Morning Word
Thank you to everyone for your well-wishes on the move. --- We have most of the stuff moved over and I finally have my giant monitor which helps me write the Morning Word that much better (more space for tabs on my browser is great when writing the Word).
The saga of the Martinez administration's email woes is not going away. While it is an open question of whether or not this will be an issue with regular, everyday voters, it is definitely a topic of conversation among politically-inclined people. So it could filter down to the lower information voters who actually decide the elections. And it is something that is not good to the carefully crafted image of Martinez as a reformer.
That and more in today's Word:
- The
- Albuquerque Journal story on Jay McCleskey
- being pushed onto the stage is one that will likely not be good for Martinez's image. Martinez has to defend herself against accusations that McCleskey really runs the state and McCleskey basically says that Martinez is no different than any other politician:
- "It’s no different than any other governor. They have a political operation, whether that’s housed in a state party, in a PAC or a (nonprofit), they’re necessary efforts,” McCleskey said. “One of the major reasons why is, when she’s pushing for the reforms she’s pushing for, you’re going to get a lot of political opposition.”
- Something to watch in November.
- Straight-ticket voting won't be around in New Mexico
- this year.
- Duran is the first Republican elected secretary of state in 80 years. Her Democratic predecessors allowed straight-ticket voting, which until 2001 was mentioned in state law under a now-repealed provision that required lever-type voting machines to offer the option. New Mexico switched to a paper ballot voting system statewide in 2006.
Straight party votes accounted for 41 percent of ballots cast statewide in the 2010 general election. About 23 percent of the election's total votes were Democratic straight-ticket ballots and 18 percent were Republican, according to the secretary of state's office. - Republicans are hoping that enough voters who normally vote straight-ticket will voter for Republicans -- or just not vote down-ballot at all. Much easier than trying to convince them to vote for Republicans.
- FiveThirtyEight
- looks at New Mexico
- . Nothing really surprising here.
- New Mexico might be even more Democratic if not for idiosyncratic Albuquerque, the state’s only real metropolis. Albuquerque, in the central part of the state, is less Democratic than big cities in other states. The First Congressional District, which is anchored by Albuquerque, elected a Republican to Congress from its creation in 1969 until 2008.
- One of the pictures in the piece, of the cows grazing near houses in Sandoval County, looks like it was taken near where my parents live -- way out near the end of Rio Rancho.
- Kate Nash has a great (though tragic)
- piece to start a series on prescription drug abuse in New Mexico
- for the Santa Fe New Mexican. Just a great piece of reporting from the state's second-largest newspaper.
- The
- Whitewater-Baldy fire is 75 percent contained
- and is a little more than 290,000 acres.
- The
- Little Bear fire is 60 percent contained
- .
- Rep. Ben Ray Lujan comes out forcefully against the controversial
- Citizens United
- decision:
- “Citizens United has opened the floodgates for special-interest corporate money that seeks to influence elections and drown out the voices of the American people. Third party groups can spend unlimited amounts of money and hide their donors to prevent the American people from finding the truth behind where their money comes from,” Congressman Luján said. “I welcome the efforts of local communities around the country, especially those in New Mexico, that are standing up this week to call for action that removes corporate influence in our elections and reaffirms the bedrock principles of our democracy by giving voice back to the people. It is time to restore accountability and transparency, which are so vital to the electoral process, and take steps to get corporate money out of politics.”
- There was a
- possible data breach of public pension recipients' information
- .
- The information on the computer could have included names, addresses, financial institution routing numbers, account types, account numbers, payment amounts and PERA identification numbers, the agency's announcement said.
- Yeah, that sounds serious.
- The state wants to make sure
- veterans get jobs
- .
- NMPolitics.net writes about the
- potential draw of Gary Johnson on both the extreme right and left
- of the political spectrum. I would bet that come November, Johnson should be aiming to break the 2 percent barrier, not be a legitimate presidential contender.
- Downtown Clovis is booming
- .
- Paul Gessing of the Rio Grande Foundation
- decides to just make stuff up
- when he writes, "Generally, conservatives have no problem with the existence of private sector unions..." Considering that most conservatives have demonized all unions for decades, this does not even come close to passing the smell test. Then again, he
- wrote last week
- , "No one in the history of the planet has died from a lack of insurance" while a reputable news organizatin (Reuters)
- wrote in 2009
- about a study that showed that "one every 12 minutes" dies because of, in part, a lack of health insurance. Never let the facts get in the way of a good demagoguery.
- Bryan Cranston suggested a possible
- Breaking Bad movie following the series conclusion
- . Cranston does admit that he has no idea how the series will end. I'm an avid TV watcher and I'd put Breaking Bad in the top-two best TV series I've ever watched -- just below The Wire.
