NM Pop Politics

Now that the election has come to an end, so has SFR’s election blog. Fret not, followers, the launch of a new blog, a new news & culture blog, is imminent. Like a snickers bar, it’ll satisfy you.

- Dave

Last Thursday, outgoing New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici joined the procession of farewells to Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who was recently convicted then defeated in short order.

If you’re curious, here’s what Domenici had to say about his fellow elderly Republican:

Mr. President, I rise now because I look around and I don’t think there is any Senator left on the floor who has served longer than I with him. He has had his 40; I have had my 36.

Senator, I just want to say this to you. The Constitution of the United States said that there will be a difference between the Senate and the House. They said the way to get a constitution is to make sure they provide that individually the States would be adequately represented. And they said: We will make sure of that by creating a U.S. Senate where two Senators represent the State.

My friend, I want to say to you, obviously I have traveled a little bit different path in my 36 years, but many times the paths have crossed–you and this Senator. I do want to say that, more than anyone else, you have taught me the meaning of representing my State. You are unabashed about that. That caused me on many occasions to think about what I was doing and whether I was representing my State correctly, to the full extent of my ability, and whether I did that with gusto, knowing that we needed things. For we are comparable in that we are a very poor State. We are among the last that came in, and we have many of the same problems you have.

It has truly been a luxury of my life to work with you, to see how you got things done, and, from time to time, to be able to help you because you asked–you were unabashed in that regard too–to help your State. You would ask any of us to join you in your cause, and most of us did that willingly.

… But, Senator, I wish to say just a word to the people of your State.

We know Ted Stevens as a Senator representing you people. A big event has occurred in the life of Ted Stevens that you people of Alaska quite properly have been involved in. But none of us who have worked with him could let this day pass with anyone not knowing–whether they be in Alaska, a Native of Alaska or resident of Alaska or a Native, true Native–all of you must know of the high respect and great esteem in which we hold your Senator. We are most grateful that you sent him here for 40 years. For some of us, it ends too abruptly, but every ride seems to have an end.

All I hope is, with what you have left in your life, that you will feel this day is a special one, when Senators have put their hearts out here on the Senate floor to tell you who you were to them, what you meant to them. I hope I have done my share in my few moments. Nobody will know how many times we have talked and met, how many times you and I have shared personal things and gone on with our own business, but we were certain to mention our personal problems along with it, things we wanted to share as men. I thank you for every bit of that.

To the extent that some of our prayers and the prayers of some of our relatives whom I asked personally to pray for you–I hope it has had some good. I hope when you were down, you were lifted a bit. I hope that today you are going to be lifted more so that you can stand what is ahead of you with a high head and come out of it with more of the successes of your life right out in front of you for you to feel and touch, as those hard issues still remain.

Thank you for your friendship.

Amen.

This thoughtful little Website uses a blog’s text to make a judgment on its psychological type. Normally I wouldn’t say to place too much stock in something like this but, based on what the site determined about swingstateofmind.com, I’d say it’s a 100 percent correct.

The Visionaries

About swingstateofmind.com: “The charming and trend savvy type. They are especially attuned to the big picture and anticipate trends. They often have sophisticated language skills and come across as witty and social. At the end of the day, however, they are pragmatic decision makers and have a good analytical abilitity.They enjoy work that lets them use their cleverness, great communication skills and knack for new exciting ventures. They have to look out not to become quitters, since they easily get bored when the creative exciting start-up phase is over.”

Thanks Typealyzer via Andrew Sullivan.

The Secretary of State’s office has just informed SFR that it is dropping  the inquiry into questionable spending made by Democratic PRC candidate Jerome Block Jr.

In the week before the election, SOS spokesman James Flores had told reporters the office expected to send out a letter regarding three payments identified as potentially illegal by SFR. Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo III now says that the office’s counsel, provided by the Attorney General’s office, has deemed the three payments (including one to the AG’s constituent service’s manager) legal and appropriate.

UPDATED:

Here’s the letter from Jerome Block in which he explains the payments after reading about the SOS’s plan to investigate him in the “local press.” An excerpt:

Block first contradicts statements he (and his father) made in July to SFR about why they had not paid the bill for Block’s Web site. Back then, Block claimed he’d never been billed. Now, Block’s claiming that it was because he was unhappy with the site. However, there was no change whatsoever in the Web site between when it was launched and when he finally paid for it.

Block then contradicts statements made by the Attorney General’s office regarding payments made to constituent service manager Cordy Medina for a mailout. The AG says Medina was owed for a mailout sent out in March. Block says they were paying her in advance for a mailout during the general election.

Here’s the Secretary of State’s letter exonerating Block.  You will see that the Secretary of State’s office gives no explanation whatsoever as how it made its decision, what investigation was made into the inconsistencies in Block’s stories or how it reconciles the issue with state law. Here’s an excerpt:

According to the Voter Action Act:

1-19A-7. Guidelines and restrictions for contributions to and expenditures of certified candidates. (2007)
A. All money distributed to a certified candidate shall be used for that candidate’s campaign-related purposes in the election cycle in which the money was distributed…
C. A certified candidate shall limit total campaign expenditures and debts to the amount of money distributed to that candidate from the fund.

The election cycle is further determined by law:

E. “election cycle” means the primary and general elections for the same term of the same covered office, beginning on the day after the last general election for the office and ending with the general election; the primary election cycle begins on the first day of the election cycle and ends on the day of the primary election; the general election begins on the day after the primary election and ends on the day of the general election;

Regarding the San Miguel Democratic Party payments: the county-level party’s reports show that the money was either used to rent office space or to host fundraisers for Ben Ray Lujan and Tom Udall. There has been no evidence of a “coordinated campaign.”

