"The clouds swallowed the sunset." That's how one news report described this week's epic thunderstorm in the ABQ metro. It delivered the most one day rainfall since 1933. That torrential downpour was one of many storms that have been welcomed in our water parched neighborhoods.

Through it all flooding has been kept to a minimum, and unlike past years we rarely see dramatic TV footage of people who have fallen into arroyos. City voters have time and again approved flood control bonds by landslide margins and supported flood safety measures. As we saw this week, it pays off. What would similar investments do that were aimed at reversing the state's abysmal rankings in a myriad of social conditions?. . .

BIG BILL MUSINGS

Former Guv Bill Richardson's rocky relationship with the Clintons is well-known. Here he is talking with talk host Larry King about the Dem chase for the '16 prez nomination:

I wanna see who the candidates are, I think there should be open competition, I know Hillary Clinton is a formidable candidate. It’s not that I won’t ever be there but right now, I’m not one of those hundred of democrats flocking and saying the race is over.

And about his breach with Bill Clinton when he endorsed Obama over Hillary in 2008:

He’s still mad at me. . . so far he hasn’t forgiven me, I’ll be honest. I still have a lot of affection for him. I served under him, he was good to me. I was good to him You know, sometimes you have these breaches and sometimes it takes time to heal. This one has been unusually long but if he wishes to keep it separate and a breach then so be it. I’m not uncomfortable. I’m not begging. I’m fine. I’m happy.

Meanwhile, Richardson's sucessor is on the summer campaign trail. Maybe the heat got to her because she seems a bit annoyed in this interview with the Taos News:

While Martinez visited Northern New Mexico, Democratic Party nominee for governor Gary King attended a conference in Albuquerque on child welfare and well-being — both areas in which the state has ranked poorly in recent years. “I don’t need to go and pretend I care about kids,” Martinez replied when asked by a reporter why she did not attend the 2014 Kids Count Conference, which a spokesperson for the governor described as being aligned with a "far-left" group. “I don’t wait for a campaign to worry about kids. I’ve been doing that for 25 years,” referring to her work as a prosecutor. “That’s nothing but a little show.”

New national child well-being rankings are expected to be released soon. Word has it that NM has improved a notch from its most recent ranking of 50th in the USA.

For Gary King the summer is all about turning around the perceptions that he has little hope of victory.  Martinez insiders are rejoicing over the news that top political odds maker Nate Silver at  FiveThirtyEight pegs King's chances of taking her out at a mere 12.5 percent. But King begs to differ. He said in a campaign email this week:

Despite having over a million dollars of negative ads spent against me - our latest poll shows this is still a statistical dead heat - and only a 6% difference between Martinez and me.

King's Poll was conducted July 7-10 by Lake Research and showed Martinez at 45%, King at 39% and 15% undecided. Is Martinez really under the all-important 50% mark? If King could get that confirmed by an independent poll he could be off to the races but there are no such polls. A survey conducted for the Martinez campaign shows her at 54% and one conducted for the state GOP had her at 53%. Here is the King polling memo. The margin of error is pegged at + or - 4 percent.

THE BOTTOM CLIPPING

Allen Weh is digging deep into his own pockets to try to keep pace with the fundraising totals of Dem US Senator Tom Udall but Udall's cash on hand total beats Weh's five to one:

Udall has stockpiled more than $3 million for his re-election bid. . . Weh is dipping into personal money to jump start his campaign for the general election. Weh, a former state GOP chairman, has lent his campaign more than a half million dollars in the past three months, allowing him to raise more money than Udall during that time, according to a Federal Election Commission finance report. . . Udall reported $3.4 million in his campaign account at the end of last month. Weh had a balance of $627,806.

The only federal race that has even an inkling of drama is that featuring southern congressional district Rep. Pearce and Dem Rocky Lara. Reps Lujan and Lujan Grisham are safe. The money totals for those campaigns are found at the above link.

Thanks for stopping by this week.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2014. Not for reproduction without permission of the author