Who are these happy fellas, two of them with deep New Mexico political connections? We have a free lunch waiting for the reader that has the right names and titles. . .

News that the private Cibola County Correctional Center near Grants would close, costing the area 300 jobs sent the area reeling. What's behind the layoffs? Here's what we found out:

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”

WATER WORKS

Where will the ABQ metro get the water it needs for its future?

A controversial proposal to pump 54,000 acre-feet of water each year from the Augustin Plains of west-central New Mexico up to the Middle Rio Grande Valley is a step closer to public hearings. The New Mexico Office of the State Engineer has notified the Augustin Plains Ranch, the commercial venture behind the water-transfer plan, to publish a public notice of its application to pump and transport the water. That sets the stage for public hearings to be held after the public has had the opportunity to object to the plan.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016

New Mexico Truth is back.

The TV and radio ads that parodied the state tourism campaign "NM True" and caused a good deal of controversy earlier this year are airing again statewide and with updated information on the state's profound rate of child poverty that the campaign by CHI St. Joseph's Children (Catholic Health Initiatives) is designed to draw attention to.

Allen Sanchez, CEO of CHI St. Joseph's (and who we work with), explained:

When we ran the first round of NM Truth, NM was 3rd in child food insecurity. In the 2016 Map the Meal Gap Report, NM is now 2nd in the nation for child food insecurity. Overall, the percentage of child food insecurity has gone down across the states. However, Arkansas did a better job of reducing their child food insecurity numbers, bumping us to second worst in the country.

In releasing the new wave of ads today Sanchez says its now even more urgent that the  legislature look for a solution from the state's nearly $15 billion Land Grant Permanent School Fund. He again urged approval of a constitutional amendment that would let voters decide whether to spend about $110 million a year for ten years on very early childhood programs to arrest the child poverty rate and eventually contribute to a better prepared workforce.

The Martinez administration threatened legal action against the NM Truth ads because of their similarity to the NM True campaign, but that went nowhere.  Sanchez says the new ads update the state's declining standing in child poverty and make the "NM Truth" logo larger than the original ads in order to a avoid any confusion with NM True. The ads will run for the next three weeks.

DEATH PENALTY DESPERATION?

If Gov. Martinez appears desperate to change the political conversation, you can understand why. But her announcement that she will ask the next legislative session to reinstate the death penalty for child killers and those who murder law enforcement officers was a blatant smokescreen to avert attention from the biggest state budget crisis in a generation as well as an economy that under her watch has done nothing but tank.

As usual social media went right to the heart of the matter with comments like these on Facebook from Sarah Meadows:

She is using this tired issue as a red herring to distract from the myriad, high-priority issues facing our state (education, stagnant economy, childhood poverty, behavioral health services implosion, budget deficit, pizza party) and her utter failure to make any progress in these areas.

Martinez and her political consultant Jay McCleskey are being put to the test by the rapidly changing political landscape. Their plan to make the coming campaign an "all crime all the time" event has lost potency as a state budget shortfall upwards of $700 million or more awaits gubernatorial leadership and decision, but is getting neither.

Where is the date for the special session on the budget? Where is her plan?

Martinez is also taking a hit with her political base as Republican Trump supporters openly boo her and her polling with them sinks. Talking tough on the death penalty could be seen as trying to stop the bleeding.

The recent killing of a police officer in the village of Hatch gave her entree to grasp the death penalty as a political lifesaver, but after six years of nasty wedge issue politics (think driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants, tests for school teachers etc.) she is having a much harder time disguising and rationalizing her skimpy legislative and economic record with an increasingly restless public.

As for the death penalty, it was repealed years ago and it has zero chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate as long as Michael Sanchez is majority leader. So look for Martinez to use the issue against him in the upcoming election in the hope of unseating him as well as to achieve the political pipe dream of taking GOP control of the Senate.

Time and again when we need a governor, we get a DA. It's Susana's comfort zone, especially when the obstacles that lay ahead of her are getting too close for comfort.

