There was lots to like about Darren White, the Albuquerque cop Gov. Gary Johnson put in his Cabinet as public safety secretary back in the mid-1990s. The young Army veteran took a gung-ho approach to the job, as Northern New Mexicans soon saw: His was a high-profile presence in the multi-agency raids that were a strong response to the concerns of Chimayó residents under siege from drug gangs.

White got a taste of what norteños are up against one day as he got out of his unmarked, but antenna-laden command car: A local thief dying for a fix came up and offered him a good deal on a leather jacket — stolen from an Española store. Busted. For a while, at least, the drug scourge was lifted from Chimayó — and he's not forgotten in the Santa Cruz Valley.

Secretary White relished his crime-fighter role, and the attention that went with it. Politics appealed to him, and he appealed to voters — especially right-wingers: He was twice elected Bernalillo County sheriff, and is a darling of the law-and-order bloc.

But halfway through his second term, he got the itch to run for Congress — and was solidly thumped by Martin Heinrich for our state's First District seat in the 2008 election. Now he's Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry's director of public safety, where he's received a vote of no confidence from the police officers' union — a badge of honor, to many people's way of thinking.

But as sheriff of our state's most populous county, he did no great honor to the office, it turns out: He was especially generous to a campaign contributor, buying drunken-driving monitors from him that proved worthless.

Worse, his war-on-crime zeal drove him to order his officers to seize cash and property from people they arrested — before bothering to charge them with a crime. His callous regard for the Constitution, and his failure to return money to his arrestee/victims, got him taken to court — where a judge found him and the county owing $3 million in confiscated assets.

But such behavior must be music to the ears of our new governor: Susana Martínez has appointed White to the state Judicial Standards Commission. That supposedly bipartisan and independent commission investigates complaints of judicial misconduct.

For the commission to have any credibility, its members must be absolutely above reproach, and they're expected to demonstrate judgment untainted by partisan politics.

This guy plays to the tea-party gallery with great gusto. He was an active campaigner for Martínez, and appeared on TV commercials with her. Pretty clearly, he's got some political payback coming — but Judicial Standards? That's crazy.

The governor should return to her senses — and huddle with White over a graceful exit from the commission. She ought to consider another appointment for him; one where he can complement her prosecutorial enthusiasm, and one necessitating his resignation from this position where ethics questions come up so often.