My records on city politics show the last time a city bond issue being defeated was back in 1985. It's been a clean sweep ever since. But bond advocates in the upcoming city election are working extra hard to keep that record intact. They tell "New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan" they have raised a whopping $50,000.00 from mostly business interests to fight for passage of $158 million in bonds voters will decide October 28th. Why?

Simple. The street bond issue on the ballot totals $52 million, but $12 million of that would go to the hyper-controversial Paseo Del Norte extension near Petroglyph National Monument on the city's westside. Veteran PR and marketing man Gerges Scott has signed on with the bond advocates and told me there will be one city wide mailing to likely voters and then separate mailings into the city council districts where there are contested races. Also, neighborhood groups on the westside have mobilized to turn out the vote to get the bonds passed. All this because environmental groups, led by "1000 Friends of New Mexico" are urging a "no" vote on the street bonds. At least one city council candidate, Debbie O'Malley in District Two, has come out AGAINST the street bonds. Combine the 1000 Friends with other environmental and Native American groups and you have the makings of a much closer bond election, at least on the street bond issue, than we have seen in a long time.

Scott tells me the literature going out in favor of the Paseo bonds will say citizens are getting "misleading information." Paseo, he asserts, will not do damage to any petroglyphs, contrary to his opponents' assertions. And, he retorts, not building the extension will cause even more air pollution from idle cars, something environmentalists should be aware of.

Meanwhile, the Sage Council, an organization opposed to Paseo, has contributed $3000 to the Stop Tax Waste group, the name of the committee fighting the street bonds and Paseo. The group has raised a total of $6,000, nowhere near enough to compete with the Bond Advocacy group, whose treasurer is Jimmie Trujillo, a CPA, and outgoing President of the Hispano Chamber of Commerce. But Paseo foes have shown themselves to be tenacious and they don't need as much money to get their message out.

KOB-TV's Neil Simon ran a piece that had anti-Paseo voters complaining that they mistakenly voted FOR the street bonds on their absentee ballots because Paseo is not specifically mentioned in the issue and they felt deceived because of it. They can blame the City Council for that. When considering the bond resolution a motion to mention Paseo and vote on it separately was defeated. Bond advocates knew that could spell real trouble if passed. So the Paseo money is tucked in with the $52 million street bond issue and you have to vote down all the street bonds if you want to get at Paseo. Scott says that's another big reason to vote FOR the issue. "This is important to all neighborhoods in ABQ.'' He said. "These are long awaited street improvements all over the city that will die if this bond goes down." Anti Paseo voters will have to weigh that when they trek to the polls October 28th. And they will have at least $50,000 worth of messages from the Bond Advocacy group before them when they do it.