June 15, 2018 • Regional News
In New Mexico this Week (June 10-15)
Richardson: North Korea summit was a “risk” but worth it
Albuquerque Journal
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson – one of few Americans to maintain contact with the North Korean government over the past two decades – called Tuesday’s summitbetween Presidents Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un “historic and positive” from a diplomatic standpoint but a mixed bag on the thornier subject of convincing Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.
“It was historic and positive in that it lessened tension on the peninsula but it’s a mixed result on denuclearization because North Korea has basically not given up anything,” Richardson said in an early-morning phone call with the Journal from Boston, where he was conducting a slew of national interviews on the subject. “It’s good to see less tension…the two leaders getting together and trusting each other.
New Mexico will pay more than $130K for Pearce campaign legal fees
The New Mexican
Taxpayers will shell out up to $133,000 to cover legal expenses for U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce’s campaign after the state settled a lawsuit his attorneys had filed last year over fundraising limits.
The lawsuit hinged on dueling interpretations of New Mexico’s campaign finance laws, with the Secretary of State’s Office initially contending the Republican’s campaign could not transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars he had accumulated running for Congress to finance his bid for governor.
The state instead maintained that transferring money from one campaign to another would be limited, like any other donation of that kind, to $11,000.
The Pearce campaign took the state to federal court last year, arguing that interpretation did not make any sense when candidates for state office can roll over donations from one year to another.
A judge granted an injunction, allowing Pearce’s congressional campaign to transfer the money — about $783,000 at this point — to his campaign for governor.
New Mexico Health Exchange May Get Fifth Insurance Provider
Associated Press
Families and individuals shopping for health insurance on New Mexico's federally subsidized exchange may have more companies to choose from next year.
The Office of the Superintendent of Insurance said Monday that five companies have applied to offer exchange plans for 2019, including four companies that currently participate.
Agency spokeswoman Heather Widler says an affiliate of Presbyterian Health Services has proposed new exchange offerings in a development that could benefit consumers.
Widler says Presbyterian currently participates in the insurance exchange for small businesses and provides off-exchange individual policies. The company last participated in the exchange in 2016.
About 50,000 people currently receive health insurance through the state's health exchange portal, known as beWellnm. Average premium increases set records this year.
Inside the New Mexico governor’s home
The New Mexican
Former Gov. Jerry Apodaca corrected a reporter back in 1978 who described the home of the state’s chief executive as the governor’s mansion.
It was the governor’s residence, he insisted.
So, which is it — mansion or residence?
See for yourself.
Nestled in the hills north of downtown Santa Fe, the home is open for tours during the next several months.
And the word “residence” is one that some governors had hoped would stick.
“Many governors have wanted to call it a residence, not a mansion,” said Kathy Dickerson, a docent at the home.
And to be sure, the one-story home is not as imposing as its two predecessors.
This is, technically speaking, the third governor’s mansion in New Mexico.
The first was the Palace of the Governors on the Santa Fe Plaza.
Judge blocks plan to split plutonium ‘pit’ production
Albuquerque Journal
A federal judge has thrown a wrench into the federal government’s plans to house most of the nation’s production of the plutonium cores for nuclear weapons at a facility in South Carolina instead of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs issued an injunction blocking shutdown of the mixed-oxide fuel project, or MOX, at the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, S.C. A stop-work order for MOX by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry, putting several hundred jobs at risk, was to have taken effect this week.
South Carolina sued the federal government after the Department of Energy recently announced it was stopping construction of the MOX plant, which was intended to turn weapons-grade plutonium from dismantled warheads into fuel for nuclear reactors as part of a nonproliferation agreement between the U.S. and Russia. The giant facility broke ground more than a decade ago and has faced delays, litigation and costs ballooning from an early estimate of $4 billion to a projected $17 billion.
https://www.abqjournal.com/1183789/judge-blocks-plan-to-split-plutonium-pit-production.html
High-profile DWI cases spotlight complicated world of legal conflicts
New Mexico In Depth
For the second time in a year, last month Albuquerque Police Officer Joshua Montaño found himself handcuffing a high-profile politico with ties to Gov. Susana Martinez.
Montaño arrested state Rep. Monica Youngblood on May 20 on suspicion of aggravated drunken driving, first offense, after he believed she performed poorly on field sobriety tests at a DWI checkpoint on Albuquerque’s west side, then refused to take a breath-alcohol test.
A year to the day earlier, on May 20, 2017, the veteran DWI officer arrested one of the state’s most influential political insiders, former Martinez Environment Department secretary and current New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President Ryan Flynn, on suspicion of DWI.
Flynn’s case was dismissed; Youngblood’s is just beginning to wend its way through the courts.
Given the Albuquerque Republican’s high-profile stance as a Martinez-friendly, tough-on-crime legislator, her unopposed victory in the June 5 primary election and calls for her to abandon her legislative seat, Youngblood’s arrest has kicked up a political stir.
But Youngblood’s and Flynn’s cases, taken together, have surfaced deeper questions about potential conflicts of interest—particularly once lawyers in a small community achieve a certain lofty status—and how criminal justice officials can navigate them, assuring the public that well-connected defendants are treated the same as everyday citizens in court.
A good government advocate has criticized the circumstances surrounding Flynn’s dismissal, and at least one attorney has filed a court motion seeking to disqualify the entire office of Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez from a separate DWI case. The motion rests on information unearthed by SFR and New Mexico In Depth questioning whether the office had created a sufficient firewall to avoid a conflict between prosecutors and defense lawyers in the Flynn case.
New Mexico voter participation increases by 29 percent
The Associated Press
Voter participation in the New Mexico’s primary election this week was 29 percent greater than four years ago.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver announced Thursday an uncertified election tally of 261,615 in the primary election that narrowed competition for two open congressional seats, the governor’s office, several statewide offices and the state House of Representatives. In 2014, voters cast 202,327 primary ballots.
More than twice as many Democrats voted as Republicans in the closed primary. Many Republicans including gubernatorial candidate and Congressman Steve Pearce ran unopposed, while Democratic candidates crowded into primary contests for governor, congress and public land commissioner. Democratic Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham advanced in the governor’s race.
Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, will face Libertarian Sandra Jeff and Republican Johanna Cox in the general election.
http://www.therepublic.com/2018/06/07/nm-new-mexico-primary-voter-turnout-2/
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