New Mexico in Focus; 312; Richard Berry's Big Win and NM's Budget Battle

It's the changing of the guard at Albuquerque City Hall for the first time in nearly a decade. The city has a new mayor. It had this week on the Mexico and Focus breaking down Richard Berry's improbable victory, plus what he has to do to lead the city into the future. Then the battle lines are drawn in the state budget fight. What educators are doing to arm themselves for battle heading into next week's special session, and this is your place for informed, involved, and in-depth conversation, the Mexico and Focus starts right now. Richard, R.J. Berry proved the pundits wrong this week by capturing the Albuquerque mayor's race in convincing fashion. His win means Albuquerque will have its first Republican

mayor in nearly a quarter century. But what was behind his big win, and how will he choose to lead now that he has the job? And what about Marty Chavez? What does this loss mean for his political future? We've got plenty to tackle this week and no shortage of opinions to go around from our line panelists, but we kick things off with reaction and analysis to this week's municipal elections from the journalists that covered the race. Dan McKay covers City Hall for the Albuquerque Journal. He joins us here in studio to help break down this poll results and also this election. With us also, Marjorie Childress for the New Mexico Independent, Gwyneth Dolan, also covered the race and helped moderate our joint mayoral debate earlier this month. She is the new editor of the independent congratulations. And our old friend, Peter St. Seer, he's also done some yeoman's work reporting on this race. Guys, what a week. Absolutely phenomenal. We've had a big surprise to some. Perhaps not a big surprise to others, but this is what we have right now. And Dan, I've got to start with you. We have to peel back to the Sanderov Journal poll.

That was the flare that just went off across this whole city and people just bounced between disbelief and oh my gosh on the Republican side. Is this really actually doable? From inside your shop, how did this all play out when the poll first got out there? Well, we were surprised as anyone. I think Brian Sanderov was, you know, he came in the next day to meet with a couple of reporters to go over the results and he said, well, we have a shocker. And I thought he was just joking. And I started to look at the results and there was Barry in the lead at 31%. So I was pretty surprised. I know that people in the campaigns were surprised. There had been some earlier polls. I think the campaigns had done that showed Chavez in the 40s and no one doubted that he was on top earlier in the summer. So I think, you know, we were pretty much floored, but it held up. And, you know, I think that it was a good sprint to the end once that happened. Absolutely. It was like a gunfire, Gwyneth, because suddenly the race changed completely

as it probably should have. But where did things go from there? I mean, clearly we had an uptick in television from Mr. Barry. He had a very effective ad on crime. And we had Mr. Chavez going after Mr. Barry on a number of things. But were you surprised at how this all played out? Because a lot of folks would have bet good money. It would have been a runoff. Yeah. I mean, people were constantly asking me what I was going to bet. And I kept telling them, I'm not betting anything. And when I opened up the paper and saw those polls, I almost spit my coffee all over the place. I couldn't believe it. I think that I think it really energized the campaigns. And certainly it put them into high gear and got them scrambling. I don't think it energized the voters that much. You know, I think I saw, we saw a lot of complacency all around. I mean, the turnout wasn't as high as the last mayoral election. You know, the poll may have raised some eyebrows among readers. But I don't think it necessarily motivated them to, you know, what are they going to

do? Vote harder. Twice. Vote twice. It didn't seem to impact her now. Sure. Peter, that's a good point because the problem for the Democrats clearly was just getting the GOTV, get out the vote and people did not get out. What happened? It was very quiet on the Republican side. And, you know, you didn't hear about a whole lot about the get out the vote effort. And so I think that when the poll came out, everyone realized that with 19% undecided that Mayor Marty was in trouble and that usually undecided to go to the challengers and it was going to come down to who could grab those undecideds. And then, you know, with the campaign so close, the Chavis campaign did go very negative against Barry. And I don't know if that maybe backfired a little bit with, you know, emphasizing the fatigue, the Mayor, Marty fatigue, which had been kind of a threat, but it looked like he'd overcome it. You know, he went to court and got term lines thrown out, but in the end, the voters did term line with him. Marjorie, good to see you back here at Canterbury. Now, this fatigue issue is interesting.

This popped in my head when Peter just mentioned when the robocalls from Bill Clinton, President Clinton went out. And it just seemed like this was like a voice from the past, this ghost, this specter. Was that helpful? I mean, obviously it wasn't. Well, I think it was too little too late. So, I mean, I would say that the poll, if anything, was a sign it showed actually that the Republican Party had a strong operation all year. I mean, they were doing GOTV, but they were popping up from the beginning. Actually, they did a poll before January 1st. They were doing polling before the year started. They helped Barry get qualified for public financing. They weighed in on issues. They weighed in on the immigration issue in June. That was a sign that they were very engaged. They ended up forming a Measure Finance Committee towards the end to push, do issues, education around taxation. So, those two issues are classic Republican issues that motivate their base of voters,

