$97,000. That's how much cash was in House Speaker Ben Lujan's campaign kitty at the end of last September. But now that he has announced his retirement, he won't be needing it. So where will it go? Probably to a wide array of Dem state House candidates, the Democratic Party and maybe some to charity as well. (In a first draft, we said Speaker Lujan could give campaign funds to his son, Dem Northern Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, but readers pointed out state campaign money can't be given to federal candidates).

The campaign coffers of State Sen. Rod Adair are also being closely watched. Because of redistricting, the Republican lawmaker will have to face off in the June primary with fellow GOP Senator William Burt. At the end of last September he had only $2,000 in his campaign account. And that could be dangerous if Burt wins the support of some long-standing foes of Adair who are flush with cash. In 2008 those foes put up over $300,000 to take out Roswell State Rep. and Adair buddy Dan Foley. (Aah, the memories...)

Adair has not made a formal declaration of his election intentions. There has been rumbling that he could resign and let Burt have the seat. Burt was appointed by Gov Martinez to fill the seat left vacant when Dianna Duran became secretary of state. Maybe Rod--a political demographer--could go to work for Duran who he has close ties to?

This week Adair came again with his proposal that the Islamic law known as "Shariah" be made unconstitutional in the state. That sounds like someone seeking another term and playing to the nominating wing of the GOP in conservative SE NM. We'll know Adair's plans shortly. Petition signatures for legislative candidates are due March 20.

And legislators have reason to fear retribution from Governor Martinez if they again defy her and refuse to repeal the law allowing undocumented immigrants to get a driver's license. Susana PAC, run by her political adviser Jay McCleskey reported at the end of September that it had $300,000 in cash in the bank. Gobs of that money came from the oil and gas industry. The PAC reported spending $250,000. for the time period ending last September. And the spending has continued, The PAC this month put out a piece describing Martinez as a "fighter for New Mexico." That came just in time for the 30 day legislative session. The Susana PAC is in addition to the Guv's campaign account for her re-election in 2014.

No doubt much of that $300K (and more raised since then) will find its way into the districts of Dem legislators that Martinez would like to see retired by the voters this year.

THOSE LAWSUIT PAYOUTS

An Alligator reporting in here this week noted that law firms of prominent ABQ GOP attorney Paul Kennedy have been major recipients of the payouts made in the many police misconduct suits that have been settled by the city. They also reported Kennedy officed with attorney and the city's current Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry who oversees the city attorney's office. Perry was city attorney before becoming CAO. That brought this reader response:

Your report regarding the payout of $2,553,000 in settlements in 24 cases to Kennedy's law firms is alarming and raises the question of preferential treatment being given to a prominent Republican lawyer by the Berry Administration. What was the extent of Rob Perry's business association or friendship with the firm and was this disclosed before the settlements were approved?

The catalyst for the "no settlement policy" implemented by Mayor Chavez in police misconduct cases was a 1998 Police Oversight Task Force Report submitted to the Albuquerque City Council. The report was a review and study of settlements for tort claims in police misconduct and excessive force cases. The report states that the City was consistently paying out an extraordinary amount of money for tort claims involving APD officer misconduct cases and that the payouts were having a significant impact on city spending. Further, based on comparative data to other cities, the report found that Albuquerque was paying ten (10) times more than it should have paid for tort claims.

The report found that the City Attorney was too quick to settle claims involving police misconduct cases. The new City Attorney in 1998 had implemented a new policy, just like Rob Perry now, to settle rather than fight many claims and the prevailing philosophy was to resolve disputes without a trial. A question raised in the report was: Did the city have a reputation on the street as being an easy target for lawsuits? With Mayor Berry's dropping of the no settlement policy and Rob Perry's attitude to settle claims rather than defend, and now $8 million paid out, the answer is yes, the City is an easy mark!

$8 million dollars could have funded another 100 police officers or 75 fire fighters or for that matter make significant repairs to city facilities, buy more books for our libraries, fund zoo exhibits, repair many a pot hole, fund projects to benefit the entire city or for that matter
reduce our taxes..

TRAIL DUST

On the endorsement front:

The Albuquerque Police Officers Association (APOA) endorsed former Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez in his bid to represent New Mexico's First Congressional District.

“Marty brings strong, results-based leadership to the race and a common sense approach toward making decisions that will be fair, competent and based on the principles of what is right,” said Felipe Garcia, Vice President of the APOA

SILENT CHU

We know things look good for Obama here, but when Energy Secretary Steven Chu dropped into town Thursday we expected to hear a bit more cheer leading for the massive federal funding this state depends on from DOE. The following Chu money lines delivered during a tour of Sandia National Labs aren't going to ring many registers here:

Chu declined to address across-the-board federal spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2013. The University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research has estimated that those cuts would cost New Mexico a minimum of 20,000 jobs.

