Judas Richardson's approval ratings have plummeted to his all-time low of 41 percent

Daily Beast - By Sally Denton

In the span of a few short months, Richardson has gone from a luminous star in America’s political galaxy to a powerless pariah in the twilight zone. The second-term governor of New Mexico, whose term does not expire until 2011, is now plagued by the aura of scandal and is the lamest of lame ducks. Fending off a plethora of accusations, Richardson has watched his in-state approval ratings plummet to his all-time low of 41 percent. His political clout with the state legislature is severely weakened, and party leaders are discreetly lobbying for his resignation so that Democratic Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish can ascend as planned. “His popularity has really declined in the state,” says Democrat Timothy Jennings, the state senate’s president pro tempore.
Dubbed GRIPGate—for Governor Richardson’s Investment Partnership, which he formed to fund public-transportation projects—the pay-to-play probe is part of a larger national investigation of bid rigging in the municipal-bond market. The federal grand jury seated in Albuquerque has subpoenaed correspondence and political contribution records from Richardson’s office dating back to 2002, including records from the Democratic Governors Association during the period of 2005 to 2006, when Richardson served as its chairman. That subpoena focuses particularly on the records of two of Richardson’s top aides, as well as correspondence with two Colorado men: Chris Romer and Michael Stratton. Romer, a Colorado state senator and the son of former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer Jr., was the lead executive for JPMorgan Chase, which was the senior underwriter on $1 billion in bonds sold by the state to pay for Richardson’s GRIP transportation projects. Stratton, who was the senior political adviser to Richardson’s presidential campaign, owns a Denver-based consulting firm that was hired by JPMorgan to lobby the Richardson administration. (See full story here)