Here's how the White House will look when Donald Trump takes over. Book your room now.

That was some GOP presidential debate last night, wasn't it? Trump had the anger meter hitting 10 and the crowd urging him on. Anger put to work--to spur action-- is a valid political emotion. Trump has not only tapped into the waves of anger rolling across a not so small part of the electorate but also their desire for change.

Who was the angriest political figure we ever encountered in New Mexico? Hands down it was former GOP chairman and 2006 gubernatorial candidate John Dendahl. When he went up against heavy favorite Bill Richardson in '06 we dubbed him '"the sacrificial wolf." But Dendahl wasn't mean. Just angry. He left the state in a huff in his later years decrying the attitude of New Mexicans.

On the current scene there may be some angry politicians but they don't show it. (Actually, we find Gov. Martinez has more than a streak of anger to her political personality). Anger is mostly left to social media, talk radio and citizen activists. There aren't many of those anymore but ABQ Silvio Dell'Angela is one. For several years, he has been sending out irate email missives to a large audience, decrying the current state of New Mexico and ABQ. Here's a sample from his latest:

Many here are in denial that New Mexico is compared nationwide to nothing better than a third world city run by corrupt leaders. This is because we continue to elect people whose only goal is not to serve us-the people but to feather their own nests. Even Mississippi is thankful for New Mexico’s horrible reputation--now the land of hopelessness and apathy to this culture of corruption.

New Mexico just isn't big on anger. However, you could argue it is often too big on acceptance, denial and apathy.

Thanks for stopping by this week.

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Are New Mexico's "rising star" Democrats making too many mistakes, giving the Governor's political machine an even easier ride? Let's take a look:

--Senator Martin Heinrich is embarrassed over headlines that he wrongly reimbursed himself with government funds for transportation costs to , trips that should have been paid for out of his own pocket. A rookie mistake that blemished Heinrich unnecessarily.

Attorney General Hector Balderas openly endorses Machine favorite Matt Chandler for a spot on the UNM Board of Regents only to see Chandler's nomination suffer a rare defeat in the Dem state senate. Earlier, the new AG fired en masse 40 staffers who worked for his Dem predecessor, firings that are still making news today.

State Auditor Tim Keller scored points for firing at the Machine with his probes of the secretary of taxation and revenue and the city of ABQ's questionable contract with Taser's lapel camera videos. Then he shoots himself in the foot by opening a private email address to conduct state business on, something Gov. Martinez did and was busted for. Now Keller is busted.

ABQ Dem Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham was coasting along until her magic carpet ride. She received carpets as gifts from the government of Azerbaijan and didn't report it. She was also called out for taking the trip in the first place because of who was paying for it. House Ethics cleared her of any wrongdoing but it gave the R's a possible potent opening if she seeks the governorship.

In just about any context these are minor infractions that would normally not draw much scrutiny, but the state Democratic establishment has been flattened by the Machine and these are the personalities the party is counting on to reverse the tide. They need to be hitting every time they swing.

Another major factor in why the Dems need their A game is the quiescent media when it comes to Gov. Martinez. Controversy after controversy erupts but she is spared the flashing cameras. Google--one of the world's major companies-- pulls out of New Mexico. Anyone ask the Guv about it? Nope. Let the mayor of Moriarty deal with it. The taxation secretary is caught up in Keller's investigation. Anyone ask Martinez on camera about it? Nope. A Guv statement attacking Keller will suffice. NM ranks 49th in child well-being Anyone interview the Governor? Nope. The state ranks at or near the bottom in job growth in the nation? The Governor's response? She isn't asked.

It's not all up to the media. If the Dems were pressing their case against the Machine they would get the press. Keller has shown that, but most seem to be playing the dangerous game of waiting her out. And while they are waiting they are making mistakes when they should be forcing mistakes.

THE EYEBROW RAISER

The eyebrow easier of the week was easily when APD Chief Gorden Eden said he has never read the criminal investigative report on the killing of homeless camper James Boyd, despite it arguably being the most famous slaying in the department's history. Eden made the statement in testimony at this week's preliminary hearing where it will be determined if two APD officers will stand trial on charges in connection with the Boyd shooting. He later explained why he has not read the report, but that explanation puzzled many, including ABQ attorney Tom Grover who writes:

He's trying to say he can't look at the report because if he did he'd violate the officers' due process rights for administrative investigations. First, it doesn't apply to at all to former APD officer Keith Sandy because he's no longer employed by APD. Regarding officer Perez, we're talking about the criminal investigation of the shooting of Boyd NOT the administrative investigation of Perez for misconduct. The administrative investigation of a public employee's misconduct always follows the criminal investigation because statements by officers in administrative investigations are compulsory--an employee who refuses to answer can be fired for simply not answering. Lastly even if there were something that would pose a conflict, Eden as Chief of Police can assign authority to discipline Perez to a deputy chief or to the city's chief administtrative officer. For Eden to come off as so uninformed about this event and again to misstate a legal issue (remember, he at first called the Boyd case a justified shooting) shows how little has changed with APD.

