It's All in Who You Know

An advertising and media consultant with ties to the Democratic Party and Gov. Bill Richardson's 2002 gubernatorial campaign is facing a 50-count (state) indictment for money laundering, fraud and other charges centered around a $6.3 million dollar voter education campaign, where he hasn't been able to produce invoices for about half the funds.

It has been discovered that an FBI investigation could be underway into a "click it or ticket" campaign, funded by a mix of state and federal dollars, where the initial contract was estimated to be worth $172,000, yet A. Gutierrez & Associates submitted a final invoice for $441,000.

At issue may also be the fact that Armando Gutierrez did not submit a proper proposal in line with the other applicants, the contract was signed after the fact and the program was administered by an employee assigned by a temporary agency.

Apparently there's no word yet, as to whether any questions have been raised about the $150,000 project Mr. Gutierrez started for the state's Attorney General's office, which was amended six times to become worth more than $1.1 million dollars.