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| Rep. Karen Bash |
Bash, 74, will be remembered for putting the usually Republican House District 68 on ABQ's NW side in the Democratic column in 2018.
Her election was made easy by the highly publicized aggravated DWI arrest and conviction of GOP Rep. Monica Youngblood who held the seat since 2013 and was known for her tough on crime rhetoric.
Bash defeated Youngblood 58 to 42 percent. She did so gracefully, not campaigning on Youngblood's self-inflicted wound and letting the damage play out on its own.
In 2020 R's tried to retake the district but Bash, a retired Christian minister and early childhood education advocate, had bonded sufficiently with the district to score a 52.5 to 47.5 win.
The Dems can be expected to make the district more D friendly when new district lines are drawn at December's special legislative redistricting session for the 70 member House and 42 member Senate.
Bash joins ABQ metro state Reps. Daymon Ely and Debbie Armstrong in retiring from the Roundhouse. On the R side Rep. Rebecca Dow will depart as she runs for Governor.
(Let us know if we're missing anyone).
In the state Senate no announced departures yet for the '22 cycle but there were many in 2020 when progressive Dems won primaries against conservative Dem Senators Mary Kay Papen and John Arthur Smith, among others.
RARE FORUMS
We come up with only eight scheduled joint appearances for the three ABQ mayoral candidates between now and election day. Contrast that with the 2017 mayoral runoff election between Tim Keller and Dan Lewis when the duo made dozens of joint appearances, according to blog records.
The appearances include October TV debates on KOB and KOAT. The candidates had a joint appearance before an ABQ North Valley neighborhood group in August, so far their only appearance together.
No doubt Covid has played a role in the minimalist in-person campaigning but it seems a general lack of interest in the contest, which is being dominated by Mayor Keller, is also at fault.
Here are two of the upcoming appearances by Keller, Manny Gonzales and Eddy Aragon:
Monday, September 27, 2021
6:00pm-7:30pm, New Mexico Black Voters Collaborative Mayoral Forum, in person at Highland High School (4700 Coal Ave SE) Lecture Hall.
September 28, 2021
6:00pm-7:00pm, Mayoral Debate sponsored by Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and KKOB Radio.
No paid broadcast media has yet been aired by the candidates. Absentee ballots will be sent to those who have requested them beginning October 5. Early in-person voting throughout the city starts October 15.
CANDIDATES FOREWARNED
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| SOS Toulouse Oliver |
One of the first steps candidates take to get on the ballot is gathering signatures on petition forms from registered voters in their district.
This year, however, the petition forms our Office publishes for use by candidates seeking a districted office, which must be used by candidates when gathering signatures, will be delayed due to the delay in Census data being received from the federal government and redistricting.
Receipt of valid signatures on a petition form are based on the official district boundaries set by the legislature and, by law, our Office cannot publish those forms for districted offices until the legislature has completed its work. Approved nominating petition forms for statewide/non-districted offices, however, will still be made available by our Office on October 1, 2021. These forms can be obtained from our website.
In order to ensure that candidates are collecting valid signatures from the proper district, it is essential that districted office candidates use only the forms published by our Office. . .We anticipate publishing the official nominating petition forms for districted offices during January 2022.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2021