Lawyers with a New Mexico firm that has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from contracts with the state are among the top contributors to Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential campaign.

Lawyers with the firm of Sutin, Thayer and Browne have donated $36,465 to Richardson's campaign.

The firm has received at least $750,000 from the state for providing legal services to the Richardson administration under two contracts since mid-2005.

A number of large donors to Richardson's campaign do business with state government or have an interest in legislation, and a critic says that creates the appearance of favoritism.

However, Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the governor, said Richardson "had no role with any contract that the Sutin law firm has with the state."

"Obviously, the work this firm has with the state had no connection with the legal campaign contributions made by individual members of the firm," Gallegos said in a statement. He pointed out that some law firms that do legal work for the state have given minimal contributions.

Jay Rosenblum, president and chief executive officer of the law firm, said it "has had a long supportive relationship with the governor" as well as previous Democratic and Republican administrations.

He stressed the contributions to the presidential campaign had nothing to do with the firm's business dealings with state government. One of the firm's lawyers, Paul Bardacke, is a longtime Richardson friend and political ally who's helped the governor with fundraising.

The law firm, one of the most prominent in the state, has been paid $560,600 under a contract with the Transportation Department for legal services on development projects on state land. The payments were from June 2005 through October 2007 under a four-year contract worth up to $1 million, according to an agency spokesman, S.U. Mahesh.

The law firm received $210,000 during the last budget year for serving as "disclosure counsel" for the state Board of Finance to provide advice and other services on bond issues. Rosenblum said the firm previously had served as the board's bond counsel for many years, including before the Richardson administration.

Richardson controls the Board of Finance. He serves as its president and appoints a majority of its members. However, the governor was absent from two meetings in 2006 when the board unanimously selected the law firm as its disclosure counsel and awarded it a contract.

The Transportation Department, which is part of the Richardson administration and run by a gubernatorial appointee, hired the law firm through a competitive bidding process in April 2005.

Most of the firm's work has been on a planned transportation project in which a private developer was to build a new headquarters for the department and a commuter rail hub on state-owned land near downtown Santa Fe.

However, Richardson ordered a rebidding of the project in August after questions were raised over possible links to defendants in a courthouse construction scandal and the transportation development projects.

The law firm also has provided legal services on a transportation project that called for relocation of the agency's district office and maintenance yard near Santa Fe. The department canceled negotiations with a Chicago-based developer in the district office project earlier this year because the agency couldn't reach a satisfactory deal.

Developers involved in both projects have contributed money to Richardson's gubernatorial and presidential campaigns.

"It seems to be the perpetual motto of the Richardson administration has been pay-to-play. Those who tend to contribute to his political campaign tend to be the ones who are doing business with the state and getting state contracts," said Scott Darnell, spokesman for the state Republican Party. "Frankly it shouldn't be that way."

Among other contributions to Richardson's campaign:

$29,800 from officers, executives and lawyers of the BGK Group, a Santa Fe-based real estate group. The state leases properties from the company that are used to house two government offices.

$24,850 from attorneys and lobbyists with the Denver-based law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck, which was selected last year as bond counsel for the Board of Finance and lobbies in New Mexico and Washington, D.C.

$13,800 from executives of the Verde Group, an El Paso-based company planning a residential and commercial development on 22,000 acres in Southern New Mexico. The Richardson administration has been supportive of the real estate venture as a way to boost economic development along the international border with Mexico. The company had intended to ask the Board of Finance and lawmakers next year to approve a plan for taxpayer-subsidized bonds for streets and other infrastructure. However, that financing arrangement has been put on hold.