tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58832262024-03-19T02:47:12.808-06:00New Mexico Politics with Joe MonahanWelcome to my site where you will keep up on the latest political developments in New Mexico. I am Joe Monahan, a veteran political analyst, consultant and political journalist. We are not affiliated with any political party and cover all aspects of state politics. Check here regularly for updates and send a link to interested friends: joemonahan.com. Use the e-mail link on this page to send me political news. Thanks for supporting our site by visiting our sponsors.Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comBlogger4881125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-91705087579778657442024-03-19T00:30:00.274-06:002024-03-19T00:30:00.127-06:00Gaming The Next State House GOP Leader; Rep. Armstrong May Have Inside Lane; Sports A Variety Of Credentials Rep. Gail ArmstrongOf the three names being bandied about to replace Ryan Lane as state House Minority Leader, Rep. Gail Armstrong is looking like the obvious choice. Armstrong is the spouse of Dale Armstrong and is co-owner with him of the mega plumbing and AC company TLC that has oodles of customers and a fair share of government contracts. The couple also have a ranch in Magdalena in Socorro Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-19792709628839259412024-03-18T00:30:00.385-06:002024-03-18T10:49:26.108-06:00Trump Shadow Emerges In GOP State Senate Primaries; Some Candidates Heap Their Praises; Others Look To Lay Low, Plus: A Blog Reader Who Has Never Missed This is New Mexico not Alabama so there are still Republicans here who don't genuflect at the mention of Donald Trump. And that is going to be an issue in GOP state primaries. Already former Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block is touting his love for Trump as he faces non-Trumper and former state Senator Candace Gould in the GOP race for District 12 in Sandoval County County and parts Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-86095084843975380932024-03-14T00:30:00.007-06:002024-03-14T19:05:16.778-06:00Post Filing Day Clippings From Our Newsroom Floor, Plus: On The Media Beat; Santa Fe Paper Goes Up For SaleWe came with a monster blog on candidate filing day Wednesday but even that was like chipping away at an iceberg. Many political stories fell to our newsroom floor as we pulled together the drama of the GOP's top legislative leaders announcing they have had enough and will leave the Roundhouse. That said, lets take our broom and sweep up clippings left behind from a hectic day. . . Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-15815815782197256872024-03-13T00:30:00.037-06:002024-03-13T15:40:02.108-06:00Filing Day Drama: Top Two GOP Legislative Leaders Announce They Will Not Seek Re-election; On The Way Out Sen. Baca Slams Dems Over Redistricting; Hands Off Seat And Draws Criticism; House Minority Leader Lane Also Bows Out, And: BernCo Oldtimers Vie For Treasurer And Clerk PostsSen. Baca The official filing day for the state's 112 legislative seats turned dramatic Tuesday as the top two Republican legislative leaders decided not to seek re-election, throwing open both their leadership positions and their legislative seats and stunning the long-suffering GOP rank and file. All legislative and county candidate filings here. The unexpected decision of Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-74400615266386292542024-03-12T00:30:00.495-06:002024-03-13T10:28:11.456-06:00Heinrich Wades Into Fiery State Senate Primary; Endorses Foe Of Embattled Incumbent Ivey-Soto; He Snaps Back As He Combats Progressive Challenge; Analysis And Context Of This Top Tier ContestSenator Martin Heinrich has waded into the emotionally charged Democratic primary in ABQ state senate District 15 with an endorsement for Heather Berghmans, a challenger of Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto. But unlike most of Heinrich's dozens of other endorsements this one is anything but routine and he's getting blow-back from the embattled incumbent: I wasn't aware that Senator Heinrich lived in Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-29140611068935191842024-03-11T00:30:00.615-06:002024-03-11T10:37:18.127-06:00Telling It Like It Is: Education Secretary Again Calls Out State's Last In Nation Ranking As 180 Day School Year Is Enacted, Plus: Heinrich's Biden Moment At SOTU; Nervous Over Nella?Sec. RomeroThey say the