{"id":1787,"date":"2007-05-30T00:50:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-30T06:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/duke-city-starts-experiment-in-public-financing\/"},"modified":"2007-05-30T00:50:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-30T06:50:00","slug":"duke-city-starts-experiment-in-public-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/05\/duke-city-starts-experiment-in-public-financing\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke City starts experiment in public financing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today marks the start of a weekly column on this site written by Whitney Cheshire, a conservative New Mexico<\/st1:place> campaign consultant. If you missed last week\u2019s announcement, read it by clicking here<\/a>.<\/span> <\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>By Whitney Cheshire<\/p>\n

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The Duke<\/st1:placename> City<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> starts its experiment in taxpayer-funded campaigns this year \u2013<\/p>\n

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But does anybody want to guess about the Mayor Marty Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> factor? We\u2019ve got some good Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> stuff for you today\u2026 <\/p>\n

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YO! <\/p>\n

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You\u2019ve found the WMQB at our new home. We\u2019re sure happy to be here! We\u2019ve swept off the welcome mat, planted a geranium by the front door\u2026 and YES! The living room couch still feels the same.<\/p>\n

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So welcome!<\/p>\n

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As of this morning, 10 candidates running for the Albuquerque<\/st1:placename> City Council<\/a> could use taxpayer money for their campaigns this year. <\/st1:place><\/p>\n

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This is the first year that Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> candidates can take part in this TRAVESTY of a public policy.<\/p>\n

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The District 8 seat is being vacated by Councilor Craig Loy and, so far, only one candidate \u2013 Trudy Jones \u2013 has announced her intention to run. But, thankfully, she\u2019s an R who didn\u2019t file any paperwork for the publicly funded program. <\/p>\n

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That leaves 10 candidates spread out over three districts\u2026<\/p>\n

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Maybe we should be happy that there are only 10, since anyone who qualifies for financing gets financing, and the price tag is around $25,000 per person, to start.<\/p>\n

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So here\u2019s our first WMQB prediction from Heath\u2019s place \u2013 in two years, the number of candidates who seek public financing for city office will double.<\/p>\n

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At least\u2026<\/p>\n

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And we\u2019ll ALL be paying for it, whether we like them or not.<\/p>\n

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Anyway, to qualify, candidates have to collect about 300-350 individual contributions from voters in their district – five bucks each \u2013 and they only have one month to get it done. This requires no small amount of work. Banging on doors to get petition signatures is one thing. Asking people to go back inside and take out the wallets is an entirely different animal.<\/p>\n

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Should we call it a BEAR?<\/p>\n

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The difficulty factor is about the only good thing we can say about this new law.<\/p>\n

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But as of this morning, three candidates for District 2 are still \u201ccollecting,\u201d and two will likely get it done \u2013 Council President Debbie O\u2019Malley and challenger Katherine Martinez. <\/p>\n

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District 4 incumbent R Brad Winter won\u2019t seek tax money to run his race, but his opponent, Paulette de Pascal, is turning in her qualifying contributions, a move which in itself could doom her candidacy in the heavily republican Northeast<\/st1:placename> Heights<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> district. <\/p>\n

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In other words, de Pascal might need that $25,000 to explain to conservative voters why she wanted that $25,000.<\/p>\n

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District 6 apparently likes this public money thing. Six different candidates have announced their intention to go for it. Councilor Martin Heinrich will likely be vacating the seat for a congressional run, leaving the number at five.<\/p>\n

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Right now, Rey Gardu\u00f1o has already qualified for public funds, and Joan Griffin isn\u2019t far behind.<\/p>\n

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Mayor might be playing in council races<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So is that it??<\/p>\n

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Not really.<\/p>\n

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This year\u2019s election is gearing up to be a BIG Mayor-Ch\u00e1vez-versus-THE-COUNCIL type of showdown, a classic example of the executive branch trying to stack the legislative branch in its favor.<\/p>\n

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Remember the streetcar tax stuffing that Ch\u00e1vez took this year? Or his lost pandas and special ornamental park?<\/p>\n

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He could use some more friendly votes on the council, no?<\/p>\n

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Ch\u00e1vez is rumored to be pulling the strings of certain campaigns \u2013 namely those of Martinez<\/st1:city> in District 2, de Pascal in District 4 and Griffin<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in District 6. How vocal and obvious Ch\u00e1vez becomes in these races will likely depend on his candidates\u2019 individual abilities to perform, with the first do-or-die task being qualifying for those public dollars by tomorrow.<\/p>\n

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Will Ch\u00e1vez disavow any that fail? <\/p>\n

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Probably. <\/p>\n

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As of today, de Pascal seems to be struggling the most out of the three. It could be that she hasn\u2019t been given the help she expected, or she could be fighting an uphill battle at \u201cthe door\u201d in what is a fairly conservative district \u2013 one that not only elected incumbent Winter on two previous occasions, but one in which most voters probably have philosophical objections to publicly financed campaigners.<\/p>\n

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And like radio show host Jim Villanucci<\/a> quipping on the air that Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s most-hated season of the year is \u201cWinter,\u201d most ABQ politicos see the District 4 match up as an opportunity for Ch\u00e1vez to pound away on Winter without any real expectations of wresting the seat away from him. <\/p>\n

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Recorded phone messages about this year\u2019s budget votes \u2013 messages that skirt the edge of reality – have already been launched into Winter\u2019s district and are a clear indication that third-party groups, organized by some MYSTERIOUS stakeholders, have already started to form and will likely be active until October. <\/p>\n

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Our point?<\/p>\n

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If de Pascal manages to get her public dollars, she\u2019ll spend about $25,000 of OUR money to wage a battle that no one we\u2019ve spoken to thinks she can actually win, and her candidacy will give Ch\u00e1vez the open door he needs to continue his public relations war against one of those councilors who bugs him so darn much.<\/p>\n

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After all, it\u2019s not much fun to criticize a sitting official when he or she is running unopposed\u2026<\/p>\n

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So here\u2019s our WMQB pledge of the day \u2013 if de Pascal fails to meet the qualification hurtle this week, we will raise a glass and toast the writers of this HA-RI-BLE city law (that Ch\u00e1vez signed \u2013 thank you very much) for their foresight in making it QUITE DIFFICULT to get those funds, and we\u2019ll honestly tout it as a darn fine component of any possible public financing bill that may show up in Legislature 2008.<\/p>\n

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And if de Pascal DOES get \u2018er done? <\/p>\n

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The WMQB pledges to recruit republican candidates to run in those heavily democratic districts for the 2009 city elections. They\u2019ll lose, BUT OH THE FUN WE COULD HAVE WITH $25,000 EACH!!!!<\/p>\n

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OK! <\/p>\n

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Our e-mail\u2019s the same. Send the tips, comments, quips and COMPLAINTS to wednesdaymorningqb@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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See you next Wednesday\u2026<\/p>\n

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Cheshire<\/st1:city>, AKA the Wednesday Morning Quarterback, is a media relations and campaign consultant in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. Her column runs every Wednesday. You can learn more about her by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the start of a weekly column on this site written by Whitney Cheshire, a conservative New Mexico campaign consultant. If you missed last week\u2019s announcement, read it by clicking here. By Whitney Cheshire The Duke City starts its experiment in taxpayer-funded campaigns this year \u2013 But does anybody want to guess about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheshire-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}