The New Mexico Senate seems headed for a more liberal bent next year but don't expect it to be an all-out embrace of the progressive agenda. That's the word from Roundhouse watchers who say there are early signs that R's and others are making overtures to a group of senators planted firmly in the center of the political spectrum: They are:

Senators Joe Cervantes, Michael Padilla, Daniel Ivey-Soto, Bobby Gonzales, Jacob Candelaria and George Munoz, the conservative Dem the progressives failed to oust at the June primary.

All of them have had their ambitions uncapped with the primary defeats of longtime conservative Dem Senators Smith, Sanchez and Papen. Now the jockeying begins to fill the void. Lobbyists, business interests such as big oil and others with skin in the game are hopeful the centrist senators can hold the line on such items as higher taxes. It may not be an exact replica of the now crumbling conservative coalition comprised of all the Senate Republicans and a half dozen or so of conservative D's, but it could be a check on leftward momentum. The fly in the ointment? If the Republicans were to lose any seats in the November election it would be more difficult to thwart the progressives.

GOING VIRTUAL

Odds are the pandemic will prevent most voters from sizing up prospective office holders in person this election year. State Dems have gone deep into to the digital world as they try to make up for the missing personal touch. Here's a Facebook campaign rally featuring the party's major office seekers and others. It's not the same as a round of rousing speeches at a matanza but it is something:

Viewers heard from Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, Representatives Ben Ray Luján, Deb Haaland and Xochitl Torres Small, Candidate for U.S. House Teresa Leger Fernandez , Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, Senate Majority Whip Mimi Stewart, NM House Speaker Brian Egolf, Justices Shannon Bacon and David Thomson, Judges Zach Ives and Shammara Henderson and DPNM Chair Marg Elliston.

Over on the R side of the aisle NM GOP Chairman Steve Pearce isn't taking a summer break yet from his regular podcast "Inside NM." His latest episode fires up the GOP faithful as he discusses "the radical left-led anarchy sweeping the country."

THE BOTTOM LINES

A headline from HuffPo: "Thanks to a controversial New Mexico rule, rich landowners are staking claim to the state’s public waterways". . .

The link posted Tuesday listing the NM delegates to the Democratic national Convention did not work for a time. Here it is again.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020