ABQ South Valley Alligators are yelling "nepotism" and even stronger words of derision in the direction of Bernalillo County Commissioner Steve Gallegos who they say is engineering a fast-moving drive to have his brother, Diego "Dickie" Gallegos, named to the State House seat vacated by James Taylor. The 38 year old Taylor was appointed to the State Senate seat vacated by Manny Aragon when Manny took over the presidency of NM Highlands University.

The commission has the power to name a replacement and sources reported Tuesday that the commission is talking about doing just that at its meeting next Tuesday. But the word that Dickie Gallegos, a superintendent with the Albuquerque Public Schools, was being set up for the post by his brother had the alligators in an uproar.

The Gallegos name is no surprise. We broke the story about him wanting the seat back in June,(see July 13 in the archives) but now that he actually may get the coveted post, generations-old rivalries only fully understood deep in the birthplace of La Politica have come to the fore.

"I don't think the commission should fill the seat. Why not let it stay vacant and let the Democratic Party Central Committee name a replacement for Taylor. That would be fair to everyone. The way it's going it looks like a rush job and a wire job," splashed one gator whose family has three hundred year ties to the fabled Valley political scene.

INSIDE THE MOVIDA

But Steve Gallegos may have the three commission votes necessary to engineer this movida. However, naming Dickie to the State House doesn't guarantee the 34 central committee members from the Valley House District will name him as the candidate for the two year term up for grabs on the November ballot.

"We could have Gallegos getting the nod from the commission to finish out Taylor's term, which runs until the end of the year, but a different candidate named by the central committee for the two year term," another deep Valley insider told me.

STEVE
NM educator Ralph Sigala and longtime Valley politicos Ernest Chavez and Art De La Cruz are the two other contenders mentioned to fill Taylor's shoes. A labor union candidate could also be added to the mix, sources say. Chavez told me point-blank Tuesday that he has commitments from a majority of the Dem committee members. Supporters of Sigala are also saying their man has a good shot with the party panel.

Where is Big Bill on all of this? Hard to gauge. Some speculated that Steve Gallegos has already talked with the Guv and the deal is done. But others are hoping that that is not the case and are now working overtime to put pressure on Steve and his chief commission ally, Alan Armijo, to back-off on pushing Gallegos' brother forward.

The alligators also brought out the long knives against Dickie as they try to stop his head of steam. "He is not popular in the Valley. He ran for the county commission seat down here and got beat bad. Also, Steve should not be allowed to vote on the issue if his brother is the candidate. Its nepotism and a conflict of interest," said one gator close to the action.

Nepotism in the South Valley! Spare my virgin ears!

Valley powerhouse Orlando Vigil is said to be supporting Sigala so if the commission goes ahead and names Dickie Gallegos the sparks could fly. Meanwhile, Taylor, safely appointed to the Senate, is staying out of the fray directly, although friends of his say he has a fondness for Sigala.

The Dem central committee is expected to meet at mid-month, well past next Tuesday's county commission meeting; a meeting which will now be watched across the plains of La Politica as the ancient and mysterious art of South Valley political power playing surfaces yet again in yet another century.

A NEW NM PREZ PLAYER

Ralph Nader isn't the only third party candidate the big parties have to worry about. The Libertarian Party Prez contender, Michael Badnarik, hit the New Mexico airwaves Tuesday night with $65,000 in ads slamming both the Prez and Senator Kerry.

"George Bush is determined to keep the war going," a narrator's voice intones over images of flag-draped coffins. The narrator continues with, "Even more frightening, John Kerry wants to send more troops to Iraq."

Badnarik, 50, a computer software engineer from Austin, is already on the NM ballot, unlike Nader whose supporters just started gathering petition signatures.

Badnarik's campaign says as many as 20% of Republicans nationally, according to their polling, could be swayed to vote against the Prez because of the Iraq war. The $65 grand might not be a big buy in other states, but it is enough to garner major attention in NM where TV time is much cheaper than elsewhere. In fact, the Libertarian Prez ad is only running in our state.

Make our site, WWW.JOEMONAHAN.COM, one of your favorites and e-mail a link to interested friends. Interested in advertising to NM's large political community? E-mail me from the top right of this page, or call 505-243-4059 for details.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2004
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