Sleazy

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is asking public employees in his state to assist him with his primary campaign in Iowa [h/t TPM].

State employees were invited to the lunch hour meeting by the campaign with messages sent to private e-mail accounts and, in some cases, private cell phones.

Among those who attended was Gilbert Gallegos, communications director in the governor's office.

"The governor ... was very frank. He said, 'I know this time of year it might be difficult and don't worry about it if you can't go, but many of you have supported me in the past and if you are able to do so, I think it could be a big help,'" said Gallegos, who will be in Iowa from Dec. 26 through Jan. 4.

At the meeting, "it was stressed that everybody who wanted to go would have to take time off, use their annual leave and pay their own way. The campaign would help if they wanted to make arrangements or car pool or that sort of thing," said Gallegos.

Critics say Richardson's appeal for campaign volunteers makes it difficult for state workers to say no to their ultimate boss.

"You just hope that none of these employees are feeling compelled to do this out of fear of what might happen if the governor doesn't win the presidency and comes back to the state and then starts trying to count who helped him and who didn't help him," said Scott Darnell, a spokesman for the state Republican Party.

[...]

Fewer than 100 people attended the meeting last month in Santa Fe, he said, and it included gubernatorial appointees in the administration -- who are named to their jobs by Richardson -- as well as employees covered by civil service protections.

Is this legal? Possibly not. Is it right? Certainly not.*

New Mexico's Civil Service law explicitly prohibits classified state employees from "engaging in political activity while on duty."

1.7.6.10

PROHIBITED POLITICAL ACTIVITIES:

Employees are prohibited from:

A. using official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election or a nomination for office or for any other political purpose;

B. directly or indirectly coercing, attempting to coerce, commanding, or advising a state or local officer or employee to pay, lend, or contribute anything of value to a party, committee, organization, agency, or person for a political purpose;

C. threatening to deny promotions or pay increases to any employee who does not vote for certain candidates, requiring employees to contribute a percentage of their pay to a political fund, influencing subordinate employees to buy tickets to political fund-raising dinners and similar events, advising employees to take part in political activity, and matters of a similar nature;

D. engaging in a political activity while on duty; or

E. being an officer of a political organization.

Richardson is apparently working around this prohibition by "asking" state employees to use their own annual leave to help in the campaign. In addition, the story indicates the campaign, and not state officials, sent the invitations to the meeting where the request was made.

However, a case could be made that asking them to pay their own way violates Section B with regard to:

directly or indirectly coercing, attempting to coerce, commanding, or advising a state or local officer or employee to pay, lend, or contribute anything of value to a party, committee, organization, agency, or person for a political purpose;

But even if Governor Richardson's request is technically within the law, this is a sleazy maneuver.

It is inevitable that state employees would feel pressured to participate in this scheme whether they want to or not, especially when Richardson himself is making the request. The main purpose of the classified Civil Service is to protect public employees from political pressure. Richardson's "invitation" to his employees certainly violates the spirit, if not necessarily the letter, of that law.

He should know better.

_{* Edited slightly for clarity}