First came the Benton bashing now it's the Zack attack.

ABQ City Councilor Ike Benton is getting bruised in the mailboxes from an independent committee backing Zack Quintero in the six way District 2 city council battle in the Nov, 5 election. Now an indy committee backing Benton--Progressive ABQ--gives political newcomer Quintero his first encounter with the sting of La Politica.

In the mailer posted here Quintero is scored for saying he was hired as an economist for the city of Santa Fe. The recent UNM School of Law grad is not an economist and Santa Fe doesn't even have one on the payroll. So you get this hit:

Why won't Quintero tell the truth about his job history? Because he's not qualified to be our city councilor. Quintero keeps saying he was Santa Fe's "city economist" when, in fact, he was an entry level employee and Santa Fe doesn’t even employ a city economist.

Quintero says that the job title of "Economic Development Specialist" that he was given did not match the actual work that he did and that he was indeed an economist.

Well, that's a thin reed to try to stand on and the Benton backers got their revenge.

As for the black and white pic of Zack appearing to appraise a poker hand, we don't know what that has to do with him fudging a job title, but we do know his hole card. If he can somehow keep Benton below 50 percent Election Night he would force a run-off election. Now that would be a high limit poker game.

BENTON RAILS 

Meanwhile, Councilor Benton is taking umbrage with our recommendation that voters cast ballots against the $8 million in Metropolitan Redevelopment Bonds. Five million of those bonds would go to "clean-up" the historic Rail Yards in Barelas which we see turning into a bottomless money pit. Benton paints a different picture:

Say it ain’t so, Joe! I’m disappointed to see you oppose the GO bond, and suggest demolition of the historic Rail Yards. . . Do you want to add this to the Alvarado, Franciscan and other tragic losses? The purchase by the city was a longstanding priority of the Barelas neighborhood and preservation advocates. I enthusiastically followed through in 2007 by assembling funding for that purchase with Mayor Chavez. Even through tough times and meager funding, the Sunday market is now a huge and growing success. CNM’s film institute will provide a strong anchor for other tenants. These amazing structures are widely recognized and are on the National Historic Register for historic preservation. The redevelopment has exceptionally strong support not only in the adjoining neighborhoods, but the wider community – witness the $7.5M bipartisan funding support from state this year, which we are attempting to leverage with the GO Bond. 

The Sunday market is a plus and if CNM follows through with the film plans that too would be an added plus. But there's much land there, so what else? After 12 years there have been no big bites from the private sector and the "clean-up" costs keep mounting. That looks like the beginning of a money pit. We expect the Yards bond to prevail, but then so did the ART project--until it didn't.

MILLIONS AND BILLIONS

In our first draft Wednesday we blogged that the APS bond issue was $100 billion. That would be nice, but it's only $100 million. And in quoting a release from Mayor Keller he said the economic impact of the city's $128 million bond issue from jobs etc. would be $1.5 million. That should be $1.5 billion.

THAT LEAGUE GUIDE

Cheryl Haaker of the League of Women Voters Central NM writes:

Joe, Thanks for the shout-out and link in Wednesday's blog! We could tell that people were using it by all the calls that came in reporting "issues." I've since corrected everything reported and am standing by if there are more. You've got a great readership and the League really appreciates your work.

We're glad to hear that, Cheryl. And for those that had trouble accessing the voter guide, here again is the link.

HAPPY 16TH

Me in 2006

Cheryl thanking our readers brings to mind that this month marks the 16th year of NM Politics with Joe Monahan. That Sweet 16 Birthday makes this the longest running political column in the state and one of the longest in the USA.

We started in the Internet Stone Age in 2003 but the basics remain the same and always will--write to add value to the lives of your readers and like what you do, even on the rough days. There's a whole lot of other stuff that goes into the mix but a killer sunset and the World Series are both playing right now. Catch you later, Gators. (And thanks for tuning in).

This is the home of New Mexico politics.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019