Thursday, February 26, 2009UNM Faculty Votes No-Confidence In Koch & Co.; Guv Stands By His Man; State Awaits Senate's Say, Plus: How To Get And Keep A State Government Job
Jamie Koch (Lobo)
![]() (Thursday morning the results were announced, UNM faculty overwhelming approved no-confidence votes against President David Schmidly, regents President Jamie Koch and Executive Vice President David Harris. Voting no-confidence in Schmidly were 329 out of 487 faculty. The vote on Harris was 438 to 24, with 26 abstaining. The no-confidence vote on Koch was approved by an even larger margin, 482 to 7, with 3 abstaining. The vote has no legal power, but does carry political impact. The entire two and one half hour meeting was Webcast and can be seen here.) "I am moving forward with my reappointment of Chairman Jamie Koch to a second term on the Board of Regents. Under Chairman Koch’s leadership, the regents have made a tremendous amount of progress during the past six years, and they have my full support as they navigate through these tough financial times.” said Richardson. But another six years? Richardson may be able to win approval of Koch in the Senate, but he has a rebellion on his hand that is unlikely to be quelled by a successful confirmation. The crisis of confidence in the university leadership is being traced back to the Governor and his appointment not only of Koch, but of one of the most political board of regents in history. He also takes hits for the placement of longtime politico David Harris at the top of the school's leadership pyramid. VOX POPULI ![]() Schmidly adopted a conciliatory tone at Popejoy Wednesday and several professors spoke against the no-confidence resolution, but the quote that stood out was Schmidly's own analysis of his future at UNM: "I am not going anywhere," He declared. Time will tell whether those are famous last words or the beginning of the end of this searing political battle. 500 STRONG Reports said about 500 faculty members voted. By historical standards that is heavy faculty involvement. There has been spin that the discontent is confined to select faculty, but Wednesday's meeting belies that notion. Only certain faculty were eligible to vote, but over 900 faculty and interested citizens turned out. INSIDE THE SENATE Sen. Lopez & Big Bill ![]() ![]() The Koch confirmation may be opposed by most if not all Republicans, according to several analysts. Rules is expected to send it to the floor, but whether it will be with or without a recommendation for approval remains an open question. On the floor, if all 15 R's voted against Koch, seven Dems would have to join with them to deny the Santa Fe businessman his second term. We're told a representative of Chairwoman Lopez attended the Popejoy session. Koch has raised significant money for state Dems and is a familiar presence at the Roundhouse and major Dem events. As we have pointed out before, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez is the brother of Regent and former NM House Speaker Raymond Sanchez. That relationship alone demonstrates the incestuous political ties that have entangled UNM. One suspects that even if the Senate approves Koch, the climax of this affair is yet to come. No one can imagine six long years of Koch fighting with the faculty or Schmidly continuing to operate without widespread campus support. It will soon be in the hands of our Senators on whether they want to let this passion play continue and hope it will spend itself, or act now to avoid what could be a train wreck later. ![]() The overall strategy north of Lomas is to insulate HSC from this whole budget cum administration crisis; after all, unlike the UNM Provost, Roth controls both his administration and the budget for it. So isolationism is a good strategy. Thanks to those who e-mailed on this. The Senior Alligator remains in good standing. He had the gist of it down, but was himself led astray by his own senior sources. COVER FOR TEAGUE If southern NM Dem Congressman Harry Teague is going to avoid a 2010 conservative challenge by either a Dem or a significant R, he is going to need more cover like this from the GOP oriented USA Chamber of Commerce: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce applauded Congressman Harry Teague (D-NM) for backing the recently-passed economic recovery plan, a major first step toward igniting consumption and investment, creating jobs and jump starting New Mexico’s economy. DEEP INTO THE MOVIDA ![]() How it is that some state employees know how to shuffle themselves around--or shuffle others around (called being “detailed”)—so that those who hold some modicum of power can manipulate “safe” positions for themselves (or their cronies) so they won’t be out of work once an administration changes hands? It happens all the time…. They will say, let’s keep Joe in job X on paper and “detail” him to some other position. In the meantime, Maria will do both her job and Joe’s old job. Joe will hold on to his position (his position on paper) until he retires. Once he retires we can put "Higher Ranking Employee" (who is exempt and serves at pleasure of….) in Joe’s old job and then HRE is “safe” once the administration changes hands. Maria is just used by those in power to manipulate the system and save the spot for someone in power. That's the kind of stuff that reminds us we remain a humble student of the ancient ways of the Movida and La Politica. E-mail your news and comments, anonymously if you wish.
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009 Not for reproduction without permission of the author |
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