no taxes, ties into this national debate around taxation. The immigration issue is one of those flashpoints that motivates a base, their base. And the journal poll was a sign that they were doing aggressive work to get their base out. And I think that's ended up happening. We had low turnout, very low turnout, but increased turnout in a Categans district, District 5. I think they probably targeted it. It's the only area of the city that actually had increased turnout over 2005. I didn't realize that. It's interesting. I want to stay with you for a second this before we swim back across the table. This idea of that the mayoral race is non-partisan. Is it time to put that to bed? I think it's a big question that people should. I think it's an open question because what makes it non-partisan or the rules, it does not mean that the Republican party does not have the right to get involved in pushing its messages and identifying candidates. It doesn't mean that they coordinated with the Berry campaign. They have every right

to do what they were doing. So, one big question we might ask if we're not going to go non-partisan, well, where was the Democratic party? I mean, I didn't see them. I didn't see them until the very end of the campaign when they realized, oh, we better do some GOTV. They really did. I think they regret it, I suspect. Yeah, I think the Republican party, they decided they were going to get the mayor's office. They identified a unifying candidate, which is Richard Berry. He unified their party. Great candidate doesn't have a lot of baggage or history with the electorate here in Albuquerque. They were able to drive it home. The Democratic party may have faced some challenges that the Republican party didn't have and that had two candidates in the race. Marty Chavez has been a very divisive figure within the Democratic party. He's actually had trouble in more partisan races and he's won in the non-partisan races where he's able to peel off Republicans and Democrats and Independents. So, I think it's

a little tough for me to criticize the Democratic party too heavily because they did have two candidates and I think there may have been some reluctance to get involved on somebody's behalf. But you know, and Margie was the one that shared this information with me that in the 2005 race, there were two Democrats. Chavez, again, City Councilor Eric Griego, and Eric Griego actually got six percentage point more votes than Romero did in this election. So, it didn't affect him then. So, I'm not sure that having two Democrats in this race hurt Chavez. There were other factors like the high crime rate in violent crimes. You know, when you find 11 women buried on the West Mesa and then have MS-13 members that played into some of the immigration issues that Marjorie brought up, that started to wear down, I think, the popularity and not that he should not be completely proud of, you know, his three terms as mayor and I think he will be for a long time,

it recognizes a very successful mayor. As far as partisan, I don't think that you can have you know, the court throw out term limits and then not make it partisan because at that point, you know, you are getting into office clearly with less than 50 percent of the vote and it has happened on the presidential level, but we're talking local politics and if you're going to throw out term limits, then you, I think, need to make it partisan and that way you vet candidates in the primary and then you put the two best up from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and someone has to win with 50 percent unless there's a really strong writing candidate and that would probably be the exception to the rule. Which we didn't have this cycle, certainly. And go back another layer even beyond the poll. Do we know anything now about the new rules and the money limits and who would help, who it didn't help and are we okay from this point forward? Are we okay? I don't know. I can't say that we're going to be okay. I think the public

financing watching that unfold has been really interesting. It was, you know, we were talking, we've been talking about a lot of polling. One of the things that we wrote about was the fact that with more money in the race, if you're allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money, you can spend a lot more of it on your own internal polling. I suspect there was less internal polling in this race than we would have seen without public financing. I think my gut feeling is that public financing did level the playing field here and the effect was to make it more competitive. You know, I don't have numbers for that. I can't really prove that, but that's my feeling. Sure. I don't think you'd be alone on that actually. I think it shortened the campaign. Because everyone held their money until the end. It wasn't, you know, Chavez had more than a million dollars four years ago and he was running, you know, there was a campaign up and running basically from May or June. And in this case, it didn't really catch fire until September.

And I think another, I think, public financing is a really interesting topic because it, you know, it's typically, typically you'd figure that it would favor the incumbent because in this case, he had a higher name ID and he could use his pulpit as the mayor to continue to get on TV. Which was the complaint early, by the way, because he was on the air with PSAs and sessions. We heard that for years about that. Sure. We saw as two candidates, one on the right, one on the left sort of hammer him with combined resources and he couldn't raise money to make up the difference the way an incumbent mayor might have under the old system. So I think it's definitely changed the landscape. We'll have to see how it plays out in future elections. But I thought it was a surprising element of this race. Sure. And Marjorie, we have the prospect of independence, of course. And we'll talk about Democrats and Republicans. I don't know if we know how those folks broke necessarily, but do you have a sense of what happened and where those folks were? Well, they hang on late deciding late all that. Yeah. So we don't have the numbers. We don't have

like the ability to like do that for this race yet. But if you look at the 2005 numbers. So in 2005, independence in like third party candidates were like at about 20% registered voters, but they were only like 11% of the turnout. So municipal elections, I guess the moral of that story is that they're not very inspiring for the electorate or the population beyond like the very committed voters. And so one of the big, I think probably what we're going to see was one of the big lessons for this year. A lot of people wonder, well, are the Obama voters going to come out for the municipal race? They did not. I think it's pretty safe to say. And I suspect the independent, the percentages on the independent voters this year will be, will be lower, much lower than they're registered. And which means the Republican numbers will be bumped up. So the Republicans are only like 33% of the registered voters. They're going to have a higher percentage of the actual turnout, along with the Democrats also. You know, they'll, but I guess the moral to

