Roundhouse Roundup: Dust-up in Clovis

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
May 27, 2012


It's not as if this area doesn't have enough interesting legislative races to follow. But still my attention keeps getting drawn eastward toward the Clovis area. And that's true of political junkies all over the state. That's the Republican primary race where two political newcomers, Angie Spears, director of a Clovis counseling agency, and rancher Pat Woods are vying to fill the Senate District 7 seat being vacated by Sen. Clint Harden.

Angie Spears

At first glance it would appear that Spears would have a clear edge. She's raised the most money in the race with about $28,000 in the bank as of the last campaign finance report. Woods had about $500 going into the last days of the campaign.

Spears' uncle is Public Regulation Commissioner Pat Lyons, a former state land commissioner who held that state Senate seat for 10 years. She's also related by marriage to Clovis District Attorney Matt Chandler. But most significantly, Spears has the enthusiastic endorsement of the most popular Republican politician in the state, Gov. Susana Martinez.

But that's where it's been interesting. Spears jumped in the race right before the end of the legislative session. Harden dropped out a few days later. About 10 minutes after Harden's announcement (OK, I might be exaggerating a little), Martinez endorsed her. Martinez's political director Jay McCleskey was hired by Spears' campaign. The guv's political action committee contributed $5,000 to Spears.

Shortly after he dropped out, Harden told me he suspected that the governor recruited Spears to run against him. (He also suspected Lyons might be behind it because of a recent disagreement. Lyons vehemently denied it.)

Pat Woods

At the time, Spears was the only announced candidate. By filing day, Woods had emerged. Martinez this week was asked about getting involved in a contested Republican primary. She said the Legislature needs people "who are going to reform New Mexico, who are going to change New Mexico. ... And I have no apologies for doing so."

Some believe that the race will be a real test of the governor's power to mold the Legislature and its Republican caucuses.

Predictably, the race has gotten nasty. Blogger Joe Monahan has published a couple of mailers from the District 7 race. Spears sent one pointing out that Woods in the past has contributed money to Democratic legislators -- or in the language of the mailer, "He funds liberal Democrats who support giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants."

The mailer also ties Wood to the "liberal" Senate president pro-tem. That "liberal" is Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, who won the post a few years ago by forging a coalition between all Senate Republicans and a handful of conservative Democrats.


This reminds me of a classic McCleskey attack on another Clovis Republican. When former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley was running for governor in 2002, McCleskey was handling the campaign of his rival, John Sanchez. Sanchez unleashed ads and mailers implying that Bradley was in league with Senate Democrat powerhouse Manny Aragon.

But Woods struck back, sending a mailer with an unflattering photo of McCleskey, whom he called a "slick ABQ political consultant" whom Spears has paid $10,000 for "mudslinging and negative attacks."

Some believe the conservative but independent-minded Republicans of District 7 might indeed resent the big city political types telling them how to vote.

But a former Republican lawmaker not involved in the battle doesn't think so. Average GOP voters don't care about political consultants and the stuff that political junkies do. Martinez is very popular, especially among his party, the Republican noted. That'll be enough to get Spears elected, he said.

He might be right. But it's still a race worth watching.

Note: On Saturday, the Clovis News Journal published a poll showing Spears seven percentage points ahead of Woods. But here's some big grains of salt: The paper cautioned that the margin of error was 6.8 percent (only 201 Republicans were surveyed) and 31 percent were undecided.

Here's  those flyers, stolen from Joe Monahan. Click either to see slightly larger copies.

On The Line Tonight

Gene Grant

I'm on the panel on The Line this week on KNME's New Mexico in Focus to discuss various state House races and other issues.

Also on the panel are host Gene Grant, former state Rep. Dan Foley, former U.S. Commerce  official Jamie Estrada and environmental lawyer Laura Sanchez.

 The show airs 7 p.m. on KNME, Channel 5. The show repeats 7 a.m. Sunday.

Securing Susana

Following Gov. Martinez's landing without landing gear at the Santa Fe Municipal Airport Wednesday night, some have raised the question why there were none of her state police security detail with her on the plane.

I know from covering Bill Richardson political events around the state during his time as governor -- as well as in Boston at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and several trips to New Hampshire and Iowa in his presidential bid -- there were at least of couple of state cops with the governor all the time.

So I asked her office today what the deal was and if there was any policy related to this. Spokesman Greg Blair replied, "... there is no specific policy in this case. The governor made stops in Clayton and Tucumcari before returning to Santa Fe and there was security on the ground at each location."

Have a great Memorial Day.

Governor Talks About Her Rough Landing

Gov. Susana Martinez this morning talked to reporters about her rough landing on a plane last night.

She  told reporters, following an event reading to children at the Espanola library, that the incident wasn't as scary as one might expect.

