Zac Anaya, a Rio Rancho Republican running for the New Mexico House of Representatives, on Wednesday said he filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission against his opponent, incumbent Rep. Joshua Hernandez (R-Rio Rancho), for allegedly violating the New Mexico Financial Disclosure Act.
In a statement, Anaya accused Hernandez of not disclosing the lobbying clients of his romantic partner and business associate, Skye Devore. Anaya argued that the law requires Hernandez to disclose clients of Devore, who is listed as a strategist on the website for Hernandez’s consulting company, LWE Digital. Anaya would not provide Source NM with a copy of his State Ethics Commission complaint, citing “confidentiality laws.”
Anaya said Hernandez appeared to violate a state law that says that if a lawmaker’s company employs a registered lobbyist, the lawmaker must disclose the names and addresses of that lobbyist’s recent clients. That section of Hernandez’s disclosure form was left blank.
In a statement, Hernandez told Source NM that Anaya was “clearly using the Ethics Commission for political gain.”
“This is an issue that he should have referred to the Secretary of State,” Hernandez wrote. “I’m confident that I have complied with the law and I will get with the SOS immediately to ensure compliance. State law allows disclosure statements to be amended at any time.”
Online records from the New Mexico Secretary of State show Devore has registered as a lobbyist for several companies and organizations in recent years, including PNM, the American Diabetes Association and Alarid Consulting, the firm of Vanessa Alarid, whose husband is state Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas (D-Albuquerque).
When reached by phone, Devore told Source NM that she was not previously aware of the allegations, “So I wouldn’t know where to start on that.”
“I can say with 1,000% certainty that I do not own any portion of LWE,” she said. “I feel confident I have not violated any kind of ethics code.”
In a statement, Anaya said that “the law is not complicated” and that he wouldn’t comment further while the State Ethics Commission reviewed his complaint. A spokesperson for the State Ethics Commission told Source NM that state law prevents them from confirming or denying the existence of such complaints.
“The fact that the commission acted so quickly in accepting my complaint indicates the importance of this issue to our electoral process and government transparency,” Anaya wrote. “This complaint asks the Commission to do what the law already requires — hold a legislator accountable for the sworn representations he makes on a public disclosure form.”
