Listen to Mayor Berry; Vote His Way

You read the headline correctly! The Eye is recommending that you vote in accordance with Mayor Berry’s statements. Below you will find a link to a video where Mayor Berry clearly states, “You take care of the Fire Department, you take care of the Police Department. ‘You take care of the people who keep us safe every day first.’ ” Berry continues to state, “…and then you work on boutique projects after you’ve got those main dollars in place.” (Bolded added for emphasis)

HELP MAYOR BERRY KEEP HIS WORD! VOTE “NO” ON ANY BOUTIQUE TAX BONDS!!!

Listen to your Mayor; vote "NO" to the Faire Berry Botique bonds.

No more taxes till the City can restore all the losses Mayor Berry has slammed the citizens of Albuquerque and the City employees with.

NO MORE TAXES; PERIOD! Vote “NO” on the Redflex Scameras and vote for ANYBODY but Brad Winter or Trudy Jones. These two candidates are anti-public safety.

The Eye would like to thank our local firefighters and the Local 244 Union for their contribution to the link below.

Click HERE for video link.

Eye Poll: Surprising Results

This week's Eye Poll double header featured the four way race in district 6 and the district 4 re-poll. In district 4 the results (which we believed were suspect the first time) showed a narrowing of the gap between incumbent Councilor Winter and challenger de'Pascal. However with 111 fewer participants due to more stringent voting rules, de'Pascal still ended up with an 8 point advantage with 54% to Winter's 46% (view the results here).

We always stress that this is an unscientific poll and we believe the increased voting security is at least partially responsible for the change in the poll results. One way or the other the Eye Poll shows a determination by the de'Pascal camp to get out their voters at least for the Eye Poll. It remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to muster enough votes on election day and during early voting which is now in progress.

Our featured Eye Poll took a look at the vacant seat of Councilor Martin Heinrich, district 6. This is a four way race between Rey Garduno (D), Joan Griffin (M), Blair Kauffman (D), and Kevin Wilson (R). Martycrat Joan Griffin took this one with 41% of the vote, Kevin Wilson was surprisingly strong with pulling 37%, Rey Garduno thought to be the odds on favorite only got 19% of the vote, and Blair Kauffman rounded out the group with 3% (view the results here).

Our unscientific poll showed surprising strength from Republican Kevin Wilson. He seems to have run a fairly high profile campaign, at least from the outside. It will be interesting to see whether the 2 Democrats and the Martycrat (registered as a D) end up splitting the vote enough to allow Mr. Wilson to slide into the seat.

This week we take a look at the last two candidates who are running for the district 2 council seat. Incumbent Council President is the odds on favorite, but it will be interesting to see what effect the Almighty Mayor's endorsement will have on the Martinez campaign; especially in light of the mayor's recent media problems. Don't forget to vote!

Eye Poll: Love for the Honey Bee

Last week's Eye Poll caught us by surprise early in the week as challenger Paulette de'Pascal opened up a 20 point lead over incumbent Brad Winter in an Eye Poll that saw even more votes (468) than the mayoral job approval poll (465) that we ran back in June. Since the numbers seemed strange, we started to look at our site statistics and found not only unusually high traffic, but large numbers of visitors coming from City of Albuquerque IP addresses.

We started to suspect that Captain Payne had set his course on pushing the Eye Poll. It wasn't until later in the week that we received confirmation from a couple of our Eyes that indeed there was a quite effort to push last week's Eye Poll. The push didn't surprise us as it's happened before when the Almighty Mayor himself blasted out an email to his campaign supporters urging them to vote for his approval. His gambit failed by 10 points (view the results here).

What to do? We admit that our Eye Poll is unscientific at best. However, we do want it to represent the opinions of Eye Readers as accurately as possible. So... in order to achieve that goal, we decided to do two things.

First, we changed the security parameters of the poll in order to make it harder for one person to pump up the votes for a specific candidate. Second, we decided to run the district 4 poll again; which seemed only fair in light of last week's push.

