La Politica thrives on weddings and funerals and so it was Monday as much of the state's old line legal and political guard packed the downtown ABQ funeral of attorney, former State Senator and Sandoval County Commissoner and ultimate political junkie Edmund "Joe" Lang. After church, where mourners took in a eulogy of Lang by none other than Big Bill, they headed to a reception at the ABQ Convention Center where the talk, according to Alligators on hand, quickly turned to the legal battles being played out below most campaign radar.

First up, the NM Court of Appeals contest between Dem Michael Vigil, appointed to the court by Big Bill, and his GOP opponent, well-know attorney, former ABQ district judge and former legislator Paul Barber. The speculators were giving the edge to Vigil, a former law partner of legendary ABQ lawyer Billy Marchiondo, but said it is not out of the question that Barber could pull the upset.

"We have elected some R's to the appeals court, but Vigil may benefit from a big Dem turnout in the Prez race. Barber has strength in ABQ. If he could pull big numbers here, he could eke it out," commented one insider lawyer. But he also pointed out that Barber has not raised a whole lot of money and so the edge remains with Vigil.

The State Supreme Court race between Big Bill appointee and Dem Ed Chavez and the GOP's Ned Fuller is a "nonstarter," said one of our legal beagles. No R has won a Supreme Court seat in years. Chavez is loaded with campaign money, is respected among other lawyers and with a TV ad campaign reminding voters, "he should easily turn back Fuller," offered a young attorney obsessed with the ancient ways of La Politica.

HE SAID SHE SAID

Meanwhile, at the ABQ district court level, R Don Harris, hoping to unseat newly appointed District Court Judge Marie Baca, turned up the heat Monday lauding the fact that the Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Conduct rejected a complaint that Baca, a former longtime ABQ Metro Court judge, had filed against Harris. She claimed his web site misrepresents her record and "violated the bounds of proper judicial decorum." "The first Amendment protects my rights to criticize the courts," blasted Harris through the fax machines.

Some of the R court contenders are trying to inject the bizarre incidents of the year past into the races, hoping to rile up the voters. Those incidents include the drug bust of John Brennan while serving as chief judge, Judge Wendy York's, $1000 contribution to John Kerry and then not excusing herself from ruling on Ralph Nader's independent Prez candidacy and Judge Robert Thompson's'ruling on voter ID.

In he midst of all this turmoil, the legal lights at the funeral reception were relishing the fact that incumbent District Attorney Kari Brandenburg drew no opposition. "She's lucky the Brennan blow-up happened at mid-year, otherwise she might be on the firing line," said our tapped in barrister.

Lang, 57, died too young. But we know he would be happy that his going away party came in the middle of an election and caused yet another entry in the never ending saga of La Politica.

LINKING THE HOPEFULS

Here's our latest campaign web site link. It comes from the Jason Marks camp, a Dem seeking the ABQ seat on the Public Regulation Commission.

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
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