Webber is In for Governor

Santa Fe businessman and political newcomer Alan Webber had a simple answer Monday when asked whether he’s really going to run for governor.

“Yeah.”

Webber, 65, a co-founder of Fast Company magazine who has lived in Santa Fe since 2003, said he had filed his candidacy papers with the Secretary of State’s Office early Monday morning to run in the Democratic primary.

“I started looking at running for governor about a year and a half ago, but I didn’t really make a decision until about three months ago,” he told a reporter.

He said that before he made his decision he traveled throughout the state. “I wasn’t presenting myself as a candidate,” he said. “I was presenting myself as somebody with a lot of experience in business, economic development and issues like public education. … I head the same thing from people everywhere, whether it was Las Cruces or Pecos, and that is, the state’s not doing very well. The state’s in real trouble. The state’s at a standstill. I heard that more than once. And we’ve got to do something to get New Mexico moving again.

“I looked around at the Democratic slate and I felt very candidly that I was the one who could actually do the best job presenting a better vision for the state and could win the election for the governor’s office.”

Asked whether the fact that he’s a relative newcomer to the state will be a problem in the campaign, Webber said, “In New Mexico, questions will always come up: ‘How long have you lived here? Who are your people? How well do you know us?’ The flip side of that is everyone I’ve met in that period of time I was exploring the idea [of running] was incredibly generous. They didn’t ask me, `Who are you to be interested in New Mexico’s future?’ They said, `We’re really interested in New Mexico’s future, too, and if you are, welcome to the conversation.’ I’m sure it’ll come up. But I have to tell you, when I lived in Boston, people were really concerned that I didn’t come over on the Mayflower.”

Webber moved to New Mexico from Boston, where he edited Fast Company for 10 years. Previous jobs for Webber include editing the Harvard Business Review and writing speeches for Michael Dukakis when he was governor of Massachusetts.

The Martinez campaign was quick to respond to Webber's entry into the race: “Alan Webber represents the extreme fringe of the Democratic Party and his radical ideology, which has even included attempts to eliminate car use, is way out of step with mainstream New Mexicans," said Martinez spokesman Danny Diaz. He was referring to a memo Webber wrote in 1971 -- when he was in his early 20s and an assistant to the mayor of Portland, Ore.

Webber joins fellow Democrats Attorney General Gary King and state senators Linda Lopez of Albuquerque and Howie Morales of Albuquerque. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez is seeking re-election and is not expected to have any serious primary opposition.

Read more in tomorrow’s New Mexican. For more background on Webber, here's a story I wrote Friday.

Susana Seeks Southern Hospitality

Last week, Gov. Susana Martinez spent time politicking in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wisconsin.

She's starting off this week, however, in Dixieland, where she's raising money for her re-election.

According to the Associated Press, quoting Martinez's political advisor Jay McCleskey, the gov flew to North Carolina on Saturday. She had fundraisers there and in Georgia on Sunday.

Today, Martinez is raising the campaign bucks in Georgia and Mississippi.

Tomorrow she'll be in Arkansas before she heads back home to New Mexico.

McCleskey told AP that Martinez's campaign is paying all the travel expenses.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDHOUSE: Rumbles Beginning in Dem Primary

Two of the three Democratic candidates for governor were in the same room at the Roundhouse last week. But neither seemed to be in campaign mode.

Attorney General Gary King, the first Democrat to declare he wants to be the party’s nominee to take on incumbent Gov. Susana Martinez, was testifying, along with State Auditor Hector Balderas, before the Legislative Finance Committee about the investigation into 15 mental health providers under investigation for possible fraud. State Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, who just last week joined the gubernatorial race, was there because he’s a member of the LFC.

No, there weren’t any obvious tensions showing between King and Morales. In fact, Morales wasn’t in the room very much during King’s presentation.

Knowing what I do about these two candidates, I rather doubt that it gets very nasty between them.

If there are any fireworks in the Democratic primary, my guess is that it will come from the third candidate, Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque. In fact, just last week, Lopez took a swipe at King in a news release dealing with the behavioral health controversy.

For more on this, plus a sneak peak at U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce's upcoming autobiography CLICK HERE 

Heinrich & Udall Want to Delay Obamacare Enrollment Deadline

Heinrich

U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall have signed on to a letter from several Democratic senators asking President Obama to extend open enrollment for individuals trying to sign on for health insurance as mandated by the Affordable Care Act.

