By Whitney Cheshire
Take two Albuquerque City Council races, stir in a measure finance committee, add a dash of “recall,” and voila! Marty’s Party specialty… ABQ Takeover Soup!
Good Wednesday morning to you here in the
We’re still laughing at the New Mexico GOP’s most recent
But we really don’t need to do that, because
We really want to talk about the ongoing recall campaign now underway against Albuquerque City Councilor Don Harris, a Republican mid-way through his first term.
Why the recall? What did he do that was so bad, and in such a short time?
Leaders of the ousting effort say he didn’t keep his campaign promises and he isn’t the fiscal conservative they wanted, that he cast votes they didn’t like. To a certain extent, they have legitimate gripes. Harris isn’t exactly the poster child for perfect conservatism.
But he did vote against Chávez’s streetcar tax hike last year – the one Chávez wanted to slip past the voters without a referendum, the one that took every vote possible to kill.
Given the fact that Chávez helped the newly-elected Harris retire some campaign debt last year, the “no” vote must have been a stab in the heart for the mayor, to say the least.
So Harris has found himself in the no-man’s land of “moderation.” He’s no Democrat, to be sure, he’s made himself a target for Marty’s Party, and he’s not getting much love from the GOP.
But a recall?
Our question of the day: Is this born of a conservative desire for lower taxes, as they claim? Or is it a strategic campaign move for the mayor and 2010 gubernatorial candidate?
After all, Chávez needs a veto-proof majority on the council to push through things like panda bears, scuba tanks, ornamental parks, streetcar tax hikes and budgets that are light on public safety and heavy on the silly stuff. He doesn’t have it right now.
If the recall were successful, who would replace Harris? A special appointment by Chávez, another team member for Marty’s Party.
And one only has to look to the “every-close-call-goes-to-Marty’s-team” umpire of city elections, Clerk Millie Santillanes, to know how perfectly Marty’s appointments usually perform for him.
So for all those well-meaning conservatives who are happily signing the Harris recall petitions floating around Four Hills, keep in mind that if he’s removed, you can plan on riding that little trolley car around downtown by 2015 or so, and you can visit the ornamental park while you’re there.
Of course, you’ll be paying higher taxes for it.
But it was lower taxes that you wanted when you supported the recall, no?
Anyway, we may be wrong on the year of the trolley. Maybe Transportation Director and Chávez appointee Greg Payne could set us right on the finish date. We assume Payne is interested in the subject, since he coincidentally showed up to a Bernalillo County Republican volunteer meeting Friday, for the first time in a long time, to hear the head of the Harris ouster effort speak.
Interesting.
Where is Bernalillo County GOP Chair Fernando C De Baca in all of this?
We think that’s a good question. He never took a public position when a “measure finance committee” falsely attacked GOP Councilor Brad Winter a few weeks ago. He offered no assistance. And now, we’ve heard all kinds of things over here at the WMQB about C De Baca’s position on the recall. We’ve heard he’s supportive of it, and we’ve heard that he’s opposed to it.
That’s what staying silent is getting him – lots of speculation.
But he, more than anybody, will feel the heat of leadership as the recall effort moves forward. What’s a GOP chairman to do in such a situation?
On the one hand, defending a Republican elected official against claims that he isn’t conservative enough is an icky, sticky place to be, kind of like a contested primary.
But – if he sees this recall campaign for what we think it is – the effort of a Democratic mayor to solidify his “yes” votes by restructuring the city council, to override the voters who elected Harris, to surgically remove the quickly-growing lame-duck tumor (even Jim Villanucci spent hours bashing him on the radio this week) that’s taking over his office because of his refusal to deal with anybody outside his own party, all with an eye on victory in the hot Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2010 and an even hotter general election contest against a Republican opponent – a victory plan that will more-than-likely include higher taxes and a trolley car – then Harris’s voting record on other issues should be secondary, and C De Baca should take a public position of support for his Republican councilor.
He should do that at least until Harris is legitimately up for re-election in 2009, when any and all takers – those from the Marty Party and those from the Republican Party – can have a discussion about Harris’s voting record, especially since the streetcar tax is expected to re-emerge next year.
OK, we’ll see you back here next week. Same time, same place.