Thursday, September 24, 2020Biden Presidency Could take Some Wind Out Of The Sails Of NM's National Labs, Plus: NM Claims Top Slot For "Healthiest Community And Haaland Eyes Higher Spot in House . . . Biden leaves little doubt that if elected he would try to scale
back President Trump’s buildup in nuclear weapons spending. . . .In a questionnaire by the Council for a Livable World in which Biden and other candidates were asked whether the U.S. should review its policy reserving the option of using nuclear weapons first, Biden said yes but did not elaborate. He also agreed that modernizing the U.S. arsenal could be done for less than the currently projected $1.2 trillion. The nation's nukes are being modernized which means. . . LANL’s
nuclear weapons production programs are slated for a 33% increase ($2.9 billion
in FY 2021). NNSA plans to spend at least $5.8 billion at LANL and $4.6 billion at the
Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina over the next decade on construction
or upgrades of plutonium pit production facilities. Nuclear Watch NM reports ABQ's Sandia Labs had an FY 20 budget of $3.72 billion and is set to go through the $4 billion mark. That has made Sandia--along with Kirtland Air Force Base--the backbone of the metro area economy. Some anti-nuclear advocates have said the nuke modernization program is unnecessary and a waste but Biden is not proposing to end it, but make it less costly. Dems cringe when they hear it but it's true---when it comes to federal funding in federally-dependent New Mexico Donald Trump has kept the green flowing like few presidents before him. There's got to be a few votes for him in that. HEALTHY ON THE HILL You might think with all the environmental pitfalls that have resulted from nuclear weapons work at Los Alamos that it would be an unlikely candidate to rank as the healthiest community in the USA. But it does: With its vast mountain ranges, diverse
wildlife and clean air, Los Alamos County, New Mexico, has been ranked the
healthiest community of 2020. . . The county received a perfect score for measurements
including drinking water quality, affordable housing availability, park access
and population with an advanced degree, according to the annual U.S. News
Healthiest Communities rankings report. "A healthy environment
is part of what definitely contributes to being a healthy
community," said Los Alamos County Council Chair Sara Scott. "People have the opportunity and the interest in getting out,
taking advantage of our mountains, trails, biking, horse-riding (and) golfing." The Healthiest Communities rankings and analysis are based on evaluations of
nearly 3,000 communities nationwide for 84 health and health-related
measurements in 10 categories, including community vitality, equity, economy,
education, environment, food and nutrition, population health, housing,
infrastructure and public safety. The county is also very healthy financially, usually ranking near the top of the list of USA counties with the highest per capita income, thanks, of course, to Uncle Sam. CLIMBING HIGHER?  ABQ Dem US Rep. Deb Haaland says she is considering running for the #6 leadership position in the House--Vice Chairman:Haaland, 59, made history as one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress in 2018; she would be the first to serve in House leadership, if elected. Haaland told CQ Roll Call her desire to promote caucus diversity is among the reasons she’s considering running. “I feel like I could move our caucus forward." XTS VS. HERRELL Political junkies will take a pass on football at 4 p.m. this Sunday and tune in to the first televised political debate of the season. Republican Yvette Herrell and Dem Xochitl Torres Small will face-off at 4 p.m. on KOAT-TV. Well, face-off is a stretch. Becuse of the pandemic the candidates will debate over zoom--not in the studio. The southern battle is the only one of the three NM US House races seen as competitive this cycle. The latest ABQ Journal poll had Torres Small leading 47-45. She beat Herrell in 2018 by less than 4,000 voters. The ABQ Journal is also a debate sponsor and will stream the program on its website as will KOAT. The debate will not be live. It will be prerecorded on Saturday. THE BOTTOM LINES Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber appreciates our concern for his city's economic future which we described as going through a "slow motion economic collapse." Not so says His Honor. "Our latest report on gross receipts tax collections has them down 11 percent, significantly less than anticipated . . .” We erred in our first blog draft Wednesday regarding a photo taken outside the business of Silver City Dem state Senator Gabe Ramos that showed two political signs in support of candidates. Ramos, defeated in the June primary by fellow Dem Siah Correa Hemphill, is indeed supporting the Republican in the race to succeed him as we blogged. But the R candidate is James "Jimbo" Williams not Luis Terrazas whose sign was also in the photo and who we said was Hemphill's opponent. Terrazas is another R Ramos is supporting. He is running for the state House seat held by Dem Rep. Rudy Martinez. This is the home of New Mexico politics.