"We were coming in from Clayton," she said. "we were coming in from Santa Fe. We had a lot of cross winds. ... So the pilot decided not to land as we got closer to the ground. ... So he made a loop around one more time. And when he did that he raised the landing gears so it would not slow the plane down. When he came back around, he was concentrating so hard on balancing the plane that, with those crosswinds he did not drop the landing gear, and so we landed on the belly of the plane.


"It was really not as eventful as one would think," Martinez said when asked how she felt during the landing. "We knew we were going around. I actually had stopped reading some material I had ...

"I'm used to having bumpy (plane) rides, so when it landed, I thought we'd had a blow out and that we were on metal because you could see sparks flying on the side, just like when you have a blow out on a vehicle and you end up with no tire and just the rim. But it was a balanced landing once we landed on the belly and we slid as he immediately came to a stop and turned off all the machinery. "

"... We were buckled in," she said. "it didn't rattle the plane it, it didn't move us around, we didn't bounce around. We didn't feel a sudden thump. Nothing. Truly what gave us the hint that something went wrong was the sound of metal on the asphalt and the sparks along the side on the outside of the plane. And shortly thereafter you could smell kind of a burning smell.

"But it was't that eventful," she insisted. "Once we walked away and looked at it, you went,  'Wow. That just happened to us. ... So I put on my flip flops and we trekked along the desert because we landed on a landing strip away from the airport." Asked about the flip flops, Martinez said, "Well, I wasn't go to do it in my high heels."

Martinez laughed when she talked about leaving the plane. "We didn't have to take several steps down. We just sort of hopped over the door. "

She said the pilot, Sid Strebeck, a Clovis businessman, has flown former Govs. Garrey Caruthers and Gary Johnson. She said she doesn't blame him for the rough landing and would fly with him again.

"Mistakes happen," she said.

The incident won't stop her from flying again, Martinez said this morning. "No, my next plane I'm getting on in a couple of hours," the governor said. She said she was going to Farmington for another reading event as well as a political function.

Egolf Starts PAC for House Dems

State Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, is worried that the Republicans might take over the state House of Representatives this fall. And he's planning to do something to try to prevent it.

Rep. Brian Egolf

 In a  guest blog at the Democracy for New Mexico site, Egolf wrote that Democrats have only a thin majority over Republicans in the House. The numbers are 36 to 33, with one independent.

"With the upcoming November election, that slim majority is under dire threat. Democrats already lost one seat in redistricting, so we must gain seats in November or there will be a Republican Speaker of the House, and Gov. Martinez will have the rubber stamp legislature she wants."

In the blog Egolf announced he's starting a political action committee called New Mexico Defense Fund. "All funds raised will directly support Democratic State House candidates in critical seats this fall," Egolf said.

Gov. Susana Martinez has her own PAC that is raising funds for Republicans in legislative races. In the most recent reporting period, that PAC raised nearly $78,000 and had more than $273,000 cash on hand.

Egolf himself faces no re-election in his safe-Democrat Santa Fe district. However, he does have a personal stake in the election of other House Democrats. "If Republicans pick up even one seat, I will lose Chairmanship of the House Energy & Natural Resources Committee and be replaced by an anti-conservation Republican," he wrote.

Egolf has scheduled a kickoff fundraiser May 29 at the Santa Fe home of Debbie Fleischaker & Kathleen Fontaine

The Race For the U.S. Senate

My colleague Trip Jennings and I put together a package of coverage for the U.S. Senate race in today's New Mexican.

The main story is HERE

A look at the campaign finances of the four candidates is HERE

My profile of Martin Heinrich is HERE (Bio box HERE)
My profile of Hector Balderas is HERE (Bio box HERE)

Trip's profile of Heather Wilson is HERE (Bio box HERE)
Trip's profile of Greg Sowards is HERE (Bio box HERE)

The New Mexican's 2012 Elections page is HERE

Roundhouse Roundup: Tell 'em Erik & Richard Sent Ya

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
May 20, 2012


Last week was a hard one.

Two good friends of mine died.

For one of them, Erik Ness of Las Cruces, I wrote an obituary for The New Mexican. He was the longtime communications director for the state Farm & Livestock Bureau. He and I go back 40 years. We met in 1972 when both of us were crazy college kids. We remained friends long after we both became crazy adults.

Erik Ness

Like me, Erik had an intense interest in politics — two New Mexico governors from different parties paid tribute to him in the obit I wrote. And, like me, he was obsessed by music. He was a songwriter and guitar picker. He’d often call me out of the blue when he got some wild idea or scheme to promote the music he loved.

The day after Erik died, Richard Sandoval left us as well.