Yep, that's the stuff you'll get nowhere else and we're glad to bring it to you.

THE MYSTERY OF MARY

Mary Han

The most disturbing part of a report about the controversial 2010 death of noted ABQ attorney Mary Han is this:

The noble cause of a forensic pathologist is to seek the truth, says the foreword to Spitz’s seminal “Medicolegal Investigation of Death.” That requires the pathologist to “abandon rhetoric, ancient dogma and fictive contentions in favor of finding and presenting fact.” The facts in Han’s death appear to be irretrievably lost, the truth forever out of reach. Surely it’s time the OMI found the guts to say so and change its report.

Is the truth really "forever out of reach?" Or is there someone out there who some day will step forward and solve this mystery? Or does that only happen on TV?. . . .

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We like to check in from time to time on the latest oil price as it is so key to the state budget and the services New Mexicans get. Right now a barrel of the black gold has slumped back to the $46 a barrel area. That's well below the $56 a barrel the state is depending on as the average price in the current budget year. If we averaged $46 for the year the experts say that would mean at least a $70 million drop in tax and royalty revenue. Not huge but significant in a $6.2 billion budget. With that background we now turn to our self-proclaimed Energy Alligator:

US producers are finding ways to massively cut costs and increase production. This means oil can be produced profitably from the best shale acreage in New Mexico's Permian and San Juan Basins at the $40-$50 level. With these sorts of advances more and more acreage will become profitable to produce. The same thing is happening with natural gas. It's economies of scale and better technology making this possible. While estimating oil prices is like reading tea leaves, the trend appears to be strongly down. As New Mexicans we need to be prepared for the revenue and budget impacts we could see in the next 5 years. What will our share of federal royalties be? How will our Land Grant Permanent Fund be affected? Will there be "new" money for our legislators to spend? Or will we be scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for more money for education and Medicaid?

Thanks for that Energy Gator. We hear much from the anti-government conservatives about how dangerous it is for New Mexico to depend so much on federal spending which is under pressure. But if that's "dangerous" what about our dependence on oil and natural gas for revenue? It makes up some 20 percent of the state's general budget. And that leads us to this . . .

San Juan County GOP State Senator Bill Sharer continues to pound the table for repealing the over 350 exemptions from the state gross receipts tax and replace it with a flat 2 percent GRT on all purchases. Those exemptions are fiercely protected by those benefiting. Getting rid of them may be as hard as getting a gun out of the hands of the NRA president. But. . .

If energy prices stay low for the next five years and we aren't generating enough revenue from other economic activity to compensate, something has got to give. Medicaid and public education budgets can't be denied and the hunt will be on for new revenue. Sharer's hit on the exemptions is the first volley fired in what we expect to be a louder and more intense debate over tax policy as lawmakers grapple with new thinking in this new economic era.

By the way, those $350 a pop Carlsbad hotel rooms that we saw at the peak of the latest oil boom are history. A check on Expedia shows hotel suites down to about $199 and a budget hotel at around $75 a night. That's still pricey for the SE oil area, but at least the tourists can now get a place while they visit the Caverns.

WHITE HOT DENVER

As we blogged this week, Forbes named Denver as the #1 city in the USA for business and careers. Hard to believe that is only 8 hours north of us here in sluggish River City. Reader Michael Lamb sends this in that shows just how white-hot the Mile High City has become:

Metro Denver tenants snapped up an additional 4,550 apartments in the second quarter, but the robust new supply wasn't enough to keep rents from rising and vacancy rates from falling, according to the Denver Metro Area Apartment Vacancy & Rent Report. For comparison, metro Denver's apartment market absorbed 8,631 additional units in all of 2014, up from 4,613 units in 2013 and 3,368 in 2012, according to the report, There were only four other times in the past 25 years that the Denver area absorbed such a high number of units as it did in the second quarter, noted Mark Williams, executive vice president of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.

And get this. The average apartment rent in Denver is now a record $1,265 but if you're generating high-paying jobs that's not a problem.

GOOGLE IS GOING

Back here, the Governor and policymakers down the chain take a hit as Goggle announces it is moving the Moriarty drone factory it bought only last year from Titan Aerospace. It will be moved to the San Francisco Bay area and presumably with it 40 jobs.

