ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: BOLTON BLOGGER HAS N.M. TIES

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 23, 2005

The man who publishes the go-to blog for opponents of John Bolton owns a house in Santa Fe.

If you’ve been using the internet to closely follow the fight over President Bush’s nomination of Bolton to the post of United Nations, chances are you’ve come across Steve Clemons’ blog called The Washington Note.

Clemons is a former adviser for U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman.

“I worked for Sen. Bingaman for three years,” Clemons said in a phone interview this week, referring to his three-year stint that began in 1995. “My official title was senior policy adviser on economic and international affairs.”

Clemons, who lives in the city that’s the namesake of his blog, doesn’t claim deep ties to New Mexico. “My grandmother lived there,” he said. In his college years he frequently visited Santa Fe and Taos. And, of course he came to the state several times during his Bingaman years. Among other projects, he helped organize an Asian trade conference in Albuquerque that was an annual event for a few years.

“And I have a tiny little home there, just off the Plaza,” he said.

Although he said his blog sometimes seems like a full-time job, Clemons is senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank. He also writes about foreign policy and international economics for several publications in the U.S. and Asia.

Since mid March — shortly after Bush nominated Bolton — Clemons’ blog has dealt with little else.

“Here is the deal,” he wrote in an early post. “I just don't think America's core interests can be served by this appointment. I don't mind a U.N.-skeptic going to the United Nations, but at least that skeptic needs to believe in the essential role and function of a reformed United Nations —- and needs to be a constructive force in achieving that goal.”

Since then, Clemons’ rap on Bolton has become more pointed: “He has been reckless with intelligence and irresponsibly abusive toward intelligence analysts, undermined his boss Colin Powell, engaged in dangerous brinkmanship with problem nations while delicate negotiations were underway to ‘tie down’ their burgeoning (weapons of mass destruction) programs, and has a long tenure in many positions of not respecting Congress or the importance of the separation of powers,” Clemons blogged last week.

Bill and Bolton: The blog not only has chronicled all the twists and turns of the Bolton fight, it’s actually broken some news on the issue. And a couple of times the name of another Washington insider with Santa Fe ties — Gov. Bill Richardson — has popped up in Clemons’ blog.

Clemons has criticized Richardson — a former U.N. ambassador — and several other prominent Democrats for making public statements that Bolton would be confirmed.

Clemons said he talked about the matter with Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks. “I was pretty livid,” he said. “No moderate Republicans are going to jump ship if Democrats keep talking like this.”

Richardson, he said, “Sent me an e-mail telling me to stop biting my friends.” But, Clemons noted, the governor “did a one-day turnaround” and made a strong statement against Bolton.

Clemons in April reported speculation that Richardson could be among 10 officials in communications intercepted by the National Security Agency —- transcripts of which were sought by Bolton.

Richardson in early 2003 met with North Korean diplomats in Santa Fe and reported frequently about those talks to then Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“The thinking is that Bolton was trying to sabotage anyone negotiating with North Korea,” Clemons said.

The White House’s refusal to turn over the requested NSA intercepts to the Senate is what is holding up the Bolton nomination. A Republican attempt Monday to force a vote on the nomination failed for a second time.

Bingaman and Bolton: For the record, Clemons’ old boss has voted twice against forcing a Bolton vote.

That prompted state GOP Chair Allen Weh to blast Bingaman in a news release this week, saying the senator had “once again bowed to pressure from the liberal leadership.”

“The Senate should promptly confirm John Bolton so that we can get on with the business of reforming the United Nations,” Weh said.

Thanks, Drudge: If you were having a hard time getting on The New Mexican’s free web site Tuesday, blame it on right-wing internet personality Matt Drudge.

The Drudge Report linked to my story on the governor’s recent speeding controversy.

ABC News' political site The Note, also linked to the story on the New Mexican site.

So many new readers clicked on the link, it caused the paper’s web server to crash.

MY TEAM IS AWAYS RIGHT. YOURS IS ALWAYS WRONG

Anyone remember "Good Guys/Bad Guys Cheer" by Country Joe & The Fish.

I didn't think so.

It was a "spoken -word" piece on their 1968 Together album in which Joe, or one of the Fish shouts, "Let's hear it for the good guys!" The crowd responds "YAY!!!" This is followed by "Let's hear it for the bad guys!" The crowd boos. This is repeated several until the noise all runs together.