And other estimates put the jobs loss from potential federal spending cuts at 50,000. Maybe the estimates are high, but President Obama needs to know that we don't sneeze at the $2 billion plus Sandia gets each year. Maybe Chu's coolness is the downside of no longer being a "swing" state in a presidential election year. If so, maybe the best thing that can happen is for Obama to get into political trouble here. We bet Secretary Chu's tune would change then.

COMING IN
Montoya
Bernalillo County Assessor Karen Montoya jumps into the race for the Dem nomination for the ABQ Public Regulation Commission seat this weekend, setting up a stimulating primary between her, outgoing State Rep. and attorney Al Park and Cynthia Hall, an attorney for the PRC.

Montoya, addressing the elephant in the room that is Park's $250,000 plus campaign account, says:

She is proud to be a publicly funded candidate. "My top priority is to restore integrity to the office of PRC. As a publicly funded candidate I have received limited but powerful dollars that have come from the hands of the taxpayers I will protect."

Republicans have a shot at this seat which is being vacated by Jason Marks. We'll let you know who gets in from their side of the aisle. The position pays $90,000 a year and is known more for the antics of the individual commissioners than the actual important work of regulating the utility industry and others that the commission is charged with. State Auditor Hector Balderas came this week with yet another damning report of PRC practices.

And then the PRC circus continued with Balderas calling for PRC Chairman Pat Lyons, a Republican, to resign. And then Lyons called on Balderas to resign. And then, Jerome Block, Jr. came in and handed everyone a bunch of downers and they all took a nap (just kidding).

When Susana appointed independent Douglas Howe to fill the northern seat left vacant when Jerome Block, Jr. resigned he did not say whether he would run this year for a full term. He now says he won't. That PRC district is heavy Dem and is expected to stay that way. A number of contenders have already announced.

THE BOTTOM LINES

Democratic consultant and CNN commentator Donna Brazile is coming to the University of New Mexico to kick off the school's Black History Month. The former campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to speak at the university's annual Black History Month Kick-off Brunch on Jan. 28.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

Thanks for stopping by this week.

Reporting to you from Albuquerque, I'm Joe Monahan.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

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New Mexico Dems have reason to be increasingly confident about their 2012 election prospects and the reason resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. President Obama's rejuvenation--if that's what it turns out to be--could foil the R's hopes of picking up a couple of state House seats and taking control of the chamber. And they could also be denied the open ABQ congressional seat and the big prize--the open US Senate seat.

Obama gave a solid state-of-the-state speech, his probable GOP rival--Romney or Gingrich--both polled tepidly in New Mexico in a December survey.

The biggest "tell" on where the White House and the Dems think they stand in the state came on the heels of the President's Tuesday night speech, The next day he took off for Iowa, Michigan and our neighbors in Nevada Colorado and Arizona. New Mexico, often a crucial swing state in a presidential contest, was notably absent from Obama's stopover list. Obama strategists apparently see New Mexico's five electoral votes as pretty much nailed down:

...Of five paths that Obama campaign manager Jim Messina has charted to win re-election in November, all foresee winning Michigan, three require winning Iowa, two require Colorado and Nevada, and one has Arizona in the Obama win column. In 2008, of the five states he's visiting, Mr. Obama only lost Arizona, the home state of then rival John McCain.

Hispanic voters in particular seem poised to return the Obama fold in the wake of the Romney-Gingrich takeover. Neither contender are seen as having outsized appeal to state Hispanics, a key voting bloc here. And Obama's newfound populism could serve to pump turnout in liberal bastions like the SE Heights of ABQ and Santa Fe County.

In addition, we are told Washington GOP insiders remain cautious on their prospects for the Senate and ABQ House contest. While R's here are shouting down a poll from the Dem-favorable firm PPP, in DC they are much more realistic. They are not sneering about Dem Martin Heinrich's seven point lead over Republican Heather Wilson in that December survey. A strong Obama in New Mexico is only going to complicate matters when it comes time for the national R's to decide how much money to dedicate to a state that two years ago looked much more promising.

WHY SHOULD THEY?
Berry
Will the Dem Legislature bail out the Republican ABQ mayor and approve millions of dollars of funds for a rebuild of the busy Paseo Del Norte-I-25 interchange? Why should they? Berry stepped in the manure pile last October when he refused to have a stand-alone vote on the Paseo bond money. Instead, if voters wanted Paseo they also had to vote for bond money for Berry's unpopular sportsplex proposal. As a result, Paseo went down in flames (62% to 38%) in an example of one of the worst political chess moves in recent city history.

Sure, the city council has since come with bond money and Governor Martinez is trying to help Berry out by asking the Legislature to put up $30 million to get the rebuild going and even the Bernalillo County Commission is getting in on the act. Commissioners approved $5 million for Paseo. But Berry lost important public support that could have helped him carry the day. The screw-up could cost him dearly. Democrats in Santa Fe can stall the funding and come October 2013 when Berry is seeking re-election, they can blame him for the Paseo traffic jams. Maybe Santa Fe gives Berry a token amount for the project so ABQ Dem legislators have political cover, but otherwise this is a golden opportunity to leave Berry hanging and twisting in the wind.

