VACATION!

It's vacation time for Roundhouse Roundup.

I'm off for two weeks, so unless something REALLY BIG happens -- or if I happen to catch any New Mexico politician getting arrested for drunk and disorderly on Bourbon Street next week -- this blog won't be updated for a couple of weeks. And there won't be any Roundhouse Roundup columns in The New Mexican during my break (though I do have one interesting story in the can so keep checking the paper.)

For you political junkies who also are music fans, check my music blog next week for coverage of The Ponderosa Stomp festival in New Orleans.

See you in October!

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: My Prediction for the House District 50 Seat

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Sept. 29, 2013

At a Monday forum sponsored by the Santa Fe County Democratic Party, voters can get their first look at the people who have applied with the county to be appointed to the District 50 state House seat held by the late Stephen Easley of Eldorado.

That number keeps changing, but candidates from both parties will attend, county Democratic Party Chairman Richard Ellenberg said.

However, my instincts tell me that while one of these applicants, obviously, will get the nomination from the Santa Fe County Commission, none will be the next state representative. In fact, this entire process probably is just the first step to see who will run for the seat in the 2014 election.

Let me explain:

Leroy Candelaria

The sprawling District 50 includes parts of four counties: Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Torrance and Valencia. As per the state constitution, the county commissions in each county will make nominations for the appointment by the governor.

Torrance County last week nominated its own County Commission Chairman LeRoy Candelaria. He’s a Republican.

The Santa Fe and Bernalillo county commissions are controlled by Democrats, while the governing bodies of Torrance and Valencia are controlled by Republicans.

Vicki Perea

Valencia County already has nominated Vicki Perea, a former Albuquerque City Councilor who is a Republican. Perea ran for state Senate last year, but lost to Democrat Clemente Sanchez. She also ran for secretary of state in 2008, losing to Democrat Mary Herrera.

Gov. Susana Martinez — in case you haven’t heard — is a Republican. Although she’s shown she doesn’t always appoint members of her own party, with a closely divided House — currently it’s 37-32 — it’s hard to imagine Martinez going with a Dem. I’d have to predict that Martinez is likely to go with Perea or Candelaria.

Yes, it’s possible that the Santa Fe County Commission could choose one of the Republicans who applied, Billy Peterson, Richard Rogers or Debbie Ortiz.

But I wouldn’t count on it. Just like I expect the governor to appoint someone from her own party, I expect the commission to nominate someone from their own party.

If I’m right, however, and Martinez appoints Perea or Candelaria, any of the applicants serious about a career in the Legislature should start gearing up for 2014.

In District 50, Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 46 percent to 33 percent in voter registration as of July 31, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Easley in 2012 won the seat with nearly 56 percent of the vote. And more than half the votes cast in the district came from Santa Fe County.

The applicants: None of the candidates has ever run for public office before — except filmmaker Cynthia Lukas, who was on the Scottsdale, Ariz., City Council a decade ago. Lukas will not be at the forum because her mother is ill.

The other candidates are Ann Jenkins, a former board member of the Vista Grande Library in Eldorado; Dr. Ann McCampbell, a medical consultant specializing in chemical sensitivity and other environmentally related illnesses; Matthew McQueen, a lawyer and former member of the Santa Fe River Commission and the County Open Land and Trails Planning and Advisory Committee; Peterson, who owns a local frame business; Rogers, a lawyer and executive editor of Santa Fe Monthly, a free-distribution paper; and Ortiz, with the Chamber of Commerce in Edgewood.

Pam Cordova of Valencia County, who originally had applied, has since taken her name out of consideration.

The forum is planned for 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Performance Space at La Tienda, 7 Caliente Road, Eldorado. State Sen. Peter Wirth will moderate.

The Hunger Games

Move over, Hanna Skandera, it looks like Human Services Secretary Sidonie Squier has replaced you -- at least for now -- as the biggest lightning rod in Gov. Susana Martinez's administration. That's been cemented by Squier's recent email to other administration officials.

It was a response to a draft report by a state hunger task force in which Squier said:

“Since there has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger in New Mexico, I would offer that the focus of the report should be on getting proper nutrition for children (and adults).  The idea—which is the easy way out—that we should expand every government food program in existence is not productive, especially if the issue is nutrition and not hunger.  Please consider.”

The New Mexican's story about this is HERE.

Squier's statement, of course directly contradicted the Feeding America report just a few months ago that ranked New Mexico number one in the nation in terms of food insecurity for children.

