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Intelligent Political Discourse - for the Thoughtful New Mexican

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NMPJ Proved Correct: We broke the Story on Grisham and James Hallinan. Now the MSM is Admitting we were Correct. So is Lujan Grisham!

04/14/2021

One year, three months, and 19 days ago, on Thursday, December 26, 2019, New Mexico Political Journal broke the Sexual Assault story regarding Governor Lujan Grisham and her former aide, James Hallinan. (See excerpt below.) We had noticed a tweet from Hallinan to which no one in the media anywhere was paying any attention. We did.

Only after our story ran, did the Albuquerque Journal decide to do a story. Then, the next day, the Santa Fe New Mexican followed suit. Some four days later, Albuquerque Democrat blogger Monahan reluctantly took notice.

The comically rogue party switcher and former campaign aide to Mayor Tim Keller and Udall, John Block—now a "Republican" poser— attacked our story, taking up for Grisham, calling the story illegitimate.

His sometime ally Eddy Aragon (they both have run the gamut from Republican bashers to claiming to be "conservatives"), the erstwhile semi-deranged radio station scam artist, joined him in viciously criticizing our story, hollering that "no police report" has been found—which was a detail that had not stopped him (or anyone else) from discussing the reports surrounding Justice Kavanaugh—and many others.

Here's what Aragon said 15 months ago:

“This is not a story”…“Sorry folks…I smell BS…PAY NO ATTENTION TO THIS!..."It has to be corroborated…” Has he gone to law enforcement? Does he have an attorney? “As much as I would like to cover this and wouldn’t mind this being true, he’s going to need a lawyer and a criminal report before his claim can be legitimized. There’s no one to corroborate his claims…If he actually contacts law enforcement then we can “play ball” folks! Let’s see what happens.

Again, this is NOT a courtesy that Aragon extended to Justice Kavanaugh or ANY Republican accused of wrongdoing. All those were discussed regardless of the existence of a police report.

Aragon, others, Now Lying About the Hallinan Case

We wouldn't be wasting time on Aragon if it weren't for the fact that he is now lying on his radio station, saying that he has "been on top of this story from the very beginning." His audience (which is quite tiny, perahps 150 or so) may be too clueless to realize that he is misrepresenting what he actually did on the story.

The Republican Party of New Mexico, led by Anisa Galassini Tinnin and Steve Pearce, also dismissed the story. Perhaps it was because we had called them out for the damage they have done to the Republican Party, in losing the state house and numerous other fiascos, but the reality is that they essentially defended Grisham just to be able to attack NMPJ.

Our Story was Not Only First, it was Also Accurate. Here's the First Part of Our Story from 2019:

            Thursday, December 26, 2019

        Grisham-gate: Sexual Assault. Where is the Coverage? New Mexico Media Continues with

        their  Ridiculous Double Standard

 

Think for just a moment. If some prominent political operative came up on the internet with allegations of sexual assault against Susana Martinez (or any prominent* Republican) how long do you think it would be until there was wall-to-wall coverage of the story?

On every TV station in Albuquerque? On El Paso or Lubbock TV? On KKOB? On the front pages of the Albuquerque Journal? The Santa Fe New Mexican? The Las Cruces Sun-News?  On every tweet or blog posting by the Democrat Party spokesman—little Joey Monahan?

We can answer it for you: It would be non-stop! It would be bigger than the headlines on Pearl Harbor.

(Hell, it would be huge even if it was for running a red light or maybe even talking loud in a restaurant. But sexual assault? Holy moly! Heaven forbid! It would be beyond HUGE!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Contacted Hallinan's Lawyer Almost Immediately When the Story Broke

We later Corresponded with Hallinan's Attorney, Rachel Berlin Benjamin, who sent us the following email on January 16, 2020, during the time that major media organizations, plus small fry like Aragon, Block, Monahan, and the Republican Party of New Mexico were appearing to work in concert to cover up the story.

           [Editor, NMPJ]

           In response to Governor Lujan Grisham's public comments today regarding my client, Mr. Hallinan:

It’s unfair to victims. It’s completely false.  There are real victims every single day and in this poisonous climate that’s what happens, right? that they use these things and they hide from real things do happen. I hope he gets help, but I’m proud of who I am, what I stand for and what we are going to get done. — Gov. Michelle Grisham

           I have issued the following statement:

"Governor Lujan Grisham’s comments are inappropriate and damaging, only serving to revictimize Mr. Hallinan and countless other victims. We look forward to a court’s assessment of who the 'real victims' are and who truly seeks to 'hide' from the 'real things' they have perpetrated against employees and associates over the years. We are hopeful that other victims will come forward to further expose the truth." 

            Rachel Berlin Benjamin, lead legal counsel for James Hallinan

             Buckley Beal, LLP

Now Comes the Story that Grisham has "Settled" — But Many Questions Remain

Of course we hate to say it, but, well we told you so. We have to get that out of the way, but we were the ONLY voice on this story.

However, much more needs to be uncovered. The sum is paltry. Many questions remain unanswered.

The Governor states that the money she is paying to Hallinan is coming from campaign funds. Now the Secretary of State claims that that is legal. But it clearly is not. Throwing water on someone's trouser fly and grabbing someone by the crotch is in no way "campaign related."

This is a fraud in many ways.

Plus, where are the Governor's legal fees in all this? Where are they reported? Who negotiated with the Atlanta law firm Buckley Beal, LLP?

There's much more to this story.

But for right now, it's important to know that New Mexico Political Journal was correct, and the rest of the media got it wrong. As did Aragon, Block, the RPNM, et. al.


Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT: NMPJ Editor Emeritus Rod Adair to be in Carlsbad to discuss Redistricting

04/03/2021
New Mexico Political Journal's Editor Emeritus will be the guest speaker at the Carlsbad Republican Women's Meeting in Carlsbad about two weeks from now. 
 
