Here's one for a fun Friday.

What's that state vehicle doing parked there in Moriarty while Land Commissioner Pat Lyons puts up political signs for his run for the Public Regulation Commission? And whose that fella behind the tree helping Pat? (Click photo to enlarge)

One of our Alligators snapped this pic and wondered about those questions and more, so we asked Lyons' office if the commissioner isn't busted for using a government vehicle and a state employee's time to advance Pat's political career. The response:

That is actually Pat digging the hole and Jerry King, (assistant land commissioner for special projects) is lending a hand. Pat was in Moriarty putting up signs (that's his red truck with the signs in the back) and Jerry (who was driving the Tahoe) stopped by to say hi, since he lives in Stanley which is a few miles away.

It really was innocent. I believe Jerry was headed home from a meeting in Albuquerque. Our vehicle policy is that employees can take cars home if they are on official business.

Well, we've heard of stranger coincidences, but not many.

WAITING IN RATON

Folks, we have this deal for a Raton Racino collapsing before our eyes, and it isn't going to be the Canadian investor heading it up who is going to take the hit. It's the NM Racing Commission and the NM Gaming Control Board. Both are responsible for insuring that we don't have a gambling fiasco, and both have had plenty of warning.

We know Raton is hungry for this economic development, but what's worse--ending this deal now, or causing even more chaos by letting it go through and then seeing it disintegrate?

If the outfit in question can't open the racino by the deadline given, what does that say how about how they would run the place once it's open? New Mexico's regulators (hello, racing commission chair Marty Cope) have been given fair warning.

BARELA BOUNCE

ABQ GOP US House candidate Jon Barela finally flexed his biceps and came with a beefed up money report for the first quarter of the year. He said he raised $232,000 in his quest to unseat Dem Congressman Martin Heinrich That's Barela's best performance yet, marking the first time he has cracked the $200k barrier in a quarter and renewing hope among the party faithful that he can get this race more competitive.

It will take more than one good quarter, however, to really make Barela a serious threat. While he now has $392,000 in cash in his account, Heinrich, who reported raising $300,000 in the first quarter, sports a cash balance of $1.044 million.

TEAGUE VS. PEARCE

A look at the latest federal money reports shows Steve Pearce has narrowed Harry Teague's cash advantage in the hotly contested race for the southern congressional seat won by Teague in 2008 and previously held by Republican Pearce for three terms.

Pearce reports $708,000 in cash; Teague has $927,00. That's a $219,000 advantage for Teague. However, at the end of December Teague had $315,000 more in cash than Pearce.

Teague had an anemic first quarter in fund-raising, bringing in $132,000 compared to Pearce's $277,000. But his supporters assert that perhaps he is not as focused on fund-raising as Pearce, spending more time on constituent needs to build support in the district. They say he can make up for it by later writing a personal check to his campaign from his oil fortune as he did when he first ran in '08.

Both candidates have now raised over $1 million.

The Pearce-Teague race will be a godsend for the TV stations. Not only will the campaigns pump big money into ads, but national groups are expected to come with big money to influence the outcome in this toss-up race.

Quarerly money reports were due Thursday from all the federal candidates. Here's the AP wrap on the filings, including that of Congressman Ben Ray Lujan and his GOP rivals.

WHO ARE THEY?

We and others who follow campaign money closely have been none too pleased with a new development this cycle. Instead of listing the names and salaries of their campaign employees, many campaigns are giving the money to a professional payroll company who pay the salaries, making the staffers and their salaries unavailable on the official money reports.

Rep. Martin Heinrich is among those using this new method, so we asked him for a list of those who are working in his re-election effort. The campaign provided the info, which we list below, but why not list it on the report? Shouldn't voters be able to readily know who is working and getting paid by our congressman? Meanwhile, Barela is listing the names and salaries of his campaign staffers. Pearce is using a payroll company. Teague doesn't list any campaign staff payments on his latest report.

In the NM Governor's race, Republican Allen Weh, who previously told me he was going to list staff salaries and names, is using a payroll company and the public can't readily see who he is hiring and what they are paid. He earlier told us he was paying his campaign manager, Whitney Cheshire, the equivalent of about $75,000 per year.

Weh is suing Diane Denish over the release of records dealing with federal stimulus funds her office received in 2003. Shouldn't he be especially eager to list all of his own spending on his public money report?