Squier, once her email made the news, backtracked and said her statement had been "poorly worded" and of course there is hunger in New Mexico.

Gov. Susana Martinez also said Squier's email had been "poorly worded" and in an email listed some ways the administration has tried to fight hunger. Here's Martinez's complete statement:

The governor agrees that Secretary Squier’s e-mail was worded very poorly and inarticulately. Of course there are children who are hungry in New Mexico.  The Governor knows that, and Secretary Squier shares her opinion that there is no excuse for a child in New Mexico to ever be hungry.  

And while we have many struggles, there are many things the governor and her Administration are doing to help close the hunger gap in New Mexico.  

In her first few months in office, she signed into law the Breakfast After the Bell Program, which mandates that schools with 85% or more students who qualify for free and reduced meals must serve breakfast to all students after the bell rings, because we have recognized that students need a meal in the morning to be ready to learn all day.   (As a result, in 2012 the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) named New Mexico first in the nation for serving breakfast to low-income children; and we were the first state to reach FRAC’s goal to serve at least 70 out of every 100 low-income students breakfast.)  

The Governor organized a Hunger Task Force, which has been meeting over the last year to come up with recommendations on how we can address gaps in our food services, become more efficient in our programs, and market the programs to people who currently are not receiving them.   

This year, we increased the number of summer meal sponsors by 19%, and added 13 new summer meal sites where children throughout the state can eat healthy meals throughout the Summer. (In 2012, New Mexico was ranked 2nd in the nation for Summer Food programs by FRAC.)  

We have the school lunch program, the after school meal and snack programs, and we provide healthy meals to more than 22,000 low-income kids in the childcare assistance program.

Senate Majority Leader issued a statement of his own calling for Squier to resign.

And last night Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuqueruqe, who is running for governor, released her own statement in which she concluded:

Putting our heads in the sand – as the Governor seems to do when addressing issues such as child hunger – is ludicrous.  Perhaps next time she does a photo-op with young children, she can ask them what they ate for breakfast that morning.  She might be surprised by the answers.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: Election Called in NM. Go Back to Sleep

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Sept. 22, 2013

I know it’s more than 13 months away, and there hasn’t really been any serious polling here yet, but national pundits already have called the 2014 election in New Mexico.

The Roll Call/Rothenberg Governors Map

They’re calling it a dud.

The Rothenberg Political Report and Roll Call, which features a hand-dandy, color-coded map on its website, rates all the 2014 races for U.S. Senate and House as well as governor contests around the country.

In the Senate contest, New Mexico is a dark blue, meaning incumbent Democrat Tom Udall is considered safe. In the House races, all three incumbents — Democrats Ben Ray Luján of Santa Fe, Michelle Lujan Grisham of Albuquerque and Republican Steve Pearce of Hobbs — are considered safe by Rothenberg and Roll Call.

And in the governors category, New Mexico is a darkish pink, meaning incumbent Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is considered “favored” to win. That’s not quite as good as being “safe,” but it’s better than “Leans” Republican and far better than “Tilts” Republican.

This isn’t the only such prognostication. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the website of the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, rates Udall, Luján and Lujan Grisham as safe bets for re-election and Martinez as a “likely” winner. The chief difference here is that Sabato’s Crystal Ball is telling him that down in the 2nd Congressional District, Pearce is not “safe” but merely “likely” to win re-election.

So if you’re an anti-establishment voter who thinks the best way to keep the government healthy is to routinely “throw the bums out,” this growing consensus on the 2014 election in New Mexico is not a good thing. No sign of an anti-incumbent surge has been spotted.

And if you’re a political junkie who savored the nail-biting, hair-yanking days of yore — like 2000, when Al Gore won New Mexico by less than 300 votes, or 2006, when it took weeks to get all the ballots counted to determine that Heather Wilson beat Patricia Madrid by 800 votes or so for the 1st Congressional District seat — this is really bad news.

But remember, a lot can happen between now and Election Day. After all, we’re 13 months away from the election.

But if something is going to make the upcoming election anything but predictable, it better happen soon. After all, it’s only 13 months until the election.

So what are the New Mexico races to get excited about? Well, there’s always the Legislature. Some believe that Republicans might have a shot at taking the state House, though others say that ship already sailed. Currently, there are 37 Democrats and 32 Republicans in the House with one vacancy (the seat that was held by the late Rep. Stephen Easley, a Democrat).

Assuming the governor appoints a fellow Republican, that would bring the GOP up to 33. (And Martinez might surprise us. Remember, she appointed independent — later turned Democrat — Doug Howe to a vacant Public Regulation Commission seat a couple of years ago.)