Former State Senator Rod Adair, a demographer and redistricting consultant, will speak to the Republican Women's Club of Carlsbad on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at 11:30 AM.
 
The meeting will be held at the Blodgett Street Baptist Church, 1500 W. Blodgett St., Carlsbad, New Mexico.
 
The subject will be Redistricting.

Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

 

 

Democrats Choose Melanie Stansbury; Antoinette Sedillo Lopez Denied Yet Again. If Voters Want to Choose a Hispanic Representative, They'll Have to Support Moores.

04/01/2021

Wednesday evening the Democratic Party Central Committee for Congressional District 1 chose State Representative Melanie Stansbury over State Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez. It took a real surge on the part of Stansbury, who moved from 43 votes on the first ballot to 103, a whopping gain of 60.

Meanwhile, Sedillo Lopez was able to persuade only 23 of the 81 voters who had been up for grabs in the wake of the first round of voting.

As Wednesday began, Stansbury faced what appeared to be an uphill battle, needing 67% of those voters who had supported the six bottom candidates who had lost out in the first round. She pulled that off, getting 71% of them.

Not only that, she picked up an additional two votes from central committee members who had abstained in the first round.

Hispanic Candidate

Once again, the Republican Party has fielded the only Hispanic candidate in the race, as they did in the Governor's elections in both 2010 and 2014, and a number of downballot races over the past generation.

While there is some truth to the idea that traditional New Mexico Hispanics are moving to the Republican Party, that movement is steady, but also very very slow.

What has been happening much faster is the movement to the Democrats of the more newly arrived Hispanics—who tend to be much less educated, with fewer professionals—very different demographically and economically from the central and Northern New Mexico families who've been here for many generations.

The newer Hispanics are attracted by the Democrats' emphasis on open borders, unfettered immigration—mainly illegal—and the Democrats' enthusiasm for public assistance once the immigrants arrive: education, health care, housing, and welfare.

Moores, whose mother is Hispanic, faces long odds. The district has not been competitive since the redistricting process in 2011-12, when a number of precincts were adjusted. But even worse for the GOP, the city of Albuquerque has continued its rather dramatic move the Left, making Bernalillo County—which is the overwhelming bulk of the district—very difficult for Republicans to carry.

However, lightning could strike, as no one knows what President Biden might do, mentally or physically. Additionally, there is the possibility of overreach by the national Democrats, possibly so dramatic that it invites a backlash among voters.

While such a phenomenon is unlikely to manifest itself by June 1, even if it were to do so it is likely that rhe reaction in CD1 would not be as dramatic in other parts of country.

Some observers have referenced the Special Election of 1997, when Republican Bill Redmond upset Democrat Eric Serna, believing that it gives hope to the GOP this year.

However, there are a number of differences:

1) Stansbury is a much stronger candidate than Eric Serna was. He carried a great deal of baggage, or at least what was perceived to be.

2) The entire state is more Left-leaning than it was then.

3) There is no Green Party candidate this year—in 1998, the Green candidate got 17% of the vote, hurting Serna significantly more than Redmond (Though we believe Redmond would still have won by a whisker had the Greens been forced to vote for one of the major party candidates.)

4) There is apparently going to be a Libertarian Party candidate in this race, likely to pull more votes from Moores than Stansbury.

5) Former Republican Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn plans to run as an independent. Despite the seeming foolishness of his party-switching move AFTER he was elected Land Commissione, it's unlikely he would take more votes from Stansbury than from Moores.

Still, in the final analysis, we are living in strange times. Dynamic times. And a special election always has a significantly lower turnout than a general election, a factor that tends to favor Republicans. For now, it's the Democrats' race to lose. They likely won't, but it's possible they could.


Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

CD 1's Mad Scramble for the Deciding Votes. Our Exclusive Identity Politics Count. Does Roybal Caballero Hold the Key?

03/31/2021

With last night's first round of the Democrats' CD1 nomination process in the books, State Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez was left holding a 74 to 43 advantage over the only other remaining contender, State Representative Melanie Stansbury.

The race now turns to bargaining for the 81 votes that went to the six also-rans. (198 total votes were cast last night, with the frontrunners getting 117 of those.)

Lopez is only 26 votes shy of the 100 needed to win, while Stansbury is less than halfway there, needing to pick up 57 votes, exactly two-thirds of the votes that went to someone other than the two leading candidates. What will the delegates' decisions turn on?

The Roybal-Caballero Delegation

We received a report this morning that intense negotiations are ongoing to try to get State Representative Patricia Roybal Caballero to release her delegates and become the "kingmaker" (queenmaker?).

A report surfaced that one of the two leaders (either ASL or Stansbury) offered P-RC a letter to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help PR-C secure affordable housing in New Mexico so that she and her husband would not have to continue living in El Paso.

The Roybal-Caballero's (aka "the Grifters") live in El Paso, and apparently have never lived in New Mexico, even though she has served in the legislature for 8 years!

Then we realized that PR-C only received one vote (presumably her own) and has no real significant "batch" of delegates to release. We have judged the earlier report to be false.

Identity Politics Report: Will the Democrats's Decision Today Turn on Ethnicity? It Could.

At first glance, the race is now a 74-43 vote contest between two individuals, so—in times past—the decision as to which one would go ahead and reach a majority of support would depend on, perhaps, a debate or a forum in which the two face tough questions from the delegates.

However, as we have noted in our previous story, there are NO differences between these two candidates. In fact, as confirmed by the Progressived Democrats of America—New Mexico Chapter, there are NO differences between ANY of the 8 original candidates.

There is a "woke uniformity" now that transcends the modern Democrat Party. No one dares deviate from the established position on the core issues: Abortion (on demand); Immigration (totally open borders); Economy/budget (spend whatever, no restrictions, no limits); Health Care: (Medicare for ALL).

