IT'S STARTING ....

I got this e-mai from the first known Draft-Richardson group.

Amanda Cooper, Richardson's campaign manager (for governor! For Governor!) just told me she knows nothing about this.

Here's the press release:


NEVADANS CALL FOR RICHARDSON CANDIDACY

Form "Draft Richardson Committee"

Las Vegas , NV— Seventy prominent Nevadans called on New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today to seek the Presidency in 2008.

"Nevada will be a lynch-pin in the Democratic Presidential nomination process in 2008 and many Nevadans believe Bill Richardson is the best choice to lead our party", stated "Draft Committee" Chairman Reynaldo Martinez, a resident of Incline Village, and former chief of staff to U.S. Senator Harry Reid. Earlier this year the Democratic National Committee (DNC) designated Nevada to be the second state to hold a nomination contest on January 19, 2008 following Iowa (caucus) January 14 and before New Hampshire (primary) January 22, and South Carolina (primary) January 29. Nevada will be a "caucus" state and the State Democratic Party will sponsor and organize the state-wide event. Martinez added, "Bill Richardson is the Favorite-Son of the West, and the West beginning with Nevada can lead the Democrats to the White House in 2008."

Joining Martinez as Co-Chairs of the "Draft Committee" are Hannah Irsfeld of Las Vegas, Judge John F. Mendoza of Las Vegas and Robert McGowan of Reno. Other notable Nevadans calling for Richardson to run include; Carlos Blumberg (Las Vegas), Jeff Taguchi (Las Vegas), John Henry Brebbia (Las Vegas), Dr. R.D. Prabhu (Las Vegas), Horacio Lopez (Las Vegas), Vicki Hulbert (N. Las Vegas), Lee Wastell (Las Vegas), Don Ellis (Henderson), Kim Ellis (Henderson), Eva Garcia (Las Vegas), John Medina (N. Las Vegas), Jose G. Troncoso (Las Vegas), Holly Johnson Troncoso (Las Vegas), Robert Agonia (Las Vegas), Larry Mason (Las Vegas), Marcelo Napoli (Las Vegas), Dr. Rene Cantu (Henderson), Dr. Letitia Medina Worth (Las Vegas), Dr. Lata Shete (Las Vegas), George T. Lopez (Las Vegas), Michael Pariente (Las Vegas), Sandy Ellis (Henderson), Bob Ellis (Henderson), Curtis Anderson (Las Vegas), Dr. Agustin Orci (Las Vegas), Alejandro Alverez (Las Vegas), Sylvia Lazos (Las Vegas), Pat Hodges (Las Vegas), Gloria Martinez Ferree (Henderson), Hugh Ferree (Las Vegas), Mary Geidlel (Las Vegas), Xavier Rivas (Las Vegas), Ismael and Monica Sanchez (Las Vegas), Linda Smith (Las Vegas), Troy Wade (Las Vegas), Fernando Romero (Las Vegas), Earl and Susan Greene (Las Vegas), James E. Rogers (Las Vegas), Harlane and Racquel Sumida (Henderson), Maria Sefchick (Reno), Marino De La Rosa (Reno), Geralda Miller (Reno), Rosemary Flores (Henderson), Vito De La Cruz (Reno), Gus Ramos (Las Vegas), Dr. Raquel Casas (Las Vegas), Lonnie Feemster (Sparks), Luisa Mendoza (Las Vegas), Mario Castro (Las Vegas), Miguel Castro (Las Vegas), Javier Trujillo (Las Vegas), Michael Reed (Reno), Theresa Navarro (Reno), Sherri Overstreet (Reno), Chris and Julie Wedge (Reno), Frederico Bannelos (Carson City), Rita McGeary (Reno), Luis and Emma Guzman (Sparks), Steve Heslop (Sparks), William Thorton (Reno), and Diane Sauer Martinez (Incline Village). The group includes African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, significant Democratic Party activists and environmentalists.

"We call on Governor Richardson to run for President. Nevada and America are ready for his leadership." Martinez concluded.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: CAN THE DENVER DEM CONVENTION BE SALVAGED?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
December 21, 2006

The Democratic National Committee’s decision this week to wait until the new year to decide where to hold the party’s 2008 national convention is good news for Western Dems who want the convention to be held in Denver.

So says Mike Stratton, a Colorado political consultant, lobbyist and political adviser for Gov. Bill Richardson.