first rule of being a good teacher is to set a good example. So it is with Secretary of Education Arsenio Romero. He barreled through withering criticism to enact a rule that mandates public school kids attend classes 180 days a year, a plan already in effect for ABQ and Santa Fe schools but that could eliminate the four day a week schedule in some rural areas, although Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-86213316769270955992024-03-07T00:30:00.372-07:002024-03-07T09:22:06.964-07:00Last House Republican Standing In Bernalillo County Leaving And Works To Hand Off Seat To Fellow R, Plus: Large Field Expected For Rep. Chasey Seat, Also: NM Guests At Tonight's SOTU Speech And MLG's Impactful Veto Rep. RehmGOP state Rep. Bill Rehm holds a somewhat ignominious honor in his party. He is the sole Republican left serving the state's largest county in the state House of Representatives. But he will soon shed that title. The retired BernCo Sheriff's deputy, who has relentlessly proposed tough on crime measures in the Democratic controlled House with little success, announces he will not seek Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-7241075789555692442024-03-06T00:30:00.474-07:002024-03-06T00:30:00.241-07:00He's Back: Manny Can't Say No; Former Sheriff Scarred From The Battles Of La Politica Plans To Seek State Senate Seat, Plus: Reaction To Former US Attorney Slamming DA Bregman Over DWI Dismissals There seems to be no amount of public humiliation that will keep former Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales off the campaign trail. The lawman and Marine suffered a landslide defeat in his 2021 ABQ mayoral bid after it was discovered his campaign forged petition signatures to qualify for public financing. This year he was forced to withdraw from the race for the GOP US Senate Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-78449618228676894922024-03-05T00:30:00.037-07:002024-03-05T00:30:00.131-07:00Hot DA Race Down To Two With One Dropout And As Former US Attorney Iglesisas Slams DA Bregman Over DWI Dismissals In APD Corruption ScandalDavid IglesiasThe hot and heavy race for the Democratic nomination for Bernalillo County District Attorney is down to two hopefuls after progressive attorney Mathias Swonger has dropped out after his campaign was unable to gather the required number of nominating signatures.That word comes from an operative associated with former US Attorney Damon Martinez who is now the lone challenger to DA SamJoe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-23208599820507336002024-03-04T00:30:00.506-07:002024-03-04T00:30:00.126-07:00Progressive Letdown; What They're Leaving On The Table, Plus: A Santa Fe Coalition To Resolve Wrecked CYFD?, And: GOP Preprimary ResultsIt's been almost four years since progressive Democrats busted the state Senate's conservative coalition by successfully primarying conservative D's but now it's the progressives looking shop-worn when it comes to the generational issues they promised to confront. For example. . . New Mexico's Governor and Legislature, faced with by far the highest rate in the nation of deaths caused by alcohol (Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-22051396633966527652024-02-29T00:30:00.254-07:002024-02-29T09:27:02.132-07:00Sidebar TO MLG Chamber Speech; Chatting Up APD Chief Medina, Plus: House Speaker Supporters Calm Coalition Talk, And: More Pushback On Possible Special Session From Senate Judiciary Chair (Journal, Eddie Moore)Embattled APD chief Harold Medina (back to camera) appears anything but as Gov. Lujan Grisham and ABQ Chamber of Commerce President Terri Cole appear highly entertained by ABQ's top cop whose recent auto accident in the city's homeless district caused a sensation. Just what's going on at that table at the Chamber meeting? Maybe. . . MLG: And then you went straight Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-69191137022538508892024-02-28T00:30:00.312-07:002024-02-28T00:30:00.125-07:00Guv Still Contemplating Calling A Special Session With Anticipated Focus On Crime But Senator With Stroke Pushes Back; Says Any Special Should Be On CYFD Implosion, Plus: An Unwelcoming Welcome Center 7 year old Samantha RubioMLG Tuesday continued to keep the door open on calling a special legislative session as she reviewed the results of the recently concluded 30 day session before an ABQ business group and as an old rival indirectly chided her over a prominent failure