Richard Sandoval

He was an artist and a co-founder of Santa Fe’s Contemporary Hispanic Market. I met him almost 30 years ago through cronies at New Mexico Magazine, where he was an editor and art director. I’ve worked, at different times, with his sister and his daughter.

Erik and Richard moved in different circles, so I’m not sure whether they knew each other. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Each of them seemed to know everybody, and I know they had several mutual friends who are grieving.

Both had wonderful, devilish senses of humor. Both of them always made me laugh. Both of them left behind great families.

And both of them died of the same terrible disease: pancreatic cancer.

A couple of days after my obituary for Erik, I received an email from an Albuquerque woman named Nancy Murphy Bowles. She didn’t know Erik.

“I am the community representative in Albuquerque for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network,” she said. Bowles said she and her husband will be going to Washington, D.C., next month to visit Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, as well as Rep. Martin Heinrich. “We are trying to convince them to cosponsor the bills S. 362 and H.R. 733.”

Those bills, known as the Pancreatic Cancer Research and Education Act, Bowles said, would require the National Cancer Institute to come up with a five-year plan on treating pancreatic cancer.

According to the website for Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the disease is “one of the most deadly cancers. 94 percent of patients will die within five years of diagnosis — only 6 percent survive more than five years and 74 percent of pancreatic cancer patients die within the first year of diagnosis. These statistics have changed little in the last 40 years.”

The website continues, saying pancreatic cancer is “severely under-researched and under-funded. Unlike many cancers, there are no early detection tools or effective treatments for pancreatic cancer. Part of the problem is that the National Cancer Institute allocates approximately 2 percent of its $5 billion budget for pancreatic cancer research.”

Pancreatic cancer is “behind in nearly every important grant mechanism funded by the NCI,” the website says.

The good news for the bill is that more than half of all House members and nearly half of all senators have signed on as co-sponsors. It has bipartisan support.

But strangely, none of New Mexico’s delegation has signed on.

So when Mr. and Mrs. Bowles come knocking next month, I hope Bingaman, Udall and Heinrich give them a serious listen. And I hope the couple pays a visit to Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Steve Pearce as well.

And maybe the couple should say that Erik Ness and Richard Sandoval sent ’em.

UPDATE: 4:30 p.m. Friends of Erik Ness should check out the tributes from Karl Moffat and Bill Divan HERE

Some Legislative Races

Last week I wrote a couple of stories about state House races in Northern New Mexico.

My coverage of the increasingly intense District 46 race to replace House Speaker Ben Lujan -- in which Carl Trujillo is up against Santa Fe Mayor David Coss -- is HERE

My coverage of the District 40 race, in which 40-year incumbent Nick Salazar, running in a radically different-shaped district,  faces colorful former lawmaker Bengie Regensberg and former Mora County Commissioner Peter Martinez is HERE.

Meanwhile, Kate Nash has filed stories about some legislative races like the Pete Campos/Tomas Garcia Senate contest HERE and the House District 50 race HERE.

Check out lots of election coverage from The New Mexican HERE

UPDATE: 5-22-12 A bad link above has been fixed.

R.I.P. Erik Ness: Cowboy Bon Vivant

One of my best friends, Erik Ness, died this weekend. We've been buddies -- some might say unindicted co-conspirators -- since 1972 when we were both students at UNM.


I wrote his obituary for the paper.

Erik Ness, 2006, Placitas, NM

A version of this will be published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 15, 2012

Erik Ness, a longtime champion of the state agriculture industry, friend to politicians of every stripe, husband, father, grandfather and cowboy bon vivant, is dead.

Ness, 57, died Saturday at his home in Las Cruces following a struggle with pancreatic cancer.

Ness, who grew up in Alamogordo, attended the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University from which he graduated. He briefly worked as a reporter for KOB radio in the early 1980s.

But in 1982 he was hired by the New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau to be its communications director. In that job, which he kept until his retirement in 2010, Ness served as a press spokesman, produced radio programs and wrote and edited magazine articles for the organization.

An article published after his retirement in 2010 in New Mexico Farm & Ranch, the official publication of the bureau, quoted Ness talking about the agricultural community.

 “The people we work for are a colorful cast of characters,” he said. “They are real people with pioneer backgrounds, their ancestors came here in wagon trains, and that is interesting,”

Ness told the publication that through the years he’d been offered jobs in Albuquerque and Washington, D.C. but he turned them down saying, “... it is hard to hunt antelope in Albuquerque and D.C.”

His death prompted political figures to issue statements of praise.

"I had the privilege of knowing Erik for many years,” said Gov. Susana Martinez on Monday. “He was a kind and energetic person who served as a strong advocate for New Mexico's farm and ranching communities.  He will be sorely missed."

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-Hobbs in a news release Monday called Ness “a good friend,” and said, “His service to the community and to the state of New Mexico and his life will long be remembered by all who had the pleasure of knowing him.”

