Emails, sent and unsent, reveal secrets of state - The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Emails, sent and unsent, reveal secrets of state
The New Mexican
The state Public Education Department is having an email problem. Reporter Steve Terrell detailed how Public Education Department employees helped a political operative gather a list of teacher email addresses -- first all state teachers, then culling the general list to only those from nonunion districts. Both lists, after the verbal request, were sent out post-haste. Just a routine public-records request, say the parties involved. Those would be Republican operative Jay McCleskey, the man behind the curtain,
so to speak. He's so powerful in his assistance to
Gov. Susana Martinez that his nickname is the "fifth floor." He has been paid more than $100,000 by her political action committee for his advice. Also involved, education department spokesman Larry Behrens, the person who answered McCleskey's request, directing employees to gather teachers' email addresses -- the kind of list-making state agencies seldom do for reporters or members of the public.
We don't know the purpose of the lists, and a request for teachers' home addresses was turned down. However, it's a good bet that the teacher information has to do with the Martinez administration's attempt to redo the teacher-evaluation system. What failed legislatively, Martinez and her still unconfirmed Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera, are attempting to do through administrative