Senate: State police should protect lieutenant governor

Denish has been using private security firms

Deborah Baker | The Associated Press

2/11/2008 -

Lawmakers put money in the budget last year for Lt. Gov. Diane Denish to have security, with the intent she spend it on state police.

But Gov. Bill Richardson's office nixed the use of state police, so she uses the money to hire private security for those occasional times when she feels she needs it.

Now, she's been told that because she has private security, she won't get state police protection even when Richardson is gone and she is acting governor.

Senate leaders have complained about the situation throughout the session, adding to the strained relationship between them and the Governor's Office.

"I think it's wrong," President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, told the Senate Rules Committee last week when state police Chief Faron Segotta appeared for his confirmation hearing.

"When you go up to the Governor's Office, there are officers falling all over themselves up there," said Jennings, who is frequent critic of Richardson.

According to Public Safety Secretary John Denko, the decision not to make state police available to Denish was made by the Governor's Office.

Senate leaders say there are about 16 officers on the governor's security detail; the administration wouldn't provide a precise number.

Denish, who as lieutenant governor presides over the Senate, says the money for security — there was $106,500 allocated for contractual services — was proposed to her by the late President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano of Silver City.

Historically, lieutenant governors haven't been provided security when they're going about their duties as lieutenant governor.

Denish said she is the only female lieutenant governor without full- or part-time security. And she said even when she has been acting governor, she hasn't always been provided security.

She cited several worrisome incidents during her tenure. She said she was forced off Interstate 25 onto the shoulder once while driving alone at dusk; she had car trouble on I-25 and called the governor's security detail at the mansion to alert them she might need assistance; and was confronted in the parking lot of an Albuquerque radio station by a "very agitated" man with marital problems who had heard her on the air and sought her out.

Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for Richardson, said the governor "tries to accommodate her as much as possible when she requests security." The Governor's Office was surprised about the security funding and "baffled" by her hiring private security, he said.

He also said it can be problematic to pull security officers away from the governor's detail.

According to Gallegos, Chief of Staff James Jimenez told Denish's staff that since she now had private security, he didn't see the need for state police security — but if she wanted it, she should make the request to Jimenez.

Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, says the Governor's Office should provide Denish security out of consideration for her.

"Any more, the way things are, I think she's entitled to a little bit of security," agreed the chamber's Republican leader, Stuart Ingle of Portales.