Where Is ABQ's Woman Mayor? Plus: Santa Fe Mayor Brawl Features Charges Of Anti-Semitism, Mark Moores Worst Nightmare Is On TV And More On Mimi-Daniel Spat

Anti-Semitic cartoon?

With the races for mayor of ABQ and Santa Fe starting to shape up, reader Nancy Cliff wonders:

Why is it that ABQ has never had a woman mayor? Even Silver City has had one! 

That is an oddity, considering that women now make up the majority of the state House and the ABQ City Council and represent all three of the state's US House seats. 

The only answer we have, Nancy, is that perhaps women are better at recognizing a dead end than the men. No ABQ mayor has ever gone on to higher office, and not for lack of trying. 

ABQ Mayor Tim Keller may want to go higher someday but first he has to win re-election this November. He explains why he thinks he deserves a second term in this recent announcement.

In Santa Fe, the brawling has started seven months before the balloting with Mayor Alan Webber accusing his opponents of engaging in anti-Semitism: 

 The AFSCME union created and distributed a flyer that includes the cartoon among its members. . .The cartoon depicts a man Webber says is meant to represent him, except with “a large, exaggerated nose.” Large noses have historically been used in derogatory depictions of Jewish people. . . Webber referenced that history when denouncing the cartoon. “This has no place in Santa Fe, not just with regard to me, but for everyone in our diverse city. We must reject this kind of divisive ugliness.”. . . Union officials – who have been critical of Webber’s time in office –said the  person depicted in the cartoon is not supposed to be Webber. Rather, they say it’s a generic city employee and is not based on a real person.

Webber's critics accuse him of ginning up the incident and using it for fund-raising but there's little question that Santa Fe is tearing itself apart along ethnic lines. This campaign is way too long--already.  

MARK'S NIGHTMARE

Aubrey Dunn, also known as Mark Moores' worst nightmare, says he's joining Dem Melanie Stansbury and Republican Moores on the airwaves as he battles for the vacant congressional seat as an independent candidate in the June 1 special election. 

Dunn, a former R turned Libertarian turned Indy, is back with his familiar trademark cowboy hat preaching the conservative gospel. No "teddy bear" talk from this hard-hitting rancher/banker in his first ad:

My opponents follow their party lines no matter how extreme. The  border crisis, liberal abortion laws, defund the police and Nancy Pelosi. Come on.. . I live on a ranch and know BS when I see it."

Dunn also takes credit, for generating "record revenues" while land commissioner. 

Unlike fellow conservative hopeful Moores, the well-known Dunn doesn't have to introduce himself. Instead he gets an early start at throwing out the red meat to the conservative base. 

No word on how much Dunn’s TV buy is or how much he's raised. That's probably best for Moores whose nightmare is already pretty crowded.

MORE MIMI-DANIEL

Reader and political consultant Sascha Anderson thinks we got it wrong in our latest coverage of the row between Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart and fellow Dem and ABQ Senator Daniel Ivey Soto. She writes: 

I was so disappointed in the coverage of Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart's op-ed. You wrote, "She appears to equate his behavior with sexual abuse she suffered as a child," but it actually doesn't appear that way to any reasonable reader of the piece--at all. In fact, to imply as much is incredibly exploitative of Stewart's candor and courage in recounting that detail of her life. It's clear that she only uses her experience to illustrate that she is able to identify abusive behavior--in no way did it seem that Stewart was calling the two things equivocal. I get that you need to drive readership, but this was pretty beyond the pale. 

THE BOTTOM LINES

Monahan

We had a passionate crowd of over 100 join us for a webinar Wednesday night sponsored by Retake Our Democracy and moderated by group leaders Paul Gibson and Roxanne Barber. The attendees peppered us with questions on how the legislative process can be made more responsive, even while celebrating several major achievements from this year, including a constitutional amendment for early childhood funding. One disappointment for the group was the defeat of a bill that would have lowered those notoriously high-interest payday loans from 175 percent to 35 percent, but there's always next year. Paul's blog can be found on the Retake site linked above. 

The results of the Melanie Stansbury-Antoinette Sedillo Lopez Dem Central Committee runoff for the ABQ Dem congressional nomination don't add up to 100 percent because one delegate abstained. From the D's: Melanie Stansbury – 103 votes, 51.24%; Antoinette Sedillo Lopez – 97 votes, 48.26%.  

Yes, we do get email about such matters.

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