Is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigating? What about the FBI? How about a federal grand jury? Anyone? Those were the questions that came in rapid fire order as news broke of a possible pay to play scandal that sounded all to familiar to Mr. and Mrs. New Mexico.

This time the lure of the state's gigantic investment funds is alleged to have been used to procure campaign contributions from the executives of investment firms to benefit a Governor Susana Martinez. In turn, the firms got hundreds of millions of our billions to invest and were compensated with hefty fees for doing so.

It was another SIC scandal that helped propel Gov. Martinez into office in 2010 as she attacked Gov. Richardson for a pay-to-pay scandal involving the state investment cash that nearly resulted in federal indictments. Now everyone is holding their noses as the stench of hypocrisy rises to the fore in these, the waning months of the Martinez administration

Now the details. The out of state press in the form of the The International Business Times came with the scoop:

An IBT/MapLight investigation shows that when it comes to campaign cash from managers of state investments, Martinez turned a blind eye to the ethical standards she championed. During her tenure, New Mexico has been giving lucrative investment deals to financial firms whose executives have delivered big campaign donations to Martinez and to groups that have supported her election campaigns -- a situation that may have violated the very pay-to-play rules that were passed in the wake of New Mexico’s previous scandals.

Under Martinez. . . state funds managing more than $33 billion have shifted more money into higher-risk investments--resulting in below-average returns, but generating at least $729 million worth of fees in just the last 4 years. Amid that shift, New Mexico committed at least $757 million to eight financial firms while donors linked to those firms have collectively given more than $1.2 million to Martinez and political groups supporting her. 

How's that for starters? Here's some more gore:

In some cases, investments flowed to firms whose top officials gave directly to Martinez--even though the Securities and Exchange Commission’s pay-to-play rule aims to prevent such donations. Some investments went to donors to the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) --which delivered money to Martinez-linked super PACs. Other investments went to donors to the Republican Governors Association (RGA), which Martinez chaired after it spent $2.5 million in New Mexico to boost her campaigns. RGA donors whose firms got investment deals include Wilbur Ross, who is now the U.S. Commerce secretary, and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. . .

And who heads up Martinez's PACS and makes big bucks doing so?  Why, it's your old pal and mine, "Shadow Governor" Jay McCleskey. And it wasn't just the Jay PACS getting a payday courtesy of this investment wheeling and dealing. Jay's wife, pollster Nicole McCleskey, also appeared to benefit:

Macquarie Capital -- The Australian firm received $200 million worth of commitments from the SIC between 2014 and 2015. The firm and its affiliates have donated $200,000 to the RGA since 2011, including $50,000 last year while Martinez chaired the organization. In 2013, Macquarie Capital hired Public Opinion Strategies, a consulting firm whose partner, Nicole McCleskey, served as a senior advisor to Martinez’s 2014 reelection campaign. McCleskey’s husband, Jay, ran the pro-Martinez super PACs. In 2016, the SIC reported paying Macquarie $323,519 in fees. Macquarie declined to comment on the record.

As for the Governor's reaction to all this, IBT reports:

Martinez’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

No comment? You would think they would be anxious to clear the air. Or maybe she's tired of attacking the out-of-town press that has repeatedly exposed her hijinks while the locals play dead.

(The Governor's office gave this statement on the IBT story to the New Mexican/ It attacked the report but did not discuss any speicifs in the report:

A shameless attempt to generate clicks online with a story that is short on facts and long on innuendo.

SIC AWOL

Steve Moise

And what about the State Investment Council? Where in the name of Marc Correra have they been? And that goes double for State Investment Officer Steve Moise who writes on his web page:

Our Council and each member of our staff is committed to fulfilling our fiduciary responsibilities in a professional, ethical, and respectable manner. We strive to merit the trust of our stakeholders. Thank you for your interest in support of our efforts.

Seriously, Steve? Fiduciary responsibility? Given the news, it appears you're making a run for the Gary Bland Award (Remember him?)

While Steve is getting stink on him, coming out of this smelling like a bouquet of roses are the Forceful Four on the State Investment Council. Four members, not appointed by the Governor and who recently refused to succumb to pressure from Moise and company to sign an ethics code that was also a "confidentiality agreement" concerning deliberations at the once again sullied SIC. Those four are GOP State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn, Dem State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg, former Dem State Senator Tim Jennings and former GOP State Senate Leonard Rawson.

The savvy four fought back when the SIC--controlled by Gov. Martinez--tried to get them to sign the confidentiality agreement that was aimed at getting them not to talk about the behind-closed-door sessions of the SIC. The SIC sanctioned them for the refusal. But, hey, getting sanctioned is better than getting indicted which is what some messing with the Forceful Four might want to think about.

State House Dems will have a news conference today to announce they are seeking an investigation into the possible pay-to play scandal. Meanwhile the journalists who justifiably kicked Richardson's rear end from Cruces to Clayton when he was embroiled in his own pay to pay SIC scandal are asking themselves: What the hell is the International Business Times and why are they eating my lunch?

BROKEN LEGS

So the favored investment firms with the Martinez/SIC rake in $745 million in investment fees in four years, and the administration and Moise et. al. wail like banshees when it's proposed that the $16 billion Land Grant Permanent Fund be tapped for $120 million a year to fund early childhood programs in the state that ranks worst in the nation in childhood poverty. The moral leg they stand on in refusing is that the immense fund is to "protect future generations." Talk about getting your legs broken. This two in a row pay to pay debacle ought to put to rest any doubt about whose interests the Santa Fe club really wants to protect. It's their own and their Wall Street benefactors.

WHY WORST?

Longtime reader Tom Miles writes of New Mexico dropping to worst in the nation in childhood poverty in the latest US Census data:

From 2012 to 2017, funding for home visiting, child care, prekindergarten, and workforce development increased 74%, from $137 million to $238 million. That’s great, and still … some 47% or approximately 20,000 New Mexico children under 5 living in poverty remain unserved or underserved. And without some kind of programmed planning to incrementally address this situation, these kids must tend to gum up entire systems. They require subject remediation, cannot avoid disrupting teachers, classrooms, schools and districts, suffer adverse childhood experiences that require costly health dollars to remediate, drop out, are too unemployable, act out, require public safety and justice resources and responses to their teenage and adult life choices, including cycles of repetition in how they raise their families; repeat most of the above. And on it goes.

