Mention city of Española politics around here and you get mired in e-mail and Alligator attacks for days on end. It happened when a Gator floated the name of Española Mayor Joe Maestas, among others, as a possible replacement for Jerome Block, if Block, who was indicted recently, stepped down from his Public Regulation Commission seat. That brought attacks against Maestas and now he gets the final word and we swear off PRC name floating and Española politics--at least for a while.

In the (2008) Democratic primary race for the PRC, I came in a close third, not fourth..I have turned Española’s city government around...compared to what it was when I was elected Mayor in March 2006...I have professionalized city government; institutionalized ethics, and invested in our number one priority--public safety. I have accomplished much in the way of improved financial...The Rio Grande Sun’s coverage of Española..is by no means an accurate gauge of city government nor is it recognized as legitimate, ethical journalism...

Well, we may not be done with Española after all. That blast Mayor Maestas leveled at the Rio Grande Sun means we will run their response, if they have one. If they don't, we will quietly tip-toe out of Española but promise to visit again real soon.

Meantime, the Sun comes with the scoop that northern Dem State Senator Carlos Cisneros is calling on Jerome Block to resign his PRC seat.

SCARY GATOR

Speaking of Alligators, look at the snap of this one that popped up in our e-mail box. It comes from one of the Senior variety and came to us with this cut line: "Here I am lurking in the clear ditch by Tingley Beach!"

With this guy lurking, it's no wonder Mayor Marty wants to build a lagoon for the Tingley swimmers.

MORE POLL DETAILS

More exclusive details on that poll done last week on ABQ's West side for a city council race and which we blogged about Tuesday. The survey, conducted by automatic phone calls to over 500 registered voters, showed Mayor Chavez getting 41% of the vote in this area where he has been traditionally strong. His challengers, Dem Richard Romero and RJ Berry were tied at 17% and undecided was at 24%. Chavez won the 2005 four way race for mayor with 47% of the vote. The election is in October.

DEAD-TREE DOINGS

Apparently the layoffs at the Albuquerque Journal were much more extensive than it first appeared when it was announced in early January that "fewer than ten" newsroom employees were losing their jobs. At the time, the Journal said there were other layoffs at the ABQ Publishing Company, which owns the paper, but it did not specify how many. The Web site "Paper Cuts," which tracks such things, updated the Journal story in mid-March and now puts the total number of workers who lost their jobs at the state's largest newspaper at 80. That includes the advertising, production and circulation departments as well as newsroom employees.

The site runs a January article from the New Mexican citing the newsroom layoffs, but does not provide the source of its information for the 80 layoffs. If the number is indeed 80, that is one of the more significant losses of workers in this recession in the ABQ area.

TEA PARTY VIDEO

Here' some video from the ABQ Tea Party shot by one of those attending. The Tea Party had a libertarian-Republican tilt.

ABQ financial advisor and NM National Guard Brigadier General Greg Zanetti spoke at the Santa Fe tea party. He interviewed with the AP there and said his plans to run for the NM GOP Guv nod in 2010 are on track. Zanetti has also begun a Web site.

Former ABQ Congresswoman Heather Wilson is still a possible GOP Guv contender, even if she has been quiet. This news from the state GOP:

Former Representative Wilson was awarded the National Intelligence Superior Public Service Medal...The Medal recognizes individuals who have provided superior service to the nation’s intelligence community and is awarded by the director of National Intelligence. Wilson served as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence...

Will we see Heather and Greg square off in a primary, or will one get out of the other's way? (And let's not forget Steve Pearce). Stay with us for continuing coverage...

