Sen. Stefanics

Get ready for a heavy duty courtship of Democratic women by Rep. Ben Ray Lujan and Maggie Toulouse Oliver as they clash for their party's US Senate nomination.

MTO is expected to formally enter the race as soon as this week which has prompted BRL to launch a preemptive strike. His campaign is expected today to announce its first wave of women supporters--about 300 of them. That will come on the heels of endorsements of BRL from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and ABQ Dem US Rep. Deb Haaland. Among the women we're told getting on the BRL bandwagon early are:

Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish; PRC Commissioner Linda Lovejoy; former Attorney General Patricia Madrid and popular Santa Fe State Senator Liz Stefanics.

Those are longtime Dems BRL has enlisted. MTO supporters would call them "establishment Dems." Her appeal, they say, will be with the new generations of Dem women. The contenders will have plenty of time to roll out their female support. It's still over 13 months until the primary election.

ROUNDHOUSE WATCH

87 year old State Senator Mary Kay Papen might be ready to wrap up what would be a 20 year stint in Santa Fe, but a Senate elder statesman says he's ready for another four years.

ABQ Dem Senator Jerry Oritz y Pino, who turns 77 in August, says he will run for another four year term in 2020. He was first elected from his downtown district in 2004. He is regarded as the leading liberal at the Roundhouse. Asked why he is ready to go back, he said: "I am having too much fun."  Well, glad someone is. . .

As for Mary Kay, who will turn 88 before next year's June primary, she's just drawn a spirited challenger for her primary and that could be enough to persuade her the time is right to take her leave. She says:

I’m not a spring chicken, and I don’t own the seat.

Tracy Perry

38 year old Tracy Perry has announced her Dem candidacy for Senate District 38 in Dona Ana County and is running as a "progressive Democrat." That's important because if she were to replace Papen, who is the Senate President Pro Tem, it would be a blow to the conservative Senate coalition.

Papen is one of a handful of Dem senators who sometimes vote with the Republicans to form a majority coalition that often dooms progressive bills. The progressives have said that they will be going after coalition members and Papen made the list.

Perry, a single mother of three, is the director of Direct Therapy Services which works with the developmentally disabled. She has lobbied for the cause in Santa Fe. This is her first run for public office. She is a member of Emerge NM which specializes in recruiting women candidates.

Meantime, Raymond Concho of Acoma Pueblo, who told us earlier this year that he might mount a primary challenge against another member of the coalition--Dem Senator Clemente Sanchez of Grants--tells us he is still undecided but should make a decision soon.

LOSE A SEAT?

Reader Cheryl Haaker wonders about a possible political angle to the state's nearly decade-long population stagnation that we blogged of Monday:

Joe, thanks for all the figures comparing "now" with the previous Census. And, speaking of the Census, what do your experts and Gators think about the possibility that New Mexico could actually lose a seat in Congress? Now, back to catching up with Game of Thrones and reading the (redacted) Mueller report...

Not to worry just yet, Cheryl. Enjoy Game of Thrones in peace because Election Data Services, which monitors such matters, does not have New Mexico on its hit list:

The Census Bureau’s 2018 total population estimates shows that now 13 states will be impacted by changes in their congressional delegation if these new numbers were used for apportionment today. The state of Arizona joins the previously indicated states of Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Oregon to each gain a single seat while the state of Texas is now shown to gain a second seat with the new data. The states of Rhode Island join the states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to lose a seat in Congress using the new data.

By the way, in the first draft of the Monday blog we had a typo in reporting the state's population from the Census. The percentage change of 1.8 percent from 2010 until 2018 was correct but the total population should have stated that we went from 2.059 million to 2.095 million.

THEY WANT OUT 

Another reader writes:

Joe, Very well done. Nobody else is saying it and it's all so very true and important. I've got daughters in UNM law and med schools, and listening to them and their many friends, they all want out of Albuquerque as soon as they get degrees.

You credited the legislature for making progress this past session in changing all this. What are you referring to? I'm unconvinced unless you conclude more spending on primary education will reliably yield changes to the key issues you aptly summarized.

Nothing this session to immediately tackle crime, drugs, or advance better job creation. Perhaps minimum wage increases, but that doesn't seem to have arrested the slide in the cities which raised their minimums years ago. But hey, although Bernalillo County grew by only 15 people in the past year, it's now safe from the threats of plastic bags.

Maybe Mayor Keller can give those 15 newcomers a year's supply of paper bags for making the move here? If not that, how about some bullet proof vests?

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com)

Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. 

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019