The battle over the state House speakership between Ben Lujan and Kenny Martinez squeezed a lot of the other political news out of the picture this week, including who will replace longtime Dem State Senator Joe Fidel of Grants who announced he was calling it quits. The only names I've heard circulating so far are Jackie Fisher, who has been involved in Cibola county and Grants area politics and Clemente Sanchez, the director of the New Mexico State University/Grants Small Business Development Center. The county commissions in the multi-county district will come up with a list of recommendations for Big Bill to select a Fidel replacement from.

TV NEWS

KRQE-TV has grabbed back the 10 p.m. news crown after it slipped away by a mere fraction of a point in the February ratings. November put the CBS affiliate back on top in the big Albuquerque market as it came in with a 10.5 rating for its late news followed by KOB-TV with a 7.7 and KOAT with a 7.3. A rating represents the percentage of households with television that are watching a particular station.

A PERSON FOR PETE

Is that a "People for Pete" employee sighting? So say one of the Alligators who says he knows of at least one worker who has been hired for Senator Domenici's 2008 re-election committee. The Senator's operatives have been putting out the word that he is running after much national speculation to the contrary. But he has left himself some wiggle room on the issue. On this one, the old cliché, "only time will tell," is quite apt.

MY BOTTOM LINES

Former KOB-TV reporter Neil Simon checks in from D.C. to remind us that his TV documentary "Inside Bill Richardson," will get a screening in Santa Fe this Sunday, December 3 at 2:30 p.m. at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma. Tickets are $9. I sat down and interviewed at length with Neil for this program which first aired on KOB-TV. It is a good introduction to the life and times of Big Bill and will probably be seeing more airtime when he gets his presidential campaign underway...

Michael Henningsen makes his debut in La Politica as communications honcho for Light Guv Diane Denish. The former 11 year editor of the popular ABQ alternative newspaper, the Alibi, Henningsen joins Di chief of staff Judy Espinosa as a new addition to the office. Denish has been beefing up her staff of late and she needs to. With Big Bill on the out-of-state Prez campaign trail soon, Denish is going to be called "Governor" more than ever. But there's still four years and a long, long campaign trail before Diane gets to have that title permanently...

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2006
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