SUSANA WHO?

She's the talk of the town around here, but a national poll of Hispanics says more than half of them have never heard of her. Fifty-one percent of the registered voters nationally did not know of Susana. That number grew to 57% in California.

CHU ON THIS

The nation's energy chief, Dr. Steven Chu, drops in on ABQ today amid continued nervousness over long-term funding prospects for Sandia National Labs which falls under the Department of Energy umbrella. Even though the Labs get zinged on occasion for having a bunch of pampered scientists, the budget of over $2 billion a year is vital to the city's economy.

On Thursday Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will travel to Albuquerque to tour renewable energy research facilities at Sandia National Laboratories, which is working to advance industry collaboration on clean energy and advanced manufacturing. Secretary Chu will also host a State of the Union Town Hall with students at the University of New Mexico. Secretary Chu will be joined during the visit by U.S. Congressman Martin Heinrich.

Sandia and Los Alamos have good funding visibility for the rest of this calender year. It's what comes after the presidential election that is worrisome. And, yes, we noticed that Rep. Heinrich will be the lead politico with Chu. Sorry, Hector, but that's a federal incumbent's advantage.

JUMPING THE GUN?

ABQ Dem congressional candidate Eric Griego may be getting a bit ahead of himself with this statement:

It’s too bad then that Republicans in Washington and my Tea Party Republican opponent Dan Lewis continue to insist on policies that brought about the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and created the worst income inequality between the top 1% and the rest in our nation’s history.

Well, Dan Lewis is not yet anyone's opponent and Eric Griego is not yet the Dem nominee for the ABQ US House seat. Griego has two opponents as does Lewis. There's this little thing called the June primary to determine who will be the final two candidates for the November election. Maybe Eric's 2012 calender got lost in the mail.

FIGHTING IRISHMAN
Rep. O'Neill
He is in a district he hangs on to by a thread, and when ABQ Dem State Rep. Bill O'Neill defied the Republican Governor by voting against her bill to repeal driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, he felt her wrath and that of her operatives. They flooded his district with robocalls in hopes of softening him up for November. Now O'Neill, aka, "The Fighting Irishman," is looking for some armor for the next round of hits he will take on the emotional issue. His office reports:

State Representative Bill O’Neill, House District 15, introduced a bill today that represents the simplest and most effective solution to the volatile driver’s license issue. His bill, House Bill 171, calls for issuing a provisional driver’s license to foreign nationals who do not have a social security number.

Such an approach would solve the fraud problem instantly,” O’Neill said, “as the provisional license would not be valid outside of New Mexico. Therefore, individuals would not come here to take advantage of our current law. At the same time, the whole point of providing access to car insurance for these individuals would be safeguarded, which was the intent of the 2003 legislation.

That should help O'Neill when the Guv's guns are again fired his way, but is there any chance he will crack and move over to Susana's corner on this one? No, says O'Neill:

When Governor Martinez states that 74% of New Mexicans support her approach, she is wrong. 74% of New Mexicans want the fraud problem ended immediately, and my bill does precisely that.

In the redistricting boundaries approved by the court, O'Neill's district did not get much better for him, if at all. He's going to have to live up to his nickname to keep the seat and keep fighting.

LICENSE HEAT

The firestorm over the licenses continued this week with a robust rally against repeal held at the Roundhouse and the Associated Press coming with a widely distributed report raising questions about abuse of the system. For example, the report cited multiple licenses being issued to persons using an ABQ smoke shop as their address. The issue goes before a legislative committee today. State Senate Dems came with damage control in the hours following the AP report:

The current law must be strengthened to include provisions that clearly address the flaws. Repealing the law and forcing a fraction of the driving population to go without proper licensing, registration or insurance puts New Mexican families at risk. That is why in the last session we fought for a law that would directly address the challenges that we face. The compromise bill would have required license renewal every two years, required fingerprints in a database that would have been available to all departments of law enforcement and would have raised the penalties for those who knowingly provided false paperwork for foreign nationals...

There's no calling off the dogs now. The license repeal is expected to fail for the third time and then it goes to the political arena in the form of campaigning for the legislative races. If Martinez can't win passage of the repeal on her third try she will have to knock some legislators out in November if she is to have any credibility when she brings it up for a fourth time in 2013.

(What do you mean, a "fourth time," Joe? Hey, we've got a new slogan in New Mexico politics--"All Driver's Licenses, All The Time." )

SHE DIDN'T KILL FILM

Reader Jim McCaughey thinks Susana got a bad rap here Tuesday from the ProgressNow PAC who charged her with stifling the film industry:

Joe, Has anyone looked at the actual number for the film tax credits? First, the new $50 million cap on film rebates is a rolling cap, so a film maker can get all of the credits coming to him. It is just that some may be paid in the next fiscal year. 2010 was a down year, but 2011 was better Over $73 million in tax credits were paid out in 2011. The film industry had one of it's worst years at the box office last year. Other states have all cut back on film credits. New Mexico is still very competitive. Film makers are just not filming as much. The idea that Governor Martinez has killed the film industry all by herself is completely false.

