Before we get to the campaign, this
news from Monday night that sent ABQ Mayor Tim Keller and his progressive allies reeling. The City Council overrode two of the Mayor's vetoes dealing with enviro legislation after widespread concern erupted in the business community, UNM and Sandia National Labs. From the Council:
The Council overrode the Mayor’s vetoes of O-23-88 and R-23-176. R-23-176 puts a moratorium on the current Air Quality Board’s Hearing of the HEEI environmental justice rule effective immediately. The Administration and the Environmental Health Department cannot spend any City resources on this hearing. . .Essentially, the hearing must cease according to the law.
O-23-88 will become law and the Administration and Council will go about the important work of replacing members of the board based on the criteria laid out in the bill.
Councilor Dan Lewis sponsored the two bills and said “Tim Keller chose environmental extremists over major economic development and jobs in our City by vetoing legislation that puts checks and balances on a rogue Air Quality Control Board. The City Council, recognizing the importance of putting jobs first, voted to override the Mayor's vetoes. This decision ensures that the Air Board is prevented from enacting regulations that could make it exceedingly difficult or impossible for companies to obtain air permits in Albuquerque.”
Lewis, who Keller defeated in a landslide for the mayor’s office in 2017, relished his win and it may push him closer to another run in 2025.
The Mayor expressed his disappointment:
We respect the concerns raised and the traditional disagreements between branches of government; and believe that on joint city county matters we should work together. Unfortunately, unless the county follows suit, this action likely throws construction, community and businesses into indefinite limbo, creating broad legal ambiguity that could tie us up in court for years. We stand ready to help the new council working group tasked with resolving these issues.
Keller's office, doing damage control, points out that since becoming Mayor Keller has used the vetoed 17 times and the Council has overridden him six times.
Keller is deep into his second term, a time when the legislative body often becomes more assertive and antsy. His open secret that he plans on seeking a third term in '25 perhaps adds to their angst.
More important, ABQ is a progressive city in many ways but there was an overreach and a signal was sent that the power centers of the city will activate to stop a California-type agenda from taking hold here.
As for the Councilors defecting from Keller:
Councilors voted 7-2 to reinstate the moratorium. Councilors Tammy Fiebelkorn and Isaac Benton were against. Councilors Klarissa Peña and Pat Davis flipped their votes. They voted 6-3 to override the veto and allow the members to be removed from the board, with Fiebelkorn, Benton and Davis against, and Peña once again changing her vote.
Moderate Dem Peña is now a key swing vote. Now on to more ABQ politics. . .
HOEHN AND HOLGUIN
Prominent progressive Democrats are brushing off criticism of District 6 ABQ City Council hopeful
Nichole Rogers and are pushing her toward the December 12 run-off election when she faces
Jeff Hoehn for the SE Heights seat.
Rogers has been under pressure for her mishandling of a charitable nonprofit she ran. Her ability to handled city finances has also been called into question because of court actions she faced in the past for failure to pay rent. But Rogers, who is half-Hispanic and half African-American and would be the first Black elected to the ABQ Council, has received solid progressive Dem support due to her long community activism. Also, identity politics helps her with many progressives.
Her endorsements include US Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen, state Senators Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, Harold Pope and Michael Padilla; BernCo Commissioner Adriann Barboa and labor unions AFSCME and the Building Trades which have have donated to a PAC to buttress Rogers' candidacy.
All of this has had political prognosticators predicting another victory for Rogers who beat Hoen 40 to 32 in the first round of voting in November with the remainder going to other candidates.
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| PAC Mailer |
In fact, veteran Dem consultant Neri Holguin predicted a Rogers win on the Nov. 27 blog, saying Hoehn's candidacy receiving support from a GOP-oriented PAC banked by real estate interests is a bridge too far for the liberal district.
Holugin, who worked for Rogers' campaign briefly in the early going but who is now helping a pro-Rogers PAC, perturbed Hoehn with the prediction of his defeat and he sends this rebuttal:
Of course, Neri Holguin is
predicting that Nichole Rogers will beat me. Nichole is her candidate. . .Yet Holguin’s opinions are presented in the post as if she is simply a wise
and neutral political professional. . . Neri Holguin was instrumental in getting the mayor elected. . .(She). . .called me in April to convey the mayor’s message that I
should not run for City Council.