me of that story is that the Republican party. So if we don't go partisan, so to me, I don't, I think if it's not going to be a question of making it a partisan race technically, I think it's probably naive to think though that parties don't play or don't factor into it. And they definitely did factor into it this year. And I think they, you know, they, and they drew away from Chavez' historic ability to draw Republicans. Sure. We even had, speaking of which, Peter, we had Heather Wilson way in for Mr. Berry at one point. Kind of came in one quickly, but who knows how significant that was, but that's a point that, you know, it doesn't, it's not partisan by rule, but it just feels partisan when you have things like that happening. Right. And Darren White came out and endorsed him as well. And so the interesting thing is that Heather Wilson doesn't necessarily agree with all of the sanctuary city status policies that Barry had mentioned and that had been brought up in the campaign. As a matter of fact, in the 2008 Senate primary, she missed a key vote in the US Senate that appears had blamed her for not attending because she said that she didn't think that the

cities had the responsibility for enforcing federal immigration and border policies. And so that vote tied at 210 and there for it failed. It was one of the 22 votes that she had missed during the primary season when she was running for Senate. And so, but overall, you know, the Republicans did back each other. And well, the young voters that Marjorie talked about that rallied for Obama spent the spring and the early winter, you know, laughing at tea party people because the crowds weren't as big as when Obama came and filled you and them. Johnson Field, the tea baggers were getting motivated and they are the ones that went and voted in this election part of the 33% that felt disenfranchised and wanted to express their anti incumbent sentiment and to make some changes in city hall. And that message is what was communicated effectively. I think that's one of the most important things that we saw in this election. I think that we saw a lot of frustration and anger and dissatisfaction on the part of conservatives, especially,

you know, those involved in the tea party protests. And I am dying to see the breakdown of the election results because I think that turnout among Republicans is going to be high. And I think it's because of that. I think this was their first opportunity to vote since Obama. And I think they wanted to vote against Obama, against Democrats in general. But if you look at the election results as that we were reported by precincts, it is clear that Barry picked up some very, you know, strong democratic precincts in the valley. And, but he also recognizes he didn't get 65% of the vote and that that's going to move him to the center. Common sense leadership also requires incorporating viewpoints of other people. And I think he's going to move there quickly. I suspect the campaign may have pushed him farther to the right than he was. Right. But the results of the election and victory will move him right back toward the center. We'll see. We'll see. I mean, so the thing about that is, I mean, so the Republican Party did

real, if they really focused in really heavily on getting their voters out. That's probably going to show him doing really well in those districts because there are the Republicans really came out in those districts. So Dan, this is an interesting point these guys are making because the West Side, Mr. Barry did quite well in Marty's backyard. Now, I'm wondering if that's a function of there's been so many new residents to the West Side who don't have a history going back to when he was in the legislature representing that side of the city. They don't have a history of his first term. I mean, when those returns came in from Cibola and from the Taylor Ranch Fire Department, I just about fell over. It was phenomenally strong. Yeah, I think it's the sign that things have shifted from Marty a little bit. You know, Paseo del Norte and Montagno Bridge weren't at the the tip of people's on their minds, at least West Sideers. And I think that especially the northern half of the West Side Categans district has always been a swing district where, you know, I think you could always go Democrat or Republican depending on who's running. And, you know,

there's some Chavez fatigue, I'm sure. I've heard from people walking the districts in the West Side, even people who are inclined to support Chavez that there was some feeling that maybe he'd been into long, you know, the economy's bad. People are ready for something different. And, you know, Barry's just ran a really effective campaign that appealed to people who were disenfranchised or disenchanted rather with the way things were going, whether it be at the federal level or local or anything else. And, you know, there was actually some hint of this, you could say maybe two years ago, when every city council candidate that the mayor had backed lost. And so there was some hint of some stuff brewing way back in 2007. Good catch. That's an interesting point. Crime. Was that the make or break one if? I mean, it just seemed like that TV ad spoke to people, Barry's last TV ad. You know, this is a tough issue for me. I personally don't need to hear about crime every night on the television. And it is not a motivating issue for me at all. But you're

not one of the 30,000 victims of property crime. Well, not necessarily. But I clearly don't think that's one of the most important issues for me. And crime is a tough issue because it's an easy thing to get up and talk about. I'm going to do something about this crime thing. But the problem itself is a multi-headed hydra. I mean, we have incredible rates of poverty. And these are not the kinds of problems that you can solve really easily. It's a great campaign meme to throw around. But actually solving the problem is close to impossible. Sure. Which begs the point, sorry, which begs the point about social issues, getting better services for people who are low-income or struggling with life-marjorie, that is sort of the root cause of crime. And drug addiction, and that's my sense of it. My feedback I'm getting from people is if he comes out and talks about those issues in addition to more cops and such, he'll be a lot better off than just continuing with

the meme of just crime. Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be really interesting to see how Barry moves forward on, let the social realm, especially the immigration that the whole issue of the police and immigrants. I mean, because he kind of connected those two in the later stages of his campaign. So the question is, how will he deal with the fact that the city itself has a majority of people of color and an APD policy that they call a non-discrimination policy that he's now on record saying I'm going to change that. And the fact that he actually didn't have the majority of the votes cast. How is he going to navigate this kind of perception now that he's going to be maybe a little bit hard in that area? But he does, Dan, have a now Republican majority on city council to work with. What's your take on that? I think we'll certainly see a more

conservative city hall. I think that the city government doesn't deal with a lot of partisan issues that deal, you know, centering on abortion or social issues that you see conservatives get excited about in federal and state-wide offices. But the main place I think it'll show up is in growth. I think that you'll see Barry and the city council be more inclined to support incentives to develop vacant land on the west side and things like that because the council really lost the most vocal critic of some of these tax incentives. Michael Categan and he's replaced by a conservative Republican who even if he's moderate on the issue or fits in with the rest of the council, he's bound to be less vocal than Categan in his opposition. And we can't get out of here without talking about the scuttle butt of the week. Who stays? Who goes in city hall?