MONDAY BLOGGING 

Join us Monday for the latest on the ABQ mayor's race. During the campaign we've resumed Monday blogging so we look forward to having you with us.

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It's been a good run but it does appear the eight year stretch of Republican luck in New Mexico is about to come to an end. Take the ABQ mayoral race. No matter which way you slice it, the Dems have the upper hand. Here are the scenarios:

--If the inevitable run-off that follows the October 3 balloting features Dems Tim Keller and Brian Colón, obviously you have a Dem mayor.

--If the run-off features either Republican Dan Lewis or Wayne Johnson against Dem Keller or Colón, the Dem candidate will be heavily favored in a Democratic, center-left city.

--In the Governor's race, GOP US Rep. Steve Pearce is polling behind Dem front runner Michelle Lujan Grisham in the ABQ metro by 10 points (KRQE-TV poll) and also trails statewide. And that's a guy who has widespread name ID.

--If Grisham falters and the nominee is Jeff Apodaca or state Sen. Joe Cervantes, they too would be favored to win the Governor's chair after an eight run under Gov. Martinez that is ending poorly.

WHAT TO DO?

If that analysis is right, the question then is what will the Dems do with their victories? How will they deal with this perennial and pressing issue:

The share of New Mexicans living in poverty dropped from 20.4 percent in 2015 to 19.8 percent last year. That left the Land of Enchantment as the third-poorest state. The data shows a state riding a national recovery after what some analysts have described as a “lost decade” of economic decline. But economists and other observers say New Mexico has done little to shake its standing as one of the most impoverished states and that it remains vulnerable to regressing in the next economic downturn, whenever it arrives.

“We had some improvement in these numbers and that’s a good thing,” said Jim Peach, a professor of economics at New Mexico State University. “But have we changed the basic picture of New Mexico? No.”

And then there's this:

New Mexico leads the nation with the most children under age 5 living in poverty, 36.2 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. That’s 5 percentage points more than second place Mississippi’s 31.1 percent.

Two state legislators are taking this information to further their campaign for pulling extra funds from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to pay for programs specifically earmarked for early education. Drawing just 1 percent more from the fund, which currently has $16.2 billion in it, would free up $136 million a year for those early childhood education programs, without raising taxes by a single penny, said state Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas and Sen. Linda Lopez, both Albuquerque Democrats.

Five points worse than Mississippi? Maybe that's because that state has been expanding its early childhood programs in recent years and getting results while we fall behind at an alarming pace?

If the Dems come back to power they will be confronted with that full platter of problems. The temptation will be to continue to look away and deny their depth as has been the case by both parties in recent years. Elections matter but often the more things change the more they stay the same.

ETHICS TANGLE (CONT.)

Clearly the Bernalillo County Code of Conduct Review Committee needs a review of its own. The board is supposed to be the ethics watchdog for county politicos but is way too top heavy with those same politicos.

As we blogged Tuesday, Dem political consultant Alan Packman is chair of the board and Sarita Nair, who works for State Auditor Tim Keller who is also running for mayor, is also a member. Obviously, both have had to recuse themselves in hearing a complaint filed against BernCo Commissioner and GOP mayoral candidate Wayne Johnson. And on the Republican side of this tangled up committee, a reader informs:

Let's not forget the other recusals at the ethics hearing. Wayne Johnson's appointee recused himself because he has a potential business relationship with Wayne. And, the legal counsel for the committee had to recuse themselves because they are under contract to Robles, Anaya, the law firm in which mayoral candidate Brian Colón has been a partner. Because of all those recusals, 3 members and alternates will hear the case.

A preliminary hearing on the complaint against Johnson is slated for October 2, one day before the October 3 election. After this tangled mess the county commissioners might want to set different standards on who gets appointed to the board. Maybe some folks not involved in the political process so they can actually do the job? Duh.

MICHELLE'S MOXIE

Independent Michelle Garcia Holmes has been a hard-working mayoral candidate but as a political newcomer she has had rough sledding going up against better known and better financed candidates.

Garcia was polling at 4 percent in the recent Journal survey, placing her behind fourth place finisher Wayne Johnson who garnered 7 percent.

As a 20 year veteran of APD and retiring from there as a detective in the crimes against children unit and as a chief of staff to Attorney General Gary King, she knows about the city's top issue and has raised enough money to put this TV spot on  the air. Her crime platform is here. And we posted one of her mail pieces as well.

The moment she may be most remembered for in this campaign was when she boycotted a mayoral forum put on by the ABQ Chamber of Commerce because it had awarded a public safety award to Mayor Richard Berry despite the city being embroiled in an historic crime wave. Said Garcia Holmes;

I am boycotting the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce forum because Albuquerque needs a Mayor who will speak out against the status quo and show respect to the people of this city.

And she also called for new leadership at the Chamber.

Maybe if she kept up that line of attack at the forums and elsewhere she would be closer. In any event. . .

It was a rare moment when one of the mayoral candidates actually called out the political and business leadership that has presided over the city's decline.  If she doesn't win and the new mayor is looking for someone with some moxie, they just might call on her.

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Johnson and Gardner

Dan Lewis is making a late in the game, longshot plea for Republican Party unity as the ABQ mayoral race teeters on the edge of sending two Democrats into a run-off election following the October 3 balloting.

The dire straits that City Councilor Lewis finds himself in is nothing new. Earlier this year there was a high level Republican meeting with Lewis and BernCo Commissioner Wayne Johnson in attendance. But that meeting failed to convince either of them to withdraw from the mayoral derby.

