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Chavez to run for auditor instead of land commissioner
Errol Chavez
After putting 53,000 miles on his truck campaigning for commissioner of public lands, Republican Errol Chavez is switching races and will run for state auditor instead.
Chavez, 60, said in an interview that he was recruited to run for auditor by Republican State Party Chairman Harvey Yates because of his 36 years in law enforcement and his “ability to stop corruption in the state of New Mexico.”
The retired DEA agent, who lives in Las Cruces, said if he’s elected he will implement a priority targeting system, which he learned in classes at the U .S. Army War College and used to root out criminals when he was assigned to manage High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDA).
For now, Chavez is the only Republican vying for the auditor’s office. His campaign Web site has been removed while it is being redesigned for the new campaign.
James Flores, a spokesman at the Secretary of State’s office, said because Chavez is switching races he will have to collect a new round of qualifying petition signatures. Those he collected for the land commissioner’s campaign are not transferable.
Chavez, who grew up in Española, spent 31 years with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration before moving to Las Cruces in 2004 to be director of the HIDA program for the state. The program seeks to improve efforts by local, state and federal officials to stop drug trafficking through coordination and providing equipment, technology and other resources.
As auditor, Chavez said he wants to “save the money the state is losing by going after people who are corrupt.”
“We’ve seen case after case recently of how people have gotten away with the crime because no one checked on them. And if they did check on them they couldn’t identify what was going on,” Chavez said. “I’m going to come in and I can evaluate the information that is there. I can develop a case and I know how to prepare a case for a prosecution. An effective prosecution means a success and that’s the direction that I’m going.”
He said people who are corrupt should be fearful of being caught and prosecuted. Corruption in New Mexico he said “has become an acceptable practice. I want to stop that practice.”
Chavez wants financial disclosure reports to be required from both public officials and state employees.
“As a federal agent I had to routinely submit my financial disclosure reports to the attorney general’s office for review,” Chavez said. “We were monitored on the amount of money we made aside from our salaries and questioned every time there was a significant increase in our bank accounts. I think state employees should do the same thing.”
Criticizing the incumbent
Chavez didn’t waste anytime criticizing incumbent Auditor Hector Balderas, who is running for re-election.
“From my perspective there is a lot that could have been done that was not done, and that includes the State Investment Council,” Chavez said. “We had to be told from another state that we had a problem. Where was the state auditor on this?”
Chavez said he is pleased the party urged him to switch races.
“I’m in my element,” he said.
At last check the Republican Party did not have a candidate for state treasurer or secretary of state, but five people are running for governor, four are campaigning for lieutenant governor, and now three men are vying for commissioner of public lands.
Note: We have audio from our interview with Chavez and will update this post shortly. Come back and hear why he disagrees with former Gov. Gary Johnson about the war on drugs.
St. Cyr is a contributing writer for this site and a reporter at 770KKOB.com. He can be reached at peter.stcyr@gmail.com.
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It’s not the state auditor’s job to prosecute anyone. The office audits and then turns over the evidence to the local or federal authorities. Thank You for the email contact but I prefer to debate in an open forum. I guess we can agree to disagree though at the end of the day the voters will decide who will run this office and when Hector wins in a landslide I would hope you can respect his accomplishments regardless of your political views.
Independent, please enlighten me. List for me the people he brought before the justice system of our state and list the cases he has had prosecuted. I would be interested in knowing who and what they were. Most of the cases that were brought forth were at the behest of the Attorney General of the U S and the Justice Department as to the best of knowledge. If you have anything that has escaped my attention, please let me know. You can reach me at jivaro99@gmail.com
I do my homework every day along with a lot of research and study. I think you are the one who needs to do your homework.
It is amazing to me jivaro99 how you can be so blind. Do your homwork and research the previous state auditors lack of progress, effort and success they had. I personally didn’t know what the role of the auditor was until Hector Balderas took over that office. Like I said I think Mr Chavez has a good track record in his proffession but commen sense tells you that when you challenge someone to a political position it’s because you think they haven’t had any success or support in what they’ve been doing and that is clearly not the issue here. I am a state employee and because of Mr Balderas’s toughness on corruption and state funds the agency I work for now tracks every dollar and item it deals with. This never happend in 15 previous years that I have been in state government.
I hate to throw a monkey wrench into the works, but Balderas has only started doing a mediocre job in the last year or so. He is not interested in taking on the Governor, Lieutenant Governor or any of the people who have been hit with “play for pay” or for malfeasance of office. Most of the graft in our state has been addressed by the federal government, not Balderas’ office.
I would commend Mr. Chavez for seeing where he can best to benefit to the people of this state. As a top level DEA Executive, (retired) Chavez knows how to root out the graft and evil that is rampant in this state. Rooseveltrepublican sounds like a Progressive to me and Independent wants his cake and be able to eat it as well. If either of these people wanted honest government, it will take someone of Errol J Chavez to do the job.
He will be the best man we could elect for the job, so quit trying to throw mud on him. He comes from a family of law enforcement, and he only wants what is best for the people of New Mexico. If you are not a young pup, you may remember that his father was second in command of the State Police, before he followed in his footsteps. Give him serious thought, because he is the next State auditor.
Hector has been sleeping on the job. Where was he when the state was being ravaged by Richardson & co? Sounds like this Errol guy has the credentials for the job and already has the experience in weeding out the bad guys, something New Mexico could use a good dose of!
if balderas has done such a good job, why was the SIC scandal exposed in NY instead of NM?
I agree wholeheartedly with you Independent. While Errol was not a good fit for Land Commissioner, it has been noted by prominent Republican office holders on this blog that Hector Balderas is doing a phenomenal job as Auditor. Arguably, he has been the most productive statewide office holder in the last four years.
I do agree that he should have been out front on this massive spending spree of the Richardson/Denish free-for-all, but a guy with a staff of less than 50 is doing more than many other agencies two or three times its size.
Mr Chavez, don’t put anymore mileage on your vehicle and save your contributers some money. Mr Balderas has gone above and beyond stopping corruption and making New Mexican’s aware of what a state auditor is actually supposed to do. You seem like a good guy but you are way out of your league. Someone in the republican party needs to be replaced for convincing you to challenge Mr Balderas.