Dinelli

Money--or more specifically the lack of it--has claimed its first victim in the ABQ '17 mayoral race and there will be more to follow. Democrat Pete Dinelli, who ran and lost against Mayor Berry in '13, has decided not to return to the mayoral stage this year, despite burnishing his profile lately with sharp-eyed and adversarial social media posts about the state of affairs in ABQ:

I would run for Mayor if I was able to raise the necessary contributions to run a successful campaign. . . After talking to supporters and people willing to contribute and raise money, I concluded I cannot raise necessary money to run a viable campaign. Four years ago, I ran on Democratic core values including opposing the late term abortion initiative on the ballot, supporting gay marriage, city hall enforcement of the minimum wage, advocating for the working class, police reform, civilian oversight of APD and economic development.

Attorney Dinelli, 65, a former city councilor and deputy administrator for public safety, says he is not taken with any of those who have already announced for mayor and the ABQ native made no endorsement as he headed toward the exits.

However, Dinelli will do his best to keep the mayoral hopefuls honest as he continues to blog and Facebook away. Heck, the new editor of the ABQ Journal might want to take the incisive Dinelli on as an editorial writer.

Supporters of GOP City Councilor Dan Lewis, the leading R candidate, say it could take as much as $800,000 to $1 million to run an effective campaign. Supporters of Dem Brian Colón don't disagree. Each candidate has already raised over $200,000. Dem Tim Keller will take public financing which will give him about $379,000 but his supporters also expect an outside PAC to weigh in for the state auditor.

A dozen candidates are in the race. Most are likely to get out because of the lack of money or the inability to get the 3,000 petition signatures of registered voters needed to get on the October 3 ballot. That would leave us with five or six finalists.

MACHINE MAINTENANCE

Never let it be said that the Governor's Machine doesn't take care of it own. Take former metro area GOP State Rep. Paul Pacheco. He was tossed out of office by Dem Daymon Ely last November, but maybe that was a good thing. Look at the plum Susana threw him and announced by David Jablonski, Cabinet Secretary-Designee for the state corrections department:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Pacheco as  as our new Deputy Secretary. Paul brings with him a wealth of experience in law enforcement. . . Paul worked as a police officer with the Albuquerque Police Department for 27 years in various capacities, including a patrol officer, a field training officer, a certified general police instructor and a detective. In addition, he also served as President of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association.

Pacheco does not return our messages (come on, Paul, ask Jay for permission) so we don't know if he is double-dipping--receiving a pension from his service as an ABQ cop and also pulling down a juicy salary at corrections. In any event he can finally live the dream that Rep. Ely took away from him. Pacheco is now doing "all crime all the time."

KNIVES SHARPENED

Pat Davis

Our mention this week of the very early positioning for the ABQ congressional seat being vacated by Dem Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is seeking the '18 Dem Guv nod, drew notice.

Friends of NM Dem Party Chairwoman Deb Haaland say you can add her name to the list of those very likely to seek the seat. She would join BernCo County Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins and Dem City Councilor Pat Davis among the first tier of contenders. Those two are already organizing. But Davis is already running into some headwinds. Critics say he has failed to take on Republican Mayor Berry as was expected when he was elected. A Dem Party ward chair in BernCo came with this:

Pat Davis is delusional if he thinks he can win a Democratic primary after stabbing his constituents in the back over ART. I doubt he could get re-elected as City Councilor. As Central Ave. businesses circle the drain, so do Pat's political prospects. He's a dead man walking. Please don't quote me directly. I'd rather tell him to his face.

The long knives have yet to come out on Stebbins and Haaland but you can bet they are being sharpened.

We won't go as far as to say "no R's need apply" for this one, but the ABQ congressional seat has become more blue than our beautiful skies.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2017