Now, in the aftermath of an ABQ Journal poll that makes more distinct the possibility that no GOP candidate will finish in the top two, Lewis is pleading in an email for Republicans to abandon Johnson and come to his side:

This poll shows that we are the only Republican candidate who can get into the runoff – and win. But the Democratic establishment will do everything in their power to take me down and have two liberal candidates in the runoff. We can’t let them win. Now is the time for Republicans to unite to ensure an extreme leftist does not serve as Mayor. They know I can win – but I can only do so if Republicans unite. Albuquerque can’t afford an extreme leftist as Mayor and that’s exactly what my main opponents are. 

We have examples of the deep split in the party. That picture posted at the top of the blog is of Wayne Johnson at the State Fair with Keith Gardner, the chief of staff to Governor Martinez. It shows how the Martinez wing of the party is firmly in the camp of Johnson.

Pearce & Lewis

Lewis is firmly in the anti-Martinez camp led by Rep. Steve Pearce and former NM GOP Chairman Harvey Yates, Jr. Lewis was campaigning with Pearce over the weekend and this photo of them further illustrates the party's split.

This split is deep and personal with hurt feelings on both sides. Asking for unity among them is like asking the Israelis to turn over Jerusalem to the Palestinians. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The Lewis plea for unity is the only option he has.

KELLER'S INDYS

Why is "liberal" Tim Keller doing so well with independents who normally lean right? He is getting 25 percent of them in the Journal survey, far more than any other hopeful. Well, look no further than his record as state auditor.

Keller has probably been the most active auditor in state history, constantly releasing reports and findings that are attention grabbers and mostly substantial. For example, this week, he is focused on a $475,000 embezzlement scheme at La Promesa, a state charter school in ABQ. Would the public ever know about this if Keller hadn't launched an investigation?

This independent support is important for Keller who will need to broaden his base if, as expected, he gets in a run-off election following the October 3 vote. It could make the difference in his winning or losing.

SICK OVER SICK LEAVE

Meanwhile, the R's are nearly apoplectic over the Journal poll showing that the controversial sick leave ordinance isn't so controversial after all.

Support for the ordinance is at 53 percent with only 31 percent opposed. That's over the critical 50 percent mark. In reaction the state GOP put out this screaming headline:

Vote Against This Deceiving Ordinance And Its Supporters, Tim Keller and Brian Colon!

Foes of the mandatory sick leave bill call it a "job killer" but in a city that leads center-left on social and economic issues it is they who are facing the political firing squad.

We posted a mail piece from the sick leave opponents, a piece that apparently isn't changing many minds. And who produced that piece? Well. . .

Look who has surfaced in Campaign '17. It's Jay McCleskey, the veteran consultant who is tied to the hip to Gov. Martinez. His McCleskey Media Strategies (MMS) is listed as having printed that anti-sick leave piece. It was put out by Forward ABQ, a political committee for the ABQ Chamber of Commerce. That committee reported only raising $18,000 in the last reporting period so it won't offer the big paydays Jay has been accustomed to while handling Martinez's multi-million dollar pots of cash. But, hey, a guy's gotta work.

ETHICS TANGLE

We're on the tangled ethics beat of this city election. Let's see. An ethics complaint is filed against Tim Keller over his campaign consultant Alan Packman for soliciting cash donations for Keller's publicly financed committee and calling them "in kind donations" for goods and services.

The complaint by the state GOP goes to Attorney General Hector Balderas. But Balderas can't investigate because he has publicly endorsed mayoral candidate Brian Colón. So Hector's office has sent the matter to the City Clerk and the ABQ Board of Ethics to handle. By the time it's resolved the election will be in the history books.

Then there is the complaint against GOP mayoral hopeful and BernCo Commissioner Wayne Johnson. It alleges, as the ABQ Free Press reported, that "Johnson has received nearly $40,000 in improper campaign donations. The complaint was filed with the Bernalillo County Code of Conduct Review Board by Terry Brunner, who was the state director for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration."

So who sits in judgment and is chairman of the Bernalillo County Code of Conduct Review Board? Why it's none other than Alan Packman, consultant for Tim Keller. And who sits at Packman's side on that board?  Why it's Sarita Nair the government accountability officer for Dem state auditor and Packman mayoral client Tim Keller.

That stacked deck against Johnson will have to be deconstructed before the complaint against him can be heard and that will be well after the election.

And that, dear reader, was another of our occasional visits to the ethics beat. Excuse us while we untangle ourselves.

MORE JOHNSON VS. LEWIS

Let's give Johnson some more ink so Dan Lewis can needle us. . .

Crime has been the big issue for the mayoral candidates but there are also plans floating around from them about improving  the stagnant economy here. One of them is from conservative Johnson:

The cornerstone of my Economic Development Strategy is the market itself. My philosophy is to provide a secure environment and a light touch on regulation that encourages businesses to invest in Albuquerque. If we, as a community, want a prosperous Albuquerque then we must encourage innovation and creativity by empowering the dreamers and the doers. 

On second thought, we don't want to be needled by Lewis. He may have Rev. Smotherman post a weird picture of us on Instagram. Here's Dan's econ plan.

THE BOTTOM LINES

We had a bad link Monday to the first TV spot running from the pro-Keller political committee. Here is the correct one. . .Don't forget.

We're blogging on Mondays during this mayoral race. If you missed it, our big Monday blog is right below. Just scroll down.

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They'll try to bring him down a notch in the final two weeks of the campaign but the latest poll shows Dem mayoral candidate Tim Keller appears to have secured enough of the progressive Democratic base to nearly guarantee himself a spot in a run off election in November.

No candidate is poised to get 50 percent of the vote October 3. A run-off election between the two top vote getters is expected to be called for November 14.

That's the main takeaway from the ABQ Journal poll conducted Sept. 11-14 and released Sunday. It shows Keller in the top spot with 25% followed by fellow Dem Brian Colón with 14; Republican Dan Lewis at 13% and his fellow R Wayne Johnson at 7%. The undecided remained large last week at 32% and could signal a low turnout election. The other four candidates lag and may not be much of a factor in the final stretch: Michelle Garcia Holmes is at 4% Gus Pedrotty at 3 and Ricardo Chaves and Susan Wheeler-Deischel each at 1 percent.