E-mail your news comments and political happenings and help us cover the wide world of La Politica.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

Let's start it off with the latest buzz from Santa Fe. Natural gas prices plunged this week to a six and a half year low, promoting renewed talk of a special session of the Legislature. Top lawmakers and lobbyists are pegging mid-September to mid-October as the window when a session might be expected to be called by Big Bill. The gas price crash is more important than the price of oil because the state gets more from royalties and taxes from natural gas production. The new budget year begins July 1st. The reasoning is we will look at the shortfalls for July and August and then have the session to start plugging the hole. There's a $700 million cash reserve that lawmakers will look at tapping in order to avoid a tax increase. Expect red-hot debate on how much to take that reserve down, where to cut state expenses and that ticklish issue of whether to go for a tax hike. Also from Santa Fe...

Our Senior Alligators broke the news here that Judy Espinosa was headed out as Expo chief--news now officially confirmed--and now Big Bill has named Craig Swagerty, a $92,000 a year deputy chief at the state Tourism Department, to replace Judy who was there for 15 months. Swagerty is a former mayor of Red River.

Espinosa is openly lobbying the governor to appoint her to the Bernalillo County Commission to replace Deanna Archuleta who is taking a job with the Obama administration. Couldn't Judy cut that deal before announcing her departure? Seems that appointment is still in play.

TAXING ISSUE FOR BEN RAY

With the Congress throwing more cash around than at any time in its history, the news that northern Dem Congressman Ben Ray Lujan failed to have payroll taxes withheld for his 2008 campaign staff could not have come at a worse time--and on Tax Day to boot while Tea Parties were in progress. The back taxes and associated penalties came to over $54,000, according to figures we added up from his FEC report. As Lujan tells it:

A...review...showed underpayments to the Internal Revenue Service and errors in past documents. Upon discovery of these errors, the campaign paid all amounts due and corrected all reports. It was very disappointing that these errors occurred. Carlos Trujillo, Lujan's former campaign manager, takes responsibility for the errors and underpayments.

"As campaign manager it was my responsibility to ensure that all financial payments were made in a timely manner," said Trujillo. "Unfortunately, these payments were not paid on time. The nonpayment of payroll taxes was my responsibility, and I regret putting the Congressman in this situation. It was my responsibility."

Well, Lujan's foes will argue over who ultimately bears responsibility--the candidate or the campaign manager--but the embarrassment is all on the new congressman.

In the FEC report Lujan filed for the first three months of the year, he reports raising $139,000 and cash on hand of $60,000. He has a campaign debt, however, of $158,000.

One of Lujan's largest contributors for the period was from the Poarch Creek Indians of Atmore Alabama--a tribe with gambling-- who gave the campaign $2,000. Well-known Santa Fe lobbyists Dan Najar and Bud Mulcock each kicked in $1,000. Among the big union PAC's, IBEW came with $10,000--$5,000 each for the 2010 primary and general elections.

Republican Dan East of Rio Rancho has announced he will challenge Lujan in 2010, but any real threat to the congressman in the heavily Dem district would have to come in the primary. No Dems have signaled they will oppose the new lawmaker.

A STRONG SHEET
Rep. Teague
Once you discount the money he owes himself, southern Dem Congressman Harry Teague has the strongest financial balance sheet of NM's three congressmen as we begin the long march to 2010. His FEC report for the first quarter of this year shows he raised $281,000 and had cash of $279,000. About $10,000 appeared to be refunds from his campaign management company. Harry also has a huge debt of $450,000, but that is the money the Hobbs oilman loaned himself and he doesn't have to worry about paying back.

Hobbs politico Johnny Cope and his wife each came with $2,400 for Teague and he took in $5,000 from the national carpenters union.

Speaking of Cope, he is a member of the state transportation commission and Santa Fe insiders were talking late Wednesday of a freeze of all federal highway funds for New Mexico because of long-standing problems with its computer system known as SHARE. There is big money involved here.

Has that race for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 2010 become jumbled or what? When we all thought Big Bill was going to leave the governorship to take a cabinet position with Obama, it appeared State Auditor Hector Balderas was all set to become the state's new #2 under the state's new #1--Diane Denish. But Bill never caught the bus to D.C., Di is still the understudy and Hector appears to have had enough. Getting appointed lieutenant governor is one thing--having to run for it and give up the auditor's job is another. Friends of Balderas are passing word that he is highly unlikely to go for the second fiddle position, but will seek re-election as auditor.

