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Wednesday, December 07, 2022

NMGOP Eyes Dem Northern Dominance; Pearce Names Separate Director For Region, Plus: More On The Battle That Was For Progressive Hearts In ABQ House Race 

Some Republicans call it arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Others hope that the new state GOP set up of having separate executive directors for the North and South will finally lead to progress in chipping away at the commanding lead Dems have statewide.

NMGOP Chair Steve Pearce, newly reelected this month to a third two year term, says veteran GOP official Letticia Munoz will be the new Executive Director-North and will be based in ABQ.

Current ED Kimberly Skaggs of Las Cruces becomes Executive Director for the South and will be based there. 

Pearce says the change will. . .

Maximize our efforts and ensure strong unity and performance. . .This. . .will enhance our party's development on a statewide level and provide opportunities for growth. . . 

It is growth the GOP must have in order to shed its shadow of irrelevancy. In the November election GOP Guv nominee Mark Ronchetti lost Santa Fe County to MLG by 36,000 votes (75 to 23 percent) and Bernalillo County by 42,000--57 to 40 percent With those kinds of numbers there is no way for a Republican to win statewide. No way. And none did this cycle. 

The Bernalillo County Republican Party is stacked with anti-Pearce officers so this restructuring could also be his way of dealing with that.

Any effort that concentrates more firepower on the critical ABQ/Santa Fe metros will be welcome by most R's. As for the south, the GOP is not as beleaguered there. Getting out their vote--not having to create it--is the chief challenge. 

As of November 30 just 31.2 percent of the state's registered voters are Republicans. 44.2 percent are Democrats; 22.5 percent Independents and 1 percent from other parties. 

ANYANONU VS CARDIEL (CONT.)

Enrique Cardiel
Reaction now to the insider take of reader Brandon Cummings on the ABQ House District 19 election in the SE Heights. 

Last Thursday he framed the battle between progressives Janelle Anyanonu, the Democrat who beat independent Enrique Cardiel, as "old guard vs. new guard." But others familiar with the contest and who backed Cardiel frame it differently. First up is ABQ Dem state Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino:

Your informant missed something crucial by making it into an "old guard" vs. newcomer issue. The simple reason so many of us supported Enrique over Janelle was that we have worked closely with Enrique Cardiel for years. This is a man whose life has been spent working for the people of the International District. I first met him in the early 1990's when he was working with young people through the Highland Human Services Collaborative. And he's been there ever since. His is a voice that would have been welcomed in the Roundhouse because it is one shaped by the issues he has dealt with all that time. I am sure that Janelle will be a fine Representative and that Enrique will find in her a legislator receptive to his input. But there is something to be said for having decisions made by someone who knows first hand what is going on. Youthful energy is wonderful—but time-tested experience should be part of our mix as well. It is something the Democratic Party can't forget.  

Justin Rogers, campaign manager for Cardiel, came with this: 

Hi Joe, I read the "interesting backstory" of the House District 19 race, and found it to be factual but rather one-sided, as might be expected from Janelle Anyanonu's partner Brandon Cummings, who at least acknowledged his bias.

Anyanonu
I found the description of Enrique's endorsers as "disaffected old guard Democrats" a mischaracterization. As an example, Commissioner Adriann Barboa is a new officeholder (since 2021), and Enrique was also supported by the sitting HD19 representative Kay Bounkeua who was appointed only a year ago, as well as the leaders of multiple Neighborhood Associations in the district. Meanwhile Ms. Anyanonu touts as some of her strongest supporters the outgoing Speaker of the House and his heir apparent, Majority Leader Javier Martinez.

Mr. Cummings also omitted the organizations that endorsed Enrique, including NM Working Families Party, OLE New Mexico, Dreamers in Action, and NM Native Vote. I see the divide of support in this safely-Democratic district as not between old and new, nor left and farther-left, but rather a weighing of statewide party power against a trust in community connections. 

Enrique has been living, working, and organizing in the International District for 25 years, and the belief in the trust he has built there is what led the Democratic officials who know him best to take a political risk and endorse an Independent. . .Janelle and her team deserve credit for the hard work they put in and the clean campaign they ran. We hope that she will continue to build trusting relationships not only with the Democratic officials who supported Enrique, but also the leaders and community members of the district she has been elected to serve. 

Thanks for the give and take from both campaigns. 

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022
 
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