Peter, there's a lot of stuff floating around, not asking anybody for any names or rumors. But what he would, the new mayor may or may like be well served to keep some department heads for the time being. And he's on the record saying that he is going to keep some of them. He has done interviews where he said that he recognizes that a lot of these people get up every day and work hard. He's going to go through a vetting process at lunch with the mayor after winning the office. He asked for access to some of the departments to start the discussions so that his team will be in place and ready to go when he's sworn in on December 1st or at least the majority of them. The problem that he's going to have if he decides to be partisan is there's not a deep bench that I'm aware of within the Republican Party for some of these municipal jobs. But certainly there will be some shakeups in some departments and he's going to take a look at morale in some of the departments that have had low morale and see if that is a result of the management at the top

of those departments. Clearly he's not going to get rid of everyone. I mean if you look at the Albuquerque Film Department when you talk about a shallow bench who else are you going to get? I mean where's he going to go? Let me start right there. This is not about Ann at all I love her but is it the fact that that's the criteria we use about double dipping that we don't have anybody else in that you know we should keep the person that's in the seat. Yeah but double dipping just isn't an issue here. Yeah. I mean that's it's just a fact we this is a very specialized department film is it wouldn't make sense for him necessarily to mess. I'm not advocating this but I think that if you know even though you were at once a political appointee that if you get through four years then and another mayor comes that you get some protection has anything to do with it. I think it has to do with with how you're hired whether you're brought in under this classified merit system and I don't know in the case of an learner but I think that almost all the department heads will be gone or moved to different positions that's the way it's worked in

the past with other mayors and even if Barry is inclined to say tap ed Adams you know who's the top executive of under Martin Chavez even if he wants to keep Adams around I suspect he'd probably put him in a different position and then work him back up if he feels like you know he turns out to be a real asset but I think what you know what Gwen said is right there are certain professionals who certainly know what they're doing and need to be kept around and you know I just to be clear when I'm picking on Anne learner here are she's she's a wonder what's going to stay and she's going to say what's next for Marty what do you think? Well I I can't read the tea leaves for learning I mean I think he's you know he probably has a bright future locally or naturally I don't see where he goes in an elective office next year maybe he has different ideas but when I think about statewide office I mean governor I don't think so I don't think he's he said the governorship is the only one he wants some other like high profile would be playing commissioner

or lieutenant governor I don't see those I don't see that next year but I mean I don't know what his plans are I do think though that he he pulled in he had a Bill Clinton calling in an endorsement for him in the final week of the campaign so something tells me he's connected on some level so I mean I I can see him going and doing something at the national level some appointed capacity or I mean there's plenty of ex-mayors out there by the way the national level working in green initiatives heading associations foundations that kind of thing what's next for Richard Romero Peter we've got about a minute left I think that he will go back to lobbying you know we collected tax returns throughout the campaign and that's a very lucrative thing and a good career for him and he's been happy doing that I think the mayor you know it might be good for him to think about a job in Washington because he loves this city so much and his vision it might be tough here to see it and know that you know he can't just change it or or have his say go on things so it might be good

to take a little break he certainly has no worries it's hard when you're at the top to work under somebody else's topic thank you all but let me say from the community thank you all for your hard work during this cycle I as a reader as a blogger as a listener you know you guys just did tremendous work and it was really well served and well informed thank you all for being here now still ahead this week predictions and opinions about what is sure to be a highly charged special session governor Richardson has called lawmakers back to shore up the budget but there seems to be little common ground on how to make ends meet but up first our round table panelists offer their opinions and insights on these same municipal elections we should also mention we try to get Richard Barry here in the studio this week to talk about his big victory in his plans for city hall body has got his hands full right now so we're going to give him a little pass he did commit to coming next week so if you have questions you'd like to for me to ask him during that interview just send an email at infocus at canemy.org we can certainly comment on our blog that's canemy.org

and look for the new Mexico and focus tab at the top of the screen now let's introduce you to the panelists for this week starting with Jim Scare and Tino radio host investigative analyst for the Rio Grande Foundation and Margaret Montoya who holds appointments in both the UNM schools of law and medicine our guests guests this week old friends Sophie Martin managing editor of the social networking site Duke city fix and more we'll discuss that in a second and we welcome back Marco Gonzalez former congressional candidate in the third district in attorney with the module Spiraling Law firm in Santa Fe now what a week we've just had the guys on from the press and this is interesting that we've got so much going on with this very victory just came out of nowhere depending on your point of view Jim depending on your point of view now I want to talk about some street level stuff Richard Romero as the new Ralph Nader this meme is floating around the internet lot of stuff on Facebook was he in fact the spoiler in this did he cause mr. Barry to get in office well he was the favored candidate of the left wing progressive part of the democratic party