The poll (MOE 4.3%) had to be disappointing for Colón who had jumped to 19 percent in a Carroll Strategies survey conducted for KOB-TV September 5. Keller had 22 percent. But that poll called only landlines and did not reach cellphone users. When the Journal's Sanderoff included cellphones, Colón dropped back but still managed second place.

Dem attorney, longtime political consultant and former ABQ City Councilor Greg Payne (who made a donation to Colón's campaign) says:

The trend is toward a Keller-Colon run-off with an outside chance for Lewis. I think Colón's numbers may have been a bit low in this survey but setting that aside, the Republican split between Johnson and Lewis continues and that is why Colón still has the better shot of making the final two. 

As Payne said, the other main narrative of the mayoral race--in addition to Keller's steady lead--was not disputed by the survey. The R's remain split between Lewis and Johnson, perhaps hopelessly so, and neither of their top contenders may make the final cut.

An Alligator monitoring the proceedings from the inside comes with his suggested strategies for the race's final two weeks:

If I'm running that independent committee for Keller, I would be thinking about attacking Wayne Johnson in order to increase the chances of Lewis getting in the run-off and displacing Colón. Colón is a problem for Keller in a run-off but Keller could easily beat any of the GOP candidates in a head to head race in a Democratic city. 

For Johnson, the strategy is obvious. He must attack Dan Lewis if he is to make a big move. 

Colón may not have moved as much as he wanted to from his many TV ads because he has yet to speak to the voters in those ads. He used Attorney General Balderas to attract Hispanic voters and it worked, but in order to start closing the deal Colón will have to  appear on camera and speak convincingly about why he should be Mayor. 

The analysts we spoke with agreed that Colón does not have to do anything negative, not with a committee out there attacking fellow Dem Keller with controversial ads that accuse Keller of being weak on sex offenders.

The high undecided portends a low turnout at this relatively late stage. Our initial projection was for 85,000 to 89,000 voters taking part, a turnout of at least near 22 percent of the registered, but that may be going by the wayside. Says Payne:

None of these candidates has energized the public. They have been playing it safe and saying little that stirs the pot. Unfortunately, the question hovering over this race is not "who's ahead? but "who cares?" For that reason I see getting to the 80,000 mark quite difficult. 

VOTE WATCH

Early vote by party

Through Friday we've had 4,785 votes cast via early and absentee voting in the '17 City Election, reports Rick Abraham of ABQ's Data Flux.

Democrats are outperforming in the early going with 56 percent, the R's come with 32 and the independents are at 11 percent. If we lower the voter turnout model to 80,000 that would mean 6 percent of the total vote has now been cast.

The early Dem surge could be due in part to votes being banked by the Keller campaign which is thought to have the best grassroots organization of the eight hopefuls. We'll see if that Dem trend continues by the end of this week. If it does, it could spell good news for Keller and perhaps former Dem Party Chair Colón.

By the way, Abraham is a former chair of the Bernalillo County GOP. He will be with us for our exclusive wall-to-wall Election Night coverage on KANW-89.1 FM starting October 3 at 6:30 p.m.

DEBATE REVIEW

It was no surprise the polling leaders also came out on top in the Friday night KOB-TV mayoral debate. State Auditor Keller and Colón are well practiced in public speaking and were on their toes, according to a consensus of Alligator opinion we collected. BernCo Commissioner Wayne Johnson also showed that almost 8 years in office gives you the depth of knowledge that you simply don't get when you are on the outside. Lewis, an 8 year city councilor, also performed ably.

The debate format, unlike an earlier TV face-off, did allow for the candidates to rebut statements from the others. But that fell flat when the candidates insisted on sticking to their talking points and avoiding confrontation at all cost. And Mayor Berry was barely mentioned, despite presiding over this historic crime wave. And you wonder why the public has not warmed to this bunch?

SMOTHERING LEWIS

Legacy Church Pastor Steve Smotherman is smothering Dan Lewis and perhaps his dream of becoming mayor. You see the photo of them together and the quote from the pastor on Instagram:

I wholeheartedly support Dan Lewis for mayor. He's the one true believer in the race, and would never in anyway support the homosexual agenda.

Why would Smotherman issue such an ill-timed public endorsement of Lewis who is working furiously to position himself as a centrist Republican in a Democratic city? And why would Lewis, a former pastor himself, perhaps blow up his hopes of becoming mayor by coming back with this tepid response to Smotherman's embrace of him:

You know a lot of people have said they support me. So as far as an official endorsement, I don't know what that means and I don't know what an agenda means that he was talking about. . . Look, I'm not sure what kind of splash it's had. Again, I go where I'm invited. I go to groups all over the city, some that I agree with and some that I don't. I go and talk about the challenges in our city and what somebody else meant by it, you'll have to go out and ask what they meant by it.

Lewis, an ordained Baptist minister who was a church pastor in ABQ, has as his main ground game for getting out the vote the 20,000 Smotherman troops who attend Legacy and who consider the gay lifestyle an abomination. If Lewis dumps them he might bump any chance he has of getting in a run-off election. That explains that "coded" support of Smotherman while still trying to distance himself from him with other voters.

But by not doing more to distance himself to what will be seen as an outrageous statement by many city voters Lewis positions himself on the far right in any run-off. And far right is a sure loser in a two person race.

Lewis, unlike Mayor Berry and Mayor Chavez, also will not pledge to sign a proclamation for the annual Gay Pride Parade. That, combined with the refusal to distance himself from Smotherman and his fear of the "homosexual agenda" could have far reaching ramifications if Lewis were to become mayor. Would national corporations like Facebook and Amazon come under pressure not to do business with a Lewis/Smotherman administration.

