Let's head out to the campaign trail this Wednesday. . .

That three way battle for the Dem state land commissioner nomination is heating up. Foes of Garret VeneKlasen are scoring him for being a "lifelong Republican" who did not become a Democrat until June 2015.

On the website Democrats Demand Action (authors unknown), VeneKlasen's voter registration history is covered in detail with back-up documentation, including this 2014 article from the Durango Herald in which he is quoted in his role as executive director of the NM Wildlife Federation:

“The genesis of the public lands idea comes out of the conservative party,” he says. “As a lifelong Republican, I don’t understand why the party itself has abandoned this.”

The group asserts that Dem US Senator Martin Heinrich, who has endorsed VeneKlasen, has been "tricked" and that readers should sign a petition "demanding answers" from VeneKlasen about his longstanding GOP affiliation.

The other two hopefuls in the June 5 primary are State Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard and State Senator George Munoz. Recent insider polling shows most likely Dem voters are still undecided on the race. Republican Pat Lyons is the lone GOP contender. . .

In the race for the Dem nod for state auditor Las Cruces State Rep. Bill McCamley has come with a long list of union endorsements, including the American Federation of Teachers, the NM Building Trades Council and Communication Workers of America.  Brian Colón has been endorsed by the International Association of Firefighters here. Early insider polling has Colón opening up a lead on McCamley, riding his strength in the ABQ metro. . .

In the race for the Dem lieutenant Governor nomination State Senator Howie Morales scored a landslide win at the Dem preprimary convention. That victory is reaffirmed in early inside polling that has Morales leading his closest pursuer--former ABQ State Rep. Rick Miera. . .

SWEATING ART 

City Hall is so nervous over that $75 million in federal funding for the controversial ART project on Central Avenue that their fingernails are sweating. And with good reason. It remains highly uncertain if the Feds will come with the money. Look at this:

The Trump administration has more than tripled the amount of money flowing from an Obama-era transportation program to projects in rural areas, shifting aid to localities that the White House says have been left behind in years of post-recession economic expansion. The $211 million swing toward rural communities in the Transportation Department grant program is one of the most concrete policy shifts in the agency’s stated goal of helping less densely populated areas of the country—most of them regions that voted for President. . .

The ART project remains stalled because of construction errors and buses that don't meet specs. If the city doesn't get the federal money one plan to make up for it would use the bonding capacity of the ABQ Sunport.

TRUMP NM CONNECTION OUT

From CNN:

A political appointee at the Department of Defense has resigned after a CNN inquiry about controversial postings he made on Facebook. Todd Johnson is a former Trump campaign state director in New Mexico who joined the Department of Defense in 2017 as an advance officer, a Pentagon employee with the sensitive task of providing logistical support related to the secretary's events and appearances...A CNN review of his social media found that Johnson posted birther conspiracies about then-President Barack Obama and shared a video that claimed Obama was the Antichrist.

Obama the Antichrist? Aah, the good old days.

THE BOTTOM LINES

Sen. Stewart

TV news followed up on our Monday blog report from a City Hall Alligator and confirms that APD Real Time Crime Center Director T.J. Wilham has been ousted from his post by the Keller administration after an attempt by the Berry administration to keep him on board. . .

She's been in the public light for decades but these details about the upbringing of ABQ State Senator Mimi Stewart grabbed attention this week:

. . . Her passion for improving the lives of children comes from her own rough childhood. Stewart was 3 years old when her father died in a car crash. Her mother remarried a man she called "a problematic person." “It was just a hard life, trying to avoid being beaten up by my stepfather, trying to avoid being sexually assaulted by him,” Stewart said. She said she coped by throwing herself into school work. "I think I was just as stubborn then as I am now,” she said.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2018