Meanwhile, the lieutenant governor trumped Allen on this one. For one reporting period last year, Denish did not list staff salaries and positions, lumping them all under the "payroll company" heading, but in her latest report the sun shines on all those working for her.

After what New Mexico has been through when it comes to campaign money, you would expect all the candidates to let us know without having to ask who they trust to run their campaigns. After all, experience tells us many of them will end up with prominent roles in running our government.

Here is a list of Heinrich campaign staffers and their salaries released by the congressman's office.

Mike Sullivan, Finance Director--Mike makes $5,000/month; Molly Ritner, Finance Assistant--Molly makes $2,500/month; On March 19, Molly’s salary was raised from $2,300/month to $2,500/month; Prior to March 19, Molly made $2,300/month; Annie Olson, Office Manager--Annie makes $2,500/month; In March, Annie’s salary was raised from $13/hour to $2,500/month; Alex Eubanks, Researcher--Alex makes $10/hour; Maggie Smoak, Petition Gatherer--Maggie made $10.25/hour when she collected petition signatures in January

Thanks for stopping by this week. We appreciate the company. From Albuquerque, I'm Joe Monahan reporting.

Email your news and comments.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

GOP state Senator Sue Wilson Beffort won't have to deal with any more fiery comments about her highly paid husband when she starts talking about trimming the sails of state government. The University of New Mexico says one of two vice-president positions it is eliminating because of the Great Recession belongs to Steve Beffort, hubby of Sue and VP for Institution Support Services. Beffort will take early retirement.

Every time we blogged about Senator Sue's attacks on the Guv hiring too many political employees the email came in blasting her for not calling for UNM to reduce its administrative spending. Now she can shout without taking arrows. Beffort was paid $194,000 a year.

The newspaper has reported we have 19 UNM VP's pulling down $4.5 million a year. We have two gone. So should we say two down and maybe a dozen more to go?

THE NEW ERA

New Mexico faces severe limits on its public spending in the years ahead. Will we leave in place the top-heavy political patronage culture and force the working classes to shoulder the inevitable cuts?

But it's all nitpicking to old time politico and UNM Board of regents President Raymond Sanchez. He says eliminating the veeps "is not going to be that large of an impact."

The former state House speaker and his brother, state Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, both Democrats, have been seemingly oblivious to the populist wave washing across the state and causing the public to demand a curb on the excesses in state government and educational institutions. Raymond seems flippant when it comes to the fury over the UNM VP embarrassment and Michael has grown a tin ear, supporting an increase in the food tax.

But they are not alone in their resistance. The slow, but inexorable economic change taking place in the state is also causing ABQ public schools officials and APS board members to insist that administrative spending is under control, and that 1,500 emails flooding into the schools demanding reform are simply "misinformed."

Meanwhile, the chairs of the legislative education committees fail to conduct hearing on just what comprises "administrative" spending. Is it defined differently here than elsewhere?

The Sanchez brothers of Belen are among the most politically savvy politicos the stae has produced, but the times are a changin'. Raymond is right that the money saved by eliminating those two VP's is marginal, but the point is not the money, it is the direction we are headed. The payroll padding and the tax break raids for the wealthy staged by the political classes, so acceptable when the streets were paved with honey, doesn't sell in the new Era of Limits. Just ask the folks in Belen.

THE CAMPAIGN

After all the talk about her $100,000 campaign contribution from an Artesia oi land gas company, GOP Guv hopeful Susana Martinez is out with a report that says she has raised more money than any of the give GOP Guv candidates--when you exclude personal loans.

Martinez says she has raised $569,329 since the campaign started last year; Pete Domenici Jr; $302,107; Doug Turner; $214,325; Allen Weh; $435,896 and Janice Arnold-Jones has raised $77,144.

Weh has loaned himself $750,000 and Turner has come with several hundred thousand in personal cash. Domenici has kicked in $70,000 of personal money.

If you take away Martinez's $117,000 from Mack Energy, she would still be atop the money list, minus personal loans. The point to be taken from this is that the two candidates who passed the critical test of getting more than 20 percent of the delegates support at the preprimary convention--Martinez and Weh---are also in the lead in raising money from individual contributors.

History says either Weh or Martinez will be the GOP nominee because no one has ever won the nomination without getting that 20 percent preprimary support. The fund-raising indicates the same.