The post states, Neri
Holguin “briefly consulted the Rogers campaign at the start of the
regular election [but] she is not involved in the run-off.” In fact she
is involved in the runoff, albeit now on behalf of a PAC. Neri Holguin
is openly raising money for the Real New Mexican Leadership PAC, one of
five PACs helping Nichole. . .Neri Holguin is working hard . . .to smooth the way for the
rest of his second term and, they hope, his third term.
Nichole Rogers has repeatedly touted the fact that she is publicly financed, and yet she is willing to accept PAC money. . .I am supported by a single PAC, HELP NM. This PAC has chosen to support me, having assessed Nichole Rogers as being hostile to commercial and real estate development. I do see a role for real estate development in District 6, particularly in the economically distressed areas east of San Mateo. I also see a role for development in addressing our city’s affordable housing crisis. . . I will not be ‘in the
pocket’ of developers, Republicans, the mayor or anyone else. .
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| PAC Mailer |
Your Nov. 27 post (says) that Nichole Rogers is struggling with a simmering ethics fiasco involving her one-person nonprofit, Welstand Foundation. Your post states, “Rogers has come under fire for failing to comply with state registration regulations for a nonprofit she founded but Holguin says the mistake lacks sting and she does not expect Rogers to be upended by any more ethics charges.” The issue is about more than mere regulation compliance though. Welstand Foundation’s failure to file Form 990s with the IRS means that no one
can know where any of the nonprofit’s money was spent. On Nov. 27 at a campaign forum hosted by the South San Pedro Neighborhood Association, Nichole Rogers said that she would have financial documents for Welstand Foundation on her website by the end
of the week, which didn’t happen. . .
Contrary to Neri Holguin’s prediction, more ethics charges have arisen. . . that Nichole Rogers lied about not having multiple misdemeanor charges, and about having lived in District 6 for six years, when by all accounts she reclaimed her home from a tenant in January in order to run for Council. . . I am a pro-choice, progressive Democrat and the only honest, qualified candidate in this race. Neri Holguin, Tim Keller and Nichole Rogers are working hard to mischaracterize me. . .in order to get a safe vote for the
mayor on Council. Voters should decide for themselves and vote for an independent voice for District 6. . .
Hoehn's full rebuttal is
here.
Consultant Holguin joined the fray with this rebuttal of the rebuttal:
Jeff Hoehn has every reason to be mad and I get it. He's having a hard time squaring what he says about himself ("I'm a progressive Democrat!") with his biggest backers—Republicans, the National Association of Realtors (NAR), and oil and gas companies. These are groups who are anti-choice, anti-worker, and anti-environment. NAR has supported redlining, fleeced homebuyers, and its CEO was recently fired for sexual harassment. I will work hard to raise money to push back against the very well funded "HELP ABQ - National Association of Realtors MFC" to make sure Jeff is not elected because Albuquerque doesn't need another Louie Sanchez type Democrat on the City Council.
TRUDY AND JEFF
While Hoehn asserts that he is a "progressive Democrat" he might want to check his latest campaign finance
report filed with the city. Clearly listed is a $1,500 donation to him from conservative Republican City Councilor and Realtor
Trudy Jones.
On the report she lists her married name of Trudy Henderson as she has done in the past when donating to candidates.
Jones did not seek a third term to her Republican leaning District 8 Council seat this year. It was won by Republican Dan Champine
Hoehn has plausible deniability when he says he he has nothing to do with the real estate PAC supporting his campaign but explaining away the acceptance of one of his largest individual and direct donations by a longtime GOP City Councilor is going to be more difficult in the final hours of City Council Run-off '23.
Maybe Councilor Henderson. . . uh. . . we mean Councilor Jones. . .didn't think of that before writing her generous check.
And for those of you counting, the stakes just went up. It is becoming clear that Democrat Hoehn, if elected, could very well be another Dem Councilor who could join in overriding vetos by Mayor Keller.
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