all spring and I just had a laugh reading some of the comments of his former friends just turning on him and crashing him Richard Romero is an honorable man he was a great public service I admire him tremendously he was a quality candidate he was in this to win he didn't pull it off and he doesn't deserve the treatment he's getting from some factions in the democratic party but it has Margaret opened up an interesting discussion about what happens when you've got our new system in place now we'll talk about this a little bit more but we had two democrats in the republican and there's been calls that maybe one of the two democrats should have dropped out what is this foolishness that it's nonpartisan where clearly it is let me have you take this partisan issue did the democrats play it well knowing that this is a partisan race after all I think the question that you ask whether whether a candidate who believes that they bring a position to the issues that is not being discussed that they have a voice that isn't being heard that they have constituents

who aren't being represented that they should drop out I don't think that that's the way democracy works now if we're going to just you know play hardball here and say then let's put in the best candidate I think that Marty may not have been of the two of the best candidate I think that this we have to remember that the democrats got 55% of the vote we have to remember that the voters voted for government you just go down that ballot and see what they were voting for they were voting to tax themselves this was not a vote consistent with republican views or values and so I think that what we have to say is this was a vote in which people were saying we don't want someone in office for 16 years we think that the city is well served by getting in someone who is going to bring in new people new leadership I think that that is the takeaway message from this

election let's go back to same question I asked the guys earlier this just lifted off with that poll right the infamous poll where everybody just was shocked I feel to when people say like oh Romero should have dropped out he needed to not be in that race so that shavas could take it and the democrats could stay in office that if you remember the real data point we have there is the poll in which Romero was within the margin of error he was within reach of where shavas was and so to turn to Romero and say well you got to go statistically not not a huge difference between the two I think that's that was one challenge and the other you have to say about the nadir thing which I find hilarious and suddenly I'm a Romero apologist which I don't know how that happened but but the nadir thing is I don't think nadir ever pulled as well as Romero did and I don't think he ever pulled as many votes as Romero did I mean not quantity but percentage and so to say this is a nadir this is a 12% performance this is this was something higher and I think that

there are real challenges for the democratic party right now over issues involving things like term limits as Margaret mentioned but then also the future of where the city is going how we want to develop our resources how we want to how we want to work within the city system government system and that Romero at least provided an alternate to that I also think though that many many many democrat voters and this is my gut thought looked at that poll look at that journal poll thought it's going to go to run off I'm not going to bother to vote right I'm not going to worry about 25% turnout when you think of when you crunch the numbers beary one with 11% of eligible voters voting for him 11% that is so small and the fact that democrats didn't turn out I believe some of it may have been suppression because of the ugliness of the campaign voter suppression some of it may have been not liking the various candidates not liking chavas etc but I think a significant amount we have to question whether people said this is a fate of complete situation I'll come

back when it really matters right right but Marco now we have a situation we have the highest profile republican in the state is the mayor of the city it's not your city and I realize but you know what is this is this a a sliver of hope a ray of hope a giant you know spotlight of hope what's the perspective on having a republican now right in high office well let's not forget we still have pat lines but at any rate rj berry is a the mayor now or mayor elect of of one of a america's large cities and so that's good for republicans but what I love is the fact that we hear all of the democrats around you know fighting amongst themselves and trying to figure out what went wrong I mean the fact of the matter is that what happened here is that people are tired of broken promises and entrenched politicians I think that many of the independence that are out there that voted for berry we're out here and tired of the broken promises that they've heard not only from Marty but from the Obama administration people are chomping at the bit to get at a vote

at democrats and let's not forget you know Marty was there supportive of the Obama administration the whole way I think people are tired of entrenched politicians and want some payback for the way that the the federal government has turned our entire government upside down I was gonna put one the real interesting thing in this election is that rj berry pulled his panic democratic votes if you listen to the commentators they were stunned at what he pulled in westgate which is an 80 percent plus Hispanic precincts berry one heavily Hispanic southeast heights precincts I don't know if we know yet what was going on there but that was I thought the most interesting development of night and went and the other interesting thing is that Dan Lewis it wasn't just berry who won Dan Lewis beat I think a pretty well respected democratic councilman on the west side in a democratic precinct and I don't something I wouldn't say it's a referendum on Obama I think people I've been energized I know the Republican Party headquarters I heard was packed

not with the little old lady volunteers that you see urine and urine but new people and young people and the GOP actually did a competent job in a municipal election which I think it's relatively unprecedented but how many ground both of those I think that the Hispanic question the Latino voter question is somewhat more complex than the fact that berry pulled some votes because I think that he positioned himself as the beneficiary of a racial preference program the the SBA program that his wife participated in that is that she is the majority owner of this business is going to be hard to defend this is going to come up I think Latino voters are going to want more scrutiny of this and it does raise questions about his bonafides as a contractor as a common sense business family I think that's completely unfair I mean we have never heard a single

word that Richard Berry opposes the way that the system at the SBA works and for people to say that you know it's wrong for him to follow the law is just it's not appropriate let me you know and who knows if someone's either going to let that go or not we'll see what happens with that market but this it's a valid point how does he market seeing with you govern this city that's exactly that's the second point that I was going to make yeah and in fact I think that Marty may have played too cute with this because I don't think that in fact he had a clear message for Latino voters I don't think he had a clear message for young voters and I think that the demographic that we have to be thinking about is that group of young voters that can still stay home and they can stay home for the upcoming elections right and I think women I think that that those demographics need to be focused on in a clear way but I think that the

