigations.

That's a busy six months. If King and his staff can keep up the pace, they might chip away at the culture of corruption that plagues government in New Mexico.

Haussamen is an independent, online political journalist based in Las Cruces. His work can be found at nmpolitics.net.