Monday, May 09, 2022ABQ Politics Grabs Headlines From Primary: Fresh Murder Outbreak, Homeless "Lots", Garbage Rate Increase Proposed, Multi-Million Dollar Homeless Shelter Disappoints, Plus: More Colón Vs. Torrez Jabs The primary campaign trail has been getting some stiff competition from ABQ politics lately.The city endured another murder outbreak over the weekend with at least four victims, has seen a Republican city councilor propose controversial "living lots" for the homeless, the mayor proposes an increase in garbage bills to clean up homeless sites and a multi-million dollar shelter built for the homeless now threatens to become a White Elephant. On the crime beat, APD Chief Harold Medina showed up near the westside Cottonwood Mall Sunday where a double murder and suicide occurred and said the scene--that included the bodies of two 16 year olds—combined with two other ABQ homicides in the city made for a "tough weekend." That led to this blast from one of our Senior Alligators: Medina seems to think these shootings are some sort of strange anomaly. "We've had a tough weekend." Tough weekend? Try tough decade. A triple homicide isn't something new to ABQ--it's old. It's the city's new normal, without being new. It's what ABQ has become and it isn't changing anytime soon, if ever. Especially with the likes of Medina and Mayor Keller sugar-coating everything the city is really facing. Then there's the proposal for "living lots" to contain the homeless problem and brought to the fore by GOP City Councilor Brook Bassan. Encampments would be placed in each of the nine city council districts in areas such as empty parking lots and equipped with toilet facilities. That drew this from retired APD Sergeant and city politics watcher Dan Klein. This is Councilor Bassan jumping into the political briar patch. No one is going to want these encampments in their backyard, especially in her NE Heights District, but they do want more law enforcement to deal with the problem. If she presses this, I wouldn't be surprised to see potential challengers surfacing. GOP Councilor Dan Lewis parted ways with Bassan on the encampment plan, saying the city needs to get its new homeless shelter up and running at capacity. Speaking of that. . . The now somewhat infamous Gateway Center in the SE Heights is being financed by taxpayers at a cost of nearly $20 million and is now reduced to a shell of its former proposed self. It will start out serving only 50 homeless individuals, all of them women. That's instead of the hundreds of homeless the project was originally designed for. And now residents are being asked to pay more each month for their garbage pickup because of the cost of cleaning up the many homeless camps around the city--camps that might be curbed if the Gateway Center had lived up to the billing of the city's politicos when they asked for and won voter approval of a $14 million bond issue. LOUIE TAKES LUMPS  But the building and trades unions are nothing if not organized and they planted this flier in his constituents mailboxes, pointing out he sided with Republican councilors in trying to repeal project labor agreements for city projects. That stung because Sanchez's district is heavy Dem. The saving grace for him--at least for now--is that he is not up for re-election until 2025. That also gives him plenty of time to learn the limits of his power in his new post. IN HIS WORDS Sen. Ben Ray Lujan comes with new details on the stroke he suffered and that sidelined him from his Senate duties: . . . 5:45 a.m. Jan. 27. While staying at his mother’s home in Nambé, he’d gotten up to make coffee. Before long, the room’s four walls began losing their form.“I thought it was vertigo, but it was just spinning. And I didn’t feel anything before. Not the day before. Not the week before. Not even 10 minutes before.”. . .He called his chief of staff, Carlos Sanchez, who told him to immediately call his doctor. . .The next call went next door, to Luján’s sister, Jackie Valdez, who was staying with their mother, Carmen. By the time Valdez arrived, Luján was crawling.. . “My sister helped carry me to her car, just, like on her shoulders." As they drove toward Santa Fe, Valdez spotted a local fire station in Pojoaque and pulled in.. . . One of the firefighters or EMTs said, “I don’t like the way he looks.”. . . Luján was on his way to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. . . After a quick scan at Christus St. Vincent, he was headed to UNM Hospital. . .Luján’s medical team said he’d suffered a tear in his vertebral artery. . .On Day 4, Jan. 31, Luján underwent decompressive surgery, prompting the need to remove a piece of his skull and leaving him with 26 staples in the back of his head.
Lujan now says he feels more than 90 percent recovered and is back to work in the Senate. AG ACTION  Patrick Weller and Lisa Praeger-Weller, parents of Jackson Weller, a UNM baseball player who was tragically murdered three years ago, call on Brian Colón to take down his misleading and disrespectful ad using Jackson’s death for attempted political gain. (Full video here.) “This week marks three years since we tragically lost Jackson at the hands of Darian Bashir in Albuquerque,” said Weller. “(Now) a media ad has surfaced by Brian Colón. In the video, they’re using Jackson’s likeness without our consent, and I would ask that the video be taken down.” I find it deplorable that Mr. Colón would exploit a family’s tragedy for attempted political gain,” said Torrez. “The Colón campaign owes the Weller family an apology and must take this video down immediately. But Colón didn't cave: I understand that Mr. Weller is deeply hurt by what happened to his son. I’m angry that the D.A.
has been dishonest with the community by hiding his colossal failures in this defendant’s prior
case. These failures, and others like it, have made Albuquerque more dangerous for the five
years Raúl Torrez has been the D.A. New Mexicans deserve the truth, which is that due to the
DA’s incompetence, the defendant was released into the community. As for the use of a murder victim's photo, that photo is in the public domain and there is no law or regulation that would prevent its use in a political ad. This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (newsguy@yahoo.com) Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here.   (c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022 |
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