Stratton, who is on a commission to select the next convention site, said he believes the delay gives Denver a 50/50 chance of being convention host. (He must go to the same bookie as Democratic U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who gave the same odds recently to The Denver Post.)

“If they would have announced it last week, (the convention site) probably would have been New York,” he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. New York and Denver are the only two cities competing.

Richardson, U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, virtually every elected Democrat in Colorado and other Western Dems are pushing to have the convention in the Mile High City, Stratton said.

An advantage for Bill?: Stratton — who said he hopes to work for Richardson’s campaign if the governor runs for president — said holding the convention in Colorado wouldn’t in itself help Richardson’s chances for the nomination.

“The convention’s probably going to be in late August or early September, so chances are the nomination will be locked up by then,” he said. “If it’s an unresolved situation and there are two or three candidates who don’t have a majority of delegates, then it would be a definite advantage for Governor Richardson. But it’s very unlikely that there wouldn’t have been a decision by that time.”

But, Stratton said, if Richardson is the nominee, there would be a “symbolic” advantage for Richardson to have the convention in a Western state.

“It would be an awfully good venue to kick off the general election,” he said, noting recent Democratic inroads in Western states like Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.

Trouble ahead: Even though he says Denver has even odds of being selected, Stratton said the city still faces some major obstacles in getting the nod.

The first is money. “The cost has gone up dramatically, mainly due to security,” he said.

Although the federal government reimburses about half the security cost for cities hosting political conventions, that check usually is in the proverbial mail for several months, Stratton said. So the city has to pay upfront costs, which run into tens of millions of dollars. There’s some doubt whether Denver can pull that off. “New York has a decided advantage in this area,” he said.

And then there’s the union problem.

Jim Taylor, head of Denver’s stagehand union, this week refused to sign a pledge not to strike during the convention.

Denver’s Pepsi Center, a large basketball and hockey arena, is owned by Denver Nuggets/Colorado Avalanche owner Stan Kroenke. The facility, which would serve as the convention venue, isn’t unionized.

Taylor has strong feelings about the Pepsi Center being anti-union. He’ll stand up to the bosses, even The Boss. According to the Denver Post, he picketed a Bruce Springsteen concert there a few years ago.

The DNC’s delay in announcing the convention city, it is hoped, will give the Democrats and the stagehands union time to work something out, Stratton said.

A happy, smiley guy: The latest national publication to weigh in on our governor’s presidential possibilities is the conservative National Review Online. Political editor Jonathan Martin goes through the litany of Richardson attributes — all the government posts he’s held, the Hispanic heritage, the boots ‘n’ bolos.


But the story isn’t a puff piece.

“(Richardson’s) style is why, in part, he’s dismissed by many observers,” Martin wrote. “Like another governor from the southwest who sought the presidency, Richardson is seen as being immature and unserious. As with President Bush, Richardson has an endless supply of charm and a politician’s preternatural gift for how to work a room and recall a face. But also like Bush, Richardson’s one-on-one abilities are diminished by his inability to mask, for example, showing disinterest when he isn’t interested.”

He quotes political analyst Stuart Rothenberg’s reference to Richardson’s “frat guy persona” and Hotline’s Chuck Todd, who said Richardson isn’t listed in the upper echelon of presidential contenders because “this Gov. Bill may resemble another Gov. Bill too much.”

Using a word frequently employed by pundits to describe Richardson, Martin asked the governor’s political jeffe Dave Contarino about the charge that Richardson is “undisciplined.” If that means “being a smiling, happy guy,” Contarino said, “we plead guilty.”

Speaking of conservative media: Just two weeks ago, all the governor’s men were blasting Fox News for taking Richardson’s comments about running for president “out of context.” They said he wasn’t really declaring his intention to run when, in an interview that aired Dec. 7, Richardson said, “I am running as an American who is proud to be Hispanic.”

But the guv made nice this week on Fox’s Your World with Neil Cavuto.

“Carl Cameron is a very good reporter,” he told Cavuto, referring to the reporter who conducted the original interview. “And I unfortunately made the mistake of answering a hypothetical question instead of saying ‘should I run, I will do this.’ And I didn’t do that, so there was all this confusion. And I’m not too upset about it. ... I think Carl Cameron and Fox News were doing their job, so I’m not upset at them. But it did cause a ruckus.”

Richardson reiterated he plans to announce a decision next month.

BEN LUJAN RE-ELECTED SPEAKER

I was too busy playing reporter instead of blogger so I'm hardly the first to report this ... but its true, Ben Lujan beat Rep. Kenny Martinez of Grants to stay on as speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

Martinez was re-elected majority leader. Reps. Joe Cervantes and Gail Chasey withdrew their names for consideration. Martinez beat Rep. Mimi Stewart of Albuquerque.

Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton was re-elected Dem whip. She defeated a challenge by Rep. Joe Campos of Santa Rosa.

All House members interviewed said they didn't know the vote count on the speaker's race.

More in tomorrow's paper.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, December 17, 2006
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Happy Wanderer by Brave Combo
Gloria by Elastica
Mountain Side by Chris Whitley & The Bastard Club
The Moon is in The Gutter by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Boney Was a Warrior by Jack Shit
Blow the Man Down by Giant Sand
Betty's Body by The Residents
She Left Me With the Herpes by Tiny Tim
I'm A Christmas Tree by Wild Man Fischer

Elephant Gun by Beirut
Born to Be Wild by Fanfare Ciocarlia
Rock El Casbah by Racid Taha
Mustapha Dance by The Clash
Flat Foot Flewzy by NRBQ
Nightmare Song by Eleni Mandell
Christmas Boogie by Canned Heat & The Chipmunks

TOM WAITS SEGMENT
All songs by Tom Waits unless otherwise noted

Waitin' For Waits by Ritchie Cole
Lie to Me
Long Way Home
On the Road by TW with Primus
Big Black Mariah by John Hammond
God's Away on Business
The Return of Jackie & Judy
Swordfishtrombone
Little Man
Telephone Call From Istambul by Kazik Staszewski
Filipino Box Spring Hog
Day After Tomorrow
Innocent When You Dream
Goodnight Irene
SUBSTITUTE CLOSING THEME: Lucky Day by Tom Waits

eMUSIC DECEMBER

Here's my allotted 90 downloads from eMusic this month:

* Ludlow Garage 1970 by NRBQ. Big Al Anderson himself told me that the best guitarist NRBQ ever had was Steve Ferguson. Al's too modest, but Ferguson was damned good. This is a live recording from the Q's pioneer days. Lots of R&B, rockabilly and long jams with the spirit of Sun Ra hovering over Terry Adam's head.

*The American Song-Poem Christmas : Daddy Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? .
Do I have to remind everyone what song poems are? It's a glorious scam in which would-be lyricists are lured by little ads in the back of certain magazines to spend their hard-earned cash to have their words put to music by studio musicians who crank them out at amazing speeds. The results often are unintentionally hilarious and sometimes strangely touching. This is a Christmas collection with hits such as "Santa Claus Came on a Nuclear Missile," "Maury the Christmas Mouse" and "The Rocking Disco Santa Claus."

*Moondog , plus three stray tracks from Moondog's H'art Songs.. eMusic continues to be a great source for classic "outsider" music. The song-poems attest to thta, as do the the several Moondog albums available. Moondog , born Louis Hardin, was a blind, self-educated composer and performer who was born in Kansas but became notorious for performing his strange music on the streets of New York in the late '40s, sometimes wearing a horned Viking helmet. This 1956 album is heavy on percussion and sounds of traffic, croaking frogs and a crying baby. There's a Japanese lullaby, with kyoto, sung by Moondog's wife The H'art Songs I downloaded, which I don't like quite as much, features piano-based melodies that are oddly affecting.

*Good Morning Mr. Walker by Joseph Spence. Talk about a guy who made his own rules, Spence -- surely the best known singer to ever emerge from The Bahamas -- sang like your favorite drunken uncle. Between his accent and his funny mumbling, sometimes growling scat singing, don't bet your life on understanding all the lyris, even on familiar songs. But listen to that guitar. The man was a magician.

*Demons Dance Alone by The Residents. The first moments of the opening song, "Life Would Be Wonderful might make you think you downloaded some old Herb Albert song. It's actually sort of pretty. The songs on this album were written in 2001, shorty after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Maybe that's why it seems rather subdued for a Residents album. But don't worry. There's not much you could call mainstream here. I think my favorite tune here is "Betty's Body," which has lyrics like, "I see her every morning and watch her fingers forming ... I could be her lover, if it, if it weren't for Mother ..."

I also downloaded several free tracks from Freedom Haters Unite! A Bloodshot Records Sampler, Vol. 1 . My favorite being Paul Burch's "John Peel," a soulful tribute to the great BBC music show host.