And on and on. There is no disagreement. So what is left?

Well, there's the go-to matter of identity politics. In reality, identity politics has become the opiate for the Democrat masses — that portion of the Democrat Party that has all its energy and drive. We are talking bout the Hard-Left of the Democratic Party—which probably represents about 75% of the party, with the other one-quarter of the party perhaps being considered just plain Left, or "Near-Hard Left."

The great bulk of the Democrats actually do want an enormous welfare state and the most Leftist agenda possible put in place, much of which is impractical. To distract this mass of voters from the difficulty of making such massive changes, the "inner party" Democratic leaders have turned to identity politics as a distraction:

"We care about you, because of your race, ethnicity, sex, sexual activity, et. al."

This gets everyone concentrating on identity politics rather than whether or not the leaders have enacted the far-Left economic policies the Democrat masses are dreaming of.

Here is the Count—And Some of the "Identity" Counts: The Woke Report

Sedillo Lopez: 74, Stansbury: 43, Everyone Else: 81.

Hispanics: 108, Anglos: 77, Indians: 13. So if Hispanics feel that Antoinette was "cheated" out of the position last time, they have the votes to make up for the outrage.

Women: 178, Men: 20. Well, we got THAT out of the way.

LGBTQIA+(to our knowledge): 20, Heterosexuals: 178. That must leave a good deal of discomfort among the party faithful, but it is what it is. Not even a late-breaking "HIV" appeal to get the "The-manner-in-which-we-have-sex" coalition could get the LGBTQIA+ crowd off the sand bar.

(Though some say this ratio could actually be: 63 to 135, which isn't quite as embarrassing.)

Hispanic Female: 88 Anglo Female: 77, Indian Female 13. Looked at this way, it may come down to how the Gays and Indians vote.

Hispanic Males: 20, Anglo Males: 0, Indian Males: 0, Females: 178.  "Diversity is our strength." — State Senator Linda Lopez (plus every single other Democrat elected official for the past 25 years).

Bottom Line

Antoinette Sedillo Lopez has the task of securing only one-third of the "other" voters. Melanie Stansbury must win over the 81 deciding voters by a 2 to 1 margin.

To accomplishe that, Stansbury will have to conduct, well—behind-the-scenes in a "whisper" campaign, mind you—a fairly intensive negative campaign on her part.

That's a tall order, especially in this era of identity politics and wokeness.

Can it be done? Definitely. Is it likely? Probably not.

But it is doable. The question is "At what cost to the New Mexico Democrat coalition?"

Tough answer on that last one.


Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

 

 


CD 1 SPECIAL ELECTION UPDATE: 8:30 PM, Tuesday Evening. 2 DEMOCRATS ADVANCE to ROUND 2.

03/30/2021
In the nomination battle to succeed former Congresswoman Deb Haaland, two of the eight candidates have advanced to a second round of voting tomorrow.
 
State Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez led by a wide margin, but did not win a majority of the 198 votes cast by the CD 1 Central Committee.
 
She will now face off with second place finisher State Representative Melanie Stansbury. Here are the results of tonight's first round of voting:
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez 74 37.37%
Melanie Stansbury 43 21.72%
Randi McGinn 34 17.17%
Victor Reyes 18   9.09%
Selinda Guerrero 13   6.57%
Georgene Louis 13   6.57%
Francisco Antonio Fernández  2   1.01%
Patricia Roybal-Caballero  1   0.50%
Apparently, Roybal Caballero got only her own vote, which would be a fitting result.

Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

New Mexico Democrats Set to Choose Their CD 1 Nominee: A Look at the Candidates and a Discussion of the Internal Politics

03/29/2021

The 1st Congressional District (CD1) Central Committee of the Democratic Party of New Mexico is set to choose its candidate to replace former Congresswoman Debra Haaland, who had to resign to become Secretary of the Interior.

While Democrats are heavily favored to retain the seat, no matter who they choose, they nonetheless face some potentially thorny issues within their own ranks. Identity politics is the absolute be-all and end-all of the modern Democrat Party, and it has thus far (in the view of the modern Left) provided a highly successful approach to what they see as building their 21st Century coalition.

However, identity politics can be tricky, and perhaps—if over-thought and overdone as a rhetorical device—can present possible pifalls that may result in the development of hazards along the campaign trail.

The New Mexico Democratic Party has Shifted, Considerably

Over the past generation, New Mexico Democrats have experienced substantial changes in their demographic makeup. For most of the past century, the party was dominated by Hispanic Catholics, with many of its leaders coming from rural areas, and traditional central and Northern New Mexico families whose ancestors arrived anywhere from 250 to 400 years ago.

Those Hispanic Democrats were liberals, but they weren't "Leftists" — the element now firmly in control of the national and state party apparatus. They were for people like John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, but not necessarily George McGovern, let alone folks like Bernie Sanders, or Kamala Harris.

They nominated candidates like Fabian Chavez, Jerry Apodaca, Bruce King, and Jeff Bingaman, not extreme Leftists like Martin Heinrich, Michelle Lujan Grisham, or Deb Haaland.

Increasingly however, the party has come to be dominated by what would have been called "outsiders" in our earlier history. Many are from out of state, though a number are home-grown types, raised to parrot the ideological polemics of their professors.

The dominant movers and shakers in the party are largely Anglos, but there are plenty of Hispanics (even some with traditional New Mexico ties) who have happily and opportunistically moved Leftward and have become fellow travelers with the nationally-oriented interest groups. Lujan Grisham is a prime example, though there are quite a number of others, mainly in the legislative class.

Challenges in CD 1

When Governor Grisham plunged into the governor's race in 2018, there was a scramble for the position. It was a contest in which Democrats constantly invoked the "virtue" of identity politics, a dynamic of course which can almost never succeed in benefiting more than one candidate at a time. In the event, six candidates filed—four Hispanics, one Anglo (Albuquerque City Councillor Pat Davis), and one self-identified Native American, Debra Haaland.

