Posted on 09/17/2009 11:27:18 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
SANTA FE, N.M. - Gov. Bill Richardson spent almost $139,000 for dinners and receptions at the governor's mansion last year, entertaining thousands of guests including movie stars George Clooney and Robert Duvall. A discretionary expense account covers the costs of the events. Spending from the fund was up 63 percent from 2007, when the governor campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination and traveled extensively outside of New Mexico.
Expenditures totaled $138,925 in 2008, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press in response to a public records request. That is up from $85,197 in 2007 from $109,486 in 2006.
About 85 events were held at the governor's residence last year and nearly 5,200 guests attended, according to Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for Richardson.
The governor's mansion is a single-story territorial style house on a hilltop north of Santa Fe. The governor and first lady Barbara Richardson live in private quarters, and the larger public areas are used for formal dinners and receptions.
Clooney and actor Kevin Spacey were guests at a dinner last November when they were in New Mexico for a film project. Duvall and actor Jeff Bridges attended a dinner last September when they were shooting a film in the Santa Fe area. Other celebrities entertained at the governor's mansion included actors Robert Redford and Ruben Blades, country music star Toby Keith and comedian Paul Rodriguez.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Guess I should count myself among the elite — I was invited to dinner at the NM governor’s mansion, but under a different governor.
NM list PING!
And they gave Sarah crap for serving hot dogs during the governor’s pick (and stepping down).
After spending a week in NM on vacation, I was surprised at how much $$$ is in Santa Fe.
Some years back I remember reading that Santa Fe had more millionaires per capita than any place in the US. In all the years I’ve been around Santa Fe, I’ve only met a few millionaires, one was an old girlfriend whose family’s wealth was measured in the hundreds of millions, but most people in and around Santa Fe are like the rest of us, struggling to get by. It is a high cost of living city with typical, low NM wages and limited opportunities for young people. It is also horribly overcrowded in the summer, as tourist flock there to see God knows what.
We had a state contract, and as a result, one day I found myself cleaning the carpets of the Governor's Mansion (actually took about a week) when Alice King hunted me and my helper down, and told us we had to stop for lunch.
We thought we were in some kind of trouble, but she had us follow her to the kitchen where she made a big pile of tuna salad sandwiches. Then she went and got Bruce, and they sat down and ate lunch with us. Nice folks. By then, he was a lame duck on the last legs of his first term after Jerry Apodaca had gotten elected.
They asked, and I told them I'd voted (for the first time) for Joe Skeen. They were gracious and never made me feel uncomfortable about it, and she fed us lunch every day we were there.
My dad, who was an old-school NM Republican Party guy (hence my own personal politics) was real happy that I'd told Bruce I voted for Skeen, but kind of put out that I'd broken bread with the King (his favorite bumper sticker was “49 other states got Governors, we got stuck with a King). He was an old friend of Mechem, Skeen, Cargo, and Bolack and didn't much cotton to Democrats.
It sure wasn't a Hollywood dinner party, but I do have to say, they were sure nice people at the level at which I met them. I'm not sure the current occupants would do the same for the "help", especially once Big Bill found out they hadn't voted for him (he's real big on "loyalty" I hear).
Yes, I had dinner with the King’s too. They were very nice, old time pioneer friendly. Alice died suddenly a year or so ago and Bruce just went into the hospital for heart related issues (pacemaker replacement maybe??). At the old Furrs Cafeteria on Cordova Road, Bruce would come in and go around to all the tables and introduce himself to everyone. He mangles the English language worse than W. “Opening a box of Pandora’s” is one of his sayings.
My instance was when a state employee I had been tapped to provide technical expertise to a group of Congressional staffers from DC. We were touring in the Grants area and were told mid-morning that we were invited to dinner with spouses at the Governor’s mansion. One of the participants from ABQ called his wife and was on the phone where we could hear and asked this question:
“Hon, what are you having for dinner??”
(response unknown)
How would you like to go out for dinner?? We have an invite.
(response something like “who invited us?”
We’ve been invited to dinner with Governor King at the Mansion!!
(response was “WHAT!!” followed by a bunch of questions.)
They did make it to dinner.
Santa Fe has a lot of society dropouts living off Daddy or Grandpa’s trust. As liberal as San Francisco. Artsy fartsy types who don’t work except when they want to. There are also poor Hispanics and Indians who struggle to make ends meet in a society where home prices are now affordable only by the wealthy. This is Richardson’s congressional district and very liberal/socialist.
They now have commuter rail going to the city (built by Richardson of course) which is popular with tourists and those from ABQ alike. There is no parking anywhere near downtown in the summer and the train takes you to downtown and back to ABQ for the price of a Big Mac Combo meal. Very heavily subsidized of course, but well used as it just opened up nine months ago. Over the labor day weekend they had over 26,400 passengers ride the trains.
The old Furrs Cafeteria on Cordova Rd.
Now you’ve gone and made me homesick.
That was my family’s “go to town and have a nice dinner” place (we were awfully “country”).
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