From Joe Monahan’s blog: New Mexico lobbyist Mickey Barnett, nominated by George Bush for a seat on the USPS Board of Governors, suffered a major defeat in his home state last week. The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously threw out a lawsuit Barnett filed seeking to block a primary challenge to one of his allies, State Rep Keith Gardner.

Now it appears that the Barnett faction, called an ”out-of-control cancer” by one opponent, may face a further, more important defeat, as anti-Barnett Roswell oilman Mark Murphy considers a run for state GOP chair.

New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan

Lobbyist Mickey Barnett, nominated by George Bush for a seat on the USPS Board of Governors, is still actively pushing the cause of payday loan operators in his home state of New Mexico- from last Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal:

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In a letter to Senator Susan Collins, former New Mexico GOP whip Earlene Roberts says that BOG nominee Mickey Barnett has “engaged in ‘Jack Abramoff’ style politics here in New Mexico”. Roberts went on to suggest that “Mr. Barnett’s questionable political activities… make him unfit and unqualified for public service”.

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Letter going to the American Postal Workers Union and National Association of Letter Carriers:

re: Mickey D. Barnett,
Nominee to US Postal
Service Board of Directors

As you perhaps know, Mickey D. Barnett has been nominated by the President to serve on the Postal Service Board of Directors. There are some things the Letter Carriers may wish to know about Mr. Barnett concerning his fitness to serve in this position.

First, and perhaps of most important to the letter carriers is Mr. Barnett’s affiliation with the National Right to Work Committee. Barnett was its chief mover in its attempt to make New Mexico a Right-to-Work state. Mr. Barnett’s efforts in opposing organized labor makes his service on the Postal Service Board very suspect and not helpful to harmonious relations between the letter carriers and management.

Barnett is also the New Mexico lobbyist for the payday loan industry. In fact, while serving in the New Mexico Senate, Barnett introduced the legislation that led to New Mexico’s repeal of the interest rate caps on these lending institutions. Consumer groups rate New Mexico as one of the two worst states when it comes to regulating payday loans. Rates can reach 500 percent or more when calculated on an annual basis. Barnett has recently filed suit against New Mexico Attorney General, Patricia Madrid who is trying to administratively regulate the industry.

Given Mr. Barnett’s past record, and controversial deportment, I can’t believe he would or could be fair-minded with your initiatives, programs and ideas.

Sincerely,

Ron Godbey, Retired Member
New Mexico House of Representatives

I think we all realized that BOG nominee Mickey Barnett’s payday loan clients were sleazy. It turns out that they are also endangering America’s defenses.

This charge comes not from some wacko anti-business activist, but from the US Navy, which was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to pass in Washington State the same kind of payday loan legislation Barnett fought against in New Mexico.

“Rear Adm. William French, the Navy’s Northwest commander, testified that payday lenders deliberately ensnare sailors in debt, hindering combat readiness.”

Well, never mind, as long as the loan sharks pay their lobbying bills on time…

Beyond his cameo role in the Bush 2000 ‘election’ saga, USPS Board of Governors nominee Mickey Barnett is best known in New Mexico as a lobbyist and GOP power broker. One of his big clients has been the payday loan industry, which hired him to oppose regulations that could have limited such abusive practices as triple-digit interest rates. Another client is an Indian tribe (sound familiar?) which he helped in its fight against a union organizing effort. He also works for Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison operator. Barnett led the list of lobbyists in an Albuquerque Journal story in January 2005 entitled “Gambling Industry Is N.M.’s 800-Pound Gorilla“. To be fair, it should be noted that Barnett’s influence peddling has not been entirely ideological. He was quite happy to take money from organizations that favored legalizing marijuana until GOP big wigs suggested it was just a little bit embarrassing for an RNC member to be seen shilling for dope smokers.

Barnett’s lobbying may have cost him as post as GOP National Committee member from New Mexico in 2004. According to a story in the Albuquerque Journal, George Buffet, the small businessman who defeated him, “…campaigned, in part, by criticizing Barnett’s lobbying work… Buffett says the national committeeman should not be involved in lobbying because it creates a conflict of interest… ‘fundamentally, people don’t believe politics should be for sale.’”

Prior to being ousted from his RNC seat, Barnett was described by former New Mexico GOP chair Ramsay Gorham as “ruthlessly vindictive against any legislator who votes against his drug or gambling clients.” Gorham also suggested that in New Mexico, “The Republicans will never become the majority party as long as Mickey Barnett is in office”.

George Bush yesterday nominated Mickey D. Barnett of New Mexico and Katherine C. Tobin of New York to be members of the US Postal Service Board of Governors.

Barnett, a Republican from Albuquerque was a curious footnote to the disputed 2000 election that ultimately placed Bush in the White House. While GOP lawyers in Florida were scrambling to prevent ballots from being counted by hand, Barnett was taking the exact opposite position in New Mexico, where vote counts had Bush losing. As the New York Times reported at the time, “In asking the court to address his concern, Mickey D. Barnett, a lawyer for the party, used the same arguments that lawyers for Mr. Gore have pressed in courts across Florida against Mr. Bush.”

Barnett contributed $13,500 to Republican campaigns from 2002 through this year.