Dave Contarino, Bill Richardson and assorted Staff Sweat out the Summer

This summer events were supposed to come to a head as the Federal Grand Jury was in New Mexico investigated CDR financial products and in Alabama the trial of Mayor Langford gets ready to start in Alabama. As of now the New Mexico case is still in the air:

To answer the most popular and potentially menacing question in New Mexico politics for the umpteenth time: We don't know if and when there will be indictments in the federal investigation into the state's GRIP transportation program. But we can tell you that speculation again went off the charts this weekend when the US Attorney's office did not come with any indictments. That's because the Legal Beagles say an apparent three month extension of the federal grand jury investigation expired last week. Federal white-collar crimes have a statute of limitations of five years, but potential defendants can waive that statute to gain time to develop arguments that their activities were not illegal.


It was GRIP bonds sold over five years ago with the aid of California financial firm CDR that brought the statue into play. Insiders said an extension was agreed to by potential defendants (Our complete May 4 coverage is here). Now that that extension has apparenlty expired a whole new round of questions has been sparked by this story that is having a major impact on the shape of the 2010 election, as well as the perception of New Mexico around the nation.


And those questions are: Have indictments been issued, but remain sealed? Has yet another extension of the grand jury probe--this one for perhaps a month or so--been engineered? Or is it all over? Has the probe that started a year ago last August sputtered to an end and temporary US Attorney Greg Fouratt come up empty-handed?


Top Big Bill aides Dave Contarino and David Harris are the most frequently mentioned potential indictment targets, but even an indictment of the Governor has been the subject of speculation. A state official recently confirmed that the CDR case was on the desk of US Attorney General Eric Holder awaiting his assessment. That would seem to indicate that the grand jury probe into the CDR matter is complete, and no further grand jury extension was given. But who knows?


To do their jobs, Mr. Fouratt and AG Holder want (and need) to be oblivious to the political implications. No one wants to discourage the weeding out of wrongdoing. But if the decision on where to go from here is indeed on the desk of Mr. Holder, isn't it time to act on CDR? Remember, this case is just the beginning. Even after CDR is acted on, there are other federal investigations into possible campaign pay-to-play schemes to complete.

Of course there are numerous issues still floating around as well as the recent subpoena of records from the Allegheny airport in Pennsylvania.