So if Hector is out, whose in? The latest list includes NM Dem Party Chairman Brian Colon. If the federal grand jury investigating pay-to-play in NM does not indict anyone in the Big Bill administration, friends of Colon say he will look at running. They say Colon is too closely associated with the Guv to withstand the blow of indictments.

Northern State Senator Pete Campos is a new name circulating on the light Guv list. He joins longtime list occupants Lawrence Rael of the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments, ABQ Dem State Senator Linda Lopez, who also does work for the MRGCOG, and the only announced candidate for the position--Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano. Española Mayor Joe Maestas and Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya are two more. By the way, an Alligator reports Santa Fe Greg was one of nine applicants recently interviewed by the state's US Senators for the position of US Marshal.

The Dem race for governor has ground nearly to a halt. Attorney General King appears doubtful to join Denish in the ring and actor Val Kilmer has gone quiet since rattling the cage. State Senate leader Michael Sanchez also seems less than interested. But the light Guv run is giving them plenty to buzz about, It appears all of those on the list could be formidable candidates if they put their mind to it.

For Denish, it's a ticklish situation. She would like to have as a running mate a northern Hispanic male to balance the ticket, but it would be like stirring a hornets nest if she even hinted at this stage who she likes.

The best outcome is that at least four of these candidates make the ballot at the pre-primary convention next March, all of them raise money to be competitive and the pollsters agree not to do any polling for the June primary. As always, the Alligators vote for suspense.

THE LUJAN CONNECTION
Rep. Lujan
Ben Ray Lujan reminds us in this photo of the last Lujan to serve in Congress from New Mexico--Manuel Lujan. Before redistricting in 1980, the ABQ congressional seat included most of the city plus most of the North. It was huge and most of it was and still isn't what we call suit and tie country.

Manuel, like Ben Ray, usually sported a bolo tie and a sport jacket. That's as dressy as it got when he met with northern constituents. Today's photo was taken while Lujan was taking some meetings up in Farmington this week. Not much has changed in Farmington over these many years. They are still protective of their oil and gas industry and they gave the new congressman an earful. Lujan stood his ground, but he was in Republican country that day.

The state's congressional delegation was without Hispanic representation when Bill Richardson left the northern seat in 1997. Lujan's election in 2008 ended that drought.

OFF AND RUNNING

Campaign 2010 in Bernalillo County is starting to blossom along with the spring flowers. Moises Gonzales of the North Valley says he is running for the county commission seat held by Alan Armijo. Alan is term limited and can't run next year. This year he is seeking the ABQ city council seat held by fellow Dem Ike Benton. Gonzales ran against Karen Montoya in a close 2006 primary for the county assessor's seat. Montoya won the job in the general election.

In the '09 city election, it appears City Councilor Sally Mayer, seeking a third four year term, will get a challenge from a fellow Republican. Mike Cook, who served on the city's police oversight commission, sends word that he will run for the District 7 seat which takes up a good portion of ABQ's mid-NE Heights area. Mayer has indicated she is running.

DATELINE ALAMOGORDO

Back to Alamogordo again today where we have been going back and forth with Mayor Steve Brockett over that city's cash outlay of over $650,000 to help call center PreCheck set up shop several years ago. The SE city now faces a budget deficit that could mean layoffs of city workers. In light of that, was the PreCheck deal a bad deal for the city? Brockett has now responded:

The incentive expenditure to PreCheck is actually $675,000--if all job audits are met during a five-year period...The money comes from a gross receipts tax passed by local voters, specific to economic development. Money collected through this tax can be used only for this purpose. The budget shortfall came about as a result of declining gross receipts taxes that are not earmarked for specific purposes, and these taxes support more than 60 per cent of city operations. In short, PreCheck and the city budget shortfall have nothing to do with one another....

