It hasn't been easy for Maggie Toulouse Oliver to have the progressive Dem wing all to herself in her battle for the US Senate nomination with Rep. Ben Ray Lujan. She was out early with support for Medicare For All and the Green New Deal, but Lujan has since gotten on board. Now MTO may have finally found a couple of issues on the left where she out does Lujan with the lefties--abolishing ICE--the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency--and impeaching the president:

Let’s start with the facts: The Mueller report provided more than enough evidence to start impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives. The alleged corruption, acceptance of foreign interference in our elections, and cronyism throughout this administration is evidence enough that we must investigate and hold President Trump accountable.

And on ICE she says:

It’s time to abolish ICE. ICE was created to stop terrorism and keep Americans safe. As we saw this weekend, though, as millions of people huddled in fear of mass raids, ICE no longer prevents terrorism, instead it creates terror in the United States.

She says she would turn over the duties of ICE to the FBI and other agencies.

Here is the latest NYT count on who in the US House supports opening an impeachment inquiry. It does not include Lujan.

As for ICE, Lujan says he does not favor abolishing the agency:

Trump has co-opted the agency to enforce his bigoted and anti-immigrant agenda through terror and fear--abolishing ICE will not solve this problem. . . Congress must fundamentally overhaul the agency. We owe it to the families being targeted by President Trump to take concrete action. I have steadfastly opposed this administration’s cruel and racist policies by taking action to limit the agency’s authority. Zealous oversight, passing strict laws to limit the agency's mission, requiring transparent and thorough reporting to Congress, and a fundamental revamp and reform of the agency is required.

Lujan was called out by the conservative press last year who accused him of dodging the question on whether to abolish ICE in an interview with ABC News.

It's a stretch to think the NM Dem Party will swing as hard to the left as MTO would like it to when the June primary rolls around but as the decided underdog in the contest she has to do something to contrast herself with BRL and put some heat on him.

PLAME BASHING

Now that's she's opened a narrow money lead over her competitors northern Dem congressional hopeful Valerie Plame will be a target--and here they come. Our blog about Plame making nice with former NM AG Patricia Madrid at the Las Vegas Fiestas over the Fourth of July weekend drew a number of reactions, including this:

As a spectator at the event seated on historic Bridge St. at the entrance to our Plaza park (the home of New Mexico's biggest and baddest fiestas) Ms. Plame seemed to avoid mingling with the crowd. Instead she seemed to prefer the company of her campaign staff/volunteers. From my vantage point I observed her leave her team twice to mingle with voters and both times were to greet individuals who were obviously Anglo and obviously "Santa Fe type" progressives.

Well, Plame still has plenty of time to get back to Vegas and try to appease the locals,

THE BOTTOM LINES

There is a Republican who has filed with the FEC to run for the GOP nod for the northern congressional district. We reported we hadn't see any R's on the FEC site after Brett Koninadis withdrew, but one of the Gators sent us a filing statement of Audra Lee Brown of Portales.

She describes herself as a rancher, farmer, musician, author and world-champion martial artist. She filed July 2, after the April quarter money reporting deadline.

Former Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya--now an R--tells us he is looking at setting up an exploratory committee for a possible run at the GOP nomination. The district is all D all the time but, hey, you can try.

Join us tomorrow for some Friday Clippings From Our Newsroom Floor.

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