SF County Commission Nominates Jenkins for Easley's House Seat

Ann Jenkins

The Santa Fe County Commission on Tuesday nominated Ann Jenkins, a retired information manager who worked for a pharmaceutical company for 27 years, to complete the term of the late Rep. Stephen Easley in the state House of Representatives.

Jenkins, also has been nominated for the position by the Bernalillo County Commission. Two other counties in the sprawling District 50 have nominated other candidates. Valencia County nominated former Albuquerque City Councilor Vickie Perea while the Torrance County Commission chose its own chairman, LeRoy Candelaria.

Both Perea and Candelaria are Republicans, as is Gov. Susana Martinez, who will make the final selection. If she picks a Republican to replace Democrat Easley, the political makeup of the House would be 37 Democrats to 33 Republicans.

A spokesman for Martinez said the governor is expected to make a decision by Friday.

Jenkins in an interview Tuesday described herself as a centrist Democrat. "I'm fairly conservative on financial issues but liberal on social issues," she said.

Her husband of 43 years, Jim Jenkins, is a Republican, she said.

More in tomorrow's New Mexican

Another Potshot From Linda to Gary

As my colleague Robert Nott reported in today's New Mexican, it looks like Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera finally will get a confirmation hearing in the Legislature.

AG King

If you're skeptical, you have every right to be. After all, Skandera actually did get a hearing last year -- one that lasted umpteen hours over several days -- but no Senate vote.

One thing I noted about the letter Lopez, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee, sent to Skandera, which Nott mentions in his story, is that Lopez takes another subtle shot at Attorney General Gary King, one of her rivals in the Democratic primary for governor.

Lopez said she requested certain information from the AG back in March, but "As of this date I have not received a response from Attorney General Gary King."

Didn't some wise columnist predict this sort of thing only a few days ago?

Here's the letter:

10-28-13 Letter from Sen. Linda Lopez to Education Secretary Designate Skandera 

Common Cause's Lobbyist Report

Common Cause New Mexico on Monday released its long-promised report on lobbying in the state Legislature. My story in today's New Mexican can be found HERE.

Where the campaign contributions from oil companies
 to NM politicians come from

With former state Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque as one of the researchers, the report looks at lobbying efforts for four bills in the past sessions. (I wrote about two of those in my story.)

Among the findings in the report:

•  Six top lobbyists in the legislature have 20 or more clients

• 26 former legislators are now lobbyists.

• Lobbyist have spent three-quarters of a million dollars feeding, entertaining, and giving gifts to candidates for state office, over the past year and a half.

• Representatives opposing a bill to regulate oil and gas operations received three and one half times more contributions than those voting for it.

• Two thirds of oil and gas contributions to legislators come from companies based outside New Mexico.

• Special interests representing bankers and lawyers spent heavily on key committee members to block legislation over several years.

You can read and/or download the entire report below

Lobbying in the Land of Enchantment - Special Interests and their Hired Guns 

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.