{"id":1815,"date":"2007-06-06T07:47:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-06T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/in-election-year-albuquerque-council-politics-are-wild\/"},"modified":"2007-06-06T07:47:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-06T13:47:00","slug":"in-election-year-albuquerque-council-politics-are-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/in-election-year-albuquerque-council-politics-are-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"In election year, Albuquerque council politics are wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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Jails, taxes, lies, bloggers, candidates who can\u2019t read a voting record\u2026 Will the GOP stay mum?<\/p>\n

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Welcome to Campaign Albuquerque 2007!<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re going to stick with Albuquerque<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> stuff today, because it really doesn\u2019t get any better than this!<\/p>\n

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By now, you know that the Albuquerque City Council<\/a> handed Mayor and gubernatorial candidate Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> a stiff defeat on Monday when it overrode his veto, keeping in place $9 million for jail funding.<\/p>\n

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On a 6-3 vote that crossed party lines, a majority of the council said \u201cNo\u201d to Mayor Marty and his latest attempt to funnel public safety dollars into his special projects.<\/p>\n

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Eye on Albuquerque<\/a> had a pretty good take on the whole jail battle earlier this week.<\/p>\n

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But how is the are-we-supposed-to-give-money-to-the-jail-or-are-we-wasting-tax-dollars argument between the mayor and council playing out in this year\u2019s elections?<\/p>\n

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Golly gee\u2026 Do we have enough time to cover it all?<\/p>\n

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As we wrote about last week, all even-numbered council districts are up for election in October. And with the mayor getting slapped in the face over jail funding by the council\u2019s veto-proof majority \u2013 some on the left, some on the right \u2013 the stakes this year couldn\u2019t be higher.<\/p>\n

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With Craig Loy<\/a> quitting the council, Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s die-hard support is dwindling to two votes \u2013 Councilors Sally Mayer<\/a> and Ken Sanchez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ch\u00e1vez is now regularly opposed by both Democrats and Republicans \u2013 a phenomenon not uncommon for elected officials who flop all over the place with no regard for any political or social philosophy.<\/p>\n

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Ch\u00e1vez is quickly becoming a friendless mayor, to say the least. So he needs to find some more friends, and he\u2019s turning up the heat to get it done.<\/p>\n

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Obviously, his tactics aren\u2019t sitting well with most members of the council.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s meeting, Councilor Don Harris<\/a> challenged the independence of the city clerk, Millie Santillanes<\/a>. He said the clerk serves at the will of the mayor and when she made a ruling last week to extend a filing deadline for one of the Ch\u00e1vez-backed candidates, it raised serious questions.<\/p>\n

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Did she, or did she not, unfairly apply the deadline rules? Break the law? Provide favoritism within the official elections office?<\/p>\n

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Some people<\/a> are trying to answer that.<\/p>\n

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But, we\u2019ll guess the inquiry goes nowhere since the candidate, Katherine Martinez, failed to come up with the minimum number of contributions to qualify for public financing anyway \u2013 an out-of-the-gates failure that doesn\u2019t bode well for her upcoming run against Council President Debbie O\u2019Malley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s still good to ask the questions, no?<\/p>\n

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Because this isn\u2019t the first time Santillanes has had to defend herself against questionable activity, and it likely won\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n

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Anyway\u2026<\/p>\n

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What about Councilor Michael Cadigan<\/a> asking the inspector general to investigate those recent radio ads and robo calls that lied about Councilor Brad Winter\u2019s<\/a> voting record?<\/p>\n

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That was good stuff\u2026<\/p>\n

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Cadigan said the ads were false and likely didn\u2019t comply with city finance laws.<\/p>\n

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Ya THINK???<\/p>\n

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Either The Citizens for Responsible Budgets<\/a> \u2013 now dubbed by the WMQB as \u201cThe Group that Lies\u201d \u2013 apparently doesn\u2019t know how to read an official voting record, or doesn\u2019t WANT to read it… or something.<\/p>\n

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And now, it appears that Winter\u2019s opponent in this year\u2019s election \u2013 Paulette de’Pascal<\/a> \u2013 is either in cahoots with \u201cThe Group that Lies\u201d or is just repeating the lies that she heard on the radio.<\/p>\n

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Because she\u2019s saying the exact same stuff. Go figure.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s what blogger Joe Monahan<\/a> wrote Monday:<\/p>\n

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\u201cShe (de’Pascal) tells me Winter\u2019s support of a six-month delay in the mayor\u2019s 1\/8 of a cent cut in the city\u2019s gross receipts tax is a sign of his being \u2018out of touch\u2019 with his conservative to moderate NE Heights district.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Oh boy\u2026<\/p>\n

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Winter never tried to delay<\/a> the tax cut. Never. WRONGO! Even the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> reported on it.<\/p>\n

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Voting record, people\u2026 You can research votes online now\u2026 It\u2019s pretty simple. <\/p>\n

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So here\u2019s our WMQB tip of the day \u2013 we offer it to The Group That Lies and Winter\u2019s challenger (collectively, we\u2019ll now call them \u201cThe Group That Cannot Read\u201d).<\/p>\n

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To you, we say if SOMEONE tells you that SOMEONE voted SOMEWAY, and you want to make a public issue of it, double check the vote record first!<\/p>\n

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After all, you wouldn\u2019t want to be legally responsible for slandering an elected official. Of course, if push comes to shove, you could always say, \u201cIt\u2019s not my fault! Marty told me to say it!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Now that\u2019d be a good defense\u2026<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re kidding, of course, with that whole \u201cMarty told me to\u201d thing. We really don\u2019t know who started the nastiness. But it was only like $5,000 worth of lies, or so.<\/p>\n

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Peanuts, right?<\/p>\n

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OK \u2013 now, what about the Republican Party<\/a>? You\u2019d think they would step up to defend their few-and-far-between conservative councilors when they are falsely attacked, no? Maybe a press release? Maybe a press conference? <\/p>\n

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Hello? Mr. Bernalillo County GOP Chairman Fernando C De Baca? Are you out there? How about a little love for your Republican councilors, the ones who have consistently voted for tax cuts? The ones who opposed the mayor\u2019s streetcar tax? <\/p>\n

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No interest? <\/p>\n

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Odd. I Wonder why\u2026<\/p>\n

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OK \u2013 There you have it! We\u2019re off and running! Should we talk about something other than Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> city politics next week? Send your comments \u2013 as always \u2013 to wednesdaymorningqb@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ll see you next Wednesday!<\/p>\n

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

By Whitney Cheshire Jails, taxes, lies, bloggers, candidates who can\u2019t read a voting record\u2026 Will the GOP stay mum? Welcome to Campaign Albuquerque 2007! We\u2019re going to stick with Albuquerque stuff today, because it really doesn\u2019t get any better than this! By now, you know that the Albuquerque City Council handed Mayor and gubernatorial candidate […]<\/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-1815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cheshire-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815","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=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}