WAPO WHACKED

A number of readers were not pleased with what some called a "puff piece" from the WaPo on ABQ Mayor Berry's program to put the homeless population to work. Longtime Berry critic Michael Corwin writes:

The WaPo story is very incongruous with the change that most of us who live here have noticed. There are now panhandlers at almost every major intersection of the city instead of just the freeway off ramps. The WaPo piece has the feel of a planted puff piece by Martinez and Berry political consultant Jay McCleskey who in the past has planted Martinez fluff pieces that the WaPo used to run until her pizza party mishap.

And another reader writes:

Joy Junction's Jeremy Reynalds has a point about so much of our homelessness (and crime) being related to behavioral health issues. So where is Bernalillo County's plan to spend the $20 million per year they've had coming in for just this purpose over the last year? Their website says they're still on planning phase 2 (of 4!!). Voters approved this tax 21 months ago.

CAN YOU HOLD IT?

Why is this still a problem in one of the nation's top tourist destinations?

At least 20 times a day, tourists approach the information booth on the Santa Fe Plaza and ask Sandee Rudnick the same question. “Where are the restrooms?”

Do you need to wear diapers to Indian Market this weekend? Come on, Santa Fe.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016

Will the state budget debacle really be resolved at a special legislative session that would last less than a honest day's work as Gov. Martinez says she would like? In a year when all 112 legislators are up for election it appears doubtful. A veteran state political consultant  says:

They should be able to plug the $200 million hole left over from the budget year that ended June 30. They have to do that to avoid putting the state into deficit spending which is illegal. But neither the Governor, the Republicans or a good many Democrat may have the stomach for a special session that addresses the shortfall for the current budget year that began July 1 and is as much as $500 million. Because of the election risk there is a high probability that they will kick that can into the regular legislation session in January.

But if they kick the can to January that would lead much less time to balance the budget before the budget year ends next June 30.

Senate Majority Leader Sanchez broached the topic of possible tax increases to solve the mammoth shortfall but was immediately attacked on social media in a state that has been conditioned by the GOP to opposes any and all tax increases for any reason.

Speculation that the legislature could invoke its rarely used power to call itself into session to resolve the budget disaster if Gov. Martinez does not, is fanciful. First, she is going to call the special. Second, it would take three fifths of the House and Senate voting to call themselves back. That would mean 40 of the 70 House members would have to vote to call themselves in. You could count on one finger how many of the 37 majority House Republicans would do that.

NM TERMITES

The state's fiscal foundation is akin to a house infested with termites. The very underpinnings of the structure are being eaten away:

--The crash in oil prices is longer and deeper than anyone expected.  The decline began in earnest in June of 2014. Over two years later we're still in the cellar.

--Tax cuts meant to stimulate the economy and attract business that would diversify us away from energy have failed. Our unemployment rate remains among the highest in the nation.

--A lack of jobs as well as an ill-prepared workforce has skyrocketed the number of resident receiving Medicaid and food stamps. The rate of participation in the civilian work force has plummeted below 54 percent, among the worst in the nation. We are fast becoming a welfare state, if not one already.

--A new and more menacing crime wave has embraced the state's population center as drug use soars amid the social conditions crisis and an understaffed and mismanaged police force tries to cope.

This modern New Mexico nightmare is shooed away by the Governor with a see no pain, feel no pain mentality. But that's not very convincing. The state has been undergoing an  alarming and historic depopulation trend. In short, New Mexico no longer "grows as it goes."

PNM POUNDED

PNM finds itself getting pounded after declaring that if it does not get the 14 percent increase in electric rates it is asking the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) to approve, it would look at laying off up to 300 workers at the electric utility.

ABQ Republican, attorney and political consultant Doug Antoon is one of those taking the monopoly utility to task:

Don't stand for this boldface extortion. Deny them any hike and send them packing. There are other entities who are dying to fill the vacuum. Just ask Blue Cross Blue Shield. Didn't take them long at all (to come back), after we called their bluff.

PRC hearing officer Carolyn Glick says a rate hike of 6.4 percent is justified but not the double digit boost PNM wants.

