Friday, June 28, 2013Friday Clippings From My Newsroom Floor
The Kush has cut out. Steve Kush, the New Jersey native who became executive director of the Bernalillo County Republican Party only to be suspended after he made wayward comments on Facebook, is outta here--for good. Kush was suspended after the controversial remarks, but was reinstated June 17 by County Chairman Frank Ruvolo. That raised eyebrows since Kush's comment that a young woman asking the county commission to raise the minimum wage was a "radical bitch" was seen as fodder for the Dems. Well, no more fodder. Kush has headed back home to Jersey where he will resume his political consulting career, report our GOP insiders..... Former ABQ Mayor Marty Chavez has been quiet about the ABQ scene since being ousted from office by Republican Richard Berry in 2009. He now works with a DC lobbying firm. Marty broke his silence this week when he took to his Twitter account to say:
I am at the US Conference of Mayors. It's so sad to see how well other cities are doing compared to Albuquerque. We should be doing so much better!
Chavez served a record three terms as mayor of ABQ. His former public safety director--Pete Dinelli--is Berry's Dem challenger in this year's mayoral election. Maybe Pete will get some campaign tips from Marty....
Lots of email this week on the disappointing news that New Mexico has slipped to 50th in the nation when it comes to child well-being. Reader Alex came with this:
NM has for years ranked among the lowest states in NM Child Well Being and several other quality of life indicators. But it is short-sighted to think that such changes can occur over the near term when they would take years to see any improvements. For sure Richardson accomplished nothing in this area, and Governor Martinez has no agenda to address this issue, much less others like economy, jobs, growth, etc....
New US Senator Martin Heinrich is still getting his feet wet in the Potomac. The freshman adds this to his list of duties:
Heinrich (D-N.M.) has been appointed to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. He will temporarily fill the seat left vacant by the death of New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg until the special election on October 16....
Back to the hand wringing over the state's deep social conditions crisis and reader James McClure:
I sometimes wonder whether the state is an irony-free zone. Folks grumble about New Mexico's low educational ranking but elect legislators who oppose school reform initiatives. The U.S. nuclear weapons program drives much of the state's employment, yet New Mexicans voted overwhelmingly for a president who wants to eliminate nuclear weapons. One of the poorest counties in the state banned hydraulic fracking for oil and gas. And Albuquerque residents want jobs but will not permit Walmart to create them. All that's missing is t-shirts with the slogan "We're Number 50!"
Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. Finally, thanks to Margaret Montoya, Professor Emerita, UNM School of Law, for pushing back against the revisionism going around about the role of the Spanish languague in our state Constitution: On January 6, 1912, President Howard Taft signed the Statehood Proclamation with these words, “The Mexican Americans of New Mexico succeeded in protecting their heritage by inserting provisions in their constitution which made Spanish an official language, equal to the English language.” President Taft’s conclusion is a blunt rebuttal to reports that Spanish is not “enshrined” as an official New Mexico language. That ought to settle that. Hasta la proxima. This is the home of New Mexico politics. I'm Joe Monahan reporting from Albuquerque,   |
  
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