Another instance of [alleged] inappropriate activity from Maggie Toulouse Oliver

Could it be that Maggie Toulouse Oliver has been more than simply using her Twitter account to engage in what appears to be illegal electioneering!?

It seems that according to Maggie Toulouse Oliver, using any tool to get an edge and win an election is worthwhile and to be taken advantage of.  Is this the kind of behavior we should expect to see from someone who would be our Secretary of State?

Maggie Toulose Oliver appears to have used her county website for campaign purposes

On September 21, Toulouse Oliver posted a controversial update to her website which was extremely harsh and unnecessarily critical of Secretary of State Dianna Duran, the incumbent she is seeking to unseat.  Although Ms. Toulouse Oliver’s attack ad may still be found online where Toulouse Oliver apparently cross-posted it, Ms. Toulouse Oliver ordered her office to remove the attack on Sec. of State Dianna Duran, from the county’s website on the advice of Bernalillo County legal advisers.  The ad begins:

Despite a number of hurdles due to legal action and problematic ballot design processes overseen by the Secretary of State’s office, Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver announced today that her office successfully mailed ballots to overseas and military voters yesterday, meeting the federal deadline for sending those ballots to voters who had already applied before the deadline.

As a result of litigation instigated by Secretary of State Dianna Duran’s refusal to place two county advisory questions on the ballot, the Supreme Court ultimately held that the Secretary did not have the authority to block the questions and was ordered to cooperate with County Clerk Toulouse Oliver and her counterpart, County Clerk Geraldine Salazar in Santa Fe County, to ensure the ballots included both counties’ questions.  Upon the court’s ruling late Friday afternoon, Bernalillo County finally received its first set of ballot proofs from the Secretary of State’s office containing the two county questions at approximately 7:30 p.m.

[Read more]

[See screenshot 1 & screenshot 2]

On October 21st, a month after Toulouse Oliver posted the attack piece on her opponent Secretary of State Dianna Duran, Carolyn Freeman, an Albuquerque resident filed a complaint against Maggie Toulouse Oliver claiming Toulose Oliver has been using her county website for a campaign ad.  The complaint says Ms. Oliver had “an improper and false campaign ad on the County Clerk website from 22 September until 15 October.”

The complaint filed by Freeman continues to list sections of code of conduct potentially violated, “The use of a government resource or property for private political gain,” Freeman’s complaint continues, “The web post was a false and offensive ad promoting Clerk Toulouse Oliver for Secretary of State.  The ad was contrary to the spirit and letter of the Bernalillo County Code of Conduct, prohibiting the use of public office for personal gain.  The false campaign ad undermines the ‘public confidence in the integrity of government’ and it is ‘incompatible with the best interests of the County.’ “

Freeman’s complaint continues to list the campaign ad as violating numerous city code sections prohibiting the use of county property and resources for political activity and likely involving additional county employees in the unlawful activity during business hours.The entire complaint can be viewed at the bottom of this post.

Why has Maggie Toulouse Oliver been repeatedly engaging in what appears to be misuse of county resources to promote her campaign?!  Why has she been doing what appears to be electioneering from her county clerk’s office?

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