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| Treasurer Eichenberg |
In the early going for the Dem nominations for attorney general and state auditor there is a clear choice between a progressive and moderate. Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez is waving the progressive flag while more moderate Dem and current State Auditor Brian Colón is planting his with the conservatives and moderates.
In the Auditor's race 30 year old progressive Zach Quintero of Dona Ana County is running for the Dem nomination and our Alligators have been informing that he will face moderate Dem and current State Treasurer Tim Eichenberg in the nomination battle.
We won't say no R's need apply to these positions but they have not elected anyone to either job in decades.
In the AG's race the division between the two Dem Party wings is most definitive.
US Senator Martin Heinrich this week endorsed Torrez as the progressive champion for AG. That's a signal to progressives in the important liberal cities of ABQ, Las Cruces and Santa Fe.
However, insiders scoff at his endless stream of endorsements and how many of his faves fail to get traction. No sitting Senator in memory has endorsed as many candidates as Heinrich. Still, the endorsement does emphasize the ideological divide and puts Colón on notice that he will have to build a coalition outside of the progressive wing to defeat Torrez.
The race will be competitive and negative. Colón crusaders accuse Torrez of being a do nothing DA in a metro area with a crime epidemic and who is obsessed with superfluous data while criminals flourish. The Torrez crowd returns the favor, accusing Colón of being a showboat with no substantial record as auditor and a professional politician to boot.
In the auditor's race to replace Colón, Quintero will face a Dem Party veteran and popular vote-getter in Eichenberg, a former ABQ state senator now serving his second term as Treasurer.
The upstart Quintero, however, will appeal to that progressive wing and it has proved to be the nominating wing in recent races. Eichenberg has proven fund-raising ability and experience in government finance that Quintero lacks.
Both these nominating races will be ones to watch to see if the majority party Dems will be giving a bigger voice to non progressives next year.
BROADENING BROADBAND
. . .The state Department of Information Technology created a complex digital Broadband Map. . . The map shows widespread connectivity in the state.
For. . . rural and tribal school districts who spent an entire year trying to get students plugged into the internet, the reality looked much different. “It’s the difference between what’s theoretically possible and what’s practically available,” said Community Schools Coordinator Michael Noll. Much of his rural Peñasco school district falls within Picurís Pueblo tribal lands, where coverage dead zones are common. . . But the broadband map suggests there is service. . . In one example Noll said the map showed that fiber-optic cables ran near a home. But getting that home connected. . . would have cost the family $10,000. . . “You can’t reasonably ask anybody to pay $10,000 for coverage,” he said. “No matter who you are.”
If the state can roll out the Covid vaccine and get 60 percent of the population immunized in a matter of months, why can't the same government do something similar with life-changing broadband?
THE BOTTOM LINES
In a first draft Monday we had the death of former Rep. Mauel Lujan occurring in 2014. He died in 2019.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021