REP. WHITE
A new, young face on the GOP scene may be thrust into the middle of the ongoing battle for the heart and soul of the Grand Old Party. State Rep. Bob White of the Northeast Heights of ABQ is out and out declaring that 24 year old Justine Young is going to run against him in the GOP primary next June and that he is preparing for battle. Justine Young is a former Legislative Finance Committee staffer and currently secretary to lawyer and Republican National Committeeman Mickey Barnett, associate of former GOP Chair Dendahl and a leader of the hard right of the GOP. The obvious take by White is that the young Ms. Young would be a tool of Barnett in the Legislature.

But Justine demurs when asked if she is about to enter the intraparty fray by taking on the 61 year old White. "I'm considering a lot of things, running for political office is one of them," she tells me. But tellingly she would not rule herself out of a race against White, who was elected two years ago to replace retiring GOP Rep. Pauline Gubbels. White, owner of The Print Shop, which does a lot of business from political candidates, says he is ready to take on the forces of Barnett and that "I can outprint them, that's for sure. I will raise the necessary funds and will fight to keep my seat because I have a good voting record. I will take on all comers."

That's fighting language and he better be prepared to fight because Republican sources tell me White's vote FOR Gov. Bill's road tax package in the House Taxation Committee may be the weapon used against him by any primary foe that does surface. White did vote NO on the road tax when it went before the full House. Running opponents against Republicans who were not seen as "conservative" enough was a feature of the Dendahl years and a feature new GOP Chair Gorham vows to do away with. But she does not have full control of the party and what will be, will be. It all seems self-destructive to neutral observers since it is so hard to elect ANY Republican to the Legislature, never mind a "conservative" or "moderate" one, but still the family war goes on.

Ms. Young is a graduate of Brown University and not without some politics in her background. Her father is Democrat Charlie Young, one of the leading healthcare lobbyists in the state. He also was a top aide to former ABQ Mayor Ken Schultz back in the 80's and has since been a fixture on the state political scene. Trying to pin down his daughter on her political plans proved difficult with her telling me: "This is turning into a full-time job for you, isn't it?" Justine, full-time doesn't come close to describing the wonderful world of la politica. It's not a job; it's a life. They don't teach that at school, but you learn fast when you enter the fray. Just ask your dad, or Bob White.

IN DEFENSE OF SENATOR PETE
Reaction was swift and sometimes furious to our report regarding Metro Court Judge Denise Barela-Shepherd and her prospects for a District Court judgeship. (See Story Below) A fan of Sen. Pete's emails in that the "Democratic losers" are "crazy" for saying Pete and Gov. Bill are in cahoots to promote the GOP's Shepherd and must be "smoking funny stuff in their pipes." Here's more: "Do they really think Pete (while negotiating national energy policy) has the time to deal with this level of politics? I sure wish he did, because if he did, they would feel the wrath of the St. Pete they so fear!"

And Republican Seth Heath hammered the Democratic sources who complained to me that Gov. Johnson appointed mostly Republicans to judgeships during his tenure. Emailing from UNM Heath says: "The former Dean of the Law School and former Chair of the judicial selection committee did a presentation for a class of mine that showed Johnson's appointments were dang near 50/50 between the parties. So tell your Dem sources to get their facts straight before making false accusations."

You just did Seth. I welcome comment and reaction to all sides of the stories we report here so keep the e mails coming. There's a link to do so at the top of the page.

THE GUV'S PERMANENT CAMPAIGN

Amanda Cooper is a top political operative for Big Bill and also the daughter of NM Congressman Tom Udall and his wife Jill Cooper. Jill was Director of the NM Cultural Afffairs Dept. back in the 80's. Amanda helped Bill with the constitutional amendment election in September. It narrowly passed. Now the talented politico has been tapped to run a campaign office for the Guv in downtown Santa Fe. A campaign office? Already? Yup. The Santa Fe New Mexican's chief political correspondent, Steve Terrell, has the story for us http://www.sfnewmexican.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=15&ArticleID=35900

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2003
Not for reproduction without permission of the author