As for Rev. Smotherman, he always wanted to be a power player in ABQ politics. Well, he just became one by giving away his power when he boxed Lewis in. The moral of the story: When the cat is in the bag, do not let it out on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or any of the other social media mine fields waiting for you to step on.

THOSE DARK ADS

Our sources report that the Make Safe ABQ group is doubling down on that controversial TV ad that claims Tim Keller accommodated sex offenders when he voted for a bill as a state senator.

The group--which we have learned is backed by various business interests who fear Keller's progressive politics, including the developers of the Santolina project on the city's west side, started with a budget of $30,000 but now we're getting word the ad buy will increase. Despite questions by some observers about whether the ad goes too far and could create a backlash in favor of Keller, the group has also come with a billboard which you see here. It will be going up on the city's freeways.

Keller's progressive base is strong and dedicated. The attack probably won't move them, but it could keep a cap on Keller's growth going forward and make him more vulnerable in a run-off.

The specific contributions to the the anti-Keller committee won't be known until campaign finance reports are filed this Friday.

Longtime Dem activist Chris Catcheis was one of those who took to social media to defend Keller against the onslaught:

Where has this "Make ABQ Safe" group been the last 8 years while this city has gone through a hell of violence, drug addiction, and burglary? I can think of a lot better ways that they could spend their money to make ABQ safe, that doesn't involve wasting thousands on negative TV commercials for a mayoral race.

The question now is whether the committee separate from Keller's campaign will use some of its cash to fund a response to the high level nuke attack on Keller? If it's correct that the ad buy against him is going higher, they may consider it, but with Keller appearing to be safely in the runoff, the decision may be to let this slide.

Meanwhile, that pro-Keller committee run by former Keller campaign manager Neri Holguin, has come with its first TV spot. It focuses on Keller's record as state auditor, saying he has uncovered fraud that has "saved taxpayers millions." It adds that he "will change APD "from top to bottom" and closes by saying Keller has "a record of change."

While the committee may or may not come with a media response to the sex offender ad, Holguin did take a swipe at Make ABQ Safe, saying:

The secret PAC attacking Tim Keller are sloppy amateurs. Those who are financially supporting the PAC "Make ABQ Safe" should be embarrassed to be associated with them. They are attacking Tim on a vote he took in 2011 which would later become part of legislation that tightened New Mexico’s sex offender laws in 2013, signed by Gov. Martinez. No wonder so many are outraged and speaking up to defend Tim - he has a record of fighting for sexual assault survivors.

RICARDO AND GUS

Here is 81 year old Ricardo Chaves, the oldest mayoral hopeful, hanging out with the youngest, 22 year old Gus Pedrotty. When do you see a nearly 60 year age difference in an election? That's one for the books.

This picture has them wearing those cool sunglasses and visiting the Verdes Foundation Medical Cannabis Dispensary. Hey, maybe the two of them can go into business together if this mayor thing doesn't work out. Ricardo, owner of a national parking company, already has a lot of money and Gus has the brain power. We can see it now: "The Pedrotty-Chaves Pot Farm."

BILL AND PETE

There have been a lot of stories about former GOP Senator Pete Domenici who died last week and was memorialized in ABQ over the weekend. This one from former Governor Bill Richardson caught our attention. Take a look:

“The most important thing in Domenici's legislative agenda. . . was the labs. . . He would forsake any other interest he had if the labs got properly funded.” Richardson, a Democrat who served in Congress with Domenici, said he remembers the late lawmaker negotiating with him over lab funding in the late 1990s. He recalled Domenici offering to support his request for $5 million for an acequia project if Richardson could convince House Democrats to back about $1 billion for the labs. “He said, ‘I’ll trade you $5 million for your [expletive] amendment — all right, for your weak amendment on the acequias — for the billion I need for the labs in Los Alamos and Sandia.’ ” Richardson said. “That’s a true story.”

And that, kids, is how they used to play the game for New Mexico.

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Tim Keller

Will it end up being the high level nuclear attack that slows mayoral front-runner Tim Keller and impacts the outcome of the race? Or will it be a dud, easily dismantled by Keller operatives?

That's the question in the wake of a very tough TV attack on the Democratic State Auditor who has had the pole position in this eight way contest ever since he announced his candidacy.

The attack in question is this TV ad released Wednesday by the "Make ABQ Safe" committee, a group financed by business interests who fear Keller's progressive politics. It centers on a controversial vote Keller took while serving as a state senator from the ABQ SE Heights. The ad transcript:

Tim Keller chose protecting sex offenders over our children, As a state senator  Tim Keller supported a bill taking away the city of Albuquerque's right to limit where child molesters can live, Not only was he against keeping child molesters from living close to schools and parks but Tim Keller wanted to make Albuquerque a safe haven to attract child molesters from around the country. What will he do as mayor? Is he the person to make our keep our community safe?

That bill was defeated on a 20-16 vote in the 2011 legislative session, but no matter. Keller's affirmative vote on the emotionally charged issue could become a mayoral campaign centerpiece, depending on how it's handled.

The spot is replete with scary images, including a petrified little girl with a hand muzzling her mouth and meant to signify a sex offender. The ad could force a TV response from the political committee separate from Keller's campaign and that last reported around $175,000 in cash on hand.

To get under Keller's skin further, the committee is posting the TV and radio ad at a site with the address "badtimmy.com"

Make ABQ Safe has not yet filed an expense report with the city so we don know the specific contributors to the committee, although it has been rumored that land developer Santolina is one of the interests behind the Keller attack. The spot comes as the new reporting period is starting and which runs until September 22. However, a spokesperson for the committee said it is purchasing $30,000 in initial air time.

The bill in question is Senate Bill 184. That bill said in part:

A city, county, home rule municipality or other political subdivision of the state is prohibited from adopting or continuing in effect any ordinance, rule, regulation, resolution or other law that imposes distance restrictions for a registered sex offender's place of residence or that creates an exclusionary zone from which all registered sex offenders are excluded.