In a phone interview Monday, Public Regulation Commissioner Pat Lyons said he’d been friends with Ness for perhaps 25 years. “He made friends with everybody,” Lyons said. ”I did some of his radio shows, maybe three or four times. They went out nationwide and got played a lot on radio stations in the Corn Belt. I’d get calls from friends in Kansas saying, “I just heard you on the radio with Erik Ness.”

But it’s not only Republicans who are mourning Ness.

Former Gov. Toney Anaya on Monday recalled that Ness — who was a staunch Democrat before he worked for the Farm Bureau — served as his campaign spokesman in 1978 when he tried to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici. “When I was governor, I appointed him to a state board,” Anaya recalled. “He remained a good friend.”

Ness and me outside of The Kentucky Club in
Juarez, Mexico, circa 1987

When news of his death was posted on Facebook and Twitter Saturday, two of the first people to respond were former state Democratic Chairman Brian Colón (”What a loss,”  Colón tweeted. “Erik was a good man and friend to many.”) and former Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez.

Chavez posted on Facebook, “He had a tremendous amount to be proud of — the tragedy is that he was just starting to blossom as a writer and musician — his real love ...”

Ness’ love for music, especially country music, was a major passion. He played guitar and wrote songs. Among his friends was singer Michael Martin Murphey, a former Taos County resident, who he helped promote.

In a telephone conversation last month, Ness was in good spirits and said he wasn’t suffering physical pain. But he said he realized his time was near.

Friends have planned a celebration of Ness’ life beginning at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the state Farm & Ranch Museum in Las Cruces.

He is survived by his wife Sharon Sumner-Ness of Las Cruces, Daughter Emily Ness Gaffney of Albuquerque, sons Erik and Garrett of Las Cruces, one grandchild and another on the way.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: Has a Wedge Issue Lost Its Edge?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
May 13, 2012

I have this bad habit of starting my day off checking my email every morning on my iPhone before I even get out of bed.

So most mornings, the first thing I see are emails from the Republican National Committee blasting the president for, well, whatever they feel is blastable for that day. A frequent RNC favorite is “The Big Fail.”

So when I woke up Thursday, I thought I knew what to expect. This was the day after President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, so I predicted something along the lines of “The Big Gay Fail.”

I was wrong. There was nothing. I almost was tempted to check the calendar to make sure this was a weekday. Later in the morning, the RNC sent a release attacking Obama over the economy, but nothing on gay marriage.

I have to think that this is just one little sign that recent polls are correct and attitudes about this issue really are changing. Perhaps the email I didn’t get says more than the ones I do.

Maybe there was another clue on Wednesday. I’d asked Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s spokesman for comment about Obama’s announcement. Scott Darnell said Martinez had “no particular reaction,” adding, “The governor has been very clear about where she stands on this issue.” (She’s said she’d veto any bill that would allow gay couples to enter into domestic partnerships.)

One way of looking at Martinez’s reaction could be, she hasn’t changed her mind, but she’s not going to dig herself in any deeper. Or maybe she doesn’t want to lose another hairdresser.

A few weeks ago, I talked to former Gov. Gary Johnson — once a Republican, now the Libertarian Party candidate for president — about gay marriage. Like Obama, he said his opinion on the matter has “evolved” through the years. Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for Equality New Mexico, told me last week that her group couldn’t even schedule a meeting with Johnson for years to talk about gay-rights issues.

But Johnson now is a vocal advocate for marriage equality — and in fact was blasting Obama for not embracing gay marriage the day before the president’s announcement.

It’s wrong to assume that all Republicans have a knee-jerk reaction against same-sex marriage.

The December Public Policy Polling survey that showed a plurality of New Mexicans supporting gay marriage also showed that 41 percent of Republicans in the state supported some kind of legal recognition of homosexual couples — civil unions or marriage.

And some of those Republicans live in Santa Fe. Two years ago, I did a column about the fact that the Santa Fe County GOP tried to get the state party to drop its opposition to gay marriage.

“Presently, the state Republican platform supports vigorous enforcement of Civil Rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, gender, handicap, religion, and national origin,” a news release from the local Republicans said. “The Santa Fe County Party recommended adding sexual orientation to this list. ... The county party also showed their support of  ‘civil unions,’ ” the news release continued.

When I called then-county party Chairman Paul Morrison about this, he said, “Why are you surprised that Republicans would be in favor of equal rights?”

Of course, the state GOP overwhelmingly voted against these changes. And earlier this week state party Chairman Monty Newman reiterated his party’s opposition, calling Obama’s position a “political pander from our country’s campaigner-in-chief.”

But it should be noted: Newman was responding to my request for a response. The state GOP didn’t initiate the discussion to exploit a wedge issue.

Could it be the times really are changing?