Morning Word
We have a surprisingly full Morning Word today. --- We lead off with the Senate race, but also have discussion of the NMFA scandal and the State Auditor's Office, the two candidates for the soon-to-be-vacant Supreme Court position and looks at the 3rd Congressional District race and the race for the seat held by the Senate Majority Leader.
I'd be remiss if I didn't know a short look at a short ad --
an NRDC ad going after Heather Wilson on (what else?) MTBE
.
I've been watching a lot of Olympics lately, and there is a definite whiplash between seeing the fluffy, positive games that NBC shows (and all full of 'USA! USA!' cheering) to the attack ads. The Wilson ad on the Medical Device Tax seems to be in the heaviest rotation, at least during the Games. It would be interesting to see if negative ads airing very patriotic programming like the Olympics are any less effective than during, say, the evening news.
On to the Word:
- The campaigns of Martin Heinrich and Heather Wilson
- are battling over the timing
- of a letter by Heinrich that expressed concerns about the medical device tax. Heinrich says he opposed the 4.6 percent tax and that the tax was reduced in the final bill to 2.3 percent. The Wilson campaign say the letter was written when it was clear a 2.3 percent tax was in the bill.
- An interesting side note, Heinrich spoke to the New Mexican himself, while Wilson's campaign used their spokesman, Chris Sanchez.
- Thom Cole at the Albuquerque Journal says
- the state Auditor's office should have known something was amiss
- at NMFA.
- The Judicial Nominating Commission
- nominated two candidates
- to fill an upcoming (temporary) opening in the state supreme court.
- The judicial nominating commission unanimously recommended former Justice Paul Kennedy, a Republican who is a prominent criminal defense lawyer, and career prosecutor Steven Suttle, a Democrat who worked for 14 years in the attorney general’s office before retiring in 2010. Suttle also served as an elected district attorney in Oklahoma before moving to New Mexico to become a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office in Albuquerque in 1991.
- Martinez will almost surely pick Kennedy, who was last seen
- being hired by a House Rules subcommittee
- to aid in the impeachment process against Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. Block ultimately resigned.
- Gov. Susana Martinez announced
- $3.5 million in funding from a University of Virginia-based program
- to help struggling New Mexico schools. The program will be available for schools that reached a "D" or "F" in the recent, controversial school grading system. The grading system has been criticized for being too complicated and for grades wildly swinging after just a short period of time.
- Albuquerque Public Schools and the Albuquerque Teachers Federation
- came to an agreement that teachers should be paid
- for the time they serve in the state legislature. But it is likely a moot point, as only one APS teacher is in the Legislature, and he declined his pay last year.
- The Santa Fe Reporter
- profiled the 3rd Congressional District and particularly Jefferson Byrd
- , the Republican candidate in the district. Byrd faces a monumental challenge in trying to unseat an incumbent in a heavily Democratic district.
- A taste of Byrd:
- “I’m not pro-gay, but I’m not anti-gay,” he adds. “Whatever someone wants to do is their own business. Just don’t try to tell me I have to do it, too. Which seems kind of silly, because I just said you can’t get married if you’re a guy that likes another guy…I understand there’s some apparent hypocrisy to it, but it’s because it’s tied to biblical principles.”
- He might want to read over that First Amendment again.
- Milan Simonich
- looks at what will be a high profile race in November
- -- State Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez against former State Rep. David Chavez. You gotta love how Simonich manages to get some sports references in there.
- On July 4, the Word mentioned
- the State Auditor's office was looking into alleged missing money in the First Judicial District's drug court
- . Today, the results of the audit by a private firm
- found nothing amiss
- . And the judge who went to the State Auditor's office with the allegations... well, they might be in some hot water.
- Rio Rancho officials are
- hopeful to avoid a big tax increase
- on Mariposa residents, but there is not an agreement in place yet.
- However, bondholders, High Desert and the Mariposa East PID board are developing an agreement in which High Desert would transfer ownership of 800 acres of undeveloped land in Mariposa East to bondholders. In return, the bondholders wouldn’t seek penalties against High Desert or Mariposa property owners for a short payment in this tax year, and the bonds would be restructured to keep property taxes close to current rates.
- The city of Farmington had an independent review of its pay structure -- and about
- a third of all employees were stuck at the maximum pay rates
- .
- Work on the project was resumed in December 2011. The study's findings indicated that Farmington's existing pay plans are more complex than most cities', and that they create logistical and administrative burdens.
Under the proposed system, 342 positions will see their pay range increase, 35 positions will experience no change and 49 positions will see a lowered pay range. A lowered pay range, however, will not necessarily translate into an actual decrease in wages. - The Clovis New Journal
- goes hard after the Portales Police Department
- and, it seems, deservedly so.
- The Weekly Alibi writes about
- the verdict in a high profile Deming gun trial
- that came down shortly after press time for their last edition -- which had a feature story about the trial.
- The New Mexican thinks it is
- time to start thinking of ways to stop the next mass killing
- .
- Ban the sale of high-capacity magazines. Just that one change. If necessary, start with local ordinances, then state laws, then go national. This is a battle that citizens can win, but they must have the will to take on gun interests and gutless politicians. Notch a victory by banning high-capacity magazines; that’s the first step. Then, move on to removing the loophole in the law that doesn’t require background checks at gun shows. Emboldened, voters could then push Congress to return to the more sensible years when the country had an automatic weapons ban, which expired in 2004. None of these changes in our laws hurts the rights of law-abiding citizens to bear arms. None would damage the Bill of Rights. Combined, such laws would make it harder for bad people to obtain weapons, something even the NRA should support.
- Oh, you starry-eyed idealists.
- An
- urban farm market is coming to downtown Albuquerque
- .
- An Albuquerque firm
- got the contract to build the Eddy County Sheriff's department offices
- . This frustrated county commissioners, but they still voted to accept the bid.
- Marky Mark and Denzel are coming to New Mexico.
- Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington are going to star in "2 Guns"
- which will be shot in the Land of Enchantment.
- A New Mexican named Selena Gomez
- had her Facebook account deactivated
- because she shares the name of a famous... person (actress? Singer? I'm not sure). It is the last sentence of this story that made me laugh:
- From our own search, it looks like Gomez’s account has now been reactivated.