A couple of things made me think about the "Good Guys" and the "Bad Guys" in the past couple of days.

First there was Tom Bailey's latest post on his New Mexico Politics blog. He talks about the recent disclosure that Republican Albuquerque City Councilor Tina Cummings lying about a past DWI conviction.

Fair enough.

But then he basically says that Cummings is part of a Republican tradition of morally-challenged politicians, listing several good examples of bad examples from Bob Livingston all the way back to Bob Packwood.

However, the most recent example of a New Mexico politician lying about a DWI was a Democrat -- Letitia Montoya, who ran for a state Senate seat in Santa Fe last year. At a candidate forum last year Montoya was asked whether she'd ever been arrested for DWI before. She said know. However, court records showed she indeed had been arrested for drunken driving 20 years before. Montoya, who lost that race but is now running for secretary of state, now says she just told "a little white lie."

Yesterday The Drudge Report linked to The New Mexican Web site's version of my story about Gov. Bill Richardson's latest speeding escapade.

As a result, I was getting e-mails from people all around the country who were outraged that the governor can speed all he wants and even refuse to stop for police, while regular folks would get ticketed or maybe even even arrested for such a stunt.

Fair enough.

But a couple of e-mails used Richardson's speeding as just another example of the arrogant and immoral ways of Democrats.

However, a couple of years ago, when Richardson's speeding first became an issue, I interviewed a certain Republican who admitted to a high-speed ride of his own. Here's an excerpt from the Oct. 2, 2003 Roundhouse Round-up:

"The only reason I would have gone more than 100 mph is if I was late to something," Richardson's immediate predecessor, Gary Johnson, said in a phone interview this week.

Johnson said the only time he recalls his state police drivers going 100 mph was once when he was late for a political function in Albuquerque.

"I was late to see George Bush," he admitted. This, Johnson said, was during the 2000 presidential race. But Johnson said, unlike Richardson, he wouldn't have let his driver go that fast had there been a reporter in the car. "I wouldn't have considered it with The Washington Post in the car," he said.

UPDATE: I just noticed that conservative N.M. blogger Mario Burgos -- to his credit -- points to an example of another Republican speed demon -- this a story with tragic consequences. (I'm just not sure why Mario calls me a "lone merry man.")

And if I start to sound a little self-righteous, I can always look at these photos published by Conventry to bring the ego down a few notches.

THAT DAMNED MUSICAL BATON!

I just got passed the "musical baton" for the second time, this time by the one and only Steve Terrell -- at least the one and only Steve Terrell of Indianapolis.

On most the questions, I think I'll let my first answers stand.

However, this version of the questionnaire was slightly different.

It asked "What is my total volume of music?" Oh hell, who's counting. Let's just say that my small dining room serves as my CD room and it's just about full.

The last CD I bought was David Bromberg's Live in New York 1982. I picked it up at his wonderful convert at the Lensic Sunday night. (I still owe my girlfriend $20!)

And here's the embarassing part. The song that was on the CD player when Steve's e-mail arrived was Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" -- the new "swing" version by Paul Anka.

Now I gotta figure out five more bloggers I can inflict this on.

A MAN IN A HURRY

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
July 21, 2005

Gov. Bill Richardson is the center of another speeding controversy.

According to a report Monday by Channel 13’s Larry Barker, a state police driver for the governor refused on June 2 to stop for an Albuquerque police officer who noticed the governor’s white Cadillac sports utility vehicle “speeding and driving erratically” on an interstate frontage road in Albuquerque.

Barker’s report showed footage of the chase and a recording of the Albuquerque police officer. The report didn’t say how fast the governor’s driver was going.

A spokesman for Richardson referred questions about the incident to the state Public Safety Department, which called the incident “a simple misunderstanding,” noting that the Albuquerque officer was in an unmarked car and not in uniform.

In a written statement, DPS spokesman Peter Olson said, “there was no procedure in place for the governor’s driver to verify it was indeed an APD unit. Under those circumstances, state police are trained to take evasive action and not to stop.

Likewise, there was no procedure in place for the APD officers to make contact with the Governor’s vehicle.”

“They had flashing lights and a siren, but that doesn’t cut it,” Olson told The New Mexican.

Because of the incident, there now is a direct phone line state police can use to instantly communicate with Albuquerque police dispatchers, Olson said.

