Councilor-elect Dan Lewis

Dan Lewis hasn't even been sworn in for the ABQ city council term he was elected to November 2 and already hurdles are going up in front of the onetime mayoral candidate--and they are coming from his own side of the aisle. 

GOP Councilor Brook Bassan has formed an alliance with Mayor Tim Keller for a $110 million bond package for citywide improvements that could be approved before Lewis and other new councilors take office January 1. Lewis is steaming: 

Four city councilors who would make a decision on this won’t even be here in January. For that reason alone we need to deal with this with a new council in January.” 

To which Bassan says: 

Lewis, who served two terms on the council (2009-'17) and lost in a landslide (62-38) to Dem Keller in the '17 mayoral runoff, is widely seen as using the council as a springboard for another shot at the city's top job. But he probably wasn't counting on Bassan to be the oil slick on his pavement. 

Bassan started her council term in 2019 with firm conservative rhetoric but since has floated toward the middle while Lewis has stayed on the right. In addition to her non-austerity position on the proposed bonds, she also advocated at the recent election for the APS bonds and mill levy, the latter of which is a tax and won only narrow approval with conservatives voting against. Given that backdrop her clash with Lewis is not going to be a one and done deal.  

Councilor Bassan

The council is currently divided 6 to 3 with Dems in control. However, the offices are officially nonpartisan and that DNA sometimes runs through the council's bloodstream with Bassan the latest example. 

The new bond issue would not require voter approval if it won backing of seven of the nine councilors. Progressive Dems Ike Benton and Pat Davis are already opposed so it will be a tight squeeze.

It's odd to see the council's two most "progressives" oppose the $110 million investment in the city's infrastructure after they loudly backed the unpopular and ill-fated proposed $50 million bond giveaway for a soccer stadium. It's that money rejected by voters that the new bond package would deploy for housing, public safety, parks and other needs. 

Pat and Ike represent two of the oldest and most in need districts. Why not get with Keller and Bassan and help roll out this needed investment instead of suddenly transforming into budget hawks?

But it's the GOP split developing that is the news. Without a unified Republican block the City Council is not going to take a conservative turn on social or budgetary issues. And odds are that following the December 7 runoff elections in two city council districts the Dems will still maintain the majority. 

Actually, Bassan's middle of the road approach ala Pete Domenci and Manuel Lujan from the old days may be the R's way out of the wilderness in a liberal ABQ. For now she has no problem schooling Lewis in the new order. 

Welcome back, Dan. . .or something.

Martinez and McCleskey

Both Lewis and Bassan employed controversial political consultant Jay McCleskey in their campaigns and once again McCleskey is making news of his own. The latest is the settlement of that defamation lawsuit against him that we reported on earlier this month.

McCleskey was anxious to announce the settlement and did so by contacting the newspaper. Scott Chandler, the GOP state House candidate who filed the suit against McCleskey and recently sought to include Gov Martinez in it, said it's true that a settlement has been reached but he wants to see the payout check before he drops the matter. 

With the settlement Martinez is out of danger of being included in the defamation case.

The Martinez/McCleskey governmental attacks on Chandler's youth ranch near Deming (separate from the campaign flier hits from their PAC) have already cost the state $1 million in lawsuit payouts.

McCleskey sued his insurance company when it refused to cover his legal expenses for the defamation suit but now a compromise has been reached and Chandler will get damages for the attack mailers used against him by McCleskey in his 2016 state House run in SW NM. How much is still not public.

This also matters because McCleskey is back on the scene, consulting GOP Guv candidate Mark Ronchetti who is shaking the money tree hard. A defamation lawsuit by a fellow Republican against his lead consultant doesn't help that cause. No wonder McCleskey was anxious to report the "good news."

The cash settlement is not a finding of guilt but implies that McCleskey and his legal team did not want to withstand the risk of a trial. 

McCleskey, who led Susana Martinez's two Guv campaigns, remains a well-known and divisive figure in the GOP (his recent consulting for Dem mayoral candidate Manny Gonzales didn't help). That's an issue Ronchetti will have to grapple with as he faces state Rep. Rebecca Dow and financial consultant Greg Zanetti in fighting for the '22 nomination, along with several others. 

Uh, Joe, that's background you won't get anywhere else. Well, that's why. . . 

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