Thanks, Mayor. PreCheck and the city budget shortfall may not be directly related, but we think this illustrates how New Mexico has to be careful when putting up big bucks to attract private companies. You can bet there are Alamogordo city workers clinging to their jobs who wish more of the gross receipts tax there was going directly into city coffers, not a profitable private company.

Just a thought, which on occasion we are prone to around here...

Meanwhile, it seems call centers are the one sector of the state economy that is defying the recession. Today Verizon in ABQ is holding a job fair to hire 200.

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

Several readers were thrown by the amounts collected by ABQ Dem Congressman Martin Heinrich on his campaign report for the first three months of the year and which we blogged about yesterday. That's because the amounts permitted have changed. The federal campaign contribution limit is now $2,400 per individual per election and is adjusted regularly for inflation. That means an individual can give Heinrich or another federal candidate a total of $4,800--$2,400 for the primary and another $2,400 for the general. And you can give it all at once--right now if you choose--and several did as noted on the FEC reports we linked to. Also, political action committees are limited to giving $5,000 per election. They can give a total of $10,000.

OFFENSIVE BILLBOARD?

Is this billboard paid for by the state offensive? Reader Kris Kunnar:

I have not heard of any organization. group of citizens or educational institute that has made statements that only men drive drunk. Most people realize that DWI doesn't discriminate between men and women. I believe that this billboard sets the tone for law enforcement to "look for" female drivers instead of how the car itself is functioning, like weaving. Another aspect of this billboard is that it has a negative tone against women...I would rather have no gender being selected on a billboard for DWI because there needs to be a more neutral tone set by state government for law enforcement to act upon.

Those are some good points. We wonder just what the rationale for this theme was at the sate Department of Transportation. Perhaps those who thought it up can e-mail an explanation.

HARRY AND JANET

Look, the national Dems are not going to leave Harry Teague out to dry in his southern congressional seat. All the more reason for Republican Steve Pearce to take a serious look instead at a Guv run in 2010. To the Teague spin room:

Congressman Harry Teague today will join Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on a trip to survey operations along the Southwest border...as part of a major effort to disrupt illegal arms and cash smuggling, and to curtail illegal immigration. Teague co-sponsored legislation to increase funding for several existing law enforcement programs for a period of two years...Rep. Teague will be joining Secretary Napolitano in El Paso, T.X. and Columbus, N.M.

And, unfortunately for Steve, there are more cabinet secretaries for Harry where that one came from.

THE BOTTOM LINES

We got tripped up by the name game Tuesday. First, there is the case of the Blairs. There's Albuquerque's John Blair, the legislative and communications director for ABQ Dem US Rep. Martin Heinrich who we said got a big bonus for his work on the Heinrich campaign as noted in the FEC reports we linked to,. Actually, it was Jon Blair, not from New Mexico and who was Heinrich's campaign manager, who get the bonus cash. John Blair worked in the Obama campaign--not Martin's campaign-- before joining Heinrich, although we're sure he would welcome any bonus....

On the item we ran on the Montoya mother-daughter team taking jobs with the Obama administration, Santa Fe attorney Frank Apodaca pointed out we mixed up the names. We said Liz Montoya was a St. Mike’s grad and got her law degree at USC when we meant Elisa.

Yes, there is much to keep track of in the intricate world of our La Politica. Fortunately, we have our many readers to help.

E-mail your news, comments, corrections, political gossip and summer vacation plans.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009
Not for reproduction without permission of the author

ABQ Mayor Marty Chavez appears to hold a commanding lead, Republican RJ Berry is attracting most of his support from Republicans and Democrat Richard Romero might want to look at attracting new voters to the polls. Those are some of the conclusions we took away after a glimpse of the first round of insider polling for the ABQ race for mayor. The polling was conducted a week ago on ABQ's West side and is the first indication of where the race stands since the trio of Chavez, Berry and Romero qualified for public financing under the city's new campaign law. They are also expected to be the only three to submit the required petitions to make the ballot. The race for mayor was included on this insider poll--not conducted by any of the mayor candidates--and surveyed over 500 registered voters.