He beat the deadline! Yesterday afternoon, the sort-of-victorious Jerome Block Jr. dropped off a check for $11,700 at the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office, settling his campaign-related fines. Block also returned $10,000 in misspent public campaign funds, which the state had demanded back no later than today.

“I am hopeful that this resolves all issues between my campaign and your office,” Block wrote in his hand-delivered letter.

MMmmmaybe.

We’re waiting for word on that from Mary Herrera’s office.

Updated 3:30 p.m.-ish: Nope. Block has two remaining issues to clear up, says Deputy Secretary of State Don Francisco Trujillo II.
The first—whether any public money still needs to be returned to the state public election fund—will be made clear when Block files his December campaign finance report.
The second concerns slightly over $2,000 in expenditures—including a $1,500 contribution to Democratic Party of San Miguel County—that the state still has questions about.
“We are going to invite him (early next) week to come visit with us and have him explain those different expenditures,” Trujillo says.

Block didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

At this point, several questions remain. Foremost among them: Is Maass sorry he’s on vacation?

I’ll post Block’s letter as soon as I can make Wordpress work right. Here’s the letter:

There will be a protest in Santa Fe against California’s Proposition 8 at 11:30 am this Saturday, Nov. 15 at the east side of the Roundhouse (facing Old Santa Fe Trail).

Proposition 8, which passed in California, bans gay marriage, which had been legal in the state since the previous spring, following a state Supreme Court ruling. Since election day, support for gay marriage and opposition to Prop 8 has been growing;. Protests are planned around the country for this Saturday. (There also is a protest planned in Albuquerque

Santa Fe’s protest has been organized by Dona Hatch, one of the ad reps here at the Reporter, who is very involved with GLBT rights issues in the state. Here’s her press release:

RALLY ‘ROUND THE ROUNDHOUSE
Against California’s Prop 8

In response to the passage of Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage on election day, Nov. 4, there is an effort nation wide to have rallies across the country all at the same time. Here in Santa Fe, we are planning a rally at The Roundhouse (on the east side facing Old Santa Fe Trail) on Sat., Nov 15th at 11:30am. We want to show our solidarity for all the LGBT couples in California who are now in danger of losing their marital status.
Speaking at the rally will be several couples that have recently been married in California. Also speaking will be some currently involved in the passing of a domestic partnership law in New Mexico.
Why are we doing this in Santa Fe? New Mexico currently has no law or constitutional provision that prohibits same-sex marriage. We are one of few states that does not have affirmative prohibition of same-sex marriage in state law.  The fear is that in the upcoming legislative session of 2009, we’ll see legislation that will ban gay marriage.This rally is a way for us to stand up for our rights here in this state as well as every other state.

I’m sorry, Sarah.

The consolation, I guess, is that FOX was duped first.

Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Brian Colon is on record telling SFR that we treat the party fairly…that is until we grilled him on the election cycle, the primary caucus comedy-of-errors, his political ambitions and whether he taunted his Republican counterpart with text messages after New Mexico’s Congressional delegation went true blue.

DM: Are you the most popular state chairman in the country right now?

BC: Well, I don’t know about that. I know that my colleagues are all very excited for us out here in New Mexico.

Do we still count as a swing state?

You bet. I think we are as blue as they get right now, but I think New Mexicans are always going to be paying very close attention to how hard their public officials work.

Let’s look back at the last year. There was obviously some problem with the Caucus. Weren’t we supposed to have some sort of big meeting to talk about the caucus and what can be done better?

No, no.

I thought there was going to be a big public meeting.

We talked about doing lots of different things but then we decided that we would focus on the victory in November and that’s exactly what we got.

Will there be anything in the future regarding that or are we just hoping it will sort itself out by the time the next caucus comes around.

The question will be whether we have another caucus.

You think we’ll make the move to an actual primary?

I think that’s up for discussion. I, for one, think the idea of an early primary is the feeling.

Still in February?

It kind of depends. New Mexico really needs to make sure we’re relevant and at the table in terms of who the nominee is going to be. I think there’s a national movement to reevaluate the whole primary process. It’ll be interesting to see where we go from here in the next four years.

Looking at the sheer awesomeness of the Democratic Party’s success this year: How does it balance out between strong candidates and having weak Republican opponents?

Look, I think this starts from two years ago when we all agreed that we had to have 33 county strategy in place. When Barack Obama became the nominee he bolstered that by agreeing that he was going to have a 50-state strategy and we had a fantastic slate of candidates and we had tens of thousands of volunteers all over the state. I think our ground game was something the Republicans didn’t even get close to matching. I think all that plays into the quality of our success.

If you were a Republican, what would was the one thing that you would definitely have had to differently this time around.

I couldn’t even imagine being Republican, I’m sorry.

They’re just that different, huh?

[Laughing] Exactly.

Read the rest of this entry →

And Jerome Block Jr’s Web site implodes…

This morning’s Washington Post does something to answer a question that’s been bugging me since the Iowa caucuses: What happens to Obama’s personality cult after he takes office?

All those HOPE posters were neat during the campaign, but just admit: It’ll be a little creepy if Obama’s face is still staring down at you from every other wall after he becomes Commander in Chief.

Sure, the man’s not going to rename parts of the calendar in honor of himself. But Obama’s transition plan does include turning his campaign network into a direct-to-the-people propaganda machine that’ll make Fox News look amateurish:

Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media.
Just as John F. Kennedy mastered television as a medium for taking his message to the public, Obama is poised to transform the art of political communication once again, said Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist who first helped integrate the Internet into campaigning four years ago.
“He’s going to be the first president to be connected in this way, directly, with millions of Americans,” Trippi said.

Crap. Guess we can look forward to at least four more years of Obama spam.