It's not so much the economic impact but the prestige of having one of the most valuable companies on the planet with a NM presence. That helps the state get notice with other major firms. State Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela has been out touting  improvement in the state's exports, but he sure didn't expect Google to export itself out of here.  Don't call the Guv for coffee today, Jon. She might not be in the mood to see you.

THE BOTTOM LINES

Reader Michael Caplan in Grants returns us to the crime beat to complete the Wednesday blog:

Joe, Everyone seems to want the judges to put more people in jail, but no one seems to want to pay to build and run those jails. You get don’t get what you won’t pay for.

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Here's an idea. Instead of pulling down the old Confederate Flag at ABQ's Old Town Plaza, why don't we put up a white flag of surrender and let Colorado take us over? The news:

Albuquerque ranks 152 in the country when it comes to the best places in the U.S. for business and careers.That's according to the latest ranking of 200 cities in the U.S. by Forbes magazine, which finds Denver as the best city for business and careers. . . Raleigh, N.C., Portland, Ore., Provo, Utah, and Atlanta round out the top five in the 2015 Forbes list.

ABQ's exceptionally slow job growth was the main reason for it languishing near the bottom of the list. No wonder that mere 8 hour drive to Denver is looking so enticing to the city's millenniasl. (#4 Provo is only a 9 hour drive).

HEARING OF THE DECADE

The ABQ hearing of the decade got underway Monday. The preliminary hearing will determine if two APD police officers will stand trial on murder or lesser charges or not at all for the 2014 fatal police shooting of homeless camper James Boyd. Police lapel camera video that showed Boyd being killed stunned viewers around the globe. We asked former Bernalillo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Pete Dinelli--who is sitting in on the hearing--to weigh in on day one:

You have very good, seasoned trial attorneys that are evenly matched and a trial judge--Neil Candelaria--in full control. Special Prosecutor McGinn's opening statement was succinct, effective, aggressive and set the tone. The cross-examination by defense attorney Luis Robles was exceptional in characterizing the facts of the case with answers from witnesses that were favorable to the defense. A major revelation on day one: APD Chief Gorden Eden testified that he has never read the final report on the Boyd shooting, even though he is chief and was at the scene. This is the same chief who said in a news conference the day after the shooting that it was justified. Other facts that came out--Boyd was well known to APD. For two years two Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) police officers were actually assigned to deal with him but that those CIT officers were not dispatched the day he was killed. This was the first round of a 10 round match and in my estimation it appeared to be a draw. 

James Boyd

Chief Eden's testimony drew sharp criticism from one of our Legal Beagles:

Chief Eden’s performance confirmed what most already know: APD’s cover-up culture is alive and well. Eden took the stand and claimed he hadn’t read the report on the Boyd killing. By claiming he hadn’t read it, Eden dodged having to testify about what the report said. The city just paid $5 million to settle the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Boyd's family, but Eden--who is paid $160,000 a year--wants the public to believe he hasn’t read his own department’s report? Eden also claimed there’s an ongoing investigation into why Officer Keith Sandy’s lapel camera video disappeared. Eden’s had a year and a half to get to the bottom of it. What’s the hold-up? The answer is Eden doesn’t want to know, or he knows what’s on the video and doesn’t want the public to see it. Despite former APD Chief Ray Schultz having fled the jurisdiction, APD’s past problems remain the same for this “new” APD. When the truth is inconvenient or might make APD look bad, count on the Cover-Up Cops to cover it up.

Those Beagles sure are good at sniffing out all the angles, aren't they?  Here's another one with pushback to the contention from Mayor Berry and APD that repeat offenders alone are the reason for the recent crime wave:

APD is attributing all the crime to repeat offenders. That is nothing new and doesn't explain the kinds of things we are seeing. APD officers are openly commenting that the city is super dangerous and they don't want their families on the streets. A big reason for repeat offenders being on the streets is the new court rule that went into effect on 2/2/15. It sets deadlines to speed up the disposal of cases.  Prosecutors can't proceed on cases without all the discovery necessary and it is next to impossible getting it from APD. So while prosecutors are waiting and sending request after request for discovery, these guys are out on the streets. If prosecutors had what we needed, they could move forward with the cases and have a better chance of locking the bad guys up. 

Also, getting cops to show up to testify for DWI and misdemeanor cases in Metro Court,  for grand juries and at preliminary hearings and trials is very challenging. Cases are dismissed all the time because of "No Shows." Some of this may be due to APD's low officer numbers, but a lot of it is simply a lack of organization and not caring.

THE BOTTOM LINES

We rechecked with our Senior Alligator who told us here last week that ABQ Cultural Services Department director Betty Rivera was headed for the exits at the behest of the city's Chief Administrative Officer. That has yet to happen but our Gator says hold on and watch for this to play out.