This, of course, is due to the well-documented problems with the federal website www.healthcare.com.

In a statement, Heinrich said he joined the effort led by New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen:

"These technical glitches delay thousands of New Mexicans from enrolling in affordable health care coverage, which is unacceptable. An extension would give families time to properly evaluate plans and select a choice that is right for them. The Affordable Care Act has already yielded numerous benefits, and I'll continue working with my colleagues to ensure every family in New Mexico has access to quality and affordable health care." 

The full letter can be found HERE.

Supreme Court Hearing Podcast

Waiting for the hearing Wednesday

I normally only plug my own music podcast (oops, I did it again), but for those who missed yesterday's Supreme Court hearing on marriage equality, KUNM radio has done a great service by providing a podcast of the hearing.

You can find that HERE.

I have to applaud the high court for their unprecedented step of allowing TV and radio stations to stream yesterday's proceedings. The Supreme Court hearing room itself is surprisingly tiny, with only 40 seats or so for spectators -- and a big chunk of those seats yesterday were taken up by plaintiffs and county clerks, who were part of the case.

But the court staff provided overflow listening rooms in the court building itself and at the nearby Inn of the Governors. It's good to see this institution opening up.

My story on the hearing is over at The New Mexican site HERE.

My colleague Robert Nott wrote a companion piece about the crowd that showed up at the court yesterday. That's HERE.  

The Same-Sex Marriage Hearing

The New Mexico Supreme Court at the outset of Wednesday's hearing

I have to agree with something Arizona lawyer James Campbell said after this morning's hearing at the Supreme Court. Campbell, who argued against allowing same-sex marriage in New Mexico, was asked how he thought the justices would decide.He diplomatically brushed off the question, saying he never gets caught up in the game of predicting how judges were going to rule.

That's sound advice. Remember the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Obama when all the pundits were predicting that the law would be struck down based on the questions and comments of the justices.

The same-sex marriage plaintiffs and their legal
team following the Supreme Court hearing

After the hearing, at least one opponent of gay marriage was predicting the court would rule against his position. “I think the die was cast before we came in here,” said State Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, told me during a break. But, Sharer stressed, if that's true, there will be a serious effort in the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment to declare marriage is between one man and one woman. (Conservatives have tried to pass this nearly every year I've been covering the Roundhouse.)

Still, there was reason to think Sharer may be right about the ultimate decision of Court. Some of the questioning of Campbell did seem pretty tough.

At one point in the hearing, Justice Richard Bosson asked Campbell point blank, “Why shouldn’t you be able to marry who you choose?”

Campbell argued that the government has a compelling interest in marriage because it encourages “procreative relationships,” Bosson countered that in state marriage laws “there’s not word one about encouraging procreation.”

Justice Charles Daniels pointed out that opposite-sex couples get to file joint tax returns and have inheritance rights and joint-ownership rights whether or not they have children, Daniels also asked Campbell how allowing gay people to marry would discourage heterosexual couples from getting married.

Justice Barbara Vigil asked Campbell for “empirical data” that being raised by same-sex parents is adverse for children. Campbell conceded there isn’t such data. But he cited statistics from The Netherlands that the marriage rate went down and the rate of children born to unwed mothers went up after that country legalized gay marriage.

This might appear that the court wasn't impressed with Campbell's arguments.

Maybe they weren't. But remember, it's not always easy to predict how a judge will rule.

See more about the hearing in tomorrow's New Mexican.

Updated: 5:19 pm Here's a video of Sen. Sharer after the hearing, courtesy state Senate GOP spokeswoman Diane Kinderwater. (This isn't the conversation between Sharer and myself I referred to above, but he's saying basically the same thing.)

Tomorrow's Supreme Court Hearing Will Be Streamed on the Web

Tomorrow's hearing on marriage equality at the New Mexico Supreme Court will be streamed on the Internet, I just verified.

This will be the first time the court has streamed a hearing

I first learned about this in an email this morning from the liberal group Progress Now New Mexico.

Seats in the actual courtroom will be full but there are rooms on site where you can watch live via a televised feed.
If you are unable to make it up to Santa Fe or just can't get away from your desk, we worked with KOAT to get a special live stream webpage set up so you can watch online.

The streaming will be on the KOAT site. 

Progress Now and several gay-rights groups are offering free coffee and donuts in front of the Supreme Court beginning at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday. The hearing is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.