Secretary Chu
Mr. and Mrs. New Mexico, already watching their economy battered by the energy price crash, the real estate and stock market busts plus ever-rising unemployment, could take no comfort from the first NM visit by new Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. He offered no assurances that the backbone of the state's economy--Sandia and Los Alamos Labs--will go unscathed in the budget battle waiting to commence on Capitol Hill in only a few short months.

Chu sported a sunny, but ambiguous disposition during his Thursday and Friday visits to Los Alamos and Sandia, offering the headline that the core mission of the labs--maintaining the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile--will remain job one for the giant facilities. However, as we used to say back in our newsroom days, "He buried the lead."

That lead is the intense argument at the top echelons of the US Government over funding of the national labs. Only a day before Chu arrived in New Mexico one of the first public shots over future funding was fired by Deputy US Secretary of State James Steinberg. He sent chills down NM's economic backbone when he mused out loud at a Boston conference about how money for Los Alamos and Sandia could be diverted to beefen up the arms control bureaucracy. It doesn't sound like a pipe dream, either. After all, our new President is calling for the eradication of all nuclear weapons, not building more of them for the national labs to safeguard.

CHUING IT OVER

Yes, Dr. Chu gave the new party line about "diversifying" the labs' mission into such things as global climate change so they could survive in this new world order, but even he seemed to sense the long shot odds of such new programs replacing a gutted weapons budget. From the AP:

Chu said his biggest fear is that the nation won't realize the importance of having the labs work on research outside nuclear weapons and security. Not doing other research, he said, would ignore "an incredible resource for the country."

You got that right, Mr. Secretary. There are plenty of senators and congressmen who could give a hoot about diversifying the labs. They want our loot after enviously watching for decades while it was stockpiled by then-Senator Pete Domenici. And don't forget the left-wing of the Democratic Party. They have some new found membership in the Congress and the Administration and have never been gun-ho over funding the labs.

Sandia's huge economic impact on the ABQ metro area seems more like a threat than a boast in this environment where the wheels seem to come off something with disconcerting regularity. The lab says on its Web site that it employed over 7,000 and had a $500 million payroll in 2008. The total budget is about $2.249 billion. (Sandia's budget was flat for fiscal year 2009). That gargantuan payroll--plus cash to contractors--is to Albuquerque what blood is to Dracula. If the worst occurs, it seems we won't get sucked dry all at once, but the slow bleed--like the one already underway at Los Alamos---appears to be on the table.

It is New Mexico's chief conundrum: How does its five member congressional delegation keep the nuclear weapons labs fully funded even as we reduce nuclear weapons?

SOLACE IN SOLAR

After Dr. Chu's abstruse Duke City appearance, perhaps our Daily Trumpeter was justified in looking for some relief by blaring across its front pages the news that ABQ is in line for 225 solar energy jobs. This was touted as a sprouting of the "green" economy, but there may be a problem--the Greens may not be playing in the garden.

Not that they don't love solar jobs and all that cool stuff. But the Bernalillo County Commission, as part of its package of "incentives" to attract Solar Energy Ventures, promised it would float a $15 million revenue bond backed by "environmental gross-receipts" to build a water and sewer line to the facility to be located way out on the West Mesa. Who else would use that line? (Answer: More people.) Making the greens turn more green was the tidbit that a portion of the land that the solar panel manufacturer could occupy in the future could be land owned by developer SunCal. That's the dreaded arch foe of the greens who they see as the progenitor of more urban sprawl but whose supporters see as providing a responsible template for the future.

And who was a key player in attracting the new company?. How about outgoing Bernalillo County Commission Chairwoman Deanna Archuleta who has confirmed that she'll become the assistant secretary for land and science in the Obama Interior Department. She is also a manager for the the Wilderness Society.