And we might add the film industry here is far from dead. News recently broke that the Lone Ranger will film here, a production of more than $200 million.

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The dynamic that has prevailed in Santa Fe since the Republican Governor took charge with a Dem-controlled Legislature remains fully intact one week into the 2012 legislative session. And that dynamic is gridlock. In other words, not a whole lot of meaningful legislation is going to get to the desk of the Guv. What will get done is the primary task of a short, 30 day session--the crafting of a budget. Somehow that gets lost anymore as even the short sessions get flooded with as nearly as many topics as the longer 60 day sessions (see below) that are held in odd-numbered years.

Ironically, the gridlock serves Martinez's political interests. GOP Governors in other states (Ohio's Kasich and Wisconsin's Walker come to mind) are in deep trouble because they have been successful in pushing through conservative agendas--particularly with regards to unions. Martinez has a disdain for unions, but she has not gone over the top in trying to curb their influence. Other proposals that could make the drumbeat of opposition louder from various interest groups--repeal of the law permitting undocumented immigrants to get a driver's license and Voter ID--have gone nowhere and are going nowhere. There's cause to grumble over what the Guv is offering but no reason to take up arms against her because she is not implementing what she passionately and repeatedly referred to as "bold change" during her 2010 campaign.

Martinez continues to govern from the middle when it comes to the budget. For the second year, her differences with the legislature's proposal are minuscule. There are no sweeping arguments in the capitol over the fundamental direction of government spending. Education and Medicaid will continue to receive the lion's share of state funds, although higher education funding is in the Guv's crosshairs and she has made a mark by not filling a number of state government vacancies.

Both the Guv and legislative Democrats have gravitated toward the jobs issue as the November election approaches, but she would veto most of the Dem plans if they reach her desk and the Dems will send most of hers to the legislative graveyard. Net change? Pretty much zero.

New Mexico and its state government remain in a holding pattern as a result of its soft economy and divided government. New state revenue projections (guesses?) this week say that the extra $250 million predicted for the next budget year will still be available despite crashing natural gas prices. Still, we are in a new era where political leaders take much smaller bites out of the pie. Gone are the days of building a Spaceport, launching a Rail Runner, sending rebate checks to citizens, the booming state construction industry and fat state government payrolls. Now the big ideas are the Guv's relatively small tax cut package and the Dems equally modest jobs initiative.

The punch bowl was long ago drained and taken away. There will be no repeat of those manic boom years--at least not in any time frame that matters. New Mexico has entered a new era of minimalism. As a result Santa Fe looks much smaller and much less interesting. It carries on like a lone sentry who is guarding the fort in the wee morning hours. He waits for something to happen but it rarely does.

MESSY MESSAGING

When the stakes are low, the players can get sloppy:

In a rare procedural move, Gov. Martinez reversed course by scaling back the scope of topics up for debate in the House during the ongoing 30-day legislative session...Martinez issued 80 so-called executive messages last week, the first week of the legislative session, clearing the way for debate on issues ranging from reinstatement of the death penalty to transporting hay. However, after Martinez staffers met with legislative leaders...the Governor’s Office requested that 34 messages to the House be withdrawn..In addition, 12 new messages were introduced, in some cases replacing messages that had been pulled back. Some legislative leaders had expressed concern that the large scope of the executive messages could lead to a logjam of bills.

When Martinez hired a former GOP legislator as her chief of staff observers speculated that it would make for smooth sailing for the Guv in dealing with lawmakers. It hasn't happened. Hey, maybe they can call back former Rep. Brian Moore who was a deputy chief of staff in the Guv's office, but didn't last long.

LAWSUIT CITY

Readers of this space have known of the soaring costs of lawsuits against the City of ABQ in police misconduct cases. Retired APD Seargent Dan Klein alerted us last year that the costs was approaching $7 million for the last two years--since Mayor Berry took over--and TV news came with a December report. Now the news comes from the ABQ Journal which pegs the lawsuit costs at $8 million for the last two years. From Jan. 2010 to August 2011 there were 20 police shootings, 15 of them fatal. Lawsuits stemming from most of those shootings are still pending. But that's only part of the story. Most of these misconduct cases have been settled out of court and that's where one of our Alligators comes in:

Missing from the ABQ Journal story was any real investigation of where the checks are going and why. Prior to become the City Attorney and then the Chief Administrative Officer, Rob Perry was a plaintiff's lawyer who officed at the law firm of Kennedy and Hahn.

