With the state Legislature's 2009 session still days away, the first showdown between Gov. Bill Richardson and the Senate may be under way.

In a news release Tuesday, Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, said she asked Richardson to change his mind and allow the state Public Safety Department to run background checks on the governor's high-level appointees.

Lopez chairs the Senate Rules Committee, which conducts hearings on the governor's appointees before the full Senate votes to confirm.

"Today I conveyed a request to the Governor asking that he reconsider his lack of support for the Senate Rules Committee's new confirmation process — a process which reflects the deepening sensitivity to ethics and good governmental conduct in the state," Lopez said in her statement. "Last year the committee brought greater accountability and credibility to the confirmation procedure, but our efforts were brought to a halt when the governor ordered the Department of Public Safety to stop making appointee background checks available to the Committee."

The statement ended with what could be seen as a not-so-veiled threat. "Sen. Lopez pointed out that if the committee is unable to obtain good background information, it will have difficulty in moving forward with any confirmations."

Spokespeople for the governor Tuesday didn't respond to requests for a response to Lopez's statement. But last year, spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the administration already conducts tough checks on appointees. "We conduct thorough background checks to ensure these individuals have met all statutory, constitutional and ethical requirements for the positions they are appointed," he said. "The Senate Rules Committee is free to do its own evaluations."

But Lopez said that before her committee began having Public Safety conduct background checks, "the governor provided the committee with the names of his nominees and brief background information, but not a lot more. Without background checks, most of the committee's information came from persons supporting — or sometimes opposing — the appointment."

This, Lopez said, "was hit-or-miss," because in some instances the committee missed "important information for extremely sensitive appointments involving fiscal, policy and personnel responsibilities." Lopez's statement doesn't name any appointees in which such information was missed.

Lopez said her committee's procedure for appointees begins with nominees completing a disclosure form with questions about bankruptcies, financial interests, property liens, tax liens and criminal records. The committee compares information from the background information with the disclosure forms.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.