DIP IT, DIP IT GOOD

Bill vetoes the bill to restrain the government double-dippers and they are off and running again in Rio Rancho. John Castilllo, who left the city of ABQ when Mayor Chavez said no more double-dipping starting at year's end, has landed a plum post with the city of Rio Rancho courtesy of City Manager James Jimenez, Mayor Tom Swisstack and a compliant city council. Castillo's pay? $102,000 a year. Pension? $5800 a month. The total? $171,600.

Santa Fe State Rep. Lucky Varela's bill would have made most government employees wait one year before they returned to work--not 90 days--and restricting them to making $30,000 a year or be forced to give up their pensions. Double-dipping may not be illegal, but critics say it is unethical because it violates the original intent of the retiree plan. Not only that. The double-dippers don't pay into PERA--the state employees retirement fund--making the state pay their contributions. But hey, let's party like it's 1999. Only it isn't. Richardson had a tin ear on this one as well as his eye on the 2010 election ballot--he isn't on it.

OGLING OGLE

Former ABQ GOP State Rep. Rory Ogle put the needle in the liberals here Friday when he opined that the indictment of Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block over alleged misuse of the public financing he used for his 2008 election campaign demonstrates that public financing encourages corruption, not discourages it. Steven Allen of NM Common Cause
was quick to fire back:

...Public financing is the best way to eliminate the unfair influence—or appearance of such influence—that large campaign contributions can have on policy making. In Block’s case, it looks pretty clear that he tried to abuse the system. Last year, Common Cause urged the Secretary of State to investigate and punish him if the allegations turned out to be true. Appropriately, he was fined....The public financing law specifically states that if a person ‘willfully or knowingly violates’ the provisions of this law, they’re guilty of a fourth-degree felony and they ‘shall return to the fund all money distributed’ to them. (Sec. 1-19A-17). If Block did this, then the result of this case must be the return of the public funds he received from the state of New Mexico.”

MOVING ALONG
Rep. Teague
Bill Gomez, the district director for Dem southern Congressman Harry Teague, is apparently the first high-profile casualty among the state's new congressional members. Insiders report Gomez of Las Cruces "was not a good fit" for Teague. The search is on for a replacement so get your resumes in.

This won't be the last of the staff shuffling. It will take time for the state's three brand new congressman to get a feel for what works for them. Turf battles between district directors and the DC chiefs of staff are not uncommon and staffers often stay on the Hill for only a year or two to bolster their resumes before heading to higher-paying private sector jobs. And don't forget the congressional wives. Don't get along with a Rep's better half? You may find her opinion of you is more important than that of the boss.

ABQ Dem US Rep. Heinrich gave a speech recently in which he commented on the history of clashes between district directors and their DC bosses:

Unlike many representatives, he decided to have more staff in his Albuquerque office than his D.C. office because he wanted people on the ground for constituent services. The 1st District might be the smallest congressional district (geographically) in the state, but it’s one of the larger districts (based on population) nationally. So, he has staff people assigned by geography and by issues.

“I’ve seen the corrosive impact some congresspeople fall into with the D.C. and local staff who rub each other the wrong way and who compete,” he said. “That’s bad for constituent services.”

Point taken. But a healthy competition that doesn't get out of hand can be helpful to one interest--the voters who put the congressmen in office.

THE BOTTOM LINES

We thought reader Greg Lennes of Las Cruces incorporated the titles of all of actor Val Kilmer's movies in his tongue-in-cheek analysis of Val's possible 2010 NM Guv run, but apparently not. From a Santa Fe reader:

Although a gifted actor, immortalizing a dead rock star is unlikely to prepare Kilmer for politicking his way through “The Doors” on the fourth floor of the Capitol. Perhaps, the erstwhile actor should spend more time under a “Willow” pondering his future in public office.

E-mail your news and comments.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2009
Not for reproduction without permission of the author