Back to Work

It was a great vacation, lasting a little more than two weeks. But now it's back to work.

Let's see what happened while I was gone:

Brian Sanderoff just did his poll for The Albuquerque Journal, basically confirming what everyone already knew. Democrat Martin Heinrich is leading Republican Heather Wilson  by seven percentage points while in the presidential race, Democratic incumbent Barack Obama is leading Republican Mitt Romney by five.

Up here in CD3, Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Lujan is heading for a landslide over Republican Jeff Byrd, 57 percent to 31 percent.

In the other Congressional races, Michelle Lujan Grisham is beating Janice Arnold-Jones by a healthy 46 percent to 34 percent margin in CD1, while Republican  Steve Pearce is crushing his Democratic sacrificial lamb Evelyn Madrid Erhard 56 percent to 30 percent.

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Meanwhile, back at the Roundhouse, the Martinez administration's email scandal is getting stranger.  The governor's chief of staff Keith Gardner was caught on tape saying he never uses his state email because, "I don’t want to go to court (or) jail.”

(This was recorded last fall, before Martinez ordered state employees to always use state email to conduct state business -- an order that came about after I revealed the widespread practice in her administration of using private emails.)

KOB news also revealed that the tape showed Gardner appearing to offer a state fair job to his friend who was taping the conversation

And, as my colleague Kate Nash reported Friday, the governor is trying to get out of testifying in the wrongful termination case of fired state Probation & Parole official Larry Flynn.

Lots to catch up on ...