TURNER TUBE

Doug Turner is back on the air with a new and edgy TV spot. He is the third GOP hopeful on the air. The ad seems to appeal to a younger crowd, now if Doug can only get them to the polls. Turner did not say if he would be spending as much as Weh Martinez on his TV. He told me earlier this week he was still on the hustings raising money to avoid spending the $260,000 he has in his cash account, much of it his personal funds.

The Media Mavens say a statewide candidate needs to spend about $50,000 a week on TV in the early going to get their message out. In the final weeks, candidates often go to $100,000 a week.

DOMENICI RADIO

Alligators report hearing the first radio ads for Pete Domenici Jr. No word yet on content. The Gators also report that Pete Jr. has grown back the beard he had before announcing for Governor. How's that for earth shaking political news?

A RECORD HOLDER

NM GOP executive director Ryan Cangiolosi holds the record for having his name misspelled on this blog. We did it again Wednesday. Your record is safe in our hands, Ryan.

DATELINE: HONOLULU

A self-described "South Valley Alligator" sends a photo and this missive from the sandy shores of Honolul, Hawii:

After that Godzilla-like $100,000 campaign contribution from Mack Energy Corporation of Artesia to GOP Guv candidate Susana Martinez, the political community buzzed over whether there would be more from the same source and if that means Martinez is prepping for a TV ad arms race with self-funded multi-millionaire Allen Weh. Word from the trail is that the campaign does not expect more Mack money, but that it does expect to have enough cash to stay on the air with Weh. (Here's a profile of Mack founder Mack C. Chase.)

Martinez, the Dona Ana County district attorney, campaigning on a platform of ending corruption and pay-to-play politics in Santa Fe, played with fire by taking that $100k plus another $17,000 from Mack. The cash, among the largest single campaign contributions in state history, smacked of the same big time, big spending politics that got Big Bill in so much trouble and that Martinez asserts she will end if elected governor.

The big oil and gas money for Susana is also causing some headaches for GOP state chairman and SE NM oilman Harvey Yates. Some of Martinez's rivals continue to claim the state party is backing Martinez and that the oil and gas money is the proof. Yates and GOP executive director Ryan Cangliosi insist they are neutral.

Martinez can stretch the envelope some, but the stench of hypocrisy will surface if her campaign to end pay-to-play starts looking like what she's running against.

DEM SPIN

The Dem spin machine remained busy in the aftermath of the release of the state money reports. The D's crowed that Diane Denish, their certain Guv nominee, is running the table when it comes to the money campaign. The party comes with this:

Denish, total raised: $3.9 million; Republican candidates combined, total raised: $2.9 million (includes personal loans); Denish cash on hand: $2.6 million; Republican candidates combined cash on hand: $1.3 million

TURNER'S TURN

A big question still on the table in this hot and heavy GOP Guv contest is whether Doug Turner will join Weh and Martinez on TV in a significant way. Turner has already spent more than $200k of his money on billboards and early TV. He has $260,000 in his cash account, much of it his own. He tells me he is still conducting fund-raising among major donors and should know in a week where he stands when it comes to getting in on the TV arms race. Meantime...

A campaign operative raised questions here Tuesday about Turner's campaign loans, pointing out that he has loans from his PR company and then expenditures back to the company for consulting on the very same days in the same amounts. Turner's campaign says the DW Turner PR firm does media buys for its clients, which include the Turner Guv campaign. When it places the media buy that becomes a loan to the Turner campaign. The campaign then pays Doug's PR firm for the media buy. Got all that?

AG ACTION

Republican attorney general candidate Matt Chandler reports raising $68,000 in the October thru April fund-raising period. Pretty good, but Dem Attorney General Gary King, seeking a second four year term, raised $166,000, including a $60,000 personal loan. King has $93,000 in cash on hand. Chandler received most of his money from the Clovis-Portales area where he serves as district attorney.

CORNELIUS CASH

30 year old Bob Cornelius is another candidate coming with personal cash to keep his hopes alive. Cornelius, whose family has ranching ties in Lea County, has loaned himself $100,000 to keep alive his hopes for the GOP land commission nomination. Cornelius failed to get 20 percent of the delegates support at the GOP preprimary convention and had to file petition signatures to get a spot on the June 1 primary ballot. Portales area rancher Matt Rush was the only candidate to win the needed preprimary support, garnering support from nearly 65% of the delegates. Cornelius said in a news release that Rush is reporting less than $4,000 in cash on hand while he now has $101,000. The question now is how much of that money Cornelius will spend.