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Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020 Wednesday, September 23, 2020Crime Wave Takes Center Stage In ABQ Congress Race As Garcia Holmes TV Bashes Haaland, Plus" "Bitter Boys?" Dem Senators Refuse To Support Primary Foes Who Beat Them, And: Santa Fe's Ethnic Divide
Narrator: Congresswoman Deb Haaland voted against law enforcement funding that would put violent criminals behind bars. I'm Michelle Garcia Holmes. When I am in Congress I won't let drug and human traffickers or violent criminals get a pass. Defunding police does not create safer cities. It's time to vote people out who put politics above people's lives. I approved this message and ask for your vote so we can get the power back to the people. Garcia Holmes delivers her lines in front of the downtown Bernalillo County Courthouse, hoping to get voters who are naturally obsessed with healthcare to switch gears when thinking about the congressional contest. The ad features a photo of Luis Talamantes, a suspect in the notorious westside driveway shooting murder of Jackie Vigil, the mother of two state police officers. The ad's citations are a bit confusing. It does not cite Haaland's July vote in favor of defunding the federal Operation Legend which arrested Talamantes and was set up in ABQ and other crime-ridden cities by the Trump administration. However, the ad does cite an August ABQ Journal article about that arrest. Garcia Holmes does list on screen Haaland's July vote in favor of the George Floyd Justice in Policing measure which is her premise for the defunding police charge. First, on her vote to defund Operation Legend Haaland said in July: Federal law enforcement officers are snatching Americans off of street corners and placing them into unmarked cars for the ‘crime’ of exercising their First Amendment rights. The United States of America should not have secret police. There have been no reported civil rights abuses or of federal agents acting in secret during Operation Legend, although a 2016 federal operation was accused of racial profiling in the city's crime-stricken SE Heights. And there were complaints filed against federal agents this summer who have been helping to police Portland, Oregon during riots there.
Now on her vote on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Her campaign says that vote does not mean she is for defunding police departments: Deb has never said that once.
She proudly supported the George Floyd Policing Act that does not defund the police nor has she ever said we should defund the police. She voted yes on the House Floor because it would eliminate legal protections that shield police officers from lawsuits, make it easier to prosecute them for wrongdoing, impose a new set of restrictions on the use of deadly force, and effectively ban the use of chokeholds. . . Deb believes in tackling systemic racism in all structures. She believes in true criminal justice reform. Haaland's campaign added that the TV ad "takes the Trump approach" and is filled with "outright lies and misleading facts" and should be taken down. The crime issue hits home in ABQ and if it were not for the pandemic would probably poll higher among voter concerns which now are centered on health care. Our media Alligators report Garcia Holmes so far has bought $112,000 in ad time running until Nov. 3. Her campaign says radio ads are also coming. Haaland reported over $350,000 in cash on June 30 while Garcia Holmes reported $145,000. Earlier this month the ABQ Journal poll had Haaland leading 58 to 31 with 11% undecided. She has not yet gone up on TV. The 1st Congressional district has not elected a Republican since Heather Wilson in 2006. BITTER BOYS?  They include Grants area Senator Clemente Sanchez who friends say will not vote for either candidate in the race to succeed him. He was defeated in the primary by Dem Pam Corodva. He refuses to comment directly but is not denying the reports. Then there's disgraced Sen. Richard Martinez of Espanola, defeated in the Dem primary by Leo Jaramillo after being busted for DWI. He went on social media to give an endorsement to the Republican candidate. Jarmalillo is expected to prevail in the heavy Dem district. Now there's Silver City Sen. Gabe Ramos who was defeated in the June Dem primary by Siah Correa Hemphill. The photo posted here is from outside Ramos' business and sports a sign for Jimbo Williams, the R running against Hemphill. Ramos also kicked in $1,000 to Williams' campaign. All three senators are conservative Dems who sometimes voted with Senate Republicans on key issues as part of a conservative coalition that often controls outcomes in the Senate. Their decision not to back the Dems they lost to shows their true colors, not that those colors were really ever in question. SANTA FE'S DIVIDE
Mayor Webber got into a heated argument with Virgil Vigil, president of
Union Protectiva de Santa Fe, which bills itself as the city’s oldest
Spanish cultural organization, over the mayor’s June decision to remove
the statue (of De Vargas) ahead of a planned protest. The mayor has said he ordered the
removal of the statue for safekeeping — a decision that has sparked
backlash among some local Hispanics who consider the move an attack on
their Spanish roots.
Given the growing concerns in Santa Fe over the slow motion
economic collapse, fear of the virus being carried in by tourists and
the increasing ethnic divide, speculation has arisen that Webber, 72,
might even reverse his decision to seek a second term (he told us earlier this year he would be running). Not that
he couldn't win with his strong progressive base.
As for the statutes of New Mexico's various historical figures, let
sleeping dogs lie. There is always room for more of them that we can argue
about without trying to cancel our over four hundred year history. Tearing
them down only tears us apart.
This is the home of New Mexico politics.