Keller's campaign came with this response to the attack ad:

As a father of two young children, it is absolutely offensive to suggest that I would let anyone harm our kids, let alone make life easier for those who do. What the attacks don’t tell you is that as a Senator, I fought for and passed the nation’s strongest sex offender laws to date, and as Auditor have been a champion for public safety and tackling the rape kit backlog.

These are false, partisan political attacks, from well-connected right-wing special interests meant to distract from our real plans to attack crime and bring immediate relief to our families on day one.

The campaign added:

Tim cast a vote, along with many colleagues, in support of a proposal to allow restrictions on the residences of sex offenders in a manner that would ensure there is oversight, reduce recurrence, and provide proper parole and monitoring, instead of through other means where there is no real oversight or enforcement capability. The NM Attorney General and the Sex Offender Management Board both supported this position.

CHAVES TV

More mayoral campaign TV will start tomorrow when Republican Ricardo Chaves comes with this 30 second spot that calls the Mayor Berry ART project an "expensive boondoggle." The ad also cites the city's crime crisis and says "it's not just criminals running rampant, it's career politicians, too. A vote for Ricardo Chavez is a vote to crack down on crime because Ricardo Chaves is running for mayor to clean up ABQ."

MAYORAL BLOGGING 

Remember, we are now blogging the Mayor's race Monday they Thursday and on Friday if needed. So joins for our Monday blogs to stay in the loop on Election '17.

THE DEATH OF DOMENICI

There's really not much I can add to the acres of reporting, blogging and analysis I have devoted to the career of Senator Pete Domenici over these many years, beginning with our reporting career in 1974 and continuing to today.

His death Wednesday at the age of 85 did evoke this thought: All that coverage was worth it. That can't be said of many political figures who bask briefly in the sun and then slip quickly into the night. Domenici mattered mightily to the history and development of modern New Mexico. (NYT obit here. WaPo obit here.)

The state has changed drastically--and not for the better--since that day 10 years ago when he announced he would not seek re-election in 2008, thus ending a 36 year career in the US Senate, the longest in state history.  If you were not around then it's difficult to impart the political pandemonium that decision set off and the emotional reaction it drew from generations of New Mexicans who had never known a US Senate without Domenici's presence.

I reviewed my blog coverage of those fateful days in October 2007 and thought it would be fitting to bring excerpts to you today to recapture the end of an era in state politics. So for a final time and with historic photos by Mark Bralley, we report on Pete V. Domenici, native son of New Mexico and whose many chapters in the never ending book of La Polticia are writ large.

The day the news broke:

Late Breaking: Former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici, the longest serving US Senator in state history, died Wednesday. He was 85. AP obit here.
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The jump ball known as the ABQ mayoral race takes another bounce Sunday when the ABQ Journal comes with a poll showing where the eight contenders stand. Not only that but early in-person voting begins citywide today, the TV ads are starting to crowd the airwaves and the ethics complaints are flying left and right--all signs that the crucial stage of the campaign is underway. (Early voting locations here.)

The newspaper poll will be taken this week and for the most part will not show the full impact of TV ads from Dan Lewis--who went on the air yesterday--or his fellow Republican Wayne Johnson who has had a light cable buy for a week and who will go up on the broadcast networks today. The third Republican--Ricardo Chaves--sent us a TV ad that is similar to Johnson's as it criticizes the ART project and then segues into the crime problem. The campaign said it would send details today on where the ad was airing.

The insiders, Alligators and hangers-on are all holding their breath as that GOP vote takes sides and reveals whether the Johnson-Lewis split continues as it has in the early surveys. That could prevent either from advancing to a November 14 run-off featuring the top two vote-getters.

Pollster Brian Sanderoff is known for pulling rabbits out of the hat when it comes to predicting the city and state electorate, but even he might need a second survey to determine where that GOP story line is headed. Still, his Sunday survey will be anticipated because it will confirm or reject the findings of two earlier polls that do not employ the rigorous screening standards Sanderoff's poll is known for.

JOHNSON GOES UP

Here's Wayne Johnson's first ad. It is full of Republican red meat, including a dig at Mayor Berry's hyper-controversial ART transit project which Johnson says "nobody wanted." Bringing up ART makes sense because in polling Republican voters despise the project and it gives Johnson a different angle than simply all-crime-all-the-time that all the candidates are adhering to.

Johnson narrates the spot himself as did his GOP rival Lewis in his first TV outing. Both Lewis and Johnson have solid appeal to base GOP voters. Maybe they end up going negative on one another in order to break away and get in that run-off?

TEARING TIM

Speaking of negative ads, as we told you it would a couple of weeks ago, the business committee opposing Tim Keller's candidacy unveiled ads attacking the former Dem state Senator for a vote he took and which according to the spot would have made ABQ "a safe haven" for sex offenders. Here's the radio ad.

We'll post the TV spot when we get it and, of course, any response from the Keller camp. Media Alligators report the buy for the anti-Keller TV on cable and broadcast is about $$30,000 for the next week.

FIRST TV FORUM REVIEWED

Seven of the eight mayoral candidates took part in the first live TV forum of the campaign Monday night on KASA-TV Channel 2. (Ricardo Chaves did not appear).

The questions posed were okay but the format for the 90 minute broadcast did not allow for any rebuttal among the candidates or the chance for them to question each other about their answers to crime and education and other topics they fielded. It was a lost opportunity.

KOB-TV will host a mayoral debate this Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. And even though handling seven or eight candidates can be unwieldy, how about if they let the contenders go after one another and give the public a lively and informative debate?

The entire KASA-TV debate can be seen here.

EARLY VOTING TODAY

Early voting for the October 3 election kicks off today at voting centers across the city. They will be open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 6. p.m. through September 29.

Campaign operatives report that in the absentee voting so far about 1,500 votes have been cast. Our initial projection for turnout is 85,000 to 89,000--(about 23 percent of the registered voters) but that's not written in cement and depending on developments in the final weeks it could go higher or lower.