Between February 4, 2010 and December 6, 2011 the City of Albuquerque has cut 24 checks to Kennedy and Hahn and the Kennedy Law Firm (15 to Kennedy/Hahn and 9 to Kennedy). The total dollar amount is $2,553,015.00 Depending on the arrangement, attorneys receive anywhere from one-third to one-half of amounts won. That could mean anywhere from from $850,000 to $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars have gone to plaintiff lawyers under the oversight of former plaintiff lawyer Perry.

All of these cases could easily have gone to court and been tried. But why do that when you have what are essentially corporate lawyers in the City Attorney's office who are terrified of a courtroom and a CAO who seems willing to open the city's coffers and cut checks to his former trial lawyer pals?

That's heavy ammo fired in CAO Perry's direction, but not without reason. We welcome any comments from his corner.

THE SPORTING LIFE
Nancy Lopez
Reader Susan Loubet joined in on the discussion here of what should be the top five NM sports stories since statehood by saying:

How about as a top five sports story Nancy Lopez being able to play on the Roswell golf team after Congress passed Title IX--the law mandating gender equality in school athletics?

But veteran ABQ attorney Roberta Cooper Ramo says the record needs to be corrected:

Joe, Susan Loubet is right that Nancy Lopez deserves lots of attention for all of her sports accomplishments. It was not Title IX that allowed Nancy to play on the boys team at her high school in Roswell, it had not yet been enacted.

Nancy was looking forward to her playing on the boys team because there were no girls teams in New Mexico high schools. When the New Mexico Activities Association sent the Goddard High principal a letter indicating that Nancy could not play on the high school golf team, her parents ended up contacting the ACLU. Soon Nancy and her parents were joined by several girls who played tennis. This went to the State School Board...and the rule was overturned.

One of the best moments was when I was given a settlement offer that would have meant that only Nancy as a national champion could have played. When I explained the offer, Mrs. Lopez asked if the girls who wanted to play tennis would also be allowed to play. When I said no, she told me to get back to Albuquerque and not come back until “all of the girls can play.” This was a moment of great courage and principle for the Lopez family.

...From this story and many others around the country came the important advances for women athletes in the subsequent passage of Title IX. But the state of New Mexico and many of its people deserve credit for leading the way and Nancy’s national prominence was a huge part of making that happen.

Interesting stuff. It brings back memories of Nancy's incredible rookie season on the LPGA tour when she won nine tournaments. The Chaves County native now lives in Georgia, but her contribution to civil rights here as well as her worldwide contribution to the growth of women's golf is truly one of the top stories--sports or otherwise--during New Mexico's first 100 years of statehood.

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Udall & Heinrich
Rep. Martin Heinrich looks more than ready to join Tom Udall in the US Senate in this pic we snapped of the pair at a reception put on by NM Sikhs following the opening day ceremonies of the NM Legislature. We asked Heinrich if we could dub the photo a Udall endorsement of his Senate candidacy. He quickly quipped, "It's my endorsement of Tom Udall."

Heinrich faces Hector Balderas in the June primary. Udall has not endorsed either contender. Udall faces re-election to a second six year Senate term in 2014. At that time he will be the state's senior senator as Jeff Bingaman retires at the end of this year.

The Sikhs based in Espanola run Akal Security, a major provider of security services for the federal government.

TENSION ERUPTS

Not surprisingly the tension is already boiling to the surface in what will be a hotly contested race for the Dem nomination for the ABQ congressional seat. A progressive political action committee that is backing State Sen. Eric Griego for the nomination put out a robo-poll that raised ethics questions about his chief rival--former Mayor Marty Chavez. The PAC hasn't released the details of the poll, but enough Chavez backers received it that his campaign came with a letter from them condemning the survey as a "smear attack sent under the guise of scientific polling."

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee says it ran a 35 question poll of 513 likely primary voters. A spokesman for Griego said the campaign has absolutely nothing" to do with the survey, but questioned why Chavez was so upset. "Maybe it hit a nerve," he said.

Chavez has had long-standing problems with the progressive wing of the Dem Party. No doubt one of the ethics issued poll was ABQPAC, a fund-raising scandal that erupted in 2001 when Chavez was mayor.

Also running in the Dem contest is Bernalillo County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham. Her supporters are hoping that Eric and Marty will go after one another and she will benefit. We appear to be very close to having that theory checked out.

THE GUV AND JOBS

A counterpoint to a portion of our take on Governor Martinez and job creation. We said:

Not that it's the sole chore of the state's governor to "create jobs" and it's not as though Martinez's administration has done nothing.

The counterpoint comes from Pat Davis of the new progressive group ProgressNow NM:

It is almost as though Martinez has done nothing. She campaigned against the state being involved in the Spaceport, until pollsters told her to be for it. The negotiation for a tax package for Union Pacific to relocate to Santa Teresa was begun under the last administration and it is not clear how many of the 2,000 temporary construction jobs and estimated 600 long-term jobs to be created are any more than their old El Paso employees driving 15 miles up the road to work. Surely they don't plan to just fire their existing Texas workforce to hire only unemployed New Mexicans.

