Wednesday, May 01, 2024Heinrich Household Back On Legislative Trail With Endorsement in Key Senate Race, Plus: Alligator Strike On A Complaining State Rep, And: NM Ppoject PAC Chided For Ethnic Politics The Heinrich household is back on the legislative campaign trail. This time it's Sen. Martin Heinrich's wife, Julie Heinrich, doing the endorsement honors. She comes with a pitch for progressive Dem Heather Berghmans who is trying to take out Dem state Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto in District 15 in the ABQ NE Heights. Around here the Senator has earned the moniker "First Endorser" for his numerous endorsements, including quite a few in contested primaries and where the state's US Senators rarely went in the past. Julie Heinrich is also backing progressive Dem Angel Charley in her District 30 primary race against former conservative Senator Clemente Sanchez. There is no R running there so the winner of the primary takes the prize. Progressive women will be key in that Ivey-Soto contest. The lower the turnout goes the better it will be for Berghmans, say our legislative watchers, who believe the progressive vote is most committed and will turn out. Julie Heinrich will try to raise some badly needed funds for Berghmans. Ivey-Soto srtarted the month with a nearly 2 to 1 cash on hand edge. ($128,000 to $65,000 with both expected to get outside PAC support this month.) Team Heinrich had a mixed April. The New Yorker hit with an in-depth piece that gave Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland some of the best press she's received in years as friends say she is weighing a run for the '26 Dem nomination for Governor. Sen. Heinrich is also weighing such a bid but his path is more complicated. Meow Wolf, where Julie Heinrich is an executive, is suffering financial problems and announced layoffs in April. Her job was not among them but watching those around you fall to the sword is never pleasant. ALLIGATOR STRIKE  It was this past Monday when we reported on State Rep. Miguel Garcia dissing Las Cruces Rep. Joanne Ferrary for endorsing the primary foe of state Rep. Willie Madrid in Cruces. Garcia hit the ceiling over that with this: Representative Ferrary is blatantly
supporting Willie’s primary opponent. Being a Chair of
a committee is an honorable position. It denotes leadership in our
Caucus. Blatantly supporting the primary opponent of Representative
Madrid is malfeasance at its worst. I urge Speaker Martinez to put a
tourniquet on the unethical breach by Representative Joanne Ferrary and
strip her of her three chair positions. But what's this? An announcement of a fund-raiser in support of District 70 Democrat Anita Gonzales who is challenging incumbent Dem Ambrose Castellano? And it shows Rep. Miguel Garcia as a member of the host committee for the party to help kick Ambrose down the road? Indeed it is. Nice try, Miguel, but are you now going to give up your chairmanship (if he had one) as punishment for your wayward ways? Not that you're not a nice guy, but you're hypocrisy just earned you an Alligator Strike. Enjoy that. . .or something. Staying in the north, here's progressive Dem Rep. Susan Herrera of Rio Arriba who is sore over the conservative "New Mexico Project" for encouraging support of candidates based on their ethnicity:
They say they are pro-healthcare, business, education and public safety. Well, who isn’t for healthcare, business, education and public safety? Since I’ve been in office the Legislature has passed, and the Governor has signed, bills to make the salaries of New Mexico’s teachers the highest in our region, bring universal early childhood education programs to New Mexico families, and stop the practice of predatory lenders lowering interest rates from 175% to 36%. Do these bills sound like an ultra-liberal progressive agenda that has neglected the needs of the Hispanic community? I would soundly disagree. If it’s an early campaign call for action, so be it. But don’t pretend that New Mexico Hispanic voters will fall in line. Rep. Herrera was first elected in 2019. She is being challenged in the Dem primary by Margaret Cecila Campos. Cecila Campos. The NM Project has not endorsed in the race. 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 2024 |
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