So... this week we feature two Eye Polls - a district 6 poll, and a repeat of the district 4 poll. Don't forget to vote!

Parties to the City Election

This October's Municipal Election has got it all. We've got educators and a toy salesman, a retired housing advocate and a builder's advocate, an accused embezzler and an admitted larcenist, Democrats (D), Republicans (R), and Martycrats (M). If that weren't enough... District 9 is in a state of open rebellion and is on track to give their councilor the boot even though his replacement will be a card carrying Martycrat. It's enough to make you long for a good old fashioned partisan race.

(Sidebar)
Our Eyes tell us that Admiral Lowe and crew are pretty confident that the ethics hearing for Councilor Harris will reveal misdeeds that could amount to thousands of dollars in fines. To make matters worse for the embattled councilor, he'll be featured on the second page of the district 9 ballot, making the recall almost impossible to miss for the voters in his soon to be former district.
(End Sidebar)

If all of that isn't enough to make you a little bit crazy, 5 of the participants (Sticky Fingers Garduño, Honey Bee de'Pascal, Ad Guru Griffin, Toy Man Wilson, and Commissar O'Malley) are all fueling their campaigns with your tax dollars. If they are so willing to use money that has been forcibly taken from the taxpayer to run their campaigns, what do you think they'll do when they have the power to do it for themselves? Talk about larceny!

Fortunately we can't vote in every district (well without voter ID... maybe we'll give it a shot), but if we could it'd be very hard for one of the above candidates to talk us into spending our vote when they've already stolen our money. On that note, let's talk about who's not already taking your money.

Katherine Martinez(M) - District 2 (Challenger)
Frankly, we don't believe that Ms. Martinez has a chance to beat Commissar O'Malley whose long, deep family ties in the North Valley and her incumbent status make her almost invulnerable. The irony here is that we have a former (current really) housing advocate being challenged by a representative of people who know how to build homes.

Even though Ms. Martinez has been directly endorsed by the Almighty One and would surely be expected to vote the Marty line, we don't believe she'd take the position that the City of Albuquerque should become landlords to people who can't afford homes. There are many ways to help people buy homes, but they all need to include earning and ownership.

Brad Winter (R) - District 4 (Incumbent)
Councilor Winter is completing his second term as councilor. He has been effective for his district and more importantly hasn't spent his time as councilor or as a candidate sticking his hand in our wallets. Another point in his favor is that he's the only councilor that's done anything to try and fix some of the problems caused by the Red Light Scam-era system.

His opponent on the other hand, is accused of embezzling over $60,000, and is already being run by the Napoleon of the 11th floor. Despite the Honey Bee's attempts at claiming victim status, the only victims in this race are the taxpayers.

Blair Kaufman (D) - District 6 (Open Seat)
You know, we'd really like to be able to say something nice about this particular candidate. He hasn't taken any of our money for his campaign which could mean he respects the taxpayers and their hard earned money. But after reading the Journal's Online Chat (Subscription) we suspect that the only reason he isn't rolling in "clean" money is that he didn't qualify.

It's really disheartening for those of us who believe the government should spend less time in our lives and in our wallet to see each candidate trying to out spend the other. Not one of them talked about freedom, not one talked about personal responsibility (except Sticky Fingers Garduño after he'd been nailed for fibbing on his Journal questionnaire).

(Sidebar)
It's amazing how frequently candidates and politicians have a Michael Vick Moment after being nailed. They suddenly find Jesus, Allah, or head out to rehabracadabara. What responsibility does a candidate for elected office have to be truthful, even when faced with a "gotcha" question from the Journal?
(End Sidebar)

We really feel for the residents of District 6. There's not a bit of difference between the candidates. The Republican isn't, the two Democrats are all the same except for the larceny thing, and the Martycrat spouts the exact same big government crap that the other three are busy spewing. Personally, we believe Sticky Fingers will end up representing District 6, but it probably won't make any difference except to Marty.

