A lot of retired state employees are celebrating this:

State Senator George Munoz, chairman of the pension oversight committee, said that it will be hard to approve a pension reform bill during next year's rapid-fire, 30-day legislative session.

In the Dec. 10 run-off for the District 4 ABQ City Council seat in the NE Heights And Romero is working to consolidate the Democratic vote:

Athena Christodoulou endorsed Ane Romero in the run-off. Christodoulou placed third in the race, but garnered enough votes in the November 5 election to prevent either Romero or Brook Bassan from achieving 50% of the total vote, thereby triggering the run-off.

Republican Bassan came out on top in the initial three way race.

During the recent city election one of the Alligators--in a somewhat epic rant--blasted the entire public finance system while critiquing the Democracy Dollars proposition that failed. He asserted that since its beginning in 2005 public financing has given us one of the lousiest city councils in history. Then City Councilor Eric Griego, the current director of the progressive NM Working Families Party, sponsored the public finance legislation. He responded:

First, the voters passed public financing on the 2005 ballot by 69%. Is the anonymous critic saying the overwhelming majority of Albuquerque voters were wrong to try to reduce the influence of special interest donors? That might be great for corporate lobbyists who raise thousands for privately-financed candidates but not so much for average Burqueños. The anonymous critic also conveniently left out the privately-funded Mayor RJ Berry, who presided over the inept ART implementation and the recent crime wave. Berry was privately funded to the tune of $1 million from mostly big developers and corporate interests. How did that work out?

Also, that's a pretty long list of City Councilors the writer suggests are worthless. Does your anonymous alligator really think nothing good has happened in the city in 14 years? If so, maybe it's time for him/her to either run for Council or consider moving somewhere else. Maybe public financing could help with that.

VETERANS DAY 

Eric Lucero is a NM National Guard veteran who served in Iraq and a film reviewer in his spare time. On this day he comes with this:

Midway (2019), WWII War Epic (PG-13) *** Stars out of 5.

Director Emmerich (Independence Day, 1997) and company offers us this Veterans Day a true and compelling story of triumph and tragedy and a life and death clash of national wills as personified by both the US and Japanese navies during WWII.

Midway is a compilation of key naval events that ultimately turned the tide of WWII in our favor in mid-1942. Until then the Allies, which the United States was a full fledged member, were losing in both the European and Pacific Theaters.

This film details the horrid December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack with restraint. This “Day of Infamy” necessitated our entry into WWII, which would lead to the Doolittle Bombing Raid of Tokyo and later to the pivotal Midway Naval Battle.

Midway is a blunt and complex story with many character arcs. This single battle defined our willingness as a nation to meet and rebuff the Axis Powers extinction level threat to our representative democracy. Emmerich’s narrative will pull in both young and older viewers. This amazingly accurate, gripping and moving film is well worth the 2 plus hours of your time. You will clap at its conclusion.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2019