But which one would be able to claim the "Diversity Prize," to be awarded to the candidate who could make the best claim of representing a "neglected minority"? Lefty Anglo Democrats were in a quandary.

Haaland, whose father is of Norwegian descent and is therefore half American Indian, half "Anglo," came on strong, making the claim that her identity trumped the other identities. Davis, who had made a splashy entry, ultimately agreed, dropping out of the race and even more splashily endorsing Haaland—an act many attribute to pressure from Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller.

Keller was seen as playing a strong behind-the-scenes role to thwart the efforts of former UNM Law professor Antoinette Sedillo Lopez. The final totals showed the success of the stratagems, with Haaland garnering 40.6% of the vote, Davis (who was still on the ballot of course) getting 3.8%, and the four Hispanic candidates together receiving a landslide total of 55.6%.

The next year, Sedillo Lopez was appointed to the State Senate to replace Cisco McSorley, and she easily won election to a full term in 2020.

Many Democrats believe this special election should belong to her, basically because she is seen as having been "cheated" out of the nomination by Haaland.

About Public Policy Differences—There are NONE: Welcome to the Modern Woke Democrat Party

Significantly, as is the case now throughout Left-wing circles in America, there are no differences whatsoever in policy choices among the eight Democrats. "Diversity" within Democratic Party circles refers only to immutable demographic characteristics, although they also add to that the manner in which one lives out one's sexual life. 

It is not just us at NMPJ who are of this opinion. The Progressive Democrats of America New Mexico Chapter had this to say about a February forum:

"all the candidates had the same reply," and they "all thought alike."

Of course they do. It is now required. So, the outcomes of primaries, or of Central Committee meetings like this one, will be determined by all kinds of factors totally unrelated to public policy. On that they are all clones of each other. What is left are matters of demography, identity politics, and cosmetic issues.

Looking at the Field (in alphabetical order of course)

Francisco Antonio Fernández  Fernández may be the least known (or tied for least known with one other) of the 8 contenders. However, in many ways he is actually easily the most qualified and best suited of the lot for the nomination of the modern Democrat Party. He certainly punches more tickets of "wokeness" than any other candidate—though to be fair, they all try desperately hard to hit on all the woke cylinders.

Fernández's narrative has a rather dire spin to his upbringing—“working class,” child of divorce, living on food stamps, free lunches, and such, but ultimately being able to work to help pay for his education—at New Mexico’s most expensive high school Albuquerque Academy (annual tuition $25,390).

It must be said that it is a singular characteristic of the modern Social Justice Warriors (again, all eight candidates qualify as SJW) that they almost all come from relatively bourgeois, rather privileged backgrounds (if not upper middle class) but invariably see themselves as oppressed. But we digress. He goes on to describe his campaign thusly:

"As a person of color, New Mexico’s first openly gay representative, and the nation’s first openly HIV positive member of Congress, we’d make history and provide a courageous voice…”

Well, there you have it. He goes to the head of the class—significantly outdistancing would-be rival Victor Reyes, who is merely "gay," by adding on the additional diversity qualifier of "HIV positive." For checking the boxes—supremely woke, identifying as "poor," being Hispanic, Gay, and finally HIV positive—he must be seen as leading the pack.

This, of course, does not mean he wins.

Selinda Guerrero Guerrero is tied with Fernández in the unknown category. But she is probably the most intensely involved in actual on-the-ground, in-the-trenches social justic warfare. Why is she running? Here she is in her own words:

Why am I running? We are the working poor, I am a union member, my family was evicted this summer due to economic impacts associated with the pandemic. We organize for Black Lives and I am a human rights activist. I am a precinct chair in the Democratic Party and a member of the current SCC.

"I have been a dedicated voter Registration Agent for more than a decade. I understand that democracy works best when ALL voices are represented. I am a community healer - my values are to Lead with Love and Stand in my Courage and that is what has brought me to do this work today....I will be honored to be your next Congresswoman."

  Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (ASL) See above. Many believe it is ASL's "turn" so to speak. Among a half dozen insiders we heard from, ASL was mentioned by everyone. She is Hispanic, female, and, well, probably claims some sort of oppression if properly pressed.

Yeah, she's rich and is a retired professor married to a wealthy lawyer, but that has no real bearing on "wokeness." If you feel it, if you identify as woke, you're in. ASL can do all of that—so she hangs with her competitors in that regard.

Georgene Louis All the insiders and hangers-on we heard from also mentioned Louis, with some saying she "should" get the nomination, but that Sedillo Lopez probably "will" get it.

Louis is something of a fast burner, steadily rising to prominence in the party after becoming the first Native American to win a non-Indian-designed legislative district. That is something of an achievement.

(NOTE: Democrat minorities are famous for having to have districts that are gerrymandered specifically to be "majority minority," while Republicans—like Jane Powdrell-Culbert or the late Larry Larrañaga, to name just two examples among dozens—ask for no such thing, and instead just go out and win in Anglo districts, running campaigns on issues rather than race or ethnicity.)

Whether Louis can put it all together in this forum, of course no one knows. But she is well-liked by the party faithful.

Randi McGinn McGinn is a fabulously wealthy trial lawyer, who was called by her late husband, former NM Chief Justice Charlie Daniels "the smartest lawyer in New Mexico." That may be hyperbole from a husband, but we have it on pretty good authority that McGinn is in solid agreement with it.

In the old Democrat Party, McGinn would be formidable, after all, she's a woman. But she is undoubtedly disadvantaged right now by being able to check only that one box of the numerous possible identity politics boxes.

We note that she has hit on at least some oneupswomanship by saying she has a record of "Defending LGBTQIA+ Rights."

