Political Science ETDs

Publication Date

12-23-1968

Abstract

The office of Attorney General in New Mexico is a very powerful office but also a very restricted one. This study examines the various roles available to the Attorney general and the degree to which they are compatible or in conflict. The interplay of these roles is viewed as the basis for the influence exercised by the office and also the difficulties which it encounters. The history of the office offers some insight into its present operation. The territorial Period from 1848 50 1912 was characterized by active competition for the office and by numerous attempts to make it a center of power in the territorial government. On the other hand, the Statehood Period from 1912 to the present, which witnessed the replacement of appointment by election as a means of selection for the position, has been characterized by considerable in-house recruitment and by legal and political restraints. Although Attorneys general have been able to name their successors in most cases, they have failed universally to achieve higher elective office themselves. The Attorney General as an administrator is responsible for supervising a sizeable budget and staff. Although no rigid formal divisions have been created in the office, an informal structure based generally on seniority has develop. Inadequate budgets have resulted in insufficient staff and an unusual amount of overtime work for the office. The Attorney general has even been forced to go to other agencies for funds in some cases, compounding the financial problems of the office. The Attorney General exercises his greatest influence as chief legal counsel for the state. Legal advice in both oral and written form is eagerly sought by many state agencies as their authority to act. Assistant Attorneys General have been able to achieve important policy-making positions in some agencies as a result. However, the Attorney General in handicapped in that some agencies employ their own legal counsel, who tend to act independently of the Attorney General’s office. The Attorney General is restricted as a law enforcer largely to criminal appeals and habeas corpus cases, miscellaneous minor legal work, and requested investigations. District Attorneys have been given primary responsibility for prosecutions by law, and the Attorney General has been denied the common law powers which his counterparts in many other states possess. The Attorney General have been politically active as a group, and the office itself has often been the center of many partisan political controversies. Although the Attorney General’s office has been dominated by the same political party for the last forty years there are virtually no partisan requirements for staff members. Most stuff members feel that they are not influenced by their political party affiliation in the performance of their duties, and the majority of those interviewed favor retention of election as opposed to appointment as a means of selection of the Attorney General. The relations between the Attorney General and others with whom he has extensive contact vary considerably. Competition with the governor for control of the executive branch, conflict with the legislature over funds, unforgiveable judicial decisions by the courts, and criticism from the press have all affected the Attorney General in the performance of his roles. In particular, the demand by the press that he act as a protector of the “public interest” has added to the number of roles he must play. The Attorney General has at least five identifiable roles: (1) administrator and agency head, (2) chief legal counsel for the state, (3) chief law enforcement officer for the state, (4) political partisan and office-seeker, and (5) protector of the public interest. He may exercise his greatest influence and power when one or more of these roles is in conflict, since he must decide which is to prevail. The behavior of the attorney General is thus guided to a great extent by the role complex.

Degree Name

Political Science

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Political Science

First Committee Member (Chair)

Tommie Phillip Wolf

Second Committee Member

Dorothy I. Cline

Third Committee Member

William Miner Dabney

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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