E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020 Tuesday, September 22, 2020Blog Headlines: The Year Anything Can Happen, Trump Not Fighting Here, Lujan Scores Ronchetti Silence Over Ginsburg Seat, NM High Court Set For Dem Domination And Reader Quibbles With Sen. Moores The latest Crystal Ball Electoral College ratings show how the presidential election could result in a 269-269 deadlock, with neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump possessing a majority of 270 electoral votes. — Even though Democrats hold a House majority and remain on track to maintain that majority next year, Republicans actually have and are likely to maintain an edge in a possible Electoral College tiebreaking vote. — All 50 state-level U.S. House delegations get a single vote to break an Electoral College tie. The Republicans control 26 delegations, the Democrats hold 23, and one state is split (Pennsylvania). New Mexico would be voting for Biden as all three of our House members are Dems. Our state won't be a cliffhanger. The Trump campaign is not putting up a fight here. After a brief flirtation with July TV ads, they've gone dark. The last poll had the President getting 39 percent here. His topline number Election Night could be about 42-43 percent, what Steve Pearce received when he lost the governorship in 2018 to MLG. The southern congressional race still has potential for the R's. Yvette Herrell even came with an amusing TV ad defending her mother against charges that she benefitted from Yvette's service in the state House. But the race appears to be leaning Dem because Trump has not been performing in the district (up only 4 points over Biden in the Journal poll). Herrell still has time but the XTL lead of 47 to 45 is starting to look sticky. What's also sticky--for GOP US Senate candidate Mark Ronchetti--is what his fellow R's are up to in DC regarding the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't moment for Ronchetti. Trump R's want him to say fill that seat now--before the election. But Dems want the seat put on hold until after the election, a position that enrages the Trumpers. Ronchetti, trying to appease both sides, has fallen silent, but that only gets him damned--predictably--by his Dem rival, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan: Despite so much being at stake, Mark Ronchetti has refused to answer key questions:
Would he support the nomination of a Supreme Court justice that would overturn the Affordable Care Act?
Should a nomination occur before or after Inauguration Day 2021?. . . Ronchetti is staying silent as Senate Republicans attempt to quickly push through a Supreme Court nominee who would support their dangerous lawsuit to strip New Mexicans with asthma, cancer and diabetes of health care coverage protections. New Mexicans deserve to know the truth about where Mark Ronchetti stands on health care.” Health care is the #1 polling issue of Campaign '20. Ronchetti's TV ads strenuously assert he is for covering pre-exisiting conditions, contrary to Lujan's assertion. But the untimely death of Justice Ginsburg raises the issue to a new level and forces Ronchetti to make a stand. Or stand silent. (Yes, we noticed that Ben Ray shied away from the consequences to reproductive rights of a newly conservative Supreme Court, a top of the mind issue for many Dem voters in the metro areas but not as much among socially conservative Democrats in the rural areas). DEM DOMINATION  Dem domination of the New Mexico Supreme Court will likely soon be absolute. The Court's lone R, Chief Justice Judy Nakamura, has set her retirement for December 1. A Democrat will almost certainly be appointed to fill her position and the two Supreme Court races on the November ballot heavily favor the Dems, meaning all five justices would be D's.The court would be joining the all Dem NM congressional delegation, the all Dem state Senate and House, the Governorship and all statewide executive offices such as attorney general and state auditor. When will the state return to at least a semblance of competition between the two parties? Not until the Trump era ends and the R's learn how to appeal to the state's Hispanics and Native Americans who continue to vote against them in landslide numbers. Another possibility: The Dems get too fat and happy and fall into the corruption trap that has historically been their downfall. A QUIBBLE Reader Mitchell Freedman comments on the Monday comment from ABQ GOP State Senator Mark Moores regarding the Scientific American article praising New Mexico's response to COVID:
Moores appears to be in good shape for re-election to a third term in his ABQ NE Heights seat. He has donated heavily to endangered GOP Senators in the ABQ metro.