As for the threat of layoffs, it's never pleasant to see anyone lose their job in the state's stagnant economy, but institutions across the board have taken major employment hits during this ongoing Great Recession. Now PNM is coming up against this new economic reality. It must make itself leaner for the decades ahead and can't exempt itself from the pain so many New Mexicans have felt and are feeling.

Hearing officer Glick is giving the utility a badly needed wake-up call. The comfortable corporate boardroom needs to take heed.

PENCE PLAYS

Pence and Pearce (Journal)

The GOP VP candidate Mike Pence sung the praises of Donald Trump Tuesday before a smallish ABQ crowd of 500 to 600 but the event served as a stern reminder of the deep division the Trump-Pence candidacy has caused in the state:

Gov. Pence faced a chorus of boos from the crowd after he defended Gov. Martinez, who has declined to endorse Trump in his presidential bid. “Let me say Susana Martinez is a dear, dear friend of mine,” Pence said in a response to a question about why Martinez and other Republicans have not endorsed Trump. “She’s a great governor, she’s done a great job for New Mexico,” Pence said, drawing boos from the crowd. Pence had spoken with Martinez just a few hours earlier at the Republican Governors Association summer meeting in Aspen, Colorado.

The R's at Sandia did not look exactly like sheep awaiting their slaughter, but something like that. Trump will very likely lose New Mexico which is now a solidly Blue state for the presidency and other statewide federal offices, but gets purplish during the low turnout, off-year elections when R's are able to score gains.

Given that, it would seem the money Pence raised at an ABQ fund-raiser was more important than the audience events. (After ABQ he appeared in conservative Roswell).

Among the Trump backers on hand for the Sandia event were southern GOP Congressman Steve Pearce, GOP Secretary of State candidate Nora Espinoza and Valencia County Rep. Alonzo Baldonado. Like Susana, Lt Governor Sanchez did not attend and is not endorsing Trump.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016

With states far more important to a GOP presidential victory than New Mexico, maybe the reason VP candidate Mike Pence is making stops in ABQ and Roswell today is to build up  his profile for a 2020 presidential run of his own. Just a thought. . .

Then there's Gary Johnson's second quixotic presidential bid as the Libertarian party candidate. He's rescheduled an earlier ABQ campaign rally. It will now be held this Saturday at 2 p.m at the ABQ Convention Center.  If you smell something funny in the air while you're there, well, you know what that is. . .

It's stuff like this in the WaPo that keep a number of the Alligators speculating that ABQ Mayor Berry will seek a third term next year and forgo a run for the '18 Guv nod:

Next month will be the first anniversary of Albuquerque’s There’s a Better Way program, which hires panhandlers for day jobs beautifying the city. . .A van is dispatched around the city to pick up panhandlers who are interested in working. The job pays $9 an hour. . . At the end of the shift, the participants are offered overnight shelter as needed. In less than a year since its start, the program has given out 932 jobs clearing 69,601 pounds of litter and weeds from 196 city blocks. And more than 100 people have been connected to permanent employment.

Jeremy Reynalds, director of the homeless shelter Joy Junction, takes issue with the WaPo's glowing take on that homeless program, saying the root cause of the homeless problem is mental health and the mayoral administration can't say it's doing much on that front. As for the politics, Berry could just as easily use this good PR in a guv run as well as mayor.

What budget crisis? The news:

Gov. Martinez is in Colorado attending a meeting of the Republican Governors Association. Her office announced she was traveling to Aspen for a summer meeting of the association and will return to New Mexico on Wednesday. Martinez is the chairwoman of the fundraising arm of the Republican Party that focuses on the election of GOP governors across the country. The association is paying for the governor’s travel.

Maybe someone up there can tell her how to cut a deal with the Legislature on how to keep the state afloat as it deals with a budget shortfall upwards of $700 million?

We've told you how the speed demons have taken over the streets and freeways of ABQ as the severe APD staffing shortage continues unabated. And that means this:

. . . The number of fatal crashes in Albuquerque is on the rise. So far this year, there have been 39 fatal crashes. They include 11 deadly motorcycle crashes and eight involving alcohol. In 2015, there were 47 deadly crashes. . . APD said half of the crashes this year are related to speed and pedestrians not using crosswalks. “The contributing factor to a lot of these accidents are excessive speed. If you slow down, people won't get as injured as much, fatalities wouldn't be so high.  APD also said there is a correlation between fatal crashes and citations. Fatal crashes are on the rise while the number of citations being written are decreasing. 

