Report: NM Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham Broke Lockdown to Buy Jewelry

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) bought jewelry in April from a non-essential business which had been closed by her own lockdown order, according to a local report.

KRQE News reports:

KRQE News 13 has learned in April, when she ordered non-essential businesses to shut down and lectured all New Mexicans to stay home, a non-essential business opened up so she could buy jewelry and have it delivered to her. … [J]ust days after the April 3rd news conference and a week before Easter, KRQE News 13 has learned that Gov. Lujan Grisham called an employee at Lilly Barrack on Paseo to buy expensive jewelry. The jewelry was bought over the phone, but the employee went to the store, got the jewelry and placed it outside the door of the store where someone who knew the governor picked it up. This is according to the person who runs Lilly Barrack stores. She says she didn’t know about it until after it happened. She also said no one was allowed in the stores at that time due to the public health order.

In a statement to KRQE News 13, a spokesperson for Lujan Grisham provided a different version of events described above: “Lujan Grisham did call an employee, saying they had a longstanding personal relationship. The employee came here [Lilly Barrack], got the jewelry and took it home, left it outside their home and then someone came and picked it up.”

On April 30, Lujan Grisham extended her state’s stay-at-home order to May 15 but eased restrictions, allowing non-essential retailers, state parks, and golf courses to operate with strict guidelines.

The report comes after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) husband is said to have urged a dock company to place his boat in the water ahead of Memorial Day weekend, despite pandemic guidelines.

Detroit News reported:

The owner of a Northern Michigan dock company says Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s husband wanted his boat placed in the water before the Memorial Day weekend as Whitmer urged residents not to rush to the region. No longer visible to the public, Facebook posts from NorthShore Dock LLC and its owner, Tad Dowker, focused on what Dowker said was a request last week by Whitmer’s husband, Marc Mallory. The posts have drawn the attention of Republican state lawmakers, who said the Democratic governor’s family may not be following her guidance for the rest of the state. Whitmer’s spokeswoman, Tiffany Brown, didn’t confirm or deny Monday the assertions by the marina company or its owner. Brown said the administration wouldn’t address “every rumor that is spread online.”

In a Tuesday press conference, Whitmer attempted to blame her husband’s “failed attempt at humor” for the reported request.

“Knowing it wouldn’t make a difference, he jokingly asked if being married to me might move him up in the queue,” the Michigan governor said. “Obviously with the motorized boating prohibition in our early days of COVID-19, he thought it might get a laugh. It didn’t.”

Earlier May, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) admitted his wife recently traveled to their South Florida estate despite the state’s stay-at-home order.

“My wife and daughter were down in Florida in early March and, in fact even a little before that, and you know, they sheltered in place when the stay-at-home order came up,” he said at the time.