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Thursday, March 21, 2019

With Legislative Session In The Rearview Mirror ABQ City Election Comes Into Focus, Plus: Optimists Beat Pessimists In State's Financial News 

Now that the legislative session is over the city of ABQ Nov. 5 election is starting to come into focus, with the first candidates surfacing. The latest news is that a strong challenge has developed to longtime Dem City Councilor Ike Benton.

29 year old Zack Quintero, president of the NM Young Democrats, a NMSU grad and a current student at the UNM School of Law, says it's time for  a "transition" from Benton and he is off and running with a formal announcement set for March 24.

District Two takes in Barelas, Downtown, parts of the North Valley as well as neighborhoods near the UNM law school.

Benton has already announced he is seeking another four term. He was first elected to the seat in 2005. Quintero says Benton's support of controversial transit projects like the ill-fated Central Avenue ART project will be a major issue as well as public safety. We'll have more on the race soon.

There are three other seats up for election on the nine member council which is controlled by the Dems, 6-3.

In District 4 in the NE Heights, Republican Brad Winter, the longest serving councilor, has not yet announced if he will seek another term. In District 6 Dem Pat Davis is expected to go for re-election and is heavily favored in the early going, although he is expected to have opposition. In District 8, incumbent Republican Trudy Jones has not yet made public her intentions.

Candidates are now making declarations with the city clerk on whether they will seek public financing which both Benton and Quintero say they will do. In May candidates will begin collecting the necessary petition signatures to win a spot on the November ballot.

Speaking of the ABQ City Clerk, history buffs take note:

Did you know the Office of the City Clerk maintains historical minutes of City Council meetings dating back to 1890? For the next month we will provide a weekly post on what was happening with #CABQ in the 19th and 20th centuries!

Hey, maybe they have the crime stats from the 1890's? That might make us look pretty good today.

NOT FOR PESSIMISTS

For a change the pessimists must be grinding their teeth because the good news about NM's finances just keeps coming. The price of oil touched $60 a barrel Wednesday for the first time in four months and then there's this jaw dropper:

Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to reduce the cost of pumping oil in the Permian to about $15 a barrel, a level only seen in the giant oil fields of the Middle East. The scale of Exxon’s drilling means that it can spread its costs over such a big operation that the basin in Eastern New Mexico and West Texas will become competitive with almost anywhere in the world, Staale Gjervik, president of XTO Energy, the supermajor’s shale division, said in an interview.

15 bucks a barrel?? I mean, we're getting that thing down to the cost of a decent enchilada plate.

And then there's this: The Feds look as though they are going to pump more money into the nuke programs here: The Trump federal budget proposal provides for an ample increase for modernizing nuclear weapons and that means a budget increase for Los Alamos National Labs, with the money stimulating the northern economy. How much of an increase specific to New Mexico has not yet been stated.

We'll stop with the glad tidings while we're ahead.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019
 
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