BERNCO SHERIFF

That Republican nomination for Bernalillo County sheriff is worth having. No Hispanic Dem has been elected to the post in modern times, so GOP hopefuls William Kurth and Dan Houston are putting up personal cash to snag the victory June 1st--especially Kurth. The retired ABQ police department officer has loaned himself $40,000 and kicked in a personal contribution of $6,000. He's raised a total of $59,000 and reports $46,000 of cash in the bank for the final stretch. Houston, retired from the sheriff's department, loaned himself $10,000 and gave himself a $5,000 personal contribution. He's raised $43,000 and reports $40,000 cash in the bank.

With the fund-raising in this contest basically equal, we should have an exciting finish with both candidates in the mailboxes and on TV making their case.

NOT THAT MUCH

In an early draft Tuesday, we blogged that Dem Light Guv candidate Brian Colon received over 40 percent of the vote at the Dems March preprimary convention. Actually, he received 34.5 percent, as several readers helpfully pointed out.

TED HOBBS

We always thought the Republican Party should have been more like Ted Hobbs, the middle-of-the-road state House Minority Leader who had been around long enough to know that the long-term success of the party would only be achieved by moving to the center.

She's loaded up with Big Bill baggage, no woman has ever been elected governor of New Mexico and no lieutenant governor in the modern era has manged to get elected governor. But Diane Denish sent a message Monday that in spite of all that she remains the favorite in the 2010 race for Governor, announcing her cash hoard has now grown to $2.6 million.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

Mayor Berry
Whether by serendipity or design, ABQ voters seem to pick their leaders to match the times. When the city was booming and the coffers were overflowing with cash, Democratic activist leader Marty Chavez fit the bill. For eight years he unveiled initiative after initiative. Today, with the city facing its worst budget crisis in its history, the times call for a more low-key and collaborative personality and we appear to be getting it with R.J. Berry.

The new mayor sat for a half-hour KOB-TV interview, and despite the mounting tension over his proposed budget cuts, he maintained his cool, refusing, as he put it, to "draw a line in the sand."

This isn't a line in the sand process for me. This is a dialogue with labor, the administration and city council.

The first Republican mayor in nearly a quarter century also passed on the chance to do some old fashioned union bashing:

(The unions) have a job to do...They have membership they have to take care of...It doesn't surprise me that they would come with tax increases...We have a negotiating process...We''ll conduct ourselves in a professional manner..

That's a far cry from the yelling and name-calling (one councilor once called the sitting mayor "a turd") that have marked city politics in recent years. Perhaps as the crisis wears on, we'll revert to form and have city councilors, union leaders and the mayor all publicly dumping on one another, but for now Mr. and Mrs. Albuquerque are enjoying the reprieve.

WHERE WE'RE GOING

Style is the superficial if not insignificant aspect of governing, but in the end it's policy that matters. In that regard, Berry, governing with a five member GOP majority on the council, seems headed toward getting most of what he wants as he takes his first of what will be many stabs at addressing the new long-term economic reality.

This is because there are few alternatives. Most of the expense of running a modern city is payroll. With a projected deficit of $66 million for the budget year starting July 1st, it will have to be trimmed. Berry's proposal to shave 3 percent from all city salaries is headed for passage. But if he and the council really want to score points and apply this proposal fairly, they will exempt the lowest paid employees and make sure the cuts are deeper at the top of the pay scale.

City unions arguing for tax hikes to keep the party going are whistling in the wind. Unlike dozens of other cities, Berry is coming with a plan that avoids layoffs. City unemployment is at a modern day record--9 percent--and the public is not about to support tax increases so city workers can keep full-sized paychecks while unemployment and food stamp lines back up.

The police and fire departments, sacrosanct for so many years, will also find a resistant public if they try to cling to unrealistic 6 percent pay raises promised by former Mayor Chavez. Ditto for their desire to avoid shrinking their salaries like other city workers.

With lost jobs, foreclosed homes and heavy debt weighing on thousands of city households, the cops and firemen are going to take a hit. That it is being administered by a Republican mayor and council, not Democrats who could be accused of being soft on crime, is another reason the cops will have to bite their bullets, not just shoot them.

However, City Hall Alligators say Berry may want to settle for nixing the pay raise and applying the salary cut, rather than opening up the entire police and fire contracts to go after more savings. That could upset what so far is a political equilibrium that gives Berry the benefit of the doubt. Besides, by the time this economic debacle plays out, everything will eventually be thrown on the table.

