Tuesday, July 19, 2022Armstrong State House Vacancy Raises Question, Plus: Was Brian Colón Not Mean Enough?, And Blowback On The Ronchetti/Smothermon Abortion Blog Armstrong's District 17 in the NE Heights moved to the westside under redistricting but the old district apparently remains in effect until the end of the year. That means former City Councilor Cynthia Borrego, the Dem nominee for the new district, will apparently not be appointed by the Bernalillo County Commission to fill the remainder of Armstrong's term that runs until year's end. That could make a difference in the November election. The new district appears to be a swing seat, with the state's redistricting analysis putting Dem performance at 50.7 percent just a tad better than the 49.3 GOP performance. Appointing Borrego could give her an advantage as an incumbent. The five member Dem-controlled commission could contemplate appointing Borrego but our Legal Beagles report that it would be a legal leap that the GOP would likely challenge, especially if it were Borrego and not a placeholder. The GOP nominee for the seat is retired air traffic controller Ellis McMath. At the start of July Borrego reported $17,000 in cash on hand while McMath had less than $3,000. Armstrong, an eight year House veteran, says she is retiring for family reasons. She is a BFF of MLG who House Speaker Egolf says carved out a solid record on health care legislation, including the right to die bill that won approval. Armstrong was in the limelight in the 2018 Guv campaign when the health insurance business she ran with MLG came under scrutiny from Republicans. The 70 member state House currently has 44 Dems, 24 Republicans and one independent. The November election is not expected to alter those numbers significantly but there are swing seats to watch and District 17 is among them. NOT MEAN ENOUGH? At the Victoria Martens murder trial defense attorney Stephen Aaarons made a convincing case in his opening statement that BernCo District Attorney Raul Torrez botched the case and that 10 year old Victoria's brutal slaying was committed by the state's star witness, Jessica Kelly. She copped a plea to lesser charges in exchange for her testimony against Fabian Gonzales who is standing trial for child abuse charges in the race. That raises the question of why State Auditor Brian Colón, who dueled with DA Torrez for the Dem attorney general nomination last month, did not use the case in his campaign which featured numerous attack ads from both sides. The answer, says a Colón political ally, is. . . Brian wasn't mean enough because he's not that mean. His campaign thought Brian was being tough and by comparison to his past campaigns he was. But Torrez did not let up and he won by six points. Would Brian have won if he raised the Martens case against the DA? We'll never know. Colón finishes his term as Auditor at the end of the year. Torrez is expected to defeat Republican Jeremy Gay and become the next AG. The Governor would appoint a new DA to fill out Torrez's unexpired term. ABORTION POLITICS The Ronchetti/Smothermon blog from Monday brought this email from a reader: Joe- I knew as soon as Ronchetti's TV ad came out where he "clarifies" his stand on abortion, he would be in trouble with his GOP base. The radical right believe the same as Rev. Smothermon: No abortion is right. I think his ad sealed the deal for MLG, if she did not have it sealed before. The radical GOPers will not vote at all, which will be devastating for Ronchetti. The question--why didn't Ronchetti's political analyst Jay McCleskey recognize the danger in the ad? Responding to our blog on Twitter a reader wrote: Abortion is fool's gold. It isn't the win that Dems think it is.
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