The subject is race and more specifically whether Dem Pamelya Herndon, appointed to the seat by the Bernalillo County Commission in 2021 when Melanie Stansbury won a special election to fill the ABQ congressional seat, will be hampered by the fact that she would be the first Black woman elected to a predominant Anglo NE Heights district.
By all accounts Herndon has received a warm reception and entered the final weeks with a two one cash advantage over Republican Nicole Chavez, but since Herndon has not been elected in her own right there is concern.
And race has moved to the fore in the state House races with this development:
One of the major themes in advertisements paid for by the Republican Party of New Mexico is crime, hitting Democratic candidates. . . for past votes on measures which the GOP argues were too soft on crime, hindered law enforcement or "coddled" people convicted of serious offenses. One negative advertisement, in particular, drew denunciations for appearing to darken one of two figures in a stock photograph in a manner one community leader called "blatantly racist." The ads follow a similar provocative style, using somber colors and stark fonts among tinted or filtered images from prison booking photos or featuring obscured and menacing figures. The ad copy alludes to pieces of legislation supported in past sessions by local representatives, often presenting them as favoring criminals over other citizens.
The ad apparently was not sent into the Herndon district, says a Dem consultant, but we're double-checking.
The GOP scoffed at the notion that the ad (posted here) was racist and said the Dems are trying to divert attention from their "soft on crime agenda."
District 28 runs east of Eubank up to the Sandia Foothills and north to Academy Blvd, once an Anglo GOP district that now leans blue. The district is 67 percent White and 29 percent Hispanic. The partisan performance is put at 42 percent Dem; 36 percent Republican and 22 percent independent.
The electorate there is ranked 47 percent conservative; 41 percent progressive and 12 percent moderate, report Dem consultants.
FACING THE VOTERS
One veteran Democratic woman operative suggests Herndon, who is campaigning door to door, occasionally take along White neighbors to introduce herself, saying that could alleviate race-based issues that may lurk.
One possibility for a tag along would be Rep. Stansbury who has donated $10,000 to Herndon and remains popular in the district she once represented.
We asked Lenton Malry, the first Black to be elected to the NM Legislature back in the 1960's, for his opinion but he demurred, instead urging Herndon to keep up the door knocking because "that's where these races are won."
Conrad James became the first Black male to take a NE Heights seat in 2011 so there is reason to believe that Herndon could indeed become the first Black woman to jump the Heights House hurdle this year.
MALRY'S TAKE
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| Lenton Malry |
Besides the state House, Malry served two terms on the BernCo Commission and has been a Democratic player since winning that SE ABQ House seat nearly 60 years ago.
We talked him up about today's politics and he informed that he recently fielded a call from Gov. Lujan Grisham, but being the old hand he is he started the conversation by saying he knew she was calling for money. She was and he gave her some.
Malry is confident of an MLG win:
When it comes to Mark Ronchetti I have rarely, if ever, seen a candidate switch his position on such an important issue as abortion so many times. I think it may have shut him down.
Besides helping Herndon financially, Malry, who holds a Ph.D and whose career was in education, says he has made donations to all the Black US Senate candidates seeking election.
Those candidates could do well by taking a look at Malry's autobiography titled: Let's Roll This Train: My Life In New Mexico Education. He had quite the run in education and in La Politica.
PRIMARY NUMBERS
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In the 2018 Republican primary Steve Pearce ran unopposed and the turnout was 75,162. In 2022 Mark Ronchetti, Rebecca Dow and three others ran for the nomination. Turnout was 117,453.
In 2018 in a three way Democratic Guv primary MLG won and the turnout was 175,898. In 2022 the she ran unopposed for her party's nomination turnout was 125,238.
Turnout was about what most analysts predicted so there doesn't seem to be an overly large enthusiasm gap between the two camps.
TALL ORDER
Former APD sergeant and now private investigator Dan Klein has a very tall order for federal law enforcement in New Mexico following raids that seized one million fentanyl pills in ABQ:
What will cause the cartels real problems and make them consider going to other states is if the Department of Justice starts seizing their businesses and property where they launder illegal drug money. This hits them where it hurts most. The FBI must start seizing businesses and strip malls that are owned by the cartels, inhibiting their ability to launder their drug money. It’s just like when Walter White bought the carwash in Breaking Bad, once the feds seized it, that made for TV criminal enterprise came to an end.
We listed ABQ Dem Sen. Katy Duhigg as vice chair of the Senate Rules Committee last week based on info from an apparently outdated legislative web page. She is no longer in that post as an alert reader points out:
Sen. Duhigg is not the Vice Chair of Rules. She was previously and remains on the Rules Committee. Beginning last session, she became the Vice Chair of Judiciary.
If Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto is removed as chair from the committee over sexual harassment charges, as is being contemplated, there would be a new chair. Roundhouse watchers inform that based on seniority Sen. Linda Lopez, if she wants it, would be the new chair if Ivey-Soto is ousted, a return to a position she once had.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2022