Be careful out there.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016

GOP VP candidate Mike Pence Tuesday will hold a public event in Roswell at 8 p.m at the NM Military Institute and an earlier one in ABQ at Sandia Casino at 3:30 p.m. He'll also scoop up some money at a high dollar private fundraiser while in the Duke City.

The pundits across-the-board have NM safe for Hillary. So what the heck is Pence doing here when he could be spending all his time in swing states or red states that are suddenly endangered as Trump's candidacy wavers.  Well, maybe the money is reason enough for a brief mid-August stop. . .

And, perhaps, in  the unlikely event former NM GOP Governor Gary Johnson, now the Libertarian candidate for president, surges past 10 percent in his home state he could endanger Hillary and somehow get the state in play for Trump. That fantasy scenario omits one problem--if polls show this state getting  away from Clinton we'll be flooded with TV ads and get-out-the-vote efforts that would nip it in the bud.

SHORT TAKES 

The mammoth state budget shortfall (upwards of $700 million) has thrown a wet blanket over the political scene. There's not much the candidates can promise when faced with that scenario. . .

One veteran observer at the Roundhouse (over 30 years) says of the budget crisis: "I've never seen anything like it. Both sides are locked down. The Governor says no tax increases and the Senate Democrats say no cuts to public education and the universities which  make up well over half the $6.2 billion General Fund budget. The outline of a compromise is not on the board right now. . ."

PNM is bemoaning the opinion of a top state regulator that the company does not need a rate increase of 14 percent but around 6 percent. The electric company ought to thank its lucky stars. How many folks around here are seeing 6 percent pay hikes (outside of the political cronies of ABQ Mayor Berry on the 11th floor of City Hall)?. . .

There's still no GOP BernCo District Attorney candidate to replace Simon Kubiak who won the June primary but shortly after pulled out of the race, complaining he was not getting financial support. The deadline for the BernCo GOP Central Committee to name a replacement is fast approaching. But it's academic. Dem Raul Torrez appears to be a lock to take the seat in November with or without an opponent. . .

If Trump can't put in a decent NM performance Republican Alligators say appointed NM Supreme Court Justice Judy Nakamura may be one of the chief victims. Nakamura was a popular ABQ judge before being appointed by Gov. Martinez to to fill a high court vacancy. She faces Dem Court of Appeals Judge Michael Vigil. Nakamura's hopes rest in keeping the ABQ metro area in play. If Trump dives deep she will probably join him under water. Not that the odds are high for her to win in the first place. There's been no R elected to the five member court in years and years.

OTHER VOICES

Federal spending in New Mexico is continually demonized, led by Koch brothers financed outlets and radical right talk radio, but Democratic State Senator Pete Campos takes the more mainstream view that often gets muffled by the political carnival barkers:

Strengthening our relationships with the federal government and Mexico. We need to recognize the benefit that we gain from federal spending. New Mexico’s military bases and national laboratories are huge economic engines, and the business spin-offs created have helped us stay afloat. Similarly, improving our relationships with Juarez and Chihuahua have already proved beneficial.

THE BOTTOM LINES

There was no mayoral run-off election in ABQ in 2009, contrary to what we said here Friday. Richard Berry won election in a three way race by getting a plurality of the vote. There was a run-off law on the books in 2013 when Berry won re-election. He far surpassed the 50 percent then required to avoid a run-off between the two top vote getters.

Here's how we blogged the breaking results back on October 6, 2009:

He came to Albuquerque from Nebraska in the early 80's to run track at the University of New Mexico and Tuesday night he showed the state he also knows how to run around the political oval. Republican State Representative Richard "RJ" Berry, 46, captured the mayor's office by several lengths, collecting 43.82 percent of the vote in a three way race and easily eclipsing the 40 percent mark necessary to avoid a runoff election.

Aah, how soon we forget.

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016