By Jim Williams
Albuquerque, NM – There's yet another wrinkle in the story of this year's race for New Mexico Secretary of State.
Today's Santa Fe New Mexican reports that incumbent Secretary Mary Herrera, a Democrat, asked a Republican employee in her office to intervene in the state GOP effort to find someone to run against her.
According to the article, a January e-mail Herrera sent to then-Public-Information-Officer James Flores referred to the request. In it, Herrera wrote, "I asked you a long time ago to get involved in the Republican Party, you didn't, and now they are looking for someone to run against me".
The GOP did nominate a candidate, Tularosa Republican Representative Dianna Duran, to run against Herrera.
Flores told the Santa Fe New Mexican that Herrera had repeatedly asked him to get involved in the Republican Party on her behalf and to speak at Republican events.
Flores says he refused to do so.
Flores was fired last month after being charged with having an "altered media list" and sending press releases to critics of Herrera.
Flores denied it, and provided a copy of his media list that seemed to back up that denial.
The New Mexican article also indicates that Herrera's e-mail seemed to confirm reports that at one point she ordered employees to campaign for her.
In the message to Flores, she references a similar request she says State Treasurer James Lewis made to his employees, saying "if I don't have a job, neither do you". An employee in the Treasurer's office told the New Mexican that had not happened.