Ethics complaint alleges GOP Rep. Nicole Chavez has improper ties to Project Jupiter
A State Ethics Commission complaint alleges New Mexico Rep. Nicole Chavez failed to fully disclose her husband’s lobbying ties to the Project Jupiter data center development in Southern New Mexico. The complaint also questions her letter urging environmental regulators to expedite the project’s air-quality permitting while her husband represented two Project Jupiter developers.
New Mexico Rep. Nicole Chavez is facing an ethics complaint over her ties to Project Jupiter, a large data center development in Southern New Mexico. Constituents Nancie Furgang and Annette Kalandros asked the New Mexico State Ethics Commission to investigate whether Chavez violated ethics and financial disclosure laws by not fully identifying her husband Roberto Ramirez’s clients.
Ramirez works for Alarid Consulting, whose clients include Project Jupiter developers BorderPlex Digital Assets and Yucca Growth Infrastructure. Chavez also wrote to the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board supporting the project and urging regulators to accelerate its air-quality permitting, but the complaint alleges she did not disclose those connections in the letter.
Chavez called the complaint an election-year political stunt. Her opponent, Lisa Curtis, said voters deserve an independent investigation into officials’ financial relationships with companies they assist.