They say with ABQ Dem State Senator Tim Keller favored to be elected state auditor and vacate his position as Senate Majority Whip is shaping up to be a battle to watch is shaping up.. As it stands now there are three main contenders to succeed Keller in the leadership post. They are freshman ABQ Senators Michael Padilla and Jacob Candelaria and Sen. John Sapien of Sandoval County. Padilla is pegged as the most progressive of the lot with Sapien the most conservative and Candelaria hewing most to the middle.
Meanwhile, our legislative watchers break the news here that State Sen. Phil Griego continues to weigh a challenge to Senate Majority Leader Micheal Sanchez. Whether Griego will pull the trigger or not remains to be seen, but over the summer he did fire a volley at Sanchez over the power the majority leader wields over bringing individual bills to the floor. Does that mean if Griego somehow manages to take the majority leader post away from Sanchez, he would relinquish some of his power?
By the way, with Senate powerhouses like John Arthur Smith supporting Sanchez we don't exactly see the leader shaking in his boots over the prospect of a Griego challenge.
Over on the state House side all 70 members are up for re-election in November. With the chamber closely divided between the D's and R's everyone is waiting to see who will be given control on Election Night. If the D's do hang on, the battle for majority leader will hold center stage as ABQ's Rick Miera decided not to seek re-election. That leaves House Minority Whip Moe Maestas trying to climb the ladder with Rep. Debbie Rodella also eying the plum post. Other possible majority leader wannabees are eyeing the action closely from the sidelines.
NOT 50TH
The economic news for NM has been so sour for so long that sometimes you take heart just to see that we don't rank 50th in something. Like in this survey by Business Insider. It says that we are 48th in the nation in terms of experiencing the economic recovery. Alaska will have to hold it's nose on this one. It ranks last in the USA.
But you don't have to wait long for us to get shoved back down to 50th:
Births per 1,000 teenagers (ages 15–19) range from a low of 13.8 in New Hampshire to a high of 47.5 in New Mexico, according to the report from the National Center for Health Statistics based on 2012 data, the most recent available for the states.
Meantime, neighboring Colorado had the biggest drop in teen births 15 to 19. How did they do it? Here you go Fourth Floor and Roundhouse:
State public health officials are crediting a sustained, focused effort to offer low-income women free or low-cost long acting reversible contraception, that is, intrauterine devices or implants.
And one more survey that keeps us at the bottom of the barrel. It's the rate of employment for people aged 25 to 54 since the onset of the Great Recesion:
The state with the largest decline is New Mexico, where 9.2 percent fewer people are employed today than they were in 2007. Vermont and Nebraska had the smallest decline, both less than 1 percent, and 19 other states had declines that were determined to be not statistically significant.
RIGHT WING RADIO CRASH
We broke the news here this week that right-wing radio talk giant KKOB-AM crashed through another downside barrier--scoring only a 4.9 percent share of the ABQ audience, according to Nielsen Audio. Long the #1 station, KKOB now ranks second. The decline has been several years in the making and conservative Republican reader Paul Donisthorpe comes with one good explanation of why it has happened:
As a Sirius subscriber with multiple units there is absolutely no reason to listed to what local radio--talk or otherwise--has to offer. For me Direct-TV has made this the same relating to local TV--including the local news. The only reason I subscribe to the "paper" version of the ABQ Journal is to get access to the online version which blessedly now includes access to the Washington Post. Many days the "paper" is thrown in the recycle bin still folded with the rubber band intact. Calculating my ratings are really simple: Dan Patrick Show from 7-10 (broadcast locally on AM 1600, but mostly listened to on Sirius), CNBC business programming from 11-4. End of story.
TO BURQUE OR NOT TO BURQUE