TE Connectivity, also referenced in the governor's state-of-the-state speech, sure didn't. The first 100 jobs they announced at their new plant were "relocated from El Paso." And her poisonous rhetoric against the film industry stopped that investment in its tracks...On second thought, it seems as though Martinez has done a lot, just not a lot she may want to admit.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS

State Senate Democrats also think Martinez and company are vulnerable on the jobs issue as we go into an election season. They came with an 11 point plan to put more New Mexicans back to work. The one that caught our eye was the $300 million in capital outlay money for infrastructure projects. We could stand to see an even higher number, but if Santa Fe could get behind the $300 million it would be a boon for a number of industries afflicted by the state's construction depression.

Even though the Dems see a leadership vacuum from the Fourth Floor when it comes to jobs, Susana hasn't been absent without leave of late. Her proposal to do away with the gross receipts tax for many small businesses and her appreciation for a healthy dose of capital outlay has buttressed her jobs credentials.

NOT A SECRETARY YET

From Santa Fe, Jeremy Rutherford writes of a recent reference to "Secretary of Education Skandera:"

Joe, Skandera is not Secretary, she is a Secretary-designate. This absolutely needs to be corrected. It is unfair to those that have been confirmed. She hasn't been confirmed, and there are many reasons why. It's not simply because they didn't have time last year.

Skandera has been a lightning rod for the Governor and it seems she continues to draw strikes. The Dem-oriented Independent Source PAC has come with a sharp critique. The PAC was also in the fore in investigating the state's awarding of a controversial lease to the Downs at ABQ racetrack and casino. It's new report asserts:

If Governor Martinez wants to crack down on corruption, she needs to start with the contract she engineered between the Downs and the state of New Mexico. If this contract is allowed to stand, the new racino will stand as a shrine to blatant bid rigging and exclusionary pay-to-play politics in state government.

The administration insists the rules were followed in awarding the Downs lease. Laguna Development Corporation, which lost its bid for the lease, is challenging that contention.

Between the Independent Source PAC and ProgressNow NM, the Martinez opposition seems to be finding its sea legs. Her first year the opposition was nowhere near as organized.

VP SUSANA

We get this from ABQ Journal columnist Leslie Linthicum on Governor Martinez and whether she would accept the VP spot on the 2012 GOP presidential ticket:

Martinez is actually on the record in a December 2010 interview saying she would not interrupt her first term to accept a vice-presidential position. This is the quoted answer to the question that appeared in the column: “The next four years for me are here in New Mexico,” Martinez promised.

Thanks for that, Leslie. We notice that she made that statement before she actually became Governor, but it doesn't dissuade us from ignoring any denials of vice-presidential interest. Well, maybe if she calls Romney and Gingrich on the phone and told them that under no circumstances would she accept the VP nomination and then conducted a news conference to repeat the conversation, we might bend a little. Otherwise, watch what they do not what they say.

THE TOP FIVE

That recent blog featuring the top five NM sports stories since statehood a century ago authored by lobbyist Bruce Donisthorpe continues to evoke email responses. Here we go....

From photographer Mark Bralley:

Tommy McDonald, born in Roy, is not the only New Mexico member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ronnie Lott was Born May 8, 1959, in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

From ABQ's Susan Loubet:

Joe, How about as a top five sports story Nancy Lopez being able to play on the Roswell golf team after Congress passed Title IX--the law mandating gender equality in school athletics?

Taos native Rodger Beimer weighs in:

Lest we forget a Taoseno, George Brooks coached the 2004 UNM Ski Team to the only NCAA Championship UNM has ever received.

From Washington D.C. lobbyist Jim Richards:

..Greatly disappointed that my former colleague Bruce Donisthorpe left out my hometown Animas Panthers. They had 69 straight wins in AA football (still top ten all time nationally!!) until losing to the hated Lordsburg Mavericks 9-8. Seven consecutive state championships, the last of which was an Animas drubbing of the Mavericks 36-0 in the rematch of the streak ending loss!

And ABQ reader Lissa Knudsen, a Dem, says she's had enough of sports infiltrating our political blog:

According to Frank Luntz, the infamous Republican pollster who deserves much of the credit for delivering the '94 Republican majority in the House, speaking about sports is ill advised for politicians.

"...The problem with far too many male politicians and executives is that they tend to make everything into a sports analogy. In my years of interviewing women from all across the country and in all walks of life, I've consistently found that this drives women insane...Men use baseball metaphors, golf metaphors, football metaphors - and often these sports metaphors are graphic and violent...Thanks, Joe, as always for your engaging commentary.

Thanks to all of our sports authorities for their emails. We can't promise Lissa that there won't be a few more, but we assure her and you that the game of La Politica will always reign supreme around here.