Petulant Paulette

District 4 council candidate Paulette de'Pascal is out with a mail piece that screams "Bad Brad!" Apparently, she's got her dander up about the revelations coming from the blogs (including this one) and other media outlets. We haven't seen the piece but the Pascal Pleasure Cruise on our dime, made sure that the Tribune got a copy which resulted in a front page story.

You see Ms. de'Pascal (Martycrat) is going through a messy divorce, which frankly isn't news in and of itself. However, when your soon to be (or at least sometime in the future to be) ex-husband is accusing you of embezzling $60,000 you can bet it's going to become an issue in your council race. Right now there has been no finding regarding the accusations against her which makes the divorce in question not only relevant, but an important consideration when choosing a councilor.

(Sidebar)
Martycrat- An ambitious politician that swears allegiance not to their party or their constituents but rather the Almighty Marty, King of the 11th floor, maker of media, and prince of the pedantic. Can be identified by a tendency to switch parties right before elections and will act like Republicans whenever addressing certain development groups. Right now there are three running for office and one likely to be appointed.
(End Sidebar)

After all, we have seen far too many public officials on the take here in New Mexico. Do we really need to elect someone who may be responsible for putting company funds in their own pocket? Honey Bee Paulette is solely responsible for choosing to run in this election, at a time when her actions are still in dispute. For her to try to grab the mantle of victim through a childish mail piece only reminds voters of how foolish she looked after the release of the Sandra Richardson email.

Speaking of Captain Payne, this "Bad Brad" mail piece has his finger prints all over it. It's precisely the type of piece he would come up with to try to put the Honey Bee back in the race. Unfortunately, this one only serves to make his candidate look somewhat childish, while bringing up the issue of her divorce the underlying claims. Folks the divorce ain't the issue, otherwise we'd be talking about her other ones. The issue is her integrity and ability to lead.

Winter Calls for APD to Report Illegals

This afternoon we received a press release from Councilor Brad Winter's office. He's calling for a re-write of Albuquerque's illegal immigrant friendly ordinance that stipulates that APD shouldn't go out of its way to determine the status of suspected illegals.

WINTER: APD SHOULD REPORT CRIMINAL ILLEGALS TO FEDS

Councilor to Address Mayor’s “Sanctuary City Policy” at APD

ALBUQUERQUE – City Councilor Brad Winter said today he will introduce a measure to allow the Albuquerque Police Department to determine the immigration status for individuals arrested for, or suspected of, committing a crime, and require that those suspected of being in the country illegally be immediately reported to federal immigration officials.

Winter said he intends to amend a 2001 resolution that sought to make Albuquerque an “immigrant friendly” city. Winter’s resolution will include the following language, “If a person is in police custody or is a suspect in a criminal investigation, law enforcement shall take reasonable steps to identify that person’s immigration status and shall immediately notify federal immigration officials if they suspect that person is not lawfully in the United States, where applicable.”

“The 2001 resolution was passed unanimously to protect the rights of immigrants and was never intended to make Albuquerque a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants who commit crimes,” said Winter.

Earlier this week, a copy of APD’s new change in “procedural orders” was obtained by a local news station. It stated clearly that “officers shall not inquire about… a person’s immigration status, even if an arrest is made for a non-immigration criminal violation.”

APD Police Chief Ray Schultz held a press conference to tout the new policy and said that local activist groups helped write it. After intense public outcry over the change, a new and altered copy of those “procedural orders” was released to the press. While Mayor Martin Chavez’s administration claims the second document was a “clarification,” it effectively did nothing to alter the original policy change.

“Our diversity is our strength and Albuquerque should always remain a welcoming and immigrant-friendly city. Anyone who is a victim or a witness to a crime should be able to call police for help without fear of having their immigration status investigated. But Mayor Chavez has gone too far. We can’t turn a blind eye to criminals who are in the country illegally,” said Winter.