History says we should be biased toward a lower turnout--not one over 90,000 of the 380,000 registered. One of the Alligators tied up in this contest comes with an analysis of what a low turnout could mean for the mayoral field as we continue to give you context and perspective on City Election '17:

The early vote is low so far and I think low turnout helps Democrat Tim Keller. The progressives are motivated. I also think it helps Republican Dan Lewis. He has support from the churches whose membership is prone to vote.

Keller demonstrated that he has a good ground game by getting the $5 contributions needed to qualify for public financing and Lewis has a good ground game with the churches. The 6,000 people who gave the Keller campaign $5 have already made an investment in Keller. I would expect Lewis to be at multiple services on Sunday and Wednesday.

Early voting will also be lower than expected. It is only Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.  There's no Saturday voting. That makes it difficult for people who have jobs to vote early. Well-off progressives in Nob Hill and around UNM have an easier time taking 30 minutes out of their day to vote.

Lower turnout also gives a Republican a better chance to win if one of them makes the November runoff and if a two person race does not energize the voters. I am surprised that interest is so low with the amount of crime in the city. Maybe the voters have not voted because they do not know who to vote for. If that is true, we could see a large turnout on Election Day, if people need more time to make a choice. We also need to see if TV ads increase interest. If they do, we should see a spike in absentee ballots soon.

AD WATCH

Back on the TV front, Brian Colón comes with a new ad that highlights his bio, calling him a "respected lawyer" who ran two businesses to pay for his college education and which pledges that "no one will work harder for ABQ."

As the candidate with the largest campaign kitty, Colón has the luxury of rolling out a variety of well-produced 30 second ads. He has also not yet been subjected to negative attacks which would divert his media to defense. That probably will come, but for at least the first two weeks of his ad campaign, Colón has been in the sweet spot.

BENAVIDEZ BODY BLOW

On the city council front, a body blow for Dem westside Council hopeful Javier Benavidez. The progressive Dem was slapped with a $1,900 fine by the city ethics board:

An Albuquerque board found in favor of an ethics complaint alleging that City Council candidate Javier Benavidez improperly obtained public campaign financing and fined him $ 1,900, or $ 100 per violation found by investigators. The city Board of Ethics voted 6-0 in favor of the complaint filed by Albuquerque attorney Pat Rogers on behalf of two voters who alleged that Benavidez failed to collect $5 donations from each of the 381 voters he need to qualify for about $ 38,000 in public financing.

Benavidez and two other candidates are trying to oust veteran City Councilor and Democrat Ken Sanchez. This ethics slap is not going to help the Benvidez cause. The question remains whether Sanchez can be held below 50 percent of the vote and forced into a run-off with the likely foe being Benavidez. Even if Benavidez now does get into a run-off the ethics action will be fodder for Sanchez as he works to keep his seat for a third, four year term.

SANTA FE MAYOR; 1ST POLL

ABQ isn't alone in having a race for Mayor. Santa Fe is going to select a new leader next March and in the first polling of the potential field a familiar name pops to the top. He's Alan Webber, the liberal Santa Fe businessman and sometimes political philosopher who made a run at the 2014 Dem gubernatorial nomination.

In a survey conducted Sunday, September 10 by automatic phone calls to registered voters with land lines, Webber, who says he is considering a mayoral bid, garnered 17 percent of the vote to 14 percent for City Councilor Ron Trujillo who is already off and running.

Incumbent Mayor Javier Gonzales is not seeking re-election. The other candidates in the poll were City Councilor and former Espanola Mayor Joe Maestas who came in with 6 percent; Public Regulation Commissioner Valerie Espinoza who is mulling over a bid and received 4 percent; potential candidate and City Councilor Renee Villarreal garnered 5 percent and Ray Sandoval, known for promoting the burning of Zozobra, came with 3 percent. Undecided is a huge 50 percent, signaling a spirited contest ahead.

The poll was paid for by Santa Fe's Jon Hendry who is head of the union that represents the state's film workers, but he says he commissioned the poll for his own knowledge.

The poll was conducted by veteran Dem consultant and pollster Mark Fleisher and queried 351 registered voters. It has an MOE of 5.1 percent.

THE BOTTOM LINES

Eeds

Let's keep it in Santa Fe and finish up there this Wednesday with word abut popular radio talk show host Richard Eeds. He informs us that his long-running morning radio broadcast on KVSF-AM and FM is switching stations and headed to the afternoons. From Hutton Broadcasting:

Beginning Monday, September 18, 1260 KTRC-AM, will add local talk shows to its lineup, including The Richard Eeds Show--The Voice of Santa Fe. Eeds has hosted a popular morning drive show on KVSF 101.5 since 2014.  The show's move to KTRC fro 1 to 5 p.m weekdays adds a local voice to bolster the station's national programming which includes top-rated hosts Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartmann.

As a kicker, Eeds says he is considering a run for Mayor of Santa Fe. That ought to get them talking. . .

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Where do you a fence a dead body? That's the latest challenging question for the city's criminal class as some of them carted off a U-Haul from a hotel parking lot that contained a corpse awaiting transport to its final resting place.

Relatives of the dead man on their way to the Four Corners area had stopped at the Residence Inn at Yale and Gibson for an overnight break. Of course, the bizarre heist again splashed ABQ across the national headlines and made our state's status as the nation's #1 spot for auto theft even more notorious. Whatever happened to Rest in Peace? Not in crime ravaged ABQ. (The U-Haul and body were recovered.)

ABQ hotel and motel parking lots have become such easy targets for the carjackers that   they treat them like they're browsing the lot at Rich Ford. The problem is no one is shooing them away--not APD and not the property owners.

The best Mr. and Mrs. Albuquerque can can do now is to tell their undertakers not to tempt the criminals and instruct them to bury them in plain pine boxes, not some expensive bronze casket. Who says we can't fight the crime wave until our dying breath---and even into the afterlife?

WHERE ARE THE FENCES?

