NM Republicans won't go into hiding this week as the Democrats take center stage at their national convention in Boston. In fact, the GOP is set to grab some headlines of its own when Vice-President Dick Cheney heads out to Rio Rancho for a Thursday visit, according to R sources in the nation's capitol.

Cheney's visit to Rio Rancho is seen as wise by political experts who have been telling me for months that the NM Prez battle could well be decided in the suburbs of ABQ, meaning Rio Rancho and south to Valencia County,

Cheney's Rio Rancho visit will be the first foray into those crucial precincts by any of the candidates on the major party tickets. He is useful in energizing the hard-core Republican base and persuading conservative Dems to stay with the incumbent team.

Rio Rancho will soon be NM's third largest city and a big question this year is all those new residents out there. Will they vote? Cheney's Thursday touchdown is sure to be followed by the Kerry-Edwards team which so far has planted itself in ABQ when visiting.

The timing for Cheney is good from a media standpoint as well. Kerry is set to give his acceptance speech Thursday night, but Cheney will have a NM TV presence as well, ensuring the Dems don't have that center stage position all to themselves.

JOE THOMPSON'S RETURN

Another Republican is in the blog news today, resurfacing after withdrawing earlier this year from his race for re-election after being arrested for DWI. (See my March 4 report in the archives). ABQ NE Heights Rep and State House Minority Whip Joe Thompson is touting an outfit called "The Iraq/America Freedom Alliance." It bills itself as a "new campaign launched by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan organization devoted to winning the War on Terrorism and promoting democracy around the world."

The director of the foundation is a former communications director for the Republican National Committee.

According to Thompson's statewide e-mail: "The Iraq/America Freedom Alliance is dedicated to America winning the war in Iraq and the War on Terror. The invasion of Iraq is making America safer and has sent a powerful message to other regimes that cooperating with global terror is the wrong policy."

Pro-invasion is nonpartisan?

Thompson did not respond to e-mail inquires asking whether he was being paid for his work with the group. He decided not to seek re-election to his House seat after the DWI. But it appears he nurtures hope for a comeback someday.

His critics will be waiting. Several of them e-mailed in claiming it appeared Thompson was given the e-mail list of the state GOP to promote his involvement with the Bush policy-friendly Iraq alliance group, and if he did, whether that constitutes a donation by the GOP that needs to be reported.

Thompson has long been associated with the Dendahl wing of the state GOP, so the potshots from he opposing troops is no surprise.

TIME TRAVEL: NM 1968

Hey, how could the ABQ congressional district have been created in 1968? Aren't all new congressional districts formed right after the census which is taken at the beginning of each decade? I received that question from several astute readers when I was commenting (see my July 22 report) on this year's congressional contest between Dem Richard Romero and incumbent R Heather Wilson.

The answer is this: In 1967 Congress passed a law (PL 90-196) which prohibited at-large by states with more than one House seat. Only two states, Hawaii and New Mexico, were affected by this legislation: all other states by this time were using elections by districts.

This law was passed largely because of concern that, in the wake of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, southern states might resort to winner-take-all at-large elections to dilute the voting strength of newly-enfranchised blacks in the South.

Thus NM was one of only two states to create a new congressional seat before the 1970 census. By the way, that first district was huge, covering all of ABQ and most of northern NM. It was shrunk back in later years.

Thanks to former Congressman Skeen staffer Jerry McKinney and others for their e-mails on this one. Keep them coming. There is an e-mail link at the top right of the page.

Make our site, WWW.JOEMONAHAN.COM, one of your favorites and e-mail a link to interested friends. Interested in advertising to NM's large political community? E-mail me from the top right of this page, or call 505-243-4059 for details.

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