Morning Word
Just about the 4th of July. The Word will post an update on the 4th, though its unclear how many of you will actually read it, what with you all preparing to barbecue, wear Uncle Sam costumes and hope no one burns down your house with fireworks.
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Even with the rain that Albuquerque experienced last night, it still seems like it would be an extremely poor decision to light any fireworks this summer unless you were in the parking lot of a firehouse with nothing but asphalt for miles around.
It is really that dry.
For those who won't check in tomorrow, have a happy and safe 4th of July.
- The latest email scandal hits keep on coming. Heath Haussamen says that
- it is time for Pat Rogers to step down from his position
- on the board of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government because of the secretive emails he sent regarding the contract for the controversial Downs at Albuquerque racino contract.
- I was concerned several years ago when Rogers became the GOP’s national committeeman from New Mexico. He was a member of the FOG board’s executive committee at the time, and I wondered how he would be able to juggle heavy involvement in a nonpartisan government watchdog organization with such a partisan position.
Now my concern has risen to a level that compels me to speak out.
There would be nothing wrong with Rogers, through official channels and on behalf of his client, communicating with the State Fair Commission or the Governor’s Office to express concern about potential Open Meetings Act violations and to lobby for the contract. In fact, as I pointed out in my previous column, he did lots of communicating about this deal through official channels. - Rogers is very influential in the Republican Party of New Mexico (he is a member of the Republican National Committee). He is also not without his own scandals. Among other things, he
- hired a private investigator in what some said was a voter intimidation scheme
- and was
- on the edges of the David Iglesias scandal
- .
- A
- state fair commissioner wants an investigation into the Downs deal
- , partly because of the recently released emails. Charlotte Rode, a Republican who has been a prominent critic of the deal, wants State Auditor Hector Balderas to look into the deal to see if the procurement code as broken, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
- All this pretty much ends any realistic expectation that Martinez would be Romney's pick for VP. Martinez was always an outside pick at best, but any sort of national attention onto her scandals in using personal emails and the Downs scandal would not be good to Romney's campaign. Martinez has always said she did not want to be Romney's VP pick and said she would refuse if offered. Martinez didn't endorse Romney until after he all-but secured the nomination, so it wasn't as if she was auditioning for the spot like Ohio Governor Rob Portman or U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. But this means that the small, small chance that Romney would have offered is gone.
- The scandals of former Gov. Bill Richardson were
- back in the news
- with Richardson being personally implicated in the pay-to-play scandals that ultimately took down his shot at being Secretary of Commerce under President Barack Obama. Richardson still has not been charged with anything, but the smoke is pretty overwhelming for those looking for fire.
- The Environmental Protection Agency
- gave a victory to Martinez's administration
- , as it granted a temporary stay for the San Juan Generating Station against complying with environmental regulations. The stay pretty much pushed back the five-year compliance date back three months. PNM has said the installation of selective catalytic reduction technology to reduce pollution from the massive plant would be too expensive and they would have to pass the costs onto consumers.
- New Mexico schools
- are particularly reliant on federal funding
- .
- Former Governor Gary Johnson is
- suing to get on the ballot in Michigan
- . Johnson missed the deadline to take his name off the Republican Party primary by three minutes, meaning that he was barred from running again as a member of a different party because of Michigan's sore loser law. Something you'll only see in the second-tier campaigns, a far cry from the slick campaign machines of the major parties.
- Taxpayers
- will lose $16 million now that Schott Solar is leaving the state
- .
- Mixed bag in the libel case
- against a newspaper that called the then-mayor of Gallup a gang-rapist. Oh, and the attorney for the Gallup Independent? None other than Pat Rogers.
- Gov. Martinez said that
- the expansion of Katie's Law has been a success
- .
- New Mexico State Police are
- investigating possible voter fraud in Espanola
- following an undercover investigation by KOB.
- Brutal opinion piece by private Democratic consultant Juan Carlos Holmes
- on Pat Lyons in the Ray Powell-Lyons battle. Powell succeeded Lyons as State Land Commissioner.
- Democratic groups are
- sitting the New Mexico 1st Congressional District race out
- because they believe Michelle Lujan Grisham won't need help in defeating Republican candidate Janice Arnold-Jones in the battle of women with three-names.
- Citizens for Tax Justice notes that
- not many people will be paying the health care reform "tax."
- Some opponents of the health care reform law have taken to calling it the largest tax increase in history. The fee for not having health insurance would be, of course, relatively small, raising around $7 billion a year (just 0.03 percent of GDP) and increasing federal revenue by 0.15 percent (one sixth of one percent).
- Among those who
- used this talking point was U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce
- , New Mexico's only Republican member of our congressional delegation.
- Meanwhile, the public at-large
- is deeply conflicted on the U.S. Supreme Court's health care ruling
- .
- Slate includes the Albuquerque Isotopes chile race in their
- roundup of Minor League baseball races
- .
- A taco, salsa, and a really big pepper: For those participating in the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes’ chile pepper race, the costumes tend to be a problem. “They’re not the easiest things to see out of,” explains Eric Papp, who usually runs as the salsa jar in the Dodgers affiliate’s sixth-inning race. “There are spots to look out of at the mouth and the eyes of the costume, so if you’re the perfect height, great. Most people aren’t though, and then their head doesn’t line up with the openings. If you’re not lined up perfect, you’re kind of stuck.”
- I always cheer for the green chile.
