White's words under the microscope

Republican Darren White and Democrat Martin Heinrich exchange e-mails and blog posts over White's stance nearly a decade ago.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White.

RIO RANCHO -- In what looks to be the first inter-party fireworks in the 1st Congressional District, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White says he has always been against drug legalization, despite accusations from a potential Democratic opponent in the general election, Martin Heinrich. The Heinrich campaign, for their part, wonder if legalization was the real reason White resigned from his cabinet-level position

The controversy began with a post on a New Mexico political blog by Joe Monahan. Monahan printed in his top story slot a question by Edward Marquez, who found an article in the publication Razor Wire.

The article quoted White agreeing with former Republican New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson's stance on the legalization of drugs.

State Public Safety Secretary Darren White said the federal government spends about $17 billion annually to fight drugs, including about $6 million in New Mexico. "And we're probably only seizing 5 to 15 percent of all the drugs coming into the country," White said in an interview. "We're not going to arrest ourselves out of this drug problem. The governor is absolutely right. We should be looking at other options because our current policy is failing."

Heinrich's campaign seized on the blog post and wrote a blog post of their own on the official campaign blog. The Heinrich campaign accused White of "flip-flopping."

"It appears that he supported Gov. Johnson's drug legalization policies before he was against them," said the blog post. The post went on to ask, "Why did you really leave Gov. Johnson's administration? Was it because your fellow police officers overwhelmingly voted no confidence in your leadership?"

Darren White's campaign manager Sara Lister responded with an e-mailed statement about the accusations. She gave evidence that White was always against drug legalization in New Mexico. "Today, Martin Heinrich is falsely stating on his website that Darren White supported Johnson's push for drug legalization," the campaign wrote in the scathing e-mail. "He is shamelessly using a blog as his substantiation. Heinrich's willingness to level this whopper of a false charge is something that should be noted by the press and taken into account in assessing the credibility of his future claims."

On answering the question of whether the vote of no confidence affected his decision, Lister wrote, "The vote of 'no confidence' by the union had absolutely nothing to do with the resignation. That vote was a stunt that had much more to do with a long-standing political dispute between Darren and former Senate President Manny Aragon."

Lister cited an October 22, 1999 Santa Fe New Mexico editorial which said of Aragon:

"Last month, White was given a vote of no confidence from the New Mexico State Police Association; reason enough for the rest of our state's population to be glad he's the top cop. Sen. Aragon's assault, too, should be viewed from the framework of crass politics thus as evidence in favor of leaving the State Police under White's demanding leadership."

The New Mexico Independent was unable to contact Aragon for comment. Aragon was indicted in the Metro Courthouse scandal in March of 2007.

Rick Anglada, at the time Vice President of the Police Association, said in a September 1999 Santa Fe New Mexican article of the no-confidence vote: "A good leader needs to gain the people's trust... you talk to our members, and they don't trust him because he says one thing and does another."

On White's drug credentials, the Lister pointed to a June 23, 1999 Albuquerque Tribune article which reported on the introduction of the legalization issue by Johnson. The campaign supplied this quote from the Tribune article.

Darren White, secretary of the state Public Safety Department, said he frequently discusses drug policy and decriminalization of drugs with the governor.

He said the issue needs to be thoroughly debated because the nation is currently spending about $16 billion on fighting drugs and only seizes about 5 to 15 percent of the drugs coming into the country.

White said he has told the governor, however, that he does not support decriminalization of drug use.

"I'm not there," he said.

However, one story they did not include was a June 24, 1999 Albuquerque Journal article by Loie Fecteau and Michael Coleman. The exact quote the Razor Wire article used appeared in that story.

State Public Safety Secretary Darren White said Wednesday the federal government spends about $17 billion annually to fight drugs, including about $6 million in New Mexico.

"And we're probably only seizing 5 to 15 percent of all the drugs coming into the country," White said in an interview. "We're not going to arrest ourselves out of this drug problem. The governor is absolutely right. We should be looking at other options because our current policy is failing."

But White qualified that quote.

However, White said he does not support decriminalizing drugs.

"White was referring to the fact that the current drug policy was failing when he said the Governor was 'absolutely right,'" Lister clarified.

An October 13, 1999 Associated Press article has similar language to the Journal article.

"White's view has not changed and he continues to use that same line while campaigning for Congress today to make the point that enforcement by itself will not stop drug use," the e-mail from the White campaign said, "White supports additional measures to reduce drug use such as prevention, education, treatment, and sentencing alternatives such as drug courts."

So what was the change that prompted White to resign his post? A November 18, 1999 editorial from the Albuquerque Journal may provide the answer.

Johnson has moved from advocating a discussion of the nation's drug policy to enthusiastic advocacy of legalization of a variety of abused drugs. He has mixed his message, exhorting people that marijuana is a bad choice, but adding that the effect of smoking it, which he has acknowledged doing while in college is "kind of cool."

In any event, though Johnson is talking policy and not advocating breaking the law, he is talking directly against the anti-drug efforts of law enforcement. White, who has been a cop throughout his working life before becoming a cabinet secretary, said the conflict in messages was more than he could continue with.

"He's made this his No. 1 issue and it goes against the grain of everything I believe," said White.

While the talk of lesser penalties and other changes to drug policy were alright with White, it seems the move to outright legalization hastened White's exit from the cabinet-level position.  It was on October 6, 1999 where the Johnson's plan to legalize drugs went public.

White submitted his resignation letter four weeks later, on November 17, 1999.

"Earlier this summer, I welcomed your call for a national discussion on our country's drug policy," White said in a resignation letter to the Republican governor, according to the Albuquerque Journal. "However, since that time, you have taken policy positions that I do not share."

Johnson repeatedly said he did not ask for White's resignation and that the resignation was fully voluntary.

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