of that session. In her speech the Guv said of a possible special:You'll know when I know. I don't know. I think Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-135901579539716652024-02-27T00:30:00.445-07:002024-02-27T11:14:36.175-07:00Longtime BernCo Manager Hangs It Up; Her Hits And Misses, Plus: Dems Try Guilt By Association to Get Nella To Talk Abortion, And: Anti-Semitic Trope? Readers Come With More On Columnist's Remarks Quezada & Morgas BacaNine year Bernalillo County Manager Julie Morgas Baca had her praises sung by the County Commission as she announced Monday that she will resign her $215,000 a year job at the end of June even though her current contact runs until October 2025. She said she has worked in the public sector 33 years. Commissioner Michael Quezada, who will leave the commission at the Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-35360024008240291592024-02-26T00:30:00.743-07:002024-02-26T09:36:28.969-07:00APD Scandal: City Again Sent Back On Its Heels As Explosive Details Of Alleged DWI Bribery Scheme Surface; Exclusive Legal Analysis On Where Fed Probe May Go From Here, Plus: Anti-Semitic Dog Whistle On Blog? Readers Weigh In Carlos Sandoval-Smith (Journal)The brazen in your face corruption revealed in audio recordings made last June by a DWI suspect interacting with an APD officer and a paralegal has sent the city back on its heels yet again and wondering if the decades-long rot at the department will finally be extracted.The DWI scandal, on simmer for a while, exploded with renewed force when Carlos Sandoval-Smith, Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-1214210938435204342024-02-22T00:30:00.237-07:002024-02-22T09:32:24.010-07:00Other Voices: Opinions From Around The State On Family Leave, Progressive Power, Running Education And A Silent Domenici In this edition of Other Voices a variety of opinions on issues of the day. We start with this reader's reaction to the stunning defeat of the paid family and medical leave act when 11 Democrats joined with all House Republicans to kill the bill: Joe:
I thought you had a good take on what happened at the Roundhouse with
the bill. From my perspective, the
Democratic caucus is in Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-26247889902842924412024-02-21T00:30:00.441-07:002024-02-21T15:20:04.329-07:00Fighting Irishman O’Neill Faces Stiff Senate Primary Challenge From Former Councilor And Commissioner; District Changes Could Decide Contest, Plus: Pirtle Place: The EndO'Neill and Bregman (Journal)This time the Fighting Irishman has a real fight on his hands. State Senator Bill O'Neill has been a Roundhouse fixture since his first election to the House and then to the Senate in 2012. So entrenched is O'Neill that in 2020 he drew no GOP opponent. Now that's all changed. Speculation that former two term ABQ city councilor and former two term Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-52651791146497115302024-02-20T00:30:00.421-07:002024-02-20T09:53:21.599-07:00Massive Capital Outlay Bill Will Change The Face Of Many Neighborhoods Across The State; That Bill Is Our Pic Of Most Memorable From Session '24, Plus: A Peek At Many Of The Projects To Come Legislative sessions can be beehives of activity but most don't result in landmark legislation and don't leave much of a mark. So what will be remembered about the 2024 session? Results were meager with just 72 of the 658 bills introduced winning passage. But one of them--or at least the results from it-- has the best chance of New Mexicans recalling it a dozen years from now. That Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-20544572143163218802024-02-19T00:30:00.065-07:002024-02-19T00:30:00.140-07:00Picking Up The Pieces: Progressives Plan Another Play For Family Leave Act; Talk Of Compromise Also Surfaces As Speaker Defends Calling Doomed Bill To Floor Speaker Martinez (Moore, Journal)The House defeat of the paid family and medical leave act on the next to last day of the legislative session startled the Roundhouse and handed House Speaker Javier Martinez his first big defeat. Now progressives are trying to pick up the pieces. The bill went down when conservative Democrats formed a coalition with Republicans and carried the day 36 to Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-88792271008653960152024-02-15T19:43:00.003-07:002024-02-15T19:43:40.137-07:00Legislative Session EndsThe 30 day session of the NM Legislature ended Thursday. Here is the AP wrap. Here is the Governor's post-session news conference. Here is a list of the bills sent to the Governor. Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-53024702684907404972024-02-15T00:30:00.002-07:002024-02-15T11:00:28.851-07:00Conservative Coalition Arises In House And Scores; Progressives Reel As Family Leave Act Fails; Speaker Martinez And His Whip Take A Whipping; A Different House In Wake Of Upset Win? Speaker MartinezCoalition politics, a mainstay of New Mexican politics, has been in hibernation but no longer. The cave emptied out at the Roundhouse Wednesday as 11 conservative/moderate Democrats joined with all the House Republicans to deliver a stunning blow to the progressive Democrats and House Speaker Javier Martinez by defeating their paid family medical leave act. TheJoe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-27427855662557519372024-02-14T00:30:00.460-07:002024-02-14T09:42:41.776-07:00Then There Was One; Manny Gonzales Disqualified From GOP US Senate Bid; Domenici Now Sole Candidate Left To Oppose Heinrich, Plus: Alligator Strike On Senate Finance Boss And More APD ScandalManny Gonzales' US senate campaign, already tarnished by a federal investigation into his gun dealings, collapsed Tuesday when the Secretary of State reported Gonzales failed to submit enough valid petition signatures and will not appear on the June primary ballot. Gonzales submitted 875
signatures but needed 2,351. His candidacy was disqualified by the SOS.Of course, the first Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-57506150604931172522024-02-13T00:30:00.427-07:002024-02-13T09:04:08.819-07:00Afraid Of The Future: Back To The Mattresses; Most Of Multi-Billion State Surplus Socked Away As Present Needs Remain A Sore Spot, Plus: Lobbyists Out Number Lawmakers 4 To 1 It's back to the future in Santa Fe. That's where the lion's share of the state's oversized surplus of $3.47 billion will be going under the new budget approved by the Senate Monday, despite the state's continuing struggles with behavioral health, drugs and alcohol, education achievement, child abuse and an assortment of other social ills all too familiar to readers of this space. The Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-43410266641705699802024-02-12T00:30:00.410-07:002024-02-12T09:31:23.023-07:00'24 legislative Session largely Uneventful As Lawmakers Eye Election Year; Scribes Look To Basketball Game For Action, Plus: Booze And Juice; Alcohol Tax Dead And Former House Speaker And Wife Squeezed By Investors ABQ JournalAs usual the pace in the final days will get frenetic but this legislative session will ultimately be recorded as largely uneventful with lawmakers avoiding any major flare-ups that could influence their chances at the polls in November when all 112 of them are up for election. The lack of drama is epitomized by the ink-stained wretches--apparently desperate for any kind of Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-9566044505553543572024-02-08T00:30:00.446-07:002024-02-08T11:39:22.948-07:00Time For Another Edition Of Reader Vox Populi: They Write Of The APD DWI Scandal With Insights And Solutions, Mississippi Beating NM To The Punch And CYFD Disarray, Also: Two Appointees And $50 Billion The slow unraveling of the APD DWI scandal continues to draw reader interest and much comment, so we are off to another edition of Reader Vox Populi for their insights and some possible solutions. . .Reader Don Miller this week placed blame on the ABQ police officers union for the chaos enveloping the agency:I believe
that APD is an autonomous para-military organization run by the
Albuquerque Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5883226.post-30901275274435201652024-02-07T00:30:00.000-07:002024-02-07T09:30:49.840-07:00Trump Again Puts NM On His List Of Top States To Flip; Dems Dismiss The Threat, Plus: Federal Candidates File With SOS; Heinrich And Vasquez Challengers In Spotlight At Start Of '24 Campaign When it comes to New Mexico's is it another head fake from Donald Trump?In each of his two earlier runs for the White House he has taunted Democrats that he would shock them by taking this Dem stronghold. He even showed up to campaign here but each time the early boasting bent to reality and Trump did not seriously contest the state. Now for his third run Trump is at it again, telling Joe Monahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13648686835414145054noreply@blogger.com