We'll give it a bit more time, but in the event this was bad info, we'll have to take the unprecedented step of administering to a Senior Alligator ten lashes with a wet noodle-- the customary punishment for errors. And you thought you're job was tough. . .

By the way, in case you forgot, a Senior Alligator is someone with at least 20 consecutive years experience in La Politica has reached the age of 45 and preferably has run for political office and lost. Applications for Senior Alligator status are taken only twice a year--on Good Friday at a Mora County penitente morada and on New Year's Eve in the back room of ABQ's El Modelo restaurant.

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Mayor Berry

Its been all crime all the time in the Duke City this Summer of '15. Another fatal police shooting and another murder rolled into the weekend headlines, preceded by a spate of sensational carjackings, a murderous teen mobbing and even more casualties from the killing fields of ABQ.

We opined in a recent column that the crime wave seems to have taken on the characteristics of a wildfire and Mayor Berry and his administration have lost control of events. One of our readers--Milton Bluehouse--was prompted to start circulating a petition demand that the Mayor get a handle on what's happening. Not surprisingly, he and APD offer soothing bromides, denying there is even a problem:

After a 30-minute high speed chase, leading to an eight-hour SWAT standoff, the petition was created. “The constant sound of sirens, created this sense of anxiety and fear that we needed to do something to address crime,” said Milton Bluehouse. . “It’s an ongoing conversation that I’ve had with my neighbors and I just thought, hey we need to create a petition in order to draw attention to crime in our communities."

. . . (APD spokesman) Tanner Tixier said crime is not up. . . APD points out most of this summer’s crimes have been committed by the same small group of people. “We have to keep catching them again and that’s got to stop,” said Tixier.  The Mayor said he agrees “Over 90% of the murders we’ve had this year have been committed by repeat offenders. “We need to give the judges the tools that they need to keep folks we should be afraid of in jail."

Reader Ron Kathman responds:

How about the deliberate and premeditated apathy on the part of our city's political and business leaders? They seem to think that if they pretend that crime is not a problem here, then crime will not be a problem here.

So the Mayor says he is pretty much helpless to stop the crime outbreak unless the state Constitution is changed to make it harder for repeat offenders to get bail.

That sounds like an odd message to send to the criminals who seem to have caught on that it's open season for them in a city that has a severely understaffed APD, near historically low response times, sapped morale, botched training and a DOJ court order handing over its head. But let's just hold up a copy of the Constitution and bellow to the criminals: "You guys are really gonna get it now!"  Thanks, Mayor. Everyone feels so much safer now.

NO STEPPING STONE

Mayor Gonzales

Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales, often mentioned for higher political office, is finding out that being His Honor is not an easy way to get there.

In ABQ, Mayor Berry hungrily eyes the '18 Guv race, but political pros point out his ongoing problems with law and order in the city make him easy prey for an effective negative TV ad campaign.

Folks around the state don't cotton to "big city" mayors and their big city problems. We can't recall anyone gong directly from mayor to major statewide office. Maybe Gonzales or Berry will break that trend but there is plenty of reason to be doubtful.

THE UNM DEBACLE

The issue is how much politicization the public will tolerate at UNM, and as we know from Big Bill's term and now Susana's, the answer is more than you would expect. But the hiring of Marc Saavedra, son of former Dem State Rep. Kiki Saavedra, crossed the line and his contract as a consultant for the UNM Health Sciences Center will be canceled. Outrage followed Saavedra's hiring because of his three DWI convictions. He was formerly the top lobbyist for UNM but was let go after his last DWI.

It is quite the sight to see powerful administrators like UNM President Bob Frank (who with perks pulls down about half a million a year) and Health Sciences Director Dr. Paul Roth (who pulls down $650,000 a year) squirm in the limelight over this. Their huge budgets from Santa Fe make them especially vulnerable to political maneuvers. The only way they can stop it is by publicly standing up to the politicos and fighting it out in the Legislature. But the Saavedra debacle--which they had to see coming--shows the UNM temperament is to go along to get along--often meekly. You understand the reasoning but  it's embarrassing to watch.

SPACING OUT

The critics call the stalled-out NM Spaceport, financed with taxpayer approval to the tune of about $220 million, a boondoggle. Well, what about the accident disabled WIPP? It makes the Spaceport look like a bargain:

Federal officials said that the March 2016 target to resume operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant outside Carlsbad. . . must be pushed back due to “unanticipated issues.” “Over the past several months a number of additional activities have been identified that need to be added to the project schedule, including safety related activities that are required to be completed. . .” the Department of Energy said. The department said it expects a new resumption of operations date and new cleanup cost estimate – currently at $500 million – to be announced in the fall.

That's half a billion and we're just getting started. Is it possible WIPP will not re-open for many years and remain a cash guzzling hole in the ground? Yes.

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