Winter said he also wants to set up a task force to take a look at the larger issues raised in the 2001 resolution.

“We need to immediately clarify what city law requires of its local law enforcement, and then we need to take a look at the bigger picture,” said Winter. “We live in a border state in a post-9-11 world. The people of Albuquerque deserve input on how we deal with these issues.”

- Press Release

Look, immigration is about an 80% issue. Most people in this country are of the opinion that people from other countries should respect us enough to enter this country legally. It simply makes sense for law enforcement agencies to at least make a phone call when someone is suspected of being in our country illegally.

Funny Business

We've been watching with some amusement the de'Pascal taxpayer funded pleasure cruise in (sometimes called a campaign) trying to change the subject. Ever since the Honey Bee was stung by The First Mate Sandra Richardson's email, Ms. de'Pascal has been desperately trying to get out of the spotlight. Frankly, we don't blame her. The Richardson email raised some interesting questions about Ms. de'Pascal's ability to lead and her choice of campaign staff.

Her response... call into question Councilor Winter's aspirations at APS. Ms. de'Pascal claims that Winter's expressed interest (ABQ Journal - Subscription) in the top job over at APS proves that he doesn't want the job as councilor. We're curious about the Honey Bee's logic here.

De'Pascal has been running on an education platform since day one. It's one of the things that amused us from the beginning since the Albuquerque City Council has no authority over Albuquerque Public Schools (even though they both have Albuquerque in their names). There are co-operative agreements and programs that the city helps to fund, but APS is a state funded institution that answers to the state legislature not the city council. Perhaps The Captain should explain that she's not running for school board or for the legislature.

Today, Joe Monahan picked up the flag for the Captain and his Honey Bee.

Now comes a de'Pascal supporter returning fire, questioning Winter's recently stated public interest in becoming the new superintendent of the Albuquerque Public Schools. "Does Winter plan on resigning his council seat if he gets the APS job, and which job does he really want--Super or Councilor?" emails a de'Pascal backer.

-JoeMonahan.com

(Sidebar)
Any doubt that Transit Director Payne is involved in de'Pascal's run against Councilor Winter just buzzed away, as Captain Payne is often used by Monahan for political analysis and is known to be one of Monahan's "Alligators." The question raised by Councilor Winter - a question dutifully ignored by local newsrooms - was whether or not Payne was Captaining the de'Pascal Pleasure Cruise on city time.
(End Sidebar)

Ms. de'Pascal's assertion and that of her "backer" is really quite funny. Why would Councilor Winter resign? Mr. Winter already holds the position of Facilities Manager for APS, a position that pays well north of $100,000. (Which incidentally, is more than the mayor makes.) He has already shown the ability to represent district 4 AND hold a high profile position at APS. Even if he were already APS's Superintendent, there would be no conflict of interest. In fact, it might be an advantage to his district and the city for the Superintendent of APS to sit on the city council. Who knows, we might even be able to increase cooperation between the two?

The only one who would be sure to HATE having the APS Superintendent on the city council is none other than one Mayor Martin Chavez. Besides having to deal with the council he would have to compete with the executive officer of another powerful government entity that just so happens to be the one that the Almighty Marty has his heart set on taking over. Now THAT would be REALLY funny business!

Memorial Day - A Time for Reflection

Memorial Day is a time of reflection (or at least it should be); a time to remember all of those men and women who sacrificed their lives on the altar of liberty. The very people who died so that we could sit here in safety, decked out in our favorite pajamas and tell you what we think. The Internet is the embodiment of free speech and as you navigate through the ether that makes up this cyber world, you'll find all sorts of opinions, facts, and fiction.

For about 7 years now, one of the email threads floating about is one attributed to Scottish history professor Alexander Tyler from about the time of our Constitutional Convention.

“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.”

