Heather
ABQ U.S. Rep Heather Wilson is good at raising money. But she will apparently have to do it in the future without the help of her veteran cash collector Jane Altweis. Insiders say Altweis, who goes back to the Rep. Steve Schiff days, is going back to teaching and will no longer be passing the hat for Heather. The sources also say Wilson's legislative director has left. "Jane left early to give Heather time to get a new fundraiser on board in time for the next election. They still expect Patricia Madrid to make the run," reported a D.C. Gator. Dem Attorney General Madrid has not made a formal announcement but is being romanced by top D.C. D's who are desperate to take on Heather, despite the ten point whipping she gave to Richard Romero last year. Madrid is expected to make a decision in September.

BIG BILL'S JET LAG

More PR problems for Big Bill and his new $5.5 Million jet. KOB-TV's Neil Simon with the news that the new Citation Bravo jet will cost $2,000 an hour to operate, compared to $1,000 for the old plane that is being ditched, according to numbers from NM legislative staff. The staff also estimates that it will cost $403,000 a year to operate the new jet, compared to $345,000 for the old plane. And there's more. New Mexico State University, which was supposed to buy an old state plane for half a million dollars, has begged out. That half million was going to be applied to the cost of the new jet. State Aviation director Tom Baca says he will keep trying to sell the plane. They need to. The Legislature approved $5 million for the plane, not the $5.5 mil it's costing.

HE SAID, THEY SAID
Mayor Marty
Did Mayor Marty call R's "rich folks?" Apparently yes, but not at that GOP breakfast that we blogged about yesterday. That's the word from those there, including veteran ABQ Journal city hall reporter Jim Ludwick who does not have a dog in the fight. "Joe, he never made any comment about Republicans being "a rich folks party with rich folks goals," as the GOP news release indicated. The news release was incredibly misleading. I said (to the GOP) I had been at the breakfast and I know Chavez had not made the statements they quoted. Their reply was that Chavez had made the remark on a previous occasion. I asked when it had happened, and I was told that they don't know."

Thanks Jim. Not that Mayor Marty, who backed Howard Dean for Prez, is about to become an R, but the GOP flacks made it sound like Chavez had a tough time at the breakfast and made the rich folks comment there. A mailer out today for candidate Brad Winter quotes the mayor from an Associated Press report from October 2000. “For all of George Bush's attempts to move to the center, the GOP is still predominantly a rich-folks party with rich-folks goals,” the Winter letter quotes the mayor saying as reported by the AP.

IT'S A MIXED UP WORLD

What does this all mean, if anything? Is Mayor Marty a Democrat? Yes. He is a lifelong Democrat. But in this election he needs lots of Republicans to win. Therefore, the R’s supporting Winter will do all they can to keep them out of the Marty column and Marty will veer to the right to keep them. It is bizarre to see Marty’s spinners concerned about his criticism of R’s as “rich folks.” In his twenty years in politics, he has said much rougher stuff about them. But candidates Espinosa and Griego are going to take many of the Dem Hispanics Marty claimed last time, leaving Marty chasing those R votes.

I know. We've really got to get this campaign elevated. How we were dragged into blogging about this ennui I will never know. Must have been a bad pajama day. But since we've already crossed the line, what about the GOP threats to take action against Mayor Marty if he did not turn over an e-mail list he allegedly purloined from the state GOP? They issued an old Western style showdown warning, but it came to naught. Insiders now say: "Just wait. We are biding our time." Really? You know, I can wait on that one.

DIRECT FROM BARELAS

This photo is especially for my out-of-state readers who hunger for the tastes of the homeland. It's a pic via camera phone of my lunch pal's carne adovada burrito at the famed Barelas Coffee House in ABQ. Truly a connoisseurs work. Notice how there is no tomato mixed in with the lettuce? They'll make it any way you want at Barelas. No matter the temperature, the chile's never too hot for the plates or palates of New Mexico. Smother that thing in red and let's party!

Thanks for your company today. Let's get together again soon.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2005
Not for reproduction without permission of the author