Gov. Lujan Grisham stepped into the national limelight Wednesday night, giving a two minute speech to the Democratic National Convention that came an hour and a half before the acceptance speech of VP candidate Kamala Harris. The question now is whether this will be a rare occasion or--if Biden wins in November--will she be a regular feature on the national landscape, not as New Mexico's governor but as the Secretary of Health and Human Services or another high level post?

(Video here.Transcript here.)

She has expressed her interest in the health job, according to the NYT, but her speech last night wasn't in that wheelhouse, focusing instead on climate change and renewable energy which made sense since she hails from one of the largest energy producing states. She delivered the speech outdoors at Northern New Mexico College’s campus in El Rito with an array of solar panels as background. However, at the top of her talk she managed to get in a health reference, telling the national audience:

I’m proud of my home state every single day -- especially how we have punched above our weight with our successful response to COVID-19. I’m proud of New Mexicans, from Taos to Truth or Consequences, who have stepped up and sacrificed in so many incredible ways this past half year. I’m proud of how we embrace our multicultural identity as our greatest strength.

MLG has carved out a moderate position on energy matters. Like Biden she supports fracking and she has worked with industry to craft needed methane regulations. That moderate positioning does not please America's progressives but it fits the centrism that is Biden's trademark. A sample:

While the Trump Administration has been eliminating environmental protections, we’ve expanded them. While they've been rolling back regulations on oil and gas, we’ve taken on polluters and held them accountable. We’ve committed to a renewable energy future. . . As president, Joe Biden will rejoin the international climate agreement, and the United States will once again lead on this critical issue.

MLG, 60, is well-known in DC political circles but to the nation as a whole she's a newcomer. Evidence of that came when convention moderator and actress Kerry Washington mispronounced "Lujan." Hearing that, the Guv may have thought, "call me what you like, just don't call me late for a cabinet meeting."

R RESPONSE

NMGOP Chairman Steve Pearce countered MLG's national speech with this:

She ignored discussing her energy plan already put into law that will devastate New Mexico’s economy and tax base. What she fails to tell America is that her state consistently relies on the vital oil industry—40% of our state budget—and that this critical industry pays for New Mexico’s education and other important state needs. The left-leaning governor fails to tell America how her recent policies have destroyed New Mexico’s economy, left thousands jobless and permanently closed businesses. The governor fails to acknowledge the sad truth that New Mexico now leads the nation in suicides and alcohol-related deaths and remains last in education.

DEBATING DEBATES

Not surprisingly, GOP US Senate hopeful Mark Ronchetti is not pleased with the decision of Dem US Rep. Ben Ray Lujan to participate in only two televised debates this fall. His campaign says:

I don’t blame Ben Ray for hiding from the debates, because he knows he has to hide his far-left, extremist, D.C. record. He spent over a decade climbing Nancy Pelosi’s ladder while never passing even one bill into law.

Meanwhile, a Senior GOP Alligator tells us the National Republican Senatorial Committee is taking a pass on targeting the Lujan-Ronchetti race because it does not see a path to victory. Presumably they did polling. Without that targeting Ronchetti will be hard-pressed to raise funds to be competitive. More debates would help.

Ronchetti this week came with his first general election TV ad. In it he says he believes in the New Mexico values of "faith, family and freedom." Lujan began advertising in mid-July.

TANGLED UP IN BLUE

Keller and Geier

For his fellow Dems it's been a celebratory week as they watch Joe Biden nominated for president, but for ABQ Mayor Tim Keller it's been a real downer.

First, came the revelations that APD Chief of Staff John Ross used a department credit card to purchase $2,500 in unauthorized electronic equipment, used APD Chief Geier's personal stamp to make the purchases and gave himself an apparently unauthorized pay raise. To make matters worse he has often brought his dog Sophie to the office which did its business in the offices. Also, Geier's secretary became a whistleblower regarding these accusations.

We don't know if Geier had to clean up Sophie's mess, but he tried to mop up the one Ross made:

I take responsibility for what happens in my office with my chief of staff and my assistant. Any suggestion that I am not in control of the department (is) ridiculous. This is nothing more than petty water-cooler talk.

Okay, Chief, but long standing rumors that Keller and Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair are micromanaging the department are borne out in the Ross developments.

If that's not bad enough for the beleaguered Mayor, homicides in the city reached 49 for the year (including one Wed. night) just one shy of the total from the same time last year which was a record-breaker.

And there's more. The Feds Operation Legend, scorned by Keller and other Dems as an unwarranted intervention into city law enforcement came back in the news indirectly. The Feds (not Operation Legend) announced a suspect in the sensational slaying of Jackie Vigil, mother of two state police officers but APD and Keller immediately jabbed them and issued statements giving APD credit and saying they have had the goods on the suspect for months. But Trump had stolen the show. He had highlighted the unsolved Vigil killing at a recent White House briefing on why he was adding more federal agents to fight crime here. The newspaper leaned on the Feds in its reporting not APD.

Oh, there's more. State Auditor Brian Colón, who ran against Keller for Mayor in 2017, still has his team strolling the hallways of APD, investigating overtime and other alleged abuses.

We could stop but there's more--the police slaying of a well-liked bartender who called the cops over a home invasion but somehow ended up dead at the hands of responding officers. Neighbors in the SE area (Keller's political base) are demanding answers.

Okay, that's it on the grueling APD-Keller beat---at least for now.

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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2020