SENATE REPUBLICANS NEWS RELEASE
Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer (R-Farmington) today called on Representative Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) to immediately step down as chair of the legislative Truth Commission investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to New Mexico, and to resign her seat in the House of Representatives, following new revelations about her unethical and blatantly illegal conduct and actions in office.
Sharer announced that he has formally filed an administrative complaint with the New Mexico State Ethics Commission, alleging that Romero improperly used taxpayer funds appropriated to the Truth Commission to pay a contractor to conduct research and draft press and social media statements to manage the political fallout from her separate, unlawful employment at the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
“Representative Romero was already caught taking a state job the Attorney General himself says was unlawful for a sitting legislator to hold,” said Senator Sharer. “Now the evidence suggests she used taxpayer dollars appropriated for a Truth Commission investigating one of the most notorious predators in modern history to instead pay a contractor to clean up her own political mess. That is not what that money was for, and it is exactly the kind of self-dealing New Mexico’s Governmental Conduct Act was written to stop.”
Sharer’s complaint cites NMSA 1978, Section 10-16-3, which requires public officers to treat their positions as a public trust and prohibits using public resources to advance personal interests. The complaint asks the Ethics Commission to investigate, levy fines if the claims are substantiated, and refer the matter for criminal prosecution.
Senate Republican Leader Sharer also renewed concerns raised by the Truth Commission’s own Republican members, Representatives Andrea Reeb and Bill Hall, who have publicly accused Romero of removing a reference to gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland’s 2014 flight on an Epstein-chartered jet from the commission’s interim report, after the commission had reportedly agreed the reference would be included.
“Representative Romero sits atop a commission whose entire purpose is to get the public the truth about Epstein’s presence in this state, and her own colleagues on that commission say she pulled a sitting Democrat candidate for governor out of the report to protect her politically,” the Senator said. “New Mexicans cannot trust a Truth Commission chair who appears willing to edit the truth when it’s politically inconvenient for her own party.”
Senator Sharer said Representative Romero’s continued service, both as commission chair and as a member of the Legislature, has become untenable.
“Every day Representative Romero remains in these positions is a day New Mexicans are asked to trust someone who has shown she will misuse public resources and intentionally hide the truth for political convenience,” Sharer said. “She should step down as chair of the Truth Commission immediately, and given the seriousness of these allegations, she should resign from the Legislature altogether.”
Senator Sharer has also renewed his calls for the Truth Commission (after Rep. Romero’s resignation) to immediately issue legally-binding subpoenas ordering Deb Haaland and Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury to testify publicly about their alleged connections to Jeffrey Epstein.