Rep. Stephanie Garcia-Richard

Easley’s District 50 likely will be competitive next year, whoever gets appointed. Another is the Los Alamos-based District 43, represented by freshman Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard. She won a close race against incumbent Republican Jim Hall last year.

During this year’s legislative session, Garcia Richard — who had campaigned saying she would vote for Martinez’s perennial bill to stop issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented residents — voted against a procedural move that would have forced a floor vote on the bill. Republicans immediately paid for robo-calls denouncing her for “flip-flopping.”

I don’t know yet who the GOP is going to run in that district, but expect this issue to rise again.

And then there’s the secretary of state’s race. Even some Republicans have told me that Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Oliver, a Democrat, will be a tough candidate to beat. But incumbent Dianna Duran, the first GOP secretary of state in decades, will fight hard to keep that job. This contest is one to watch.

UPDATE: 12:30 pm Pardon my fuzzy math. I had the wrong total for the number of Republicans in the House if the governor appoints a Republican to fill Rep. Easley's seat. The correct number would be 33. It's been corrected in the text.

Gary King's Statement About Marriage Equality

In a lengthy statement from the Attorney General's Office, AG Gary King today made his strongest statement yet on same-sex marriage and in the process took a swing at Gov. Susana Martinez -- who King hopes to be facing in the 2014 election.

King said he disagreed with Martinez and anyone else who believes the matter of marriage equality should be decided by voters. He points out that Emancipation Proclamation, the Constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote and the 1964 Civil Rights Act were not put out for a popular vote.

Here's the statement in its entirety:  

The issue of same sex marriage has enveloped New Mexicans in recent weeks. Clearly, there are cultural, religious, political, and legal concerns that deserve consideration in any discussion of the issue. However, as Attorney General for the State of New Mexico, the legal aspects of this important issue are front and center for me. The extremely knowledgeable and capable staff attorneys in my Office, who have been diligently researching applicable law on the subject, also recognize that same sex marriage is an issue that affects the social fabric of our society. Because the issue is that important, I intend to proceed deliberately and as swiftly as possible to help move it through the legal process toward resolution. I thought it would helpful to give New Mexicans some perspective on what the Attorney General’s Office is doing to address the same sex marriage issue. 

Going back to the beginning of 2011, I was asked by New Mexico State Representative Al Park to provide a legal Opinion as to whether same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions are valid in New Mexico. A comprehensive legal analysis by my office concluded that valid same-sex marriages performed in other states are entitled to full faith and credit and should be valid in New Mexico. 

More recently, in July of this year, the New Mexico Supreme Court asked me to weigh in on the legal issues involving same sex marriage. Again, our exhaustive legal analysis concluded that (1) New Mexico's guarantee of equal protection requires that same-sex couples be allowed to marry the same way opposite-sex couples are; (2) NM’s statutory scheme does, in fact, prohibit same-sex marriage; and (3) the NM Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction to order county clerks, through a writ of mandamus, to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. In the same response I also requested that, should the Court consider the merits of the constitutional argument raised by proponents of same sex marriage, it issue an opinion declaring New Mexico's prohibition on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional under Article II, § 18 of the New Mexico Constitution. 

Here is where some critics have incorrectly interpreted the legal process. Some have said that I am trying to unilaterally disregard state law by not suing county clerks who have elected to issue same sex marriage licenses. Several District Courts have addressed the issue. Two separate judges essentially ordered two different county clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. Another judge ruled that the state’s prohibitive statutes are unconstitutional, paving the way for another clerk to start issuing the licenses. I maintain that the best way to resolve this issue is for the NM Supreme Court to decide whether our current law is unconstitutional. 

In the last week of August I sent a letter to a county clerk advising her that my office had received reports that marriage licenses given to same sex couples in 2004 had been marked as “invalid” or “illegal.” I told the clerk that only a New Mexico court has the authority to void a marriage license. 

Finally, some people, including the governor, say that the issue of whether same sex couples should be afforded the same rights as everyone else in our state must be decided by the voters. I urge the reader to consider the following: The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; The 19th Amendment (Women’s Suffrage) in 1920; the Civil Rights Act of 1964;---none of which were voted upon by the general electorate.

Forum for Would-Be Easley Replacements

The Santa Fe County Democratic Party is hosting a forum Monday September 30 to introduce voters to applicants wishing to replace the late state Rep. Stephen Easley in his District 50 seat.