All of the candidates are on board with the standard, relatively old-fashioned LGBTQ crowd. That acronym stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning.

But McGinn has added the I and the A, which stand for "intersex" and "asexual/aromantic/agender," and then tacked on the +, which means "and more," indicating the other 170-plus forms of sexual identity. Not even the two Gay men, touting their hopes to be the "first," thought to do that. So, McGinn must be credited with extra efforts toward wokeness.

An Anglo woman, McGinn is in a tough spot, but she has "thousands" of connections, so she could pull it off. In fact, one insider said that "the first two are probably Sedillo Lopez and Stansbury, but that the next two are Randi McGinn and Victor Reyes."

Victor Reyes

Reyes is mentioned by one of our insiders, probably because he is Governor Lujan Grisham's close associate and presumed favorite. He also claims a couple of identity politics boxes: Gay and Hispanic (though not the add-on HIV positive). He, like Roybal-Caballero, next below, is from Texas, but he has had the sense to take up residence in New Mexico, something PR-C has never seen as a necessary step.

Reyes holds the coveted title "community organizer," as well as a litany of woke policy roles, including "environmental advocate" and "progressive leader," as well as "top aide to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham."

He says he is a "longtime advocate and national leader on reproductive freedom and justice." (Though he would seem to play no role in such undertakings.) And he "serves as the Board Chair of Catholics for Choice," who has "helped to defeat anti-abortion legislation," (very Catholic). He further states:

"If elected, [he] would be the first LGBTQ person to represent New Mexico in the United States Congress."

Of course he'll have to elbow Fernández aside for that honor.

Patricia Roybal-Caballero If there is an award for chutzpah in this whole affair, it must go to Roybal-Caballero, whom we have noted in articles past as one of New Mexico's leading grifters. It is one thing to note that the US Constitution does not require a US Representative to live in the district being contested. But it does require the person to live in the state.

Roybal-Caballero has resided in El Paso for a number of years. True, she is a sitting State Representative, and yes, her recent Democrat primary opponents have made her Texas residency an issue, but to no avail.

Royball-Caballero has outsmarted everyone by observing this critical rule in grifter-related politics: If you are going to run for office, choose a district in which the voters are dumber than you are.

She and her husband have effectively fought his requirement to pay child support for a severely-disabled child, currently living in Texas. But after years of help from a judge with questionable ethics, they finally lost the case. So PR-C's husband now owes more than $100,000 to a woman who is raising the child alone.

Will New Mexico Democrats reward Roybal-Caballero? None of the Democrat observers, whether considered insiders or outsiders, mentioned her name.

Melanie Stansbury

Stansbury was mentioned by some of the insiders. And one of them said she "has done the best organizing."

Of course, in a small electorate like the central committee, organizing is everything.

Still, Stansbury is an Anglo in a local party which is seen by many to have cheated a "woman of color" last time around. Who knows? She's probably better positioned than McGinn, probably because of this highlighted feature she just posted yesterday:

"I am the only candidate in this race that's beaten an incumbent Republican. In 2018 I flipped a red seat blue, and I did so by organizing and building a campaign that listened to the people and lifted up our communities. I am the only candidate with the infrastructure and the team that can beat Sen. Moores on Jun 1st."

Also just yesterday, in what could be a decisive development, Stansbury received the endorsement of both the Sierra Club as well as AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. AFSCME is the most powerful union in New Mexico.

Democrats are Smarter than Republicans in at Least One Respect

We do have to give the Democrats credit for at least one thing: they have not adopted rules that allow for a mere plurality of votes to determine their nominee at the Central Committee meeting. With seven candidates and only 135 central committee members, the Republicans could have nominated a candidate for congress with as few as 20 votes, or 15% of the support present, if they had been distributed in the right way.

As things turned out, the winner got 36% of the vote. But having rules like that open the door for a fringe candidate or a nut-job to win. That didn't happen with the GOP, but they were fortunate it did not.

The Democrats are requiring a majority, something that at least provides a measure of security against the nomination of an undesirable candidate, though of course it isn't a guarantee.


Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

 

 

 

 


Do the Media Love Biden or What? (It would be Hilarious if it weren't so serious.)

03/28/2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.


Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 


Moores Wins GOP Nomination for CD1 Special Election

03/27/2021
CD 1 REPUBLICAN NOMINATION RESULTS:
 
State Senator Mark Moores has won the Republican Party nomination for the CD1 special election to replace Debra Haaland.
Here are the total votes. (Republicans opted not to require a majority.)
Mark Moores  49 40.5%
Eddy Aragon  34 28.1%
Elisa Martinez  20 16.5%
Jared VanderDussen   7   5.8%
Ronnie Lucero   6   5.0%
Michaela Chávez   5   4.1%
All others   0   0.0%
Total Votes Cast 121 100.0%

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Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

CD 1 Special Election: Republicans in Danger of Blowing their Chances; Mismanagement of the Process Makes Picking a Bad Candidate More Likely

03/26/2021

Given the possibility of backlash against the extremism of the Biden-Harris Administration and the likelihood of a low turnout in the June 1st Special Election, the Republicans actually have at least an outside chance at an upset win in this district that is dominated by Albuquerque.

But the process the RPNM has set up may have doomed them to failure. For whatever reason, the Republican Party of New Mexico is rushing the decision-making process on their nominee for the upcoming Special Election to succeed former Congresswoman Debra Haaland, who had to resign her seat upon accepting the position of Secretary of the Interior.

The GOP Central Committee of the First Congressional District will hold a “Zoom” candidate forum tonight, then select the nominee tomorrow. Talk about a senseless schedule! In rushing things through, the party makes itself vulnerable to extremely bad decision-making.

In any case, here is our take on the announced candidates, in alphabetical order.