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Let's clear this up for those who may be new at this. The following statement from Governor Martinez in reaction to Mitt Romney mentioning her as a possible vice-presidential running mate in no way rules out her taking the Veep nomination, if offered:

"She has no interest in serving as vice president and will not be a candidate for the position."

Not going to be a "candidate." Huh? There are no "candidates." The presidential nominee will select who he wants--"candidate" or not. And even if Martinez said she wouldn't take the VP position, if offered, we would believe it about as much as someone telling us the fix wasn't in on the Downs at ABQ deal. How many times in American history have we heard politicos say they would no way consider becoming VP only to end up on the ticket? The rules of traditional journalism just can't get at this angle. It has to accept at face value these somewhat incredulous statements and send them out. We're not saying it's good that you have us around, but we're just sayin'....

Susana is being repeatedly mentioned by the "Great Mentioners " and now Romney because she is a Hispanic female Republican Governor--that rarest of political species. Not bad for her but as we've blogged in the past it has nothing to do with her ability as governor, and it can make Mr. & Mrs. New Mexico pretty jumpy that yet another of their chief executives is flirting on the national stage while this state continues to struggle across a a variety of fronts. The days when the citizenry around here glowed in the afterglow of national mentions of our office holders disappeared with the Macarena.

To refresh your memory which may be wandering as you bask in this mid-January bout of spring-like weather, we now have three Guvs in a row--Johnson, Richardson and Martinez--who have pursued national ambitions, although Johnson waited until he was no longer Guv. We just can't swallow that Kool-Aid from the "Fifth Floor," no matter how sweet. We see Susana clearly in a "pursuing" position.

Gentle reader, do you really think Susana political consultant Jay McCleskey (the de facto Guv, and Susana's in-house Svengali) is doing anything to discourage the speculation or not kissing up to Romney (or Gingrich)? No. But then that's why he gets the big bucks. As for Susana, it's a politician's job to be ambitious. So don't bother to spin us that in the highly improbable event that this Guv is offered the veep nomination, she will flatly reject it. Well, at least show some respect and don't spin the Alligators. They've got ties that are older than the kids putting this stuff out.

HARRY'S HOPE
Montoya
Former Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya has launched a long shot bid to upset northern Congressman Ben Ray Lujan in the June Dem primary. The two clashed before, in 2008, when Montoya and Lujan were among the contenders who battled for the then open seat. Insiders say animus between the two camps linger. In announcing, Montoya said he is dedicating his campaign to his late father who died from the "horrible" disease of cancer. That was not lost on the Wall-Leaners who noted that it was only last Tuesday that Lujan's father, House Speaker Ben Lujan revealed that he has advanced lung cancer. Make of it what you will, but it came across as kind of odd. If Harry was trying to ward off any sympathy vote for Ben Ray because of his father's condition, it didn't quite make the grade.

Montoya's major challenge, as you might guess, will be raising enough cash to build his candidacy into more than an idle threat. Also, will he be able to get 20 percent of the delegate vote at the Dem pre-primary convention in March? If he doesn't, he would have to get petition signatures to get on the June ballot. No candidate who has been denied the 20 percent has ever won a congressional primary. Can Lujan stop Montoya at the convention and basically end it all there?

By most accounts we've gathered, Ben Ray has turned in a solid performance in his first two terms, but he still has not established the reputation that will quell unrest among the natives and make the seat unquestionably his. That will come in time. Maybe having hopeful Harry to defeat will hasten the effort. (There's another Dem candidate running against Lujan--musician Sean Closson--who poses no threat).

NOT A GAS (CONT)

We are natural gas trackers around here, and our readers have kept us ahead of the curve about the plunging price of the commodity and how that may wreak havoc with the prediction that the state will have a revenue surplus of $250 million to appropriate for the budget year that begins July 1st. We were glad to see the ABQ Journal finally come with a definitive explanation on how natural gas prices are figured and how they relate to the over $5.6 billion budget. The piece was done by James Monteleone, the former education writer who now takes over as the paper's political reporter, replacing Sean Olson who left for Idaho.

BARELA BOWS OUT

It was not a shocker, but it did clear the air when Jon Barela, the 2010 GOP nominee for the ABQ congressional seat and the current economic-development secretary-designate (the state senate has yet to confirm him to the Guv's cabinet), told the newspaper Friday afternoon that he would not take a second bite out of the apple.

Barela's possible entrance into the race was driving the other hopefuls crazy and causing a run on anti-depressants at Walgreen's, never mind cramping their ability to raise money. And Barela waiting to the last minute to say he would not run again went down with them about as well as corn flakes without milk.

But this is politics so there was no gasping when Janice Arnold-Jones immediately put out a news release calling him a "fantastic" economic development director-designate. Well, Janice's hyperbole can be forgiven, one supposes, as she now faces a freshly formidable Dan Lewis, the ABQ city councilor and pastor who is now being dubbed the front-runner in the wake of Barela's announcement. But Lewis is new and will not get it without a fight from Janice and maybe one from retired Army Seargent Gary Smith. He's been flying below the radar, but was back in DC last week visiting with such PACS as the National Rifle Association and National Right to Life. He has also seeded his effort with some $125,000 of his own cash and insiders say there could be more to come.

