Wednesday, April 21, 2021No Longer A Swing State But We Get A Jill Biden Pit Stop Today As New Swing State Arizona Is Eyed, Plus: On The Crime Beat With Our Readers Biden's visit to a South Valley health clinic will be enough time for MLG to get some badly needed political cover. The NM governor has been in the unwanted national and international spotlight over her $62,500 settlement of sex mistreatment charges by a former campaign staffer. An embrace from Dr. Jill won't make that political hurt go away but should soften the blow as MLG gears up for her 2022 re-election bid. As for the #1 lady, she could not ask for more hospitable territory before heading over to Window Rock and the Navajo reservation. Scranton Joe carried the ABQ congressional district 60-37, the largest Dem victory ever in CD 1. (Don't tell Michelle, Jill.) As for Arizona and the Rez, look at the math for the Prez: Voters in precincts on the Navajo and Hopi reservations in northeastern Arizona cast nearly 60,000 ballots in the Nov. 3 election, compared with just under 42,500 in 2016, according to an AP analysis. Biden won Arizona by about 10,500 votes. . . Turnout in two of the larger precincts on the reservations, for example, rose by 12% and 13% — and Biden won there handily — compared with a 4% increase among all Arizona voters.
But the biggest number is 11--that's how many electoral votes Arizona has. Going forward they will be as important as New Mexico's little five once were. You know, back in 2004 and '08 when this place was so crowded with presidential seekers they would stand in line to shake your hand. Those days are long gone but New Mexico being home to the famous racing Unsers we know all about pit stops. So have a good time, Jill, and remember that today it's como está and Thursday it's Ya Ta Hey. CRIME BEAT  I know speculation like that might be fun for stirring up controversy but it’s also 100% inaccurate and further demonizes the most vulnerable people who live in our city. There have been – zero – homicides linked to the wellness hotels. That’s confirmed by APD. What we do know is that we have been able to provide beds for more than 400 people nightly who would otherwise have been living on the street throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked for a list of hotels and motels housing Covid and homeless courtesy of the city but did not get a response. Reader Steve Pilon came with this: The COVID hotels house people who have tested positive for COVID, both homeless and from the Pueblos. Would Dan Klein prefer these people to be circulating in the general population? ABQ has long had a higher than average crime rate, but crime had been dropping here like elsewhere for 20 years. The recent surge in homicides is nationwide, not just in ABQ. This strongly suggests the cause of the increase is not local but national. I think the nationwide increase in crime is a consequence of the extreme poverty and deprivation during the Great Recession (particularly severe and prolonged here in ABQ). If the police were effective in solving crimes and bringing criminals to justice, they might discourage some of these young criminals. However, clearance rates for homicide nationwide are roughly 60% and only about 50% here in ABQ. (in civilized countries they are 90+%). If you want to prevent kids from becoming criminals, the Feds have to run the economy hot enough to ensure their parents have work and you have to fund treatment for their substance abuse issues. Simplistic "get tough on crime" nostrums from the likes of BernCo Sheriff Gonzales will be ineffective if not counterproductive. It's true there has been a recent surge in homicides around the nation. But police here say more of the homicides now involve drugs. And before the pandemic ABQ ranked near or at the top of the list for auto thefts and overall crime. It still does. Those crime categories have not been dropping for 20 years. And at the current rate of homicides, we could have a 50 percent increase for the year. That's not a surge. That's more like a parabolic spike. We can debate the causes of crime but let's not define deviancy downward by saying things in ABQ are normal when clearly they are not. Klein came with this response: I never said to have these homeless people not housed and in the general population with COVID. MORE CRIME BEAT Levi Fetty joins in with this: Hey Joe, we readers will get enough of the distortion of truth and blatant lies throughout the Mayoral campaign but we shouldn't have to be subjected to it from the candidates sycophantic supporters when they write the following propaganda: "Why? Because Mayor Keller met his promise to hire more police and we saw car thefts and other non-murder crime rates drop." Please quote the year and the total number of APD officer when this promise was kept? Tim Keller didn't just promise to hire more APD officers. He promised to raise APD officer staffing levels to a particular number which is a promise he never followed through with. And, do we really have to rehash the crime statistics fiasco... ooopsie our [APD] crime data computer's are outdated and didn't carry the one excuses? APD now reports a bit less than 1,000 officers with a goal of 1,200 or more. 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 2021 |
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