issue that you're getting at at the polarization is that issue not only for for Berry I think that this is you know both parties need to be very careful about the amount of tension out there the anger out there that I don't think we're well served as a democracy let me swing these guys about a minute and a half left so maybe on market's point in your view what does he have to do early to settle some agita out there well it's interesting I mean I certainly think that that people who know him and like him are out on the streets I've certainly talked to a number of people who have gone out of their way to say I worked with Berry I consider him an honorable man there's there's been a lot of dialogue I think on a personal level that's just happened in the last very few days that that that since the election and I and I also I appreciate myself hearing him say I'm going to be deliberate about how I handle things I have not made any sudden decisions don't expect sudden moves from me I'm going to really look at things

some people may find that alarming certainly if you were a city worker we're having to hear whether you were going to keep your job or not might be a little a little tension filled but but I think those are important things the other thing is if he can avoid embracing or being seen as publicly embraced by certain certain portions of his own party if he can focus on the good manager side of of his campaign it was using a Michael steel weighed in with a congratulations that nobody in his party even touched about 30 seconds left his seat up in the legislature what do you think should he resign it should he just go with a special next week because he has experience and we are facing a terrible crisis and he knows state government he knows the budget that special session will be over before he takes over as governor I excuse me as mayor and he he can hand juggle a lot of balls he's going to have a lot of help in the transition he'll hang on to

this yes or no should he resign or stay for the session he should stay for the session in one piece of devices any changes of the staff will be going to make make them fast because that's going to serve you in the long run interesting experience right there now speaking of which state lawmakers head back to Santa Fe next weekend to try and deal with this ever worsening state budget new projection show a shortfall as much as 550 million we've heard more certainly the session scheduled start on Saturday the 17th and the governor says it will go as long as it takes for everyone to agree to a solution some lawmakers say education cuts whoever will be necessary to make the numbers work the governor is now in the record saying schools are off limits educators are also had they gathered today in Santa Fe as a matter of fact to propose protest excuse me proposed cuts Margaret I guess the it's really a binary thing do we don't we should education be spared if yes why if not why we need to know that if we take a look at the share of the budget that education represents since the year 2000 not even going back there has been a one percent

cut every year I mean first of all what education represents in terms of the future for New Mexico is incalculable I think it's going to be extremely dangerous for the state to go after education when education has already there have already been cuts that have there are now structural but what we're talking about is it isn't to cut or not to cut it is to raise revenue where the economists in the state are coming forward and saying in a recession the last thing you want to do is cut the budget Paul Krugman is out there saying the last thing you want to do because there are multipliers there are multipliers to education there are multipliers to Medicaid that the state is and and right now I think that that Richardson needs to be careful because the fact that he may be leaving

puts him at odds with the interests of the state here what are his interests versus what are the long-term interests our budget has been riding on stimulus money right that is not available next year that's right to niches and point Jim this idea the atmospheric says the national guys like to say about a lame duck guy he doesn't want certain things certain other legislators are going to be feeling their oats on this and we've got some some real budget hawks out early saying you know John I was Arthur Smith and others saying look sorry we get to get after this thing in a hard way it's worse I spoke to Tim Jennings and he said that the deficit is closer to 700 million than 500 million and the issue is whether we get the chewing gum once again and stick it in the hole in the wall like they did last year this just earlier this year in the legislature where they used stabilization funds and they didn't address the two facts one that under governor Richardson the

budget at one point doubled over what it was under Gary Johnson do we have twice as much in public services as I say twice let me stop let me stop you there though this lady right here made the point that that was actually making up for a lot of things that didn't happen but here's my point we hear that so my question is it doubled are we twice as better off because what you've seen in the doubling has been massive projects pet projects for the governor incredible political hiring the education budget increased 50 percent in absolute dollars under governor Richardson now when we say cut education you know you could the the the specter is cutting the the kindergarten teacher and having a hundred kids in the class when in fact what you have you have some administrators who aren't even educators you know their PR people making over six figures in some schools you have massive building projects that have gotten over you have incredible waste in the education budget so to say you leave education off the table you also leave off the table that waste that is not going to educating our kids the debate is whether we address the fact that

we had an unsustainable budget under governor Richardson we cannot continue at the rate of spending that he had it why because that money comes from somewhere else the fallacy in those economists argument is that it's just like spending but to spend the dollar here in government you have to take it out of investment and job creation over here and at the other end you don't get a dollar a government because government's so inefficient you might get 50 percent left let me sweet a Marco here speaking of which a dollar taxes taxes tax do we do we roll back the tax breaks that folks got a knot well you know several lot to say about this as well what I think is a funny is when what's being missed in all this game is it I mean I can't believe that the the the fork tongueness with which all of these democrat politicians are speaking without a Santa Fe pounding their chest about we can't cut education we can't cut and medicate it's like Nancy Pelosi and the house democrats who just passed eight trillion dollars worth of debt and like to say that well we're for pays you go and we pass pays you go I mean we got here somehow and it's been at the