“From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.”

“During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"

Being ever curious we crawled around the web to see if this 18th century quote could be verified. We found it on Blogs (here and here) and we found it on at least a couple of websites (here and here). Some sites happily attribute the quote to the 18th century scholar others dismiss it as being unlikely. Our visit to snopes.com revealed that the attribution is "very likely fictitious."

Our reaction... so what? The analysis attributed to Tyler seems to make sense even if it was invented by some other blogger and simply attributed to him in an effort to make it more credible.

We see the erosion of liberty every day here in Albuquerque. From H.E.A.R.T. ordinances to cell phone bans, from red light Scam-eras to "affordable housing" programs, the citizens of our fair city are becoming more dependent on government to solve their problems no matter how small; and dependence is a form of empowerment for those on which you depend.

A few months back during the cell phone debate, we remember Councilor Winter bringing up loss of freedom as a reason not to impose the ban. Councilor Benton scoffed at the idea that somehow driving and talking on a cell phone was an issue of freedom. On the contrary, every issue that comes before the council is an issue of freedom. When legislation steps beyond the bounds of the basic functions of government, or creates dependence in the citizenry, they have made us all just a little bit less free.

Take a close look at the steps into bondage that Tyler (we're going to go ahead and give him the credit since there's no proof to the contrary) describes. Apply it to what you see coming out of city hall... where would you place Albuquerque? We'd argue that over the last 15 years Albuquerque has rapidly gone from number 4 to number 6 or 7.

Memorial Day is over along with its accompanying backyard BBQs, but perhaps there's still a little time for reflection. We need to remember that these fallen hero's died for freedom, not for dependence and bondage. We need to make sure that we don't fall into dependence and bondage by supporting policies that promote personal responsibility and smaller, less intrusive government. Otherwise Memorial Day will become a day to mourn the loss of the very freedoms that our country's hero's died for.

Red Light Cameras: Councilor Winter To Hold Town Hall Meeting

We just got our Eyes on a press release from Councilor Brad Winter's office. Councilor Winter has decided to hold a Town Hall Meeting Tuesday, March 6th to discuss the issue of Red Light Camera enforcement. Councilor Winter brings up the egregious fines, the extreme penalties for late payment and the problems with the appeal process. The councilor is apparently "really concerned about the appeals process," and goes on to site the recent departure of the City's hearing officer Albert Chavez, that we told you about here. He also said, "people have the right to have input on how they are policed."

We couldn't agree more... The Town Hall will be held downtown at City Hall in the City Council (Vincent E. Griego) Chambers. The full text of councilor's press release is posted below.

CITY COUNCILOR BRAD WINTER TO CONDUCT HALL MEETING TO LISTEN TO CITIZEN CONCERNS REGARDING RED LIGHT CAMERAS

City Councilor, Brad Winter (District 4) will conduct a Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 to allow citizens to voice their concerns regarding the Safe Traffic Operations Program Ordinance which allows for the use of photo red light cameras and electronic speed detection equipment.

“Since the ordinance went into effect the Council has been bombarded with complaints and concerns from the citizens of Albuquerque,” said Councilor Winter, “I just want to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard regarding this matter.”

An item of great concern is the amount of the fines and the 100% increase to the fines imposed when there is a delay in making payment. Councilor Debbie O’Malley and Councilor Ken Sanchez have introduced legislation to address this issue. The process to appeal violations has also been repeatedly questioned. “We need to assure that all citizens are being granted due process,” said the Councilor, “I’m really concerned about the appeals process.” The City’s hearing officer who hears appeals of violations has resigned his position.

“People have the right to have input on how they want to be policed,” stated Councilor Winter, “I think it’s time we listened to how the public feels about the laws we are imposing on them.”

The Town Hall will be held on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the Vincent E. Griego Chambers, City/County Government Center. Parking will be provided in the underground lot in Civic Plaza. For more information call 768-3101.