SUNCAL AFTERMATH

Repercussions from the bursting of the ABQ west side real estate bubble continue, with the bankruptcy filing of land developer SunCal being the latest news. The company bought the huge SunCal Atrisco land grant and then tried to convince the legislature to give it a special tax break known as a TIDD to assist it in developing nearly 40,000 residential lots there.. It never happened. A Senior Alligator comes with this analysis:

There are only four caretakers left to deal with the re-organization as SunCal's California staff deal with the repercussions. The Californians have been running the operation for some time.

The SunCal approach to lobbying and advertising really has to be called into question. They probably spent well over a million dollars on their failed efforts to get the legislature to approve their TIDD. Contrast the SunCal effort at getting their TIDD to the successful Mesa del Sol effort and one sees that one has to target an effort with the legislature and not throw money at the wall hoping some of it will stick.

SunCal's lobbying raised eyebrows and caused resentment among the many who didn't get a piece of the action. With the economy in the ditch and successful efforts like Mesa del Sol in hibernation, it is hard to see how SunCal will emerge successfully from this reorganization. One only hopes that the shareholders and heirs of the Atrisco land grant can salvage their heritage from this fiasco.

MARY'S MUSINGS

From Santa Fe, Secretary of State Mary Herrera writes to us of the charges from A.J. Salazar, her former Bureau of Election's director, who claims she ordered office employees to gather petition signatures for her re-election campaign on office time:

I do not understand why the media never asked (Salazar) did you collect the 1,000 signatures? February 9th was filing date. Everyone knows I was out every night and every weekend collecting my own signatures. I collected over 10,000 with help from friends, family, campaign help, and I mailed out sheets to over 200 people in the party who I thought might help and received quite a few back in the mail. I collected close to 7,000 by myself from October to February 9th. I am a worker...

No doubt Mary is a worker. She won two terms as Bernalillo County clerk and is going for a second four year term as SOS this year. As for collecting 7,000 signatures on her own from October thru Feb. 9, that would mean she collected an average of 55 signatures a day.

In light of the recent troubles of Sec. Herrera, we pointed out that no Republican has been elected SOS since the 1920's. But why, when other state offices have, on occasion, flipped to the R's? Perhaps New Mexico Hispanics are particularly attuned to the Dems and this office because it administers election and voting rules and discrimination against Hispanics in that regard was of a serious nature not long ago.

RACE ON--AGAIN

We are back to a three way GOP primary for the ABQ west side and Corrales area state House seat held by Dem Ben Rodefer. Candidate Tom Molitor says he is back on the ballot as is David Doyle. The pair were ruled off the ballot by the Secretary of State for not following rules regarding the gathering of petition signatures, but Molitor says a Sandoval County judge reversed that ruling. The two join retired ABQ police officer Paul Pacheco on the ballot. Rodefer is seen as one of the more vulnerable House Dems in the 2010 cycle.

Meanwhile, the AP comes with this wrap on the outlook for the state House campaigns. All 70 seats are up for election this year. The GOP has done a pretty good job getting more candidates on the field, but Dems say they are ready to defend.

FOLLOWING FOLEY

The City of Roswell isn't going to be shy about defending itself from a lawsuit filed against the cops by former State Rep. Dan Foley who was arrested in 2007 for interfering with his son's basketball game and allegedly spitting at the police. Charges were eventually dismissed, but Foley's suit says his civil rights were violated. The city is now asking that Foley's suit be dismissed.

These defendants acted out of necessity to protect their safety and the safety of others,” reads the court documents. “(Their) actions were privileged on the basis that they may use reasonable force to effect an arrest.

Republican Foley has since moved out of Roswell and to Rio Rancho. But his political career has never recovered from a 2008 primary defeat. He currently sells insurance.

THE WEH HIGHWAY

This Allen Weh campaign billboard near Farmington has some odd company for a self-described "famIly values" candidate. The building in back of of the billboard sports the title, "Couples Megastore." Weh's sign appears to be on the same property as the sex biz. Maybe the suliminal message from the GOP Guv contender is that it takes more than praying together for a couple to stay together?

THE BOTTOM LINES

In our first draft of Friday's blog we said that Lt. Gov. Diane Denish took issue with the latest TV ad from GOP Guv contender Allen Weh. The criticism actually came in a news release from the state Dem party, not Denish, but her campaign says she agrees with the party.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009
Not for reproduction without permission of the author