Eddy Aragon is almost certainly the worst possible candidate the Republicans could select. Aragon operates what some consider a semi-shady station on which he “sells” interviews to prospective candidates—something unheard of in legitimate broadcasting.

Additionally, he has only recently joined the Republican Party after trashing the party and almost all its candidates for most of the past decade.

In 2019 and 2020 alone, Aragon attacked every single Republican candidate for the US Senate, threatened to run as an independent, then at the last moment he registered Republican and threatened to enter the primary.

He did very similar things in the previous Albuquerque mayoral race, bowing out after gathering money for matching funds, but allegedly never accounting for those funds.

If the delegates are brain-dead enough to make him their nominee, Aragon would have to immediately explain what is difficult or impossible to explain in today’s world--- what appears to be pornographic or near pornographic materials and just plain crazy stuff.

He has published or re-tweeted photos and stories from what some would consider porn sites or near-porn sites for a number of years, including this topless photo of a very young woman. And then there are all these other weird posts:

As you can see, Eddy Aragon would quickly be made into an absolute joke by the Democrat Party. Republican hopes would be gone in an instant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michaela Chavez

As far as can be determined, Chavez is respected both as a volunteer in Bernalillo County politics as well as having been the nominee for Senate District 13 last November, where she lost to incumbent Democrat Senator Bill B. O'Neill, 15,655 to 8,464.

So while from all appearances she has a solid reputation and is well-liked, garnering 34% of the vote in a race for the legislature is not necessarily an outstanding calling card for a nomination for Congress.

Jared Vander Dussen

Vander Dussen, an attorney, is another local Republican who has been active in the Bernalillo County GOP, volunteering his time and helping with legal matters. Vander Dussen, as we noted last year, made the best speech at the last GOP state convention, as he was running for the nomination for this same position, CD 1.

He is polished, makes eye contact, is cogent, logical, and makes a good impression. Again, his failing is that to this point he has not had electoral success. Despite making a better speech at the convention, Vander Dussen lost to eventual GOP nominee Michelle Garcia Holmes, 23,783 to 19,847, with Brett Kokinadis receiving 5,798.

Ronnie Lucero

Lucero is not well-known to Albuquerque GOP activiists, and as best we can tell, appeared on the scene just this year. He says he is a 1989 Del Norte High graduate and he did a two-year stint in the US Navy.

He has an attractive family, but the rest of his bio is somewhat vague. He apparently is the auto loan officer for Melloy Nissan in Albuquerque. He says his work in finance has shown him how New Mexico families "struggle with less than stellar credit" and that he is running for congress to "continue his fight...for all our families."

He adds that he knows that "common sense not blind ideology will serve New Mexico better in Washington."

Elisa Martinez

Martinez is another candidate who has run for office before but has come up short. Last year she lost the Republican nomination for US Senate to Mark Ronchetti, 89,216 to 41,240, with Gavin Clarkson finishing third at 27,471.

Martinez may be both helped and handicapped by her singular focus on the abortion issue. She can be helped in a Republican Central Committee meeting by the fact that so many active Republicans are focused on that issue, which could lead to her winning the nomination. However, that same factor would probably spell almost certain doom in left-leaning district.

Soft Republican women in Albuquerque's northeast heights tend to be pro-choice, and that doesn't even begin to consider how many hard-left Democrat men and women there are in the district. So her "Johnny-one-note" campaign style will almost certainly not serve her well on June 1st.

Additionally, like Susana Martinez, Elisa Martinez is a Hispanic woman running for office. However, unlike Susana, Elisa actually repeats that all the time, saying over and over again: "I am a Hispanic woman." (She also says she is Native American.)

In sharp contrast to Elisa, Susana Martinez let her appearance as a woman and her surname show that she was 1) a woman, and 2) also Hispanic, respectively. She didn't campaign on those two facts as if they were issues in and of themselves.

In other words, while Susana sounded like a conservative Republican emphasizing issues, Elisa sounds a little more like Kamala Harris, emphasizing identity politics. We'll see how this plays out.

Mark Moores

State Senator Mark Moores may have the upper hand with the more astute voters in that he is the only one of the seven candidates who has enjoyed actual visible electoral success. Moores played football for the UNM Lobos and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of New Mexico. He then went on to earn an MBA from the Anderson School of Management.

In 2012, he won the Republican State Senate District 21 primary in a landslide with 50% of the vote in a three-way race. Then he went on to face the extremely haughty incumbent Democrat, Senator Lisa Curtis, who boasted about her electoral prowess and spent upwards of $400,000 to prove it.

But she didn't prove it. Moores absolutely crushed her, 14,067 to 10,768. He was subsequently re-elected in 2016 and also in 2020.

In terms of qualifications as well as electoral success, Moores appears to stand above the rest.

Tracy Trujillo

Trujillo may be the least known of all the candidates. She sent out a letter saying that she is from Minnesota, but that she has lived in New Mexico for "almost" six years. She is a wife and mother of 3 great boys, step-mother to 3 daughters and has 10 grandchildren.

She says that for four years she has been a "department head at Randall Lumber in Taos...in charge of power tools and Stihl chainsaws." She also says she has been President of womens leadership for New Mexico Farm and livestock bureau District 5 for two 2 years and for Taos County for 4 years

She asserts that she is running "because i believe that we need a hard working honest down to earth person who has had to work for everything."

Trujillo is the only candidate who does not live in the district, though living in the district is not a requirement for US House.She lives in Questa, in CD 3, which is currently represented by Democrat Teresa Leger-Fernandez.


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Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

 


ILLEGALS HEADED for PLATINUM STATUS*

03/24/2021
Bethesda, MD—(AP) The spokeswoman for the Marriott Hotels Rewards program announced this afternoon that “thousands of illegal immigrants will in fact be achieving Gold, Platinum, and even Titanium status” in the hotel chain’s program for its frequent travelers.
 
