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Wednesday, June 07, 2023

DeSantis Gets In New Mexico's Space; Deming Used By His Administration To Fly Border Immigrants To California, Plus: Guv Explains Liquor Tax Veto, Or Does She?  

DeSantis
Hey, Ron. Unless you're having pasta with Mark Ronchetti, stay out of our space."

So quipped New Mexico Italian-American and veteran politico Mike Santullo upon hearing the news that the Florida Governor's administration transported by private plane to California three dozen migrants from the southern border by way of New Mexico.

As the AP reported

This isn’t the first time DeSantis’ administration has transported migrants from Texas to other states. Last fall, Florida flew 49 Venezuelans to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard.

In his latest gambit. . .

Two planes arrived in Sacramento, on Friday and Monday, each carrying asylum-seekers mostly from Colombia and Venezuela. The individuals had been picked up in El Paso, taken to New Mexico and then put on charter flights to California’s capital of Sacramento, said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He’s investigating whether any violations of criminal or civil law occurred. Bonta said the immigrants told him they were approached in El Paso by two women who spoke broken Spanish and promised them jobs. The women traveled with them by land from El Paso to Deming, New Mexico, where two men then accompanied them on the flight to Sacramento.

Enough Ron. If you're anxious to play in New Mexico book a table at M'tucci's with Ronchetti. Santullo is buying. 

MLG REACT

Meantime, MLG continued her delayed honeymoon in the Caribbean and did not take the DeSantis Deming bait, with her office saying:

Gov. Lujan Grisham stresses, yet again, the urgent need for comprehensive, thoughtful federal immigration reform which is rooted in a humanitarian response that keeps border communities in mind.

HOWIE SPOTLIGHT

While MLG is away Lt. Governor Howie Morales is the state's #1. He hasn't fired anyone or called out the NM Guard. But we do get this:

Lt. Governor Morales toured the Mora County Acequias with Transportation Secretary Ricky Serna and met with other leaders in the area to learn more about the fire recovery. “I was given a first-hand look at the ongoing challenges this county faces as a result of fires in the area. . . ” said Morales.

That's a real yawner but he still has 10 days to stir the pot, not that La Politica is urging him on. (Go Howie!)

A SHOT AND A BEER

This clipping from our newsroom floor almost went missing but it so exposes the weak leg the Governor has to stand on when it comes to her veto of a minor increase in the state tax on booze that it demanded attention:

The governor vetoed the first increase in alcohol tax rates in 30 years but she does not oppose increasing alcohol taxes, her spokesperson Maddy Hayden emailed. The one-penny increase water down from a proposed hike of a quarter-per-drink—“would not have a material effect on alcohol prevention and treatment,” Hayden added, declining to say whether the governor supported a larger hike. 

The governor also vetoed a measure that would have directed tens of millions of dollars of existing alcohol tax revenues to alcohol treatment and prevention but she “believes unequivocally” that New Mexico needs to devote more resources to addressing alcohol misuse, according to Hayden. The governor felt the Legislature’s tax package represented “a potentially untenable hit to the general fund” and vetoed the reallocation of alcohol tax revenues “out of fiscal responsibility,” Hayden said, declining to clarify why the governor didn’t then retain the alcohol tax hike, which would have generated $10 million annually.  

The irony of the report is that it so twisted the Guv's spokeswoman in knots that her colleagues took her over to the Bull Ring for a shot and a beer.

ARCHBISHOP SERVICES

The funeral mass for Archbishop Michael Sheehan who died Saturday at 83 will be held in ABQ early this afternoon: 

(The service) will be held at Immaculate Conception Parish on Wednesday, June 7 at 12:10 p.m. It will be streamed on the Immaculate Conception YouTube page. There will also be a public visitation Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with a vigil service at 7 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe. Another public visitation will also take place on Friday at the same location from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The vigil and mass will be live-streamed on the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s Facebook page and the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi website.

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