The Dems pulled the plug on an in-person national convention in August so the NM delegates will have to find a way to party over Zoom. But for the 22 New Mexico delegates to the GOP national convention in Jacksonville, Fl. August 25- 27, it's party on. Their convention will be mainly in-person and will feature President Trump's acceptance speech of the Republican nomination the night of the 27th.

The R's named their delegates this past weekend. A complete list is here. It includes old warhorses of the state GOP including former state GOP Chairs Allen Weh, his daughter Debbie Maestas, Harvey Yates and current NM GOP Chair Steve Pearce. State House Minority Leader Jim Townsend and former NM House Speaker Don Tripp are also on the list of delegates Florida bound.

The GOP reports that at their weekend meeting Townsend and Tina Dziuk, Roosevelt County Chairwoman, were elected to replace Yates and Rosie Tripp as the party's national committeeman and woman following the national convention.

Much of the national convention business was moved to Jacksonville from Charlotte, NC when that state's Dem governor would not commit to hosting a fully attended convention, without social distancing and face coverings. Still, 6 of the NM delegates will travel to NC to take part in business still scheduled there.

As usual, the GOP has its work to do in blue New Mexico. Polling shows the president trailing Biden here and that could make it tougher for Yvette Herrell to reclaim the southern congressional seat for the R's from Dem Rep. Torres Small. That's their top goal this year. Another is to play solid defense and prevent the loss of several state Senate seats being targeted by the Dems.

DAVIS STANDS PAT

Councilor Davis

ABQ City Council President Pat Davis is a racist ex-cop and should resign. That was the call recently from ProgressNowNM, the progressive advocacy group once run by Davis.

They declared war when longtime Davis critic and former ABQ City Councilor Pete Dinelli came with a blog post that took Davis to task over a well-known 2004 shooting in which then-DC cop Davis wounded a Black suspect. The post also included new info on lesser known abuse allegations when Davis was a UNM cop.

The news was especially sensitive given the recent momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement. However, no other major progressive groups have joined in calling for the head of Davis and he has said he will not resign his presidency or the SE Heights council seat to which he was elected to a second term last year. He comes with a vigorous defense, saying that Dinelli "misrepresented" his record. His complete response is here.

So what's really going on? Much of the conflict is due to Davis' involvement in the recent BernCo Commission candidacy of LGBQT activist Adrian Carver who attacked his opponent, Adriann Barboa, another member of the LGBQT community as is Davis. 

Barboa

Carver was skewered by progressives for scorching Barboa for a past cannabis arrest as well as outstanding warrants for traffic violations. He was soundly defeated by Barboa for the Dem nomination in the June 2 primary for the commission seat that takes up a large part of Davis' council district. Davis worked for Carver's campaign. 

No R is running in November so Barboa is headed to the five member commission.

Calling progressive Davis a racist or nonprogressive is like calling a priest an atheist. Still, his foes could try to launch a recall election against him. That would take 2,5000 signatures of registered voters. But there's a clause in the City Charter that makes a recall unlikely:

. . . As a condition of circulating a petition for recall the factual allegations supporting the grounds of misconduct in office or violation of the oath of office stated in the petition shall be presented to the City Clerk. The petition shall not be circulated unless, after a hearing in state district court in which the proponents of the recall and the official sought to be recalled are given an opportunity to present evidence.

Davis is not being accused of any wrongdoing while holding his council seat and his term doesn't expire until the end of 2023. That will probably mean more contentiousness between him and Barboa. The public will be watching because progressives are accumulating power on the commission and council. Their infighting matters.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020