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported the Biden Administration plans to keep what they call “undocumented” immigrants in hotels, as President Biden’s invitation to immigrate has attracted far more migrants than they had planned for.Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham, IHG, Choice, Best Western, and Hyatt are all part of DHS’s planning.
 
All Marriott properties in McAllen, Texas are already booked for the next several weeks, though there are vacancies at the TownPlace Suites in Edinburg ($303/night) and the Courtyards in both Brownsville and Harlingen ($144). Wyndham properties as well as Choice hotels were going for $69-$115/night, while Hyatt and IHG venues were more pricy, ranging from $175-$350.
 
Marriott revealed that many migrants had already enrolled in their program, noting that with a 60-day stay a migrant “will achieve platinum status” and “those staying 15 more days beyond that will be a part of Marriott’s prestigious ‘Titanium’ club, with numerous benefits.”
 
Asked about the particulars of the payments—in that the taxpayer is actually purchasing the stays—Marriott responded that “It’s irrelevant who foots the bill, the guest receives the points if they’ve enrolled in our program.”
 
Hyatt, IHG, and Hilton all said their programs follow that same rule. Wyndham and Choice had not responded by press time.
* (Satire)
NOTE: This post is meant to be satirical, though things described are “theoretically possible.” The daily rates were accurate as of 24 March. And there was no vacancy in McAllen on that date. Also, the description of the Marriott Rewards program is accurate, though Marriott did not really issue the statements the post satirically attributed to them.
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Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

 

National Issues

National Issues

Democrats

2016 Presidential Campaign - Democrats

Republicans

2016 Presidential Campaign - Republicans

Jeb Bush gets religion.

"They said he got religion at the end, and I'm glad that he did."  — Tom T. Hall. The Year Clayton Delaney died.

Well, it's official.  Jeb Bush has changed quite of few of his positions on illegal immigration.  The single most significant is that he no longer endorses the "path to citizenship" for those who came here illegally. 

This is, after all, the key portion of any proposal aimed at "reforming" our existing illegal immigration situation.

No sensible citizen can see any point in trying to deport between 12 and 16 million people currently living in America illegally.  And no candidate for any office that we know of supports that.  What the average American wants is for the country to "get a handle on it."  They want it stopped, our borders secured and future illegal immigration prevented.  It is a national security issue.

The Path to Legal Status

The only way to accomplish the above goals, is to identify current illegal immigrants, get them accounted for, have them documented, and placed on a path to legal status.  Neither they nor their children or spouses should live in a state of fear or anxiety.

But a path to "citizenship" is not the right course.  It is not morally or legally correct.  A merciful and compassionate nation can provide the safeguards of legal status without sending the message to the rest of the world that all you have to do is cross our border and you will eventually get to become a citizen, thus circumventing the legal framework scores of millions of Americans have followed, honored and respected.

If someone who is granted legal status eventually wants to become a citizen, that person should have to return to his or her country of origin and wait in line like 20 million people around the world are doing at any given time.  Failing that, America will forever send the signal that anyone in the world can "jump the line," and that there is no reason at all to obey our immigration and naturalization laws.

We Like Jeb Bush

We are glad Jeb Bush has learned this lesson.  He is a fine speaker, and can eloquently explain his positions on complex issue.  If he were not named "Bush" he would be an actual top tier candidate—in all that that title would entail, including likelihood of acceptance and support of and from the American people in the primaries, and in any theoretical general election.  

We also recognize that he already is a de facto top-tier candidate because of his fame and his fundraising.

If he were to be the nominee of the Republican Party we would heartily support him and endorse him.  We hope, however, that he is not, as he does not give the center-right coalition the best chance of winning.

Media Watch

Media Watch

County Government News

County Government News

Cities, Towns and Villages

Cities, Towns and Villages

Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch

Movies, Television, Pop Culture

Movies, Television, Pop Culture

  • Movies, Television, Pop Culture
    Selma   ????? We have now seen the Oscar-nominated movie Selma.   Our earlier allusion to criticism that sounded as though it was in an Oliver Stone category for historical fabrication is some...

Sports

Sports

The Major League Baseball Playoffs are not realistic, and destroy the actual meaning of the sport. 

Major League Baseball is unique in this respect—its postseason is markedly different from the way the game is played normally.  No other major league sport suffers from this flaw.

Not that much is wrong with baseball. In some respects it's the most well thought-out sport there is.  The "perfect game" many aficionados say.

But the Major League Baseball postseason experience is unique in the world of professional sports, and not in a good way. 

In fact the playoffs are flawed in such a way as to detract from the sport itself and diminish the game and what it means to be the world champion of the sport. 

Among the Big Four team sports of North America: football, hockey, basketball and baseball—and all the 122 professional major league teams competing in the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB respectively—it is in baseball alone that the postseason turns the sport itself on its head and makes it reflect something that it is not.  This article will explain why that happens and why it is wrong-headed.

 

Background on the The Frequency of Play

The 30 teams in both the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association teams play a very similar schedule.  On average, each team has a day off between games, sometimes two days off.  Though there are back-to-back games, they are relatively infrequent.  NBA teams play between 14 and 22 back-to-back games a season, and for the NHL it usually ranges between 9 and 19. The NFL has a full week between games, the exception being the new Thursday games that each team plays once, leaving them only four days' rest once a year.

But baseball players play every single day.  Ten days straight, then a day off, then seven more games, then a day off, then ten more games.  Typically a baseball team plays 27 games every 30 days.  For the NHL and NBA it would be 14 per month, and for the NFL the number would be 4.

 

Getting to the Playoffs:  It's a grind

In all four sports, getting to the postseason requires a total team effort—in fact an all-out total organizational effort.  Teams must be deep, have bench strength and the capability of moving players in and out of the lineup, and on and off the roster, who can take the place of key players who go down for an injury, or who have to miss games for whatever reason.  While this is true of the other three major sports as well, it is most certainly even more of a concern for baseball teams because of the sheer volume of games in which a team must field a competitive lineup.