No question that this crime epidemic is one of the worst in the city's history. V.B. Price, an author who has written extensively of ABQ and NM for over half a century, raises an issue that has been mostly dormant and mentioned in our first paragraph today: Where is the stacks of stolen property and autos being fenced? Answer that, he asserts in his weekly Mercy Messenger, and the crime wave might start receding:

When it comes to property crime, Albuquerque has a staggeringly awful record. A website called areavibes.com gives Albuquerque an F rating for crime, citing 34,000 incidents of property crime alone last year. The Albuquerque Journal estimates that 27 cars are stolen here each day, which amounts to almost 10,000 cars annually.

What happens to all that loot? How do you get rid of 10,000 cars with almost no one finding out? A highly sophisticated system of stolen property fencing has been in place in our city for decades. TVs, stereos, smartphones, computers, guns, where do they go? They are fenced. The system must be huge and it seems invisible. But it has to be there. And yet how many times have you read or heard of a major fencing operation being broken up, or stolen property actually being returned? Almost never. It’s not a media issue. Crime solving is every bit as newsworthy as a gory accident. Crime organizations are making millions hand over fist selling stolen goods. It must be one of Albuquerque’s larger “industries.” A good strategy for serious “crime prevention” would be to create police task forces to focus on nothing but fences and making it as difficult as possible to profit from all forms of theft.

Well, the fight against the fences will have to wait until the next mayoral administration because this one has simply lost control. That new mayor will be one of eight candidates running and who will take office December 1.

ON THE TRAIL

City Clerk Natalie Howard tells us if no one candidate gets 50 percent of the vote in the balloting October 3 the run-off between the two top vote-getters will be held Tuesday, November 14. We blogged on Aug. 29 the run-off would be on the traditional election day--the first Tuesday in November, but that's not how it works under our City Charter.

We also asked the clerk about reader complaints that there is no early voting in the city election on Saturday. Her office points out there has never been Saturday early voting for any city election, unlike Bernalillo County elections.

And what about Tim Keller, the one publicly financed candidate in the mayoral race? How much in taxpayer money would he get if he were to be in a run-off election? The clerk says he would get 33 cents for each registered voter. With about 380,000 registered voters, Keller would receive about $125,000 to run his run-off campaign. That's not very much when you consider what a privately financed candidate like Brian Colón could raise.

DEFENDING KELLER

Speaking of State Auditor Keller, he's being scorched over how he has handled cash donations to his publicly financed campaign, with mayoral candidate Wayne Johnson filing a complaint with the city ethics board. The press has been bad for Keller, including here on the blog. Reader and Keller supporter  Jeff McConaughy comes with a defense:

Maybe I'm just new to the political finance "game," but I don't get the issue with Keller's in-kind donations. This seems like local news trying to sensationalize a non-issue to increase viewership and the Republican party smelling an opportunity to fling some mud at the front runner.

1. In-kind donations are perfectly legal and legitimate. These are offers of services or materials, or offers to pay for services or materials instead of direct cash donations to the campaign. For example, if I offered to make copies of a flyer or information sheet on their behalf, took the template to Fedex and paid Fedex $100 to make 1000 copies for the campaign, that would be an in-kind donation of $100. The kerfuffle seems to center on checks people have written to Rio Solutions, the company that's managing Keller's campaign. They are providing a service, just like Fedex does in the above example. People are paying for that service. It's exactly the same thing and it seems perfectly legal and ethical to me.

2. The campaign is held to approximately $38,000 in in-kind donations. That amount is tied to the number of eligible voters in Albuquerque the same as the amount of direct funding they receive, but with a different multiplier. Again, what they're doing is perfectly legal up to the $38K cap. They are tracking the in-kind donations and being completely transparent about them, exactly as they are supposed to. That's how KOB found out about the payments in question. As stated in the story, they looked at Keller's public finance reports. Nothing is being hidden, nothing had to be sleuthed out, because it's all legitimate and accurately reported according to the rules.

What am I missing?

And former APD officer and ABQ attorney Tom Grover writes:

It's no surprise that the knives are coming out for Keller. He's the one candidate who stands head and shoulders above the rest to actually bring the train wreck known as Albuquerque not just to a stop, but turn it around. That obviously scares the opponents who fall in Keller's shadow in substance, skills, and success but also terrifies the appointees desperate seeking to preserve their jobs at the City. Only in NM will you find Republicans calling foul about campaign finance issues. Let's get real though, this race is about turning this City around and undoing the mess Berry has made of it and who is the best candidate to do that. It's not a time for amateurs, sycophants, or pseudo-proselytizers.

LEWIS TV TIME


On the Republican side of the tracks, we hear from the Dan Lewis campaign about his  first TV ad. Lewis joins Keller and Colon in focusing on the city crime crisis. He narrates it in a monotone that paints a gloomy picture of the city but says Lewis offers hope. Gothamesque? Kind of.

How much will the westside city councilor spend on that ad? He didn't say but with about $200,000 in cash on hand for the final stretch political pros expect the buy to be around $100,000. That would probably include radio for ads like this one that Lewis released along with his TV spot.

That kind of exposure seems likely to continue the polling gridlock between Lewis and his Republican rival and BernCo Commissioner Wayne Johnson. Both were at 8 percent in the most recent public poll. GOP voters are about to take sides between them them as they see the TV ads and mailers but if the pair continues this split of the R vote the likelihood of a Keller-Colon run-off will stay reasonably high. And if Ricardo Chaves, the other R in the race, makes a TV buy with conservative themes, you could get a three way split.

MAYOR BLOGGING SCHEDULE

We're back blogging to four days a week--Monday thru Thursday and Friday when need be--until the October 3 mayoral election. We don't want you to miss any of the major events so be sure to check us each week day for enhanced blogging of City Election '17.

We put up a lengthy Monday blog on the Keller finance ontroversy and covered the latest polling in a Friday blog. You can read both by scrolling down.

THE BOTTOM LINES

Readers asked who conducted the recent poll on the mayor's race and other city issues for KRQE-TV. Anchorman Dean Staley says:

It's John Couvillon, JMC Analytics and Polling out of Louisiana. 

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2017