ABQ City Councilor Pat Davis, who served as chair of MLG's cannabis legalization working group and who recently helped author zoning legislation for city cannabis outlets, has started a consulting firm to assist those interested in getting into the marijuana business. Its called P2M Cannabis Group.
Duhigg announced she opened a full service cannabis law firm after being a key player in Santa Fe in legalizing pot. Duhigg maintains she had no plans to be in the pot biz until after the legalization bill was approved by the legislature this year. Only then, she told her constituents, did a light bulb go off and she formed the cannabis firm.
City councilors make about $30,000 a year but like unpaid state lawmakers are essentially "citizen legislators" where the ethics of their actions can get murky fast. Besides his consulting business, Davis is also benefitting from legal marijuana through The Paper, an alternative newspaper he co-owns and that has become a house organ for the embryonic legal marijuana industry and is filled with industry advertisements.
The lucre to be gained from legal marijuana is also blurring political affiliations. Davis, a Democrat, has teamed with Republican Matt Kennicott, who served as Director of Policy and Planning under GOP Gov. Martinez, to start P2M. Davis was a leading critic of Martinez during his time as head of the liberal advocacy group ProgressNow NM.
Then there's state lawmakers and attorneys Brian Egolf and Jacob Candelaria who count among their legal clients UltraHealth, the state's largest cannabis company, who fiercely lobbied the legislature for legal pot.
Make the laws and then make money from those laws. Murky indeed but it continues to be the New Mexico way.
MORE MARY JANE
If you happen to be consumed by the marijuana developments here UltraHealth has some summer reading for you. It's an in-depth study by MPG Consulting arguing for higher plant limits for marijuana producers. So grab your munchies and settle into that hammock.
KELLER VS. GONZALES
Mayor Keller's campaign is doing a good job diverting attention away from the crowded crime beat as they file another ethics complaint against BernCo Sheriff Manny Gonzales over his collection of signatures and $5 donations to qualify for $661,000 in public financing.
That could turn out to be a summer kerfuffle as the city clerk is not about to disqualify Gonzales unless there is incontrovertible proof of intentional forgery of signatures as Keller's camp claims. Also Gonzales' campaign says it turned in 1,000 $5 donations over the 3,779 necessary to qualify so if some donations and signatures were rejected there is plenty of back-up.
Some question how Gonzales got all those signatures but Gonzales paid over $16,000 to McCleskey Media Strategies for canvassing and field services in June.
In the unlikely event Gonzales did not get the public money he could turn to private financing. Still, the Gonzales lawyers better have their ducks in a row. Innocent mistakes are one thing. Criminal violations are another.
Gonzales has had a rough campaign start but with the body count skyrocketing (now over 60) he has room for error. What he doesn't have is more time as Keller eats away at the clock ticking down to the November election.
SHE'S A FORMER
In our blog this week setting up the state treasurer's race we identified possible Dem treasurer hopeful Laura Montoya as the treasurer of Sandoval County. She is the former treasurer, having termed out in 2021. Jennifer Taylor is the current Sandoval County treasurer.
HAPPY FOURTH
Here's something appropriate for the holiday:
As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day, C‑SPAN is releasing the results of its fourth Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of presidential historians and professional observers of the presidency ranked the country’s 44 former chief executives on 10 characteristics of leadership.
Former President Donald Trump enters the ranks for the first time in the #41 position.
Trump at #41 not last at #44? Look out Dems, he's on his way back.
Happy Fourth, New Mexico.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021