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Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Odds Still Seem Against Legal Pot In NM And Why BernCo Sheriff Scared Away Dem Votes  

Legalizing recreational marijuana is on the minds of a lot of Dems in the wake of last week’s Democratic sweep but we're reading the tea leaves and still not seeing an easy path for such legalization in the state Senate. A leading marijuana advocate seems to be getting the same vibe. He talked about the stance of Gov-elect Lujan Grisham:

"Her views on cannabis use mirror our organizations," said New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vincent Galbiati. He believes Lujan Grisham's win will help strengthen the industry. "We really believe in the expansion and improvement in the medical side of cannabis, and we also look at that as a stepping stone to responsible adult use," said Galbiati.

Not exactly a battle cry there for legal pot but rather a prioritizing of medical weed.

MLG has said she favors legal recreational pot "under specific circumstances, including that any law passed protects existing medical cannabis programs; addresses workplace intoxication; public safety; restricts underage use; and regulates the production of edible cannabis products."

That's a mouthful of circumstances and likely enough for the conservatives in the Senate to grab onto and put puffing legal pot in the DOA pile but not until it flies through the state House.

MAKING A DC DEAL

Let the deal making begin. From DC:

Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos announced that she was dropping out of the race for the next Assistant Democratic leader and would instead seek to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. . . Bustos acknowledged that DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján’s decision to enter the assistant leader race influenced her decision to exit it. . . ."I believe Chairman Luján deserves a higher-level seat at the leadership table,” she said. The New Mexico Democrat is coming off a strong midterm election that saw the party pick up at least 30 seats so far. . .

Rep. David Cicilline, a progressive Dem from Rhode Island, is also vying for Assistant Democratic Leader, a top position in the House leadership.

MANNY'S DEM TROUBLE


Sheriff Gonzales
Democratic BernCo Sheriff Manny Gonzales won another four year term last week but not by an overwhelming margin. He defeated Republican Lou Golson 55-45. Golson raised hardly any money and had a near zero presence in the campaign.

The Dem candidates for statewide office all scored well over 60 percent in big BernCo. So what happened to Manny? One problem was his insistence that his deputies not be equipped with lapel cameras. So says Democratic reader Jeffrey Paul:

I voted for Republican Golson. There was one factor that made this an easy decision; Sheriff Gonzales’s refusal to allow his deputies to wear body cameras. Albuquerque and Bernalillo County have not been immune to the national trend of police excessive use of force allegations. As body cameras have become the norm in law enforcement, the “he said-she said” defense is no longer acceptable. Body camera usage can, and has been, a deterrent to excessive use of force as well as valuable evidence in the investigation of these allegations. I asked on Facebook if any of my fellow Democrats could explain to me why I should vote for the Democratic Sheriff who refuses to allow body cameras? Not one person replied. Am I to assume that most Democrats were more concerned with protecting the Blue Wave than protecting the civil rights of those mostly affected by alleged excessive force? It pains me to think that.”

HERRELL’S LAWSUIT

By all means impound the 8,000 Doña Ana County absentee ballots as unsuccessful southern Republican congressional candidate Yvette Herrell is asking a District Court to do. If there is massive fraud that would overturn the 3,500 plus lead of Democrat Xochitl Torres Small we certainly need to know about it. 

While there was gross incompetence in counting the votes which led to news agencies erroneously reporting that Herrell was the winner it’s highly unlikely that the election, as Herrell implies, was stolen. 

Maybe if Yvette had shown the same moxy when it came to debating Torres Small, which she refused to do, and when she refused to refute a campaign commercial that alleged she had misused her position as a state representative to obtain contracts for her family’s business, she might be in the driver’s seat. 

 If national Dems were stupid enough to run a crooked absentee vote campaign they deserve everything the courts can give them. But if Herrell is trying to destroy the election process because she is personally bitter she will deserve the opprobrium that is sure to follow if she fails to prove her case. 

THE BOTTOM LINES

We blogged last week that after the election there are not "any" Republicans in statewide offices. We should have said statewide "executive offices" such as Treasurer, Auditor, Governor etc.

ABQ attorney Ray Vargas III points out that there are still two Republicans serving who were elected statewide before this year's election. They are NM Supreme Court Judge Judy Nakamura and Court of Appeals Judge Miles Hanisee.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2018
 
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