Whoever wins the ABQ GOP House nomination will go into the fall election as the underdog. And that's something new. The district was held by the GOP from '69 until '08 when Dem Martin Heinrich scored victory. The crystal ball gazers say it may be much more difficult for the GOP to take it back. Why? Re-districting improves Republican performance in the district by about 1 percent, but that's in the face of the district trending Dem.

And then there's Obama. What did he carry Bernalillo County by in 2008? Wasn't it over a previously unimaginable margin of nearly 60,000 votes? He'll be back on the ballot and even if his margin was chopped in half or more--say a 25,000 vote win, it's hard to see how the Dem congressional candidate would not be carried in on on his coattails.

It seems the DC chattering class is catching on. Longtime prognosticator Larry Sabato has just ranked the ABQ congressional seat as "likely Democrat" in the November election. No more "toss-up" or even "lean Dem." And because of the Obama factor (he still polls well in ABQ) we agree. But hold on. There's 2014 when voter turnout drops and the Republicans can again see the light. Well, yes, but our local dry cleaner hasn't yet put out their free calender for 2014, so we'll pass on that one.

SENATE SIDE
Balderas & Lewis
We caught up with State Auditor and Dem US Senate candidate Hector Balderas at the Martin Luther King Jr. annual ABQ breakfast and snapped this pic of him with Dem State Treasurer Jim Lewis. We felt like a shaggy dog next to these two guys. But both have been champion vote-getters with the hairy as well as the hairless set. Lewis especially so, wracking up huge winning margins in past races for Bernalillo County treasurer as well as state treasurer.

Not to worry you too much Hector, but when James B. made a run for the ABQ US House seat back in '90 he didn't fare too well, losing the nomination to Rebecca Vigil-Giron who in the fall lost to Rep. Steve Schiff.

We broke the news here last week that Rep. Heinrich, who Balderas is challenging for the nomination, showed $1.4 million in cash on hand at the end of December. At the end of September, Hector said he had $465,000. His new cash total will come at the end of the month, but it's not going to be anywhere near Heinrich's number, but at least Hector is saving money on haircuts.

Do we need to repeat here that any money Hector has left over from a Senate run could legally be used for a state campaign like attorney general or Governor? Nah, we don't need to do that, do we?

MISTAKEN STATE OF STATE?
Ortiz y Pino
Susana's annual state-of-the-state address delivered at last Tuesday's opening of the 2012 legislative session picked at an old sore with us--the administration's exaggeration of how it tamed the state's budget shortfall during its first year in office. Dem State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino was in the chamber for the talk and crafted this critique:

Joe, The Governor managed the ever-difficult double parlay of misstating history and claiming credit for someone else's work, all in the same paragraph. She first gave the good news that we have escaped the "worst problem of structural debt in our state's history this year..." Not so. We were in far worse shape fiscally three years ago. She arrived on the scene two years into the recovery from the depths of the problem. This year our cash reserves will be right around 10%--a far cry from last year's 4.5% or the previous year's microscopic 0.5%. And the cuts in spending have been similarly scaled down each of these past three years. So the welcome recovery began three years ago, not this past year.

Then, when it came to explaining the improvement, she managed to ignore the single biggest factor of all. Sure her Administration has been thrifty. But selling the jet, firing the chefs and getting rid of cell phones made only a tiny impression on the state's debt. What has turned around our fiscal picture has been increased revenues: oil prices and volume have been high (to our fiscal benefit) and natural gas, until recently, also was a robust revenue source for us.

But what the Governor has never acknowledged is that the tax increases we voted in during the last special session of the Richardson era (and that the GOP used against Democratic House incumbents in that Fall's election, not an insignificant factor in the loss of six seats the Dems suffered then) have done exactly what they were designed to do: produce additional revenue. That's the reason we have a stronger budget this year. And that's why her plan to resume cutting taxes is so dangerous. It's a mistake Bill Richardson made and that continues to make us bleed fiscally.

Yep, Ortiz y Pino, 69, is one of the state's leading liberals and a routine critic of the Guv, but on this one he has it nailed. We welcome those who disagree to pen a rebuttal, but we don't think our email box will be flooded.

We won't bother to repost the AP story reflecting how Martinez and the legislature trimmed $150 million from state spending in her first budget, not the $450 million "structural deficit" that she insists on taking credit for. And we guess we won't get into why Richard May lasted about as long as a snowfall in Hobbs as head of the Department of Finance & Administration.

And to those who think we've been too tough on the Guv, flash back to our coverage of Dem Big Bill's administration, he liked it so much he had toilet paper with our name on it. So it goes....

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