This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020 Monday, September 21, 2020Gauging The Impact Of Ginsburg Passing On NM Voters; Abortion To Surface? Plus: Absentee Voting By The Book Pro-life votes, a distinct minority, are already in Trump's corner. They will be energized by the prospect of a 6 to 3 conservative court but there are just not that many more votes to add to Trump's tally. On the margins, political pros say, renewed interest for Trump in the conservative bastions of the southern congressional district could help Republican Yvette Herrell who is challenging Dem US Rep. Xochitl Torres Small. But any small boost in GOP fortunes could be offset by pro-choice voters in the Las Cruces area. Pro-choice groups are already warning that a muscular conservative court could mean the justices revisit Roe v. Wade which expanded abortion rights. That could have New Mexico women--especially those in the ABQ, Santa Fe and Las Cruces metros--hardening their opposition to both Trump and pro-life GOP US Senate candidate Mark Ronchetti who faces Dem Rep. Ben Ray Lujan. Abortion is not a matter the GOP needs to surface in the state's population centers. In 2013 when a pro-life group forced a special ABQ election on banning late term abortions nearly 80,000 voters turned out and the measure was soundly defeated, 55% to 45%. Pro-choice voters have only grown in strength since then We wouldn't be surprised to see some Democratic women state House members, who are making their first re-election bids in the newly moderate ABQ NE Heights, make the Supreme Court, abortion and the future of Obamacare as a headliner in the mailboxes before this election is over. Ditto for some of the Dem state Senate candidates. And don't forget fund-raising. In the aftermath of Ginsburg's death Dems nationally were opening their wallets wide as they prepared for the epic battle over the Supreme Court seat and the November election. Veteran NM analyst Greg Payne adds a cautionary note to the speculation: So much has happened and is happening in this crazy year that I am not sure this will make much of a difference in voting patterns. CLEMENTE AND CORDOVA So one of the Alligators in good standing (some have been ejected from the pond on occasion) reported that outgoing Dem State Senator Clemente Sanchez is supporting Republican Josh Sanchez against Dem Pam Cordova who beat Clemente in the Dem primary for the Valencia/Cibola District 30 seat. Well, maybe not quite. Clemente berated us on social media, yelling in all caps, "I AM A DEMOCRAT." Okay, so we asked him via messaging who he is supporting in the race. No response. But a close friend of Clemente's tells us he was upset about our report not because he is supporting Cordova--he isn't--but neither is he supporting Josh Sanchez. The report now is that Clemente won't be voting in the contest to succeed him. That is unless he again raises his voice in dissent on social media. COVID TESTING We blogged a recent Scientific American article praising New Mexico's effort in fighting COVID but ABQ GOP State Senator Mark Moores takes issue with one aspect of that article: Joe, regarding COVID testing. Tricore’s is not an independent laboratory. It is owned 50% by UNM along with Presbyterian hospital. It was set up as a nonprofit hospital coop that is supposed to provide services to only its members. It has created a separate for profit subsidiary to get around that IRS prohibition. Half of its board is appointed and controlled by UNM thus making it a quasi-state agency.
The only independent private laboratory preforming COVID testing is ours--Pathology Consultants of New Mexico. We have capacity to run 1,000 COVID tests a day. I bet I’m the only elected official who has personally suited up in PPE in 100+ degree summer days and swabbed thousands of patients at drive throughs. We didn’t hide in our basement when COVID hit, we went to work. Well, Sen. Moores did not hide in the basement this summer, but if the Dems deliver on their pledge to increase their numbers in the Senate, he and the other R's could end up hiding in the basement of the Roundhouse.
MAILING THAT ABSENTEE  We blogged last week that the "deadline" for mailing absentee ballots is Oct. 27. Actually, that is not a legal deadline but a suggested deadline from the Secretary of State to ensure that ballots are received by 7 p.m. Election Night which is the legal deadline for receipt of an absentee ballot. Absentees received after that time will not be counted. There is a sure fire way to avoid the worry that your absentee will be lost or won't get there on time--take it to one of the secure drop boxes that will be set up by country clerks next month. A Senior Alligator sends the letter of the law on getting that absentee ballot in: -Section 1-6-9 NMSA 1978 (Mailed Ballots; Manner of Voting; Delivery Methods); The official mailing envelope containing a completed ballot may be returned: By using the U.S. Postal Service; By using a commercial delivery service approved by the NM Secretary of State and provided that the voter is responsible to pay for the mailing; In person to the County Clerk or a polling place, and; By depositing the official mailing envelope containing the completed ballot in a "secured container" (commonly known as a "drop box") made available by the County Clerk. NMSA 1978 in the Absentee Voter portion of the NM Election Code (Absentee Ballot; Delivery to County Clerk); "A. A voter, caregiver to that voter or member of that voter's immediate family may deliver the voter's absentee ballot to the county clerk in person or by mail; provided that the voter has subscribed the official mailing envelope of the absentee ballot. B. As used in this section, "immediate family" means the spouse, children, parents or siblings of a voter." NMSA 1978 of the NM Election Code (Conduct of Election, Election Day Delivery of Absentee Ballot By Voter, Procedures);"A voter who requested and received an absentee ballot shall be allowed to deliver the official mailing envelope containing the voter's absentee ballot on election day to any polling place in the county in which the voter is registered if the voter presents the official mailing envelope to the presiding judge before the polls close on election day." Any way you cut it there is going to be more absentee ballots cast in this election in state history, and that could set a trend for the future.
This is the home of New Mexico politics.
E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020 |
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