Applicants from any political party are welcome to attend, County Democratic chairman Richard Ellenberg said.

The event is planned for the Performance Space La Tienda, 7 Caliente Road, Eldorado. State Sen. Peter Wirth will moderate.

House District 50 includes parts of Santa Fe, Bernalillo, Torrance and Valencia counties. The county commissions in each county will make nominations for the appointment by Gov. Susana Martinez. Valencia County already has nominated Vicki Perea, a former Albuquerque City Councilor who is a  Republican.

Santa Fe County will be accepting letters of interests and resumes until 5 p.m. on Friday, September 27. Last week the county announced that the following people had applied.

* Cynthia Lukas, a film producer and writer of  "transformative documentaries, " according to her website. Lukas served on the Scottsdale, Ariz., City Council from 1998 to 2004.

* Richard H. Rogers, a lawyer and executive editor of Santa Fe Monthly, a free-distribution paper.

* Billy Peterson, owner of Frontier Frames on St. Michael's Drive.

* Matthew McQueen, a lawyer and former member of the Santa Fe River Commission and the County Open Land and Trails Planning and Advisory Committee.

* Pam Cordova, who taught English for 26 years at Belen and Los Lunas schools before she retired in 2006.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: Get Ready for the Invasion of Independent Expenditure Groups

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Sept. 15, 2013

Next year will be the first gubernatorial race in which campaign contribution limits — approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor back in 2009 — will be in effect. Finally, we’ve taken care of the money-in-politics problem.

In your dreams.

It’s true that in the 2014 election, candidates for governor and other statewide office can receive contributions  up to $5,000 for the primary and another $5,000 for general election. That definitely will eliminate those $50,000 contributions from out-of-state billionaires that were becoming commonplace in the past dozen years or so.

But as anyone who knows anything about politics realizes, the U.S. Supreme Court, not long after the campaign contribution law was signed by then-Gov. Bill Richardson, basically knocked the chessboard off the table and started an entire game as far as far as campaign finance reforms go. That decision — which helped fortify the rise of “independent expenditure” groups that can spend all the money they want building up or tearing down candidates without the inconvenience of having to report their donors.

Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, has made several efforts in recent legislative sessions to pass a bill to require disclosure for independent expenditure groups. He’s been successful in getting these bills through the Senate by wide bipartisan margins. But somehow this legislation always seems to stumble in the House.

I saw it as an omen last week that the first radio ads related, if indirectly, to the governor’s race were produced by nonprofit organizations that aren’t connected to anyone’s campaign committee and that do not have to disclose their contributors.

First there was the ad praising Gov. Susana Martinez for her handling of the controversial mental-health system shake-up. This was produced by a group called New Mexico Competes, which turns out to be operated by Sara Lister, a longtime New Mexico Republican operative who has worked in the Martinez administration.

Back in A Las Cruces Sun-News reporter James Staley, “I am not involved in the ongoing affairs of this organization and have no information that may be helpful to you.”
pril, a prominent GOP lawyer in Washington, D.C., named Craig Engle filed the incorporation papers for New Mexico Competes Inc. Engle never returned my phone calls about it, but later in the week he told

So what is Engle’s connection? I can’t say for certain, but the website of his law firm, Arent Fox has this tidbit: “We handle all the corporate aspects of a Super PAC’s operation, from filing the certificate of incorporation; preparing bylaws, articles of incorporation, and preparing and filing your committee’s annual reports.” (Nonprofits, even political nonprofits, aren’t super-PACs. The latter has to disclose their contributors. But perhaps Engle’s firm provided similar services for New Mexico Competes.)

On the opposite side of the issue was an ad blasting Martinez for what it called the “disaster” of the behavioral-health situation. This was by a coalition called “New Mexicans Fighting For Behavioral Health,” which, according to spokeswoman Linda Siegle, is made up of several organizations as well as individuals, including some of the New Mexico behavioral-health providers who had their Medicaid payments suspended after an outside audit reportedly showed possible fraud.

This ad, which used lobbyist and former state Sen. Tom Rutherford for its narrator, seemed somewhat lower-budget than New Mexico Competes spot. For one thing, the anti-Martinez ad didn’t have that piano playing what sounds almost like the theme from The Exorcist. And Rutherford doesn’t sound nearly as intense as the woman on the pro-Martinez ad.

Both Lister and Siegle will tell you that their respective ads are have nothing to do with the governor’s race. But I have no doubt we’ll be hearing more and more of these nonprofit radio messages as we get closer to November 2014.