Each league's regular season* is a marathon, not a sprint.  NFL teams play for 17 weeks, 16 games.  The NHL has an 82-game season over six months, paralleled by an NBA season of 84 games over the same timeframe. Baseball is the biggest marathon of all—a true test of resilience and endurance—162 games usually starting around the beginning of April and finishing about the end of September.

NHL teams carry 23-man rosters, of which 20 can be active for any particular game.  The NBA is similar, with 15-man rosters of which 13 can be on the bench for a given game. In the NFL, the teams have 53 players on a roster, but only 46 can suit up on game day.  In Major League Baseball, teams have a 25-man active roster, and all 25 are at the park every day.

 

The Postseason Playoffs:  Sport by Sport

The National Football League:

Of the 32 teams, 12 qualify for the playoffs.  The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season.  Each team plays once a week, the exception being that the four top teams get the first week off.  For a typical qualifier to reach the Super Bowl, the team must play three consecutive weeks.  At that point both remaining teams have two weeks off before the Super Bowl.

In short, the playoffs, with a game each week, reflects the same means of advancement as is present in regular season grind.

The National Hockey League: 

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason.  The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on.  Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off.  But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

 

The National Basketball Association

16 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason.  The playoffs are conducted in the exact same manner as the regular season: a game, a day off, a game, a day off, a game, a day off, and so on.  Just as in the regular season, there are occasionally two days off.  But the playoffs require the same stamina, the same approach as that required to make the playoffs.

Major League Baseball

10 of the 30 teams qualify for the postseason.  (Although four of those teams qualify only for a one-game do-or-die play-in game.)

Here is where all similarity to baseball ends. 

Unlike the other three sports whose playoffs mirror the test of the regular season, and whose conditions are the same as the regular season, Major League Baseball playoffs in no way resemble the sport itself.  In hockey, basketball and football, the teams win playoff games and reach the pinacle of the sport in exactly the same way that they qualify to try to do so. 

Not so in baseball.  They are two entirely different concepts.  Teams make the playoffs only because they have depth, five-man pitching rotations and can play day-in and day-out at a high level.  But the baseball playoffs suddenly become a kind of "all-star" game within each team's roster.  MLB playoffs are conducted in a way that more closely follows the NBA and the NHL.  Teams have enormous numbers of days off. 

Here's the key point:  No Major League Baseball team could even qualify for the postseason if they played the same way during the regular season that they do in the playoffs.  None.

In the regular season Major League Baseball teams have to use a 5-man starting rotation, with pitchers pitching every 5th day.  There are not enough days off to have even a four-man rotation, let alone a team with three pitchers.  Even the best team in baseball using only a 4-man rotation, would wear them out, and most likely end up with a record of something like 66-96, or 70-92—and that would be if they were otherwise teh best team in the sport.

 

The 2014 Baseball Postseason is Typical

As examples, last year's World Series teams the Kansas City Royals played only 15 games in 30 days, and the San Francisco Giants played only 17 games in 30 days.  The 12 to 15 days off in the non-baseball fantasy world of the MLB postseason, means that teams can turn to three pitchers and give all of them plenty of rest.  But it isn't the way baseball really works.

At one point, the Royals had 5 consecutive days off, and the Giants had 4.  This never happens in the regular season.  Even the All-Star break is only three days.  Very rarely is there anything beyond a one-day break, and even that happens only a couple of times a month. 

What this means is that neither team used the team that got them to the playoffs.  (The NFL, NBA and NHL teams ALL used the very same teams that got them to the playoffs.) 

Baseball teams use a three-man pitching rotation in the playoffs.  Sometimes, they essentially opt for two pitchers only—conceding the likelihood that some of their games are going to be lost—when their third-, or rarely fourth-best pitcher has to face one of their opponents' two-man or three-man rotation members. 

Imagine an NFL team using only one running back and three wide receivers, instead of rotating through their roster in the course of a playoff game—or using only 4 defensive backs and 4 linebackers, instead of rotating 8 or 9 DBs and 6 or 7 linebackers?  In hockey, would a team use only two or three of their forward lines?  Would an NBA team use only the starting five?  They would never make the post season if they tried to present that product to their fans during the regular season.

Those are the equivalents of what Major League Baseball sets up every fall.  No other sport drags its playoffs out in such a way as to completely change the playing field—completely change the dynamics of its game.

Why Does Baseball Do This?

MLB does this because the TV networks want to drag out the games so that they can try to have one game each day  This requires an unnecessary staggering of games, and creates the phenomenon of 15 off-days in a month.

What about travel days?

What about them?  Baseball has travel days constantly.  A team may play in Chicago one day and in Miami the next, or in New York one day and Phoenix the very next day.  Travel days as a routine part of the game are again, a phenomenon of television, and stretching out the playoffs.

In years past, travel days were employed only when necessary. The famous "subway series" games were played on seven consecutive days.  Why?  Because there was no "travel day" required to go from Brooklyn to the Bronx.  Today, they would put in artificial travel days.

Even fairly long train trips didn't necessarily matter.  The 1948 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves was played in six consecutive days, October 6 & 7 in Boston, October 8, 9 & 10 in Cleveland, and October 11 back in Boston.

This reflects actual baseball, the way the teams play day-in and day-out, and the kind of unique test that baseball presents to its athletes, its managers and management, and to its fans.

In the modern world of charter planes, teams fly from coast to coast to play games on consecutive days.  The artificial "travel day" should be eliminated so that teams can play in the playoffs in the same way that got them there in the first place.


*All these leagues also have pre-seasons and training camps, which add an additional 6-8 weeks to each player's year.


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Religious Issues

Religious Issues

  • Religious Issues
    Coming Soon

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