HARRIET & RAY
It was over before it began. The short-lived battle over who would get named to run for the State House seat left vacant by the untimely death of Ray Ruiz came to an abrupt end over the weekend when Dan Serrano dropped his challenge and endorsed Ruiz's widow Harriet. Insiders report Serrano was stymied in his bid when Bernalillo County Dem Chair Linda Lopez would not accept a handful of proxy votes for Serrano, who had argued that Harriet should get to fill out Ray's unexpired term running until the end of the year, but that the new two year term that voters in the ABQ Westside district will decide in November "belongs to the people."

Serrano supporters say even with the proxy votes he was still a couple of votes shy and decided a fight would not be worth it. Rumors circulated at the meeting of the Democratic Party Central Committee members who made the ballot decision about any involvement of Big Bill in the Ruiz-Serrano contest. But insiders say Bill did not work this one and that Harriet had enough votes from the get-go.

RAMSAY'S REPLACEMENT

One of the most closely watched state senate races in NM is already drawing some early buzz as friends of Republican John Ryan report he is just back from Washington D.C. with about $10,000 freshly raised for his fight against Democrat John Hooker. This one is for the senate seat held by Ramsay Gorham who resigned as chairman of the state GOP and declined to run again for her senate seat after a fierce intra-party duel.

A Republican who has run the numbers in the mainly ABQ North Valley district says the "performance" in that race should run 52 percent R and 48 percent Dem. That means Hooker, an architect who lost his recent re-election bid as Mayor of Los Ranchos, can keep the race in play. The Democratic consultant group, Soltari, is on the job for Hooker.

Ryan is a former legislative aide to Senator Domenici and ex-Congressman Skeen. He revived his old contacts to raise the 10 grand in D.C. Ryan, according to voters in the district, is working it. "He showed up on my doorstep in the Republican primary, even though he was unopposed," one said. Ryan is also a former executive director of the NM GOP under former state chair John Dendahl. Some politicos wonder if Ramsay, who was ousted from her chairmanship by the Dendahlites, will have anything to say in the race one way or the other. And if she does, whether it will have any impact.

OUR NEW SPONSOR SPEAKS: NM LEGISLATIVE REPORTS

Any self-respecting New Mexico political junkie needs to check out NM Legislative Reports. It is the insiders guide to all Roundhouse happenings, and an essential tool to anyone whose business is impacted by lawmakers. Here's a note from NMLR owner Beverly Garcia:

"New Mexico Legislative Reports (NMLR) is published daily during each regular and special session of the New Mexico Legislature. NMLR, New Mexico's leader in legislative tracking tools and services for 23 years, is proud to offer the very best legislative tracking services available anywhere.

Our state-of-the-art web site offers everything that governmental affairs professionals need to effectively monitor legislation."

Thanks Beverly and welcome aboard. I am pleased to have NMLR as our latest sponsor and urge all my readers to check out their offerings. NMLR is an indispensable tool for those serious about monitoring state government action. Just click on the logo to visit.

Make our site---www.joemonahan.com--one of your 'favorites.' Bookmark it now and send a link to interested friends. Want to advertise to NM's large political community? E-mail me or call 505-243-4059 for details. And thanks for e-mailing me your news tips and comments. There's a link at the top right of this page.

(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2004
Not for reproduction without permission of the author