leadership of the democrats in New Mexico legislature for the last 70 some years and here we have now a situation where bring bring bring that I hear I appreciate that history but bring the reality of what these guys need to do starting next Saturday I mean where do they have to go something has to be has to be done we're here it's unfortunate something has to be cut well I'd like to hear from them where they're going to do it and how they're going to make the ends meet because frankly you know living off the high hog for the longest time and on the stimulus dollars so that nobody has to know the decisions they made over the last eight years well then and the other thing is where's Dianne Denish on all this she had one hand on the wheel I'd like to hear what some of her ideas are here you go so put what do you think so much right to begin right I think I mean I really call me crazy but I think that the conversation that we're hearing in the media right now with the legislators talking about it's gonna be hard we're gonna have to we can't cut tax we can't

deal with education these are the opening salvos and we probably are not going to hear anything concrete for a little while here is they start to work it out I know that this is under under process the meetings have been happening up there but I also think without going one way toward education I mean I would hate to see education cut I have feelings about taxes that are probably in contrast with some of the people here but I think what we're seeing right now is the opening game and that at some point announcements gonna have to be made we have to cut some education and we I suspect we'll have to do something about those taxes that the legislature the leadership in the legislature is not saying we're preparing a $500,000 cut they're comparing a seven preparing a seven to eight hundred thousand do I have that right cut and so and so with these are just the the opening passes the next the regular session next year because they have to deal with that budget and if they do not address the fundamental imbalance that we are spending far more money than we have they're going to have this same problem next year

we are now the total deficit we've had go in just in 2009 is over a billion dollars let's talk about taxes thank you because governor Richardson put in tax cuts that benefited people that make over three it's two hundred ninety five thousand dollars each of those families getting thirteen thousand dollars a year in benefits to the tune of almost the deficit half a billion dollars a year has been lost in revenue well let me tell you now if you tax high income families it is not the same as what happens if you cut services to the poor so if we take one dollar of Medicaid out of the budget we lose five dollars in health care because they're it's a match of four dollars to one imagine if we are to take out a hundred million or two hundred million these these cuts are going to represent such incredible burden not only on the poor but on the rest of the state

sure on all of us on all of us the other point I'm holding four quicks because we can't get away credibly with this without talking about Medicaid as well exactly and and talk about early it just got thrown on the table almost first it was the oddest thing in the world right to talk about Medicaid good please well that's that's what I'm saying you know if if we're there's no way to cut it a little bit I mean unless we bring in revenue right there is no way to do anything other than to push these burdens on to the poor there there isn't any place I don't think I don't think that that's correct and one thing that we got to remember is that you know over the last years the oil and gas industry which provides millions and millions upon millions of dollars into our coffers to pay for road schools bridges and provides high-paying jobs to a lot of people has been restricted and I think that it's pretty fair to say that it's about the amount of money that you could tell from

the over-regulation is state government or the last years that that this 500 million could be and so isn't also a second natural gas prices are dropping and it's just worth the wins of the market it has it has something to do with that but also to do with the incentives that are placed on the industry to to expand their efforts and to invest in the future and that's not happening and you know our our oil and gas royalties are going to be coming down Jim won't you finish there's there's several ways to bring in revenue I we are going to see some adjustment in the tax rate because the state it's not just this fall it's next year that's the other way to do it Marco hits honored is to generate wealth and and kickstart our economy and what our legislator has paid no attention to is the business sector that that creates the jobs that generates the taxes and they need to pay attention on what they can do to encourage companies in this state to generate real wealth not through subsidies and gimmicks but through real wealth I know but that has is burdening business is health that's not what's the problem in this state absolutely that's not what the problem is with the oil and gas industry moving to Texas and not

dropping wells in the state and that Marco is right they have pulled back dramatically in this state you can go to the the next go border there's spots you can see where there's no activity on our side and right over the Texas border there's 12 new wells well those are not short term sources yeah but one but one new well generates so much money and jobs and it generates real jobs without dipping into the state but it's the argument that we have to diversify and get away from oil and gas and ride yeah but it's still yeah but it's still huge and oil and gas also generates other service industry and we are diversifying but the problem is that the golden goose that our state relies on has literally been thrown by the Richardson administration we'll leave it there now it's time for a quick round of on the clock you know how this works I hope well tell you our panel is up just one minute as a group to tackle each of the following subjects so first up Lawrence Reale it's been around town a long time he's now a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor he says his experience in government administration provides an opportunity for the lieutenant

governor's role to be expanded Reale wants the role to be wants to incorporate more oversight in areas apart from the normal 30 or 60 day session duties of just riding over the senate which brings us to a question mark oh well two questions actually now that I think about it the strategy of you know forming the job you're seeking during a campaign that's interesting to me but then second of all does he have a point should lieutenant governor governor be doing more well I like Lawrence Reale a lot personally and I think that he's been very creative and generated some earned media here with this and so he should be complimented for that but the role of the lieutenant governor is not to manage programs that's the role of a secretary of a cabinet good we don't need Dick Cheney in Santa Fe I know you remember that Morgan well I think that we need Joe Biden I think that there's a whole lot of talent there I think that the idea of having not a shared leadership but certainly where there is you know what where there's a portfolio for that person is is a good

