The big political news this week was the unveiling here of that proposed redistricting map from progressives before the NM Citizens Redistricting Committee. The new map would dramatically alter the southern congressional district from Republican leaning to Dem friendly and prompted reads to ask how all three districts would be impacted. 

Reporter Jacob Rubashkin of DC's Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales took a dive into the numbers and shows how the new district lines would stack up between the parties:

The bottom line is that the new map could easily flip the southern CD to the D's. And Dem Reps. Stansbury and Leger Fernandez would suffer minimal damage to make that flip possible. 

Speaking of the Guv's race, MLG easily beat Steve Pearce in '18 but for '22 there is uncertainty about what Republican she will face.

TV weatherman Mark Ronchetti continues to test the waters for a possible GOP run even though there are already seven others running. That testing is landing him and his employer--KRQE-TV--in some hot water. The DC Dems, not taking his potential candidacy lightly, came with this:

When Ronchetti ran against Lujan KRQE manager Bill Anderson promised to take him back if he lost. Ronchetti went back on the air soon after the defeat.

Would the station promise to take Ronchetti back again if he and ran and lost for Governor? That's now a high profile question for KRQE and its corporate owner Nexstar. And it's a critical question for Ronchetti whose ego may say go for the gold but whose pocketbook may pull him back. 

We broke the story of Ronchetti considering a '22 Guv run on our September 1 blog. He has yet to comment on his plans. He did say the Dems were out of line and trying to intimidate him by writing the legal letters to the station and that MLG, this year's head of the DGA, was behind the move. 

Back on the mayoral races, BernCo Sheriff Manny Gonzales has joined Mayor Keller on TV, coming with his first ad. It's a soft bio spot that describes Gonzales, a former Marine, as "a tough on crime county sheriff" with a plan "to turn our city around that starts with fighting crime and ending the homeless epidemic." Says Gonzales: "Noone will fight harder."

The rough stuff will come soon but Keller will be heavily outspending Gonzales who was denied public financing for ethics violations and last reported raising some $200,000 while Keller has over $500,000 in public financing left to spend in the final weeks.

The ad may be soft but that didn't stop the Keller camp from saying that Manny committed a campaign violation. The ad briefly shows the Sheriff holding a news conference in which he appears before a department DWI checkpoint vehicle with deputies in uniform, all of which the Keller camp says is prohibited under a state law that bans the use of county property in political ads. A Keller operative remarked:

In Santa Fe, there's a new twist to the mayoral campaign featuring leading contenders Alan Webber and City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler. She says last year Webber became upset with her during a policy discussion last year and told her "don't get your panties in a twist." 

Vigil Coppler made the comments at a mayoral forum this week, just as early voting was beginning

Webber more or less fessed up to saying something at least akin to what Vigil Coppler charged and said he invited her to file a complaint but she did not. Vigil Coppler's campaign disputes that. 

Who will dare be the first to say "Pantygate?". . . oops, sorry. 

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