President Trump's campaign this week is dipping their toe in the ABQ TV market, according to a DC report, but whether they put both feet in remains unclear.

The Hill reports Trump's 2020 campaign is on the air this week (July 4-10) with a $110,000 buy, their first in the state which is seen by analysts as leaning heavily toward the Dems. They say this is not an offensive move but a matter of survival:

We don’t need 306. We just need 270. We can lose Michigan and lose Pennsylvania and still win,” said a top Trump adviser, noting that a win in New Hampshire, combined with one in Nevada or New Mexico, would provide enough Electoral College support to prevent defeat even if Biden wins big in the industrial Midwest. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has previously claimed the president’s policy agenda is capable of attracting Latino voters in states like New Mexico. . . Let’s go straight into Albuquerque,” Parscale told Trump at one point last summer. The campaign eventually held a rally in the Albuquerque suburbs last September.

A June presidential poll from Dem-oriented PPP had NM favoring Joe Biden 53 to 39 percent. The Trump campaign made a brief play for the state in '16 but were gone by October. Hillary Clinton won by eight points with Libertarian and former GOP Gov. Gary Johnson also on the ballot.

Whether Trump's summer flirtation with the Land of Enchantment turns into a full embrace is a long shot but one that demands watching.

BLACK LIVES INABQ

A $1 million investment by the city of ABQ to bolster Black-owned businesses has drawn the ire of progressives. They support the expenditure, it's the manner in which GOP Councilor Trudy Jones objected to the appropriation that has them upset. While Jones said she was concerned about the money not being put to proper use, the progressives felt she was being condescending and perhaps worse. This  Jones quote in particular drew their wrath:

Every question out there that anyone would ask before they loaned their child money isn't there.

Comparing successful black businesses to children did not sit well with activist Steve Cabiedes who whipped up a 19 minute video with guest and Black entrepreneur Lauren Ruffin. The video spread quickly.

Councilor Jones

Jones, a longtime realtor, represents District 8 in the ABQ NE Heights, the city's wealthiest section that includes the gated community of Tanoan. Her vote stood out. The council passed the $1 million on an 8 to 1 voice with Jones the lone dissenter.

Before the vote there was this message from the Mayor Keller administration:

At times we mistakenly perpetuate a tri-cultural history myth—and we forget that Albuquerque especially has a vibrant Black community. . . We have ignored a big gap in access to opportunity. . . We’ve got to step up for them to create better access to funding, investment, and capital. . . That’s why we’re asking Council to approve a $1 million investment in positive impact for the Black community. . . Black residents have worse outcomes for health, housing, and economic security, even though unemployment rates and economic achievement are even with or higher than other groups. Some of these problems, like segregation in housing, are getting worse, not better.

There have been no elected Black city councilors since the modern form of government was adopted in 1974, according to Council archives. Solomon Brown, a Black physician, was appointed to fill a vacancy for several months in 1977 from District 3 but was not elected in his own right. According to the latest US Census estimate 3.2 percent of the city's population is Black and has hovered near that level for many years. There have been a number of Black council candidates, most recently Gina Neomi Dennis in 2019 in SE Heights District 6. She lost to incumbent Pat Davis.

One of the city's last ethnic electoral barriers has been stubborn and yet to fall. It is long overdue that it did.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020