way of it's telling family and I think also you know we have this possibility this year there are lieutenant governor will become governor why not think of that in some ways I think from the party perspective as governor and training sure I can see that too all right in August the public education department released preliminary data stating statewide graduation rates at 54% with only 46% for APS so whoever the final numbers released last Friday have been corrected unfortunately to read an Albuquerque public school graduation rate between 58 and 63% which has led to a dispute between the state and APS regarding who provided faulty data Margaret is at the point about who provided it or is the problem that surprised that that Winston Brooks came out you know with this finger pointing I just didn't think that and I think that your question is right that's that's not the point the point it I don't even know that the particular metric

is the focus if it's 63% it's still terribly bad absolutely right below the national average yeah well below I'm glad to see public officials panicking when they're getting tagged with low graduation rates right 30 seconds mark oh we cheaty on the last one so good oh well I would just say that yeah only highlights is that there's a real problem and you have two heads that are trying to decide what's the best way to go look I mean but it's a fight that can't be winnable right I mean I don't know why they engaged in it right but all it does is highlight for me that there's a problem so you know stop the fighting and start working on the solution right on the number right on could be change every single word have tainted the jury's decision I'm talking about the Carlos Fiero case he was found guilty of vehicular homicide last week of course but his defense team is seeking a new trial claiming a late change and key instructions to the jury may have tainted the verdict let me be very careful here the jury was originally told the state had to prove the defendant was the significant cause of the death of William tenorio later the wording was changed to and conform

to uniform jury instructions would say the state had to prove the defendant was a significant cause and Margaret well because the causation problems are enormously entertaining for lawyers and law professors and I'm sure that this case is going to be used everywhere to train students that the difference between a one of many sure or the the only is going to be used forever but I think that this also illustrates carelessness on the part of the prosecutor that you never go into trial without having jury instructions prepared interesting we have uniform jury instructions they're standardized that they've been approved and why the prosecutor allowed the defense to rewrite them and then didn't simply let the defense write the instructions to the jury thank goodness judge Michael v. Hill caught this or I think there would have been a tremendous miscarriage adjustment would you have walked if if he didn't catch it they would have had a hung jury because it was not

the cause because there were other other contributing causes for Marco our last attorney the table well the people of Santa Fe deserve better from their district attorney in terms of jury instructions Margaret is exactly right and I hope that this doesn't cause any effective appeal by the defendant interesting new mexico's human services secretary Pamela hide has been nominated by president Barack Obama to a key administrative post pending confirmation of the senate of course secretary hide will have the substance abuse and mental health services administration of the u.s health and human services department in a press release the governor praised miss hide saying that she quote took on one took on the task of improving and streamlining the way behavioral health services are administered in our state something no other state has tried much less accomplished so we that's very high praise for a very interesting it's major we're clearly losing somebody who's a big deal and it's it's I think it's great for the country it's a little bit of a bummer perhaps for us as nice as is to see her go to a a national position here's somebody who really made a difference

in a department that needed her help it's not sexy work but she did great this is yeah and behavioral health at you know certainly on senator dementia she has has been a major voice on this we're losing someone both in adult behavior health and adolescent behavior health that is not easily we play something 15 for each I think somebody with that town I think maybe able to make more of an impact at the state level though than at the federal level so there could be a net loss in her moving to DC yeah well we're talking about the Medicaid budget and cuts I mean she's the biggest advocate for all those families and people who actually need the services we're sorry to see her go and and the last thing she can do is help those poor families uh to maintain the budgets yeah good catch mark right there now saying that in a mix of can't afford a brain drain UNM President David Schmidley has been investing more resources into both keeping our states national scholars here at home and attracting out of state scholars to UNM for a year scholarship enticements worth about thirteen thousand dollars a year seem to be working market I want you

guys to hit this you and you and Sophie now we've got a lot of merit scholars for national spending college national achievement and Native American this spreads in a lot of interesting ways and I want to remind he did promise to do this early early early on and he something seems to have clicked here I don't think there's an educator who wouldn't want um students who are proven performers to be recruited um this places a lot of emphasis on the results of standardized tests and we know that students of color particularly are burdened by those tests so there's I think that there are two arguments but thumbs up on having these students here and I think that they will stay if we go the extra mile to give them reasons for sure I think so too and I also think that this is probably a good time a good timing for the university to say we're going to place a priority on academics when um perhaps athletics has not you know this is this is where we see recruitment happening amongst students is not athletics and it's not looking so good for UNM in that area

right now but now they can say we're focusing on this thing that I think will be good for the university overall sending that message is it my this is attract others national merit people in this house okay you begin getting a reputation for well you improve you increase your reputation for academic excellence and having a star student in that classroom helps every other student who's there with them very interesting now do you have an idea or topic we could discuss here at this round table of store if so should just email and focus at canemy.org or head to canemy.org and look for the link to New Mexico and focus on that website. If you missed any of this week's show just want to watch it again you can always head to our website just look for the New Mexico and focus link at the top of our website that's canemy.org and don't forget to send in your questions for Albuquerque's new mayor Richard Berry you can leave us a comment on our blog or shoot us an email that's in focus at canemy.org we'll have that interview for you next Friday night plus a whole lot more until then thanks for watching and have a great week.