Senator Tom Udall called it a "solemn"moment but from afar it hardly seemed so. The Senate's vote to acquit President Trump of two impeachment charges received only a glance over the shoulder. The Iowa caucus debacle, the State of the Union featuring a handshake refusal and a ripped speech and the third impeachment of a US President all blurred together like a blender mixing varied colored fruit.

The fruit is decidedly bitter in DC while in the smallish burg of Santa Fe peace and goodwill, generally reign during the short thirty day legislative session, The main order of business, a $7.61 billion state budget for the year beginning July 1, has passed out of the House with a 7.5 increase over the current budget, thanks to the oil boom.

The terror in Santa Fe is that the boom will bust and a general disdain for spending in any climate by many lawmakers is especially pronounced in the lairs of the Legislative Finance and Senate Finance Committees. Thus the budget sets aside a record setting reserve fund of 26 percent or $2 billion. That should be enough when the sky falls.

The Governor did not argue. She will again get state employee and teacher raises and continue to back fill the deep hole of vacancies left in state government by her predecessor.

The budget bill also puts up $300 million for an early childhood trust fund that will generate a modest amount of annual dollars compared to the need.

It didn't make your phone ding much with "breaking news" but the lack of rancor over the budget was a relief of sorts when compared to the unrelenting acrimony on Capitol Hill. Of course, give it time and that could change at the fabled Roundhouse, but for now an Election Year peace prevails.

Speaking of interrupting the peace. . .

Our head count shows that red hot Red Flag bill going down narrowly in the state Senate, but then it was amended in Senate Judiciary perhaps giving it just enough life to squeak through. It now states that only a member of law enforcement, not household or family members, could ask the courts to take a gun away from someone thought to be a danger to themselves or society. For sure, the full NM Senate vote on that promises to be more suspenseful than the dyed-in-the-wool impeachment vote was in the US Senate.

NO SAN FRAN, PLEASE

Please Mayor Webber, don't let Santa Fe turn into San Francisco:

About 50 merchants gathered. . . .to share concerns with Mayor Alan Webber and Santa Fe police in light of robberies and other low-level crimes, , , in the downtown area. Some complained of verbal harassment from panhandlers, burglaries and break-ins, having to clean up vomit and feces and finding drug paraphernalia. . . Police initiated an operation it calls “Downtown Focus.”. . .  A police bicycle team will also patrol the area. . . Earl Potter, owner of Five and Dime General Store said he did not think any of the measures . . will go anywhere unless police develop a personal relationship with merchants.

Mayor Webber also said there is a need for more behavioral health services and that the businesses "are asking police to put a Band-Aid on a serious issue." He added "that homelessness is not a crime but the city does need people to call police" when someone misbehaves.

All of that is true but it does not negate the need for better law enforcement to keep the historic Plaza area free from behavior that ruins the area for tourists and locals alike. "Vomit and feces?" If that isn't a call for tougher (and unapologetic) city action, what is? 

CAUCUS CLEAN-UP

A couple of notes about the 2008 NM Prez caucus we blogged of this week. Former Santa Fe New Mexican political report Steve Terrell writes:

Hey Joe, greetings from the Old Reporters Retirement Home. I enjoyed reading your memories of that disastrous 2008 NM caucus. What a time. One little correction: You said Bill Richardson was practically living in Iowa, which is true. But his campaign didn’t end there. It lasted one more week, when he came in a distant 4th in the New Hampshire primary. I was there, covering what would turn out to be the final days of his campaign. I was in Iowa too that year. And that time their caucuses went quite smoothly.

Richardson did indeed go on to New Hampshire after his Iowa caucus loss in 2008 but the campaign was a dead man walking. Big Bill came in fourth in Iowa, garnering just 2.1 percent of the delegates. Obama won the most delegates with Hillary Clinton coming in second.

We also blogged it "took years" for then NM Dem Party Chairman Brian Colón to recover from the disaster that befell the NM caucus when it took nine days to get a final count and with the national media breathing down his neck. A Colón watcher says not really. "Brian went on to win the 2010 Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor so the recovery period was not that long."

Today Colón is the State Auditor with a vibrant social media presence. That has earned him the blog title of "Most Photographed Man In New Mexico." With that, he has fully "recovered."

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020