Drat! Another conspiracy theory bites the dust. The six finalists for the presidency of NM Highlands University have been released and nowhere to be seen on it is the name of longtime northern Dem state Senator Pete Campos. This after full-blown conspiracy theories circulated at the Roundhouse during the recent legislative session that Pete was playing pals with Susana in order to snag the Highlands prize (for example, he was the only Dem Senator to vote to confirm Republican Matt Chandler to the UNM Board of Regents and Susana's political machine gave Campos some help when he had a contested Dem primary in 2012).

Well, maybe Pete was snuggling with the Guv because he just wanted more goodies for his home district. Don't fret for him. He remains head of the  Luna Community College in Las Vegas. He said he never did submit a formal application for the Highlands post, although he did so when it was vacant in past years.

Okay, so the Campos conspiracy is done, but there's always black helicopters flying around here. Read on. . .

DA DOINGS

Leave it to the speculators (and the conspirators), now that Republican Jessica Hernandez, the former legal counsel to Martinez, has been confirmed by the ABQ city council as the new city attorney, her name is already being floated as a possible GOP candidate for Bernalillo County district attorney next year. The Dems already have two announced contenders in the race--Raul Torrez and Ed Perea.

Thinking out loud about that race, it comes to mind that no Hispanic has been elected DA in how many years?  It was in the late 90's when Jeff Romero was elected. In '14 Manny Gonzales became the first Hispanic in memory to be elected BernCo sheriff.

TAXIGATE?

The anti-Heinrich crowd jumped at the chance to pile on the freshman Dem US Senator over Tuesday's blog about his violation of Senate rules by reimbursing himself with government funds for commuting expenses between his home and the Capitol. He paid back $1,900 in expenses after they were revealed by the national press. Reader Ron Nelson writes:

Whoever the Dem insider is that shared on the blog excuses for why Heinrich filed bogus expense claims missed the point. The question should be: Would he have come forward if he wasn’t caught?

Kimothy Sparks writes:

Joe, another reason Martin Heinrich may be able to escape what you call a "rare misstep" of "getting reimbursed with government funds for commuting between his home and office" is because left of center bloggers and reporters will downplay it as you did in Tuesday's blog and will not bring it back up in the midst of an election. A fair reporting of the event would be to call it what it is. If it had been Governor Martinez or Congressman Steve Pearce, you would have commented on it daily for perpetuity.

Slow down, Kimothy, and tell us why no prominent NM Republican has attacked Heinrich for his misstep, never mind alleged blog bias. If and when they do, you will read about it right here.

(In our first draft Tuesday we had Senator Martin Heinrich serving two terms on the ABQ city council. He served one term.)

Martin isn't the only politico of late to have trouble with finances. Gov. Martinez gets busted in this piece that the Dems have been salivating over:

Records show Susana Martinez' campaign had enough money. . . to return contributions made by a Texas developer charged by Las Vegas, Nevada, police with physically assaulting a woman in an October 2012 incident. The revelation contradicts public statements made by the Republican governor's spokesman (who) told the ABQ Journal that shedding thousands in contributions donated by the developer, Marcus Hiles, would not be feasible. On June 3, 2014, Hiles contributed the $10,400 limit to Martinez' campaign, reports show. His wife, Nancy Hiles, also contributed $10,400. “The campaign has long since ended, and you can’t return money that’s already been spent,” the Journal quoted the governor's spokesman. But new reports filed with the secretary of state's office. . . show that the same day the Journal published that quote, Martinez' committee had roughly $70,000 cash-on-hand.

Of course, this will all be discussed when Sen. Heinrich squares off agent Gov. Martinez for the US Senate seat in 2018. Right?

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