The report comes at a time in which state Republicans are airing radio commercials blasting Gov. Bill Richardson’s “high roller” lifestyle, including his driving habits. One ad says Richardson “isn't bothered by speed limits.”

Richardson’s speeding first was picked up on the political radar in 2003 when a Washington Post reporter, traveling with Richardson on the way to a political function, noted that the governor ordered his driver to go faster when they already were in excess of 100 mph.

There have been similar reports of Richardson’s speeding since then. Public Safety Secretary John Denko has defended Richardson’s high speeds, calling the practice a security measure.

Olson’s statement Monday says, “ The state police officer driving correctly followed the procedures mandated to safely and securely transport the governor ... the state police will continue to take every precaution and follow recognized procedures to ensure the safety of the Governor ...”

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 17, 2005
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Now Webcasting
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Drinking, Cheating and Death by The Waco Brothers
One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) by Jerry Lee Lewis
Intentional Heartache by Dwight Yoakam
Reprimand by Joe West
Blue Bonnets by Michael Martin Murphey
Wreck My Car by Scott H. Biram
Ed's Place by Horace Heller

Father's Day Set
That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine by The Everly Brothers
Daddy Was a Steel Headed Man by Robbie Fulks
A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash
Just Like My Dad by ThaMuseMeant
They Don't Make 'em Like My Daddy by Loretta Lynn
Hillbilly Highway by Steve Earle
Half Fist by Loudon Wainwright III
My Old Man by Jerry Jeff Walker

David Bromberg Set
Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair
Sharon
Young Wesley
Statesboro Blues/Church Bell Blues
Mr. Blue
Summer Wages

Blame it on Joann by John Hartford
Crazy as a Loon by John Prine
God's Got It by Grey DeLisle
I Always Loved a Waltz by Kell Robertson
Stranger in the House by George Jones with Elvis Costello
When You Wish Upon a Star by Michelle Shocked
The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore by June Carter Cash
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

BROMBERG IN SANTA FE

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 17, 2005

He’s performed with Jerry Jeff Walker and John Prine, and recorded with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Doug Sahm, Phoebe Snow, members of the Grateful Dead and even Sha Na Na.

He had a respectable solo career of his own, combining all sorts of American roots styles — blues, bluegrass, first-generation rock — fronting a band that could play Dixieland jazz one moment, a cowboy lament the next followed by white-boy funk and then come right back at you with furious Irish fiddle reels.

And then, about 20 years ago, David Bromberg basically hung it up.

He stopped touring, gave up on recording. Turned his back on the rock ‘n’ roll, traveling troubadour game to study making violins. Bromberg now operates his own store in Wilmington, Del.

“I just got burned out on all that,” Bromberg said in a recent telephone interview from his violin shop. Talking about his lack of studio recordings since the ‘80s, Bromberg said, “I was spending so much time in windowless rooms, I kind of ODed on it.”

Or, as his Web site biography says, “... the days on the road for extended periods simply do not fit his primary interests as a father and businessman.”

But the good news is that he’s starting to feel a little bit of the old itch again and has been doing some touring. And the really good news is that he’ll be in Santa Fe Sunday night with his band for a show at the Lensic.

Bromberg, 59, is a Philadelphia native who began his musical career in the coffee houses of New York’s Greenwich Village when he was a student at Columbia University.

One of his first breaks was hooking up with a then-unknown New York singer-songwriter named Ron Crosby, who would transform himself into Jerry Jeff Walker. Bromberg toured with Walker and recorded on his first album Mr. Bojangles. (Though he’s pictured on the back cover holding a banjo, Bromberg actually played electric guitar on the album.)

After years on the folkie circuit, Bromberg got a recording contract with Columbia Records, releasing his first album David Bromberg in 1971, the highlight of which is the five-minute “Sammy’s Song,” a disturbing — and graphic — tale of a boy losing his virginity in a Spanish whore house. Bob Dylan played harmonica on the song.

Around that time Bromberg was playing guitar on Dylan’s albums Self Portrait and New Morning. It also was during this period that Bromberg was producer for one of the greatest acoustic country albums of all time — John Hartford’s Aereo-Plane.

Three other Columbia albums followed before Bromberg went on to smaller labels. He never became a “star,” but with some tunes became staples of hipper FM stations of the day.

Among these were “Sharon,” a funky tale of a carnival snake dancer; “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair,“ a Bessie Smith tune updated to name check Watergate Judge John Sirica; and Blind Willie McTell’s “Dyin’ Crapshooter Blues,” turned into a Dixieland stomper.

He sang in a voice distinctively his own, a just-this-side-of-comical nasal. He could bring belly laughs in some tunes like “Will Not Be Your Fool” or “Bullfrog Blues,” then break your heart with his version of “Mr. Blue.”

And his frequent touring kept his fandom alive. He played New Mexico several times in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, including a packed show with his band at the old Golden Inn. He played several times as a solo artist at Paolo Soleri shows in the early ‘80s.

He stopped touring and recording in the mid ‘80s, a period that was hard on many performers of his generation and particularly hard on those specializing in American roots music.

“I’d been studying violin making for a few years when I stopped touring,” Bromberg said. He graduated in 1984 from the Kenneth Warren School of Violin Making in Chicago, where he’d moved in 1980.

Though he knows how to make a violin, Bromberg said he doesn’t pretend to be a master of that instrument. His main instrument is guitar, though he also plays dobro and mandolin.

“I bought and sold violins for a living,” he said. Traveling to Europe to look for violins and bows he said, was more fun than touring and recording.

Two years ago, he left Chicago for Delaware.

“My wife and I had had enough of Chicago winters,” he said. “We were looking for some place back east. My former road manager now works as associate director of the Grand Opera House in Wilmington. Wilmington has the right kind of climate and we were able to make a good deal on the shop.”

According to some published reports, the city of Wilmington sold old building that houses David Bromberg’s Fine Violins in the Market Street area for $1 in exchange for Bromberg helping to promote arts in the downtown area. There he buys, sells and repairs violins and bows.

After years of being off the road, once in Wilmington, Bromberg started regular blues and bluegrass jam sessions at a Wilmington club. “I discovered this 15-year-old kid — I guess he’s 17 now — who’s one of the most brilliant electric blues guitarists I’ve ever heard,” he said.

And he’s started touring again, and for the first time in a quarter century, with a band — horn section and all. Right before Santa Fe, Bromberg and his group are performing at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

Bromberg still hasn’t gone back to the “windowless room” to resume his recording career, though there's a “new” Bromberg CDs available at his Web site.

“I’m finding stuff from old concerts that people recorded surreptitiously,” he said. “We have one for sale, a concert in New York City.” This 1982 show is the first legal bootleg Bromberg is offering.

He says he has no plans to try to get a new record contract. “These days record companies are pretty much superfluous,” he said.

But he has started writing songs again. “I wrote me a song in a dream,” Bromberg said. “It’s called ‘Outside Man.’ It’s stone blues.”

Sounds like this “outside man” might be coming back in again.

Who: The David Bromberg Band
When: 8 p.m. Sunday
Where: The Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 West San Francisco St.
How much: Tickets range from $39 to $27
Call: 505-988-1234 $27 Ticket Phone: (505) 988 -1234

Hear a lengthy set of David Bromberg music tonight on The Santa Fe Opry, 10 p.m. to midnight on KSFR, 90.7 FM. (The Bromberg set will start around 11 p.m.)

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: LADIES SING THE BLUES

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 17, 2005

The blues often is thought of as a masculine genre, an unforgiving world of hard drinking, skirt chasing, razor fights, faithless love and harsh prisons.

Often we forget about the feminine side of the blues, how singers like Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey and Memphis Minnie brought a vaudeville-bred sense of showmanship, style and a sense of regality to the music. It’s true that males still dominate the blues, but the contributions of women are not to be overlooked.

However, movie maker Robert Mugge felt this is exactly what happened in Martin Scorsese’s 2003 series of films about the blues for PBS. In several published interviews, Mugge has said it was the Scorsese series that inspired him to produce eight hour-long concert shows for what would become a Mississippi Public Television series called Blues Divas.

Each episode focused on a different singer -- some that you‘ll recognize, some that you probably never heard of. These are Mavis Staples, Irma Thomas, Ann Peebles, Denise La Salle, Odetta, Bettye LaVette, Deborah Coleman and Renee Austin.

A two-hour compilation of performances from that series will be shown at the Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe Saturday and Wednesday. It’s Blues Divas’ southwest premier.

Mugge is no newcomer to the blues. Though he’s done documentaries on bluegrass, Hawaiian music, reggae, jazz, Cajun music, Gil Scott-Heron, Ruben Blades and even entertainers who performed for the troops during World War II, blues and soul have been his major focus. His films include Deep Blues, Last of the Mississippi Jukes, Blues Breaks and documentaries about Robert Johnson and Alligator Records.
Fans of the singers featured in Blues Divas, and in fact fans of the blues in general shouldn’t miss this movie.

It’s the music that’s the real draw here. It’s more of a “concert” film than documentary.

Blues Divas does include short segments in which each of the singers is interviewed by actor Morgan Freeman. Most of these are rather light conversations, that don’t reveal much -- except when Staples talks about getting punished by her God-fearing grandmother as a child for the sin of singing a blues song.

All the performances are shot at the Ground Zero Club in Clarksdale, Miss. (which is owned by Freeman). The audiences are small. Perhaps stage hands whooping it up.

The selection of talent represents a good variety of styles often included under the general umbrella of the blues. Staples comes from a gospel background and indeed plays gospel-rooted tunes in this film. Odetta is from the folk world. Thomas, Peebles and Lavette originally known as “soul” singers. And when Freeman calls LaSalle “the queen of the blues,” she corrects him. It’s “the Queen of Southern Soul Blues.

(Historical aside: At some point around the ‘80s what’s known as “blues” did a takeover of what was once known as soul music, at least southern soul. The two are now virtually inseparable in the public mind, so soul singers like Al Green, Soloman Burke and the ladies mentioned above are embraced on the “blues” circuit while “blues” artists like Robert Cray and Mem Shannon often play a style that once would have been called “soul.” Indeed, it’s good not to get too anal-retentive about such distinctions. But you can’t help but remember the story about B.B. King opening for Sam Cooke in the early ‘60s. Cooke’s audience, who considered King’s blues as old fashioned and hokey booed B.B. off the stage.)

The undeniable highlight of this show is the Queen of Southern Soul Blues. LaSalle takes the stage like a tornado, tearing through funny, sexy songs like “Don‘t Mess With My Man” and “Your Man is Cheatin’ On Us.”

Lavette is a singer who goes back to the ‘60s, but never achieved the fame she deserved. Her voice is mesmerizing, oozing with emotion and her performance in Blues Divas is likely to win her new fans. My only beef is that the film doesn’t include her signature tune “Let Me Down Easy.” (Serious soul fans should seek out the 8-minute version of this song on Let Me Down Easy: In Concert. It’s a Dutch import, but available at a decent price on Amazon and other online sites.)

Odetta’s voice just grows richer by the year. She performs a surprising tough cover of Lead Belly’s “Bourgeois Blues” and sweet version of “Careless Love,” a song that has been batted around between country and blues artists. Talking about the implications of this sexual cautionary tale she advises her audience not to forget their condoms.

In addition to all these veterans, there are a couple of younger, lesser-known artists included here. Renee Austin is a big-voiced redhead in a slinky black dress. She belts out a bluesy torch song called “Fool Moon” she says is inspired by Ella Fitzgerald.

Guitarist/singer Deborah Coleman starts off with a respectable cover of Koko Taylor’s “I’m a Woman” (a rewrite of Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy.) Unfortunately the song degenerates in to a lengthy, generic bar-band guitar solo. I wish they’d have cut this in half to make room for another LaSalle song or Lavette’s “Let Me Down Easy.”

I don’t know what kind of business obstacles there might be between Mississippi and New Mexico public television, but after watching this two-hour compilation, I wish KNME would broadcast the entire eight-hour Blues Diva series.

Blues Divas is playing at the Santa Fe Film Center at Cinemacafe, 1616 St. Michael's Drive 4 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $8; $7 for students and seniors; $6 for film festival members.

BAD AD SONGS AND CLASSY RIDES

Slate magazine this week has a funny piece about painfully inappropriate songs used in television commericals.

Among them are General Electric using the song "Sixteen Tons" in an ad extolling the virtues of coal (What? They couldn't get the rights to "Dark as a Dungeon"?); Iggy Pop's junkie anthem "Lust For Life" used in an ad for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines; and worst of all, Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" being twisted into a patriotic ditty for Wrangler Jeans. This is worse than Ronald Reagan's infamous misinterpretation of "Born in the U.S.A."

I thought of a few songs just waiting to be used as commericial jingles.

1. "The Bed" by Lou Reed would sound great on a Posturepedic commercial.

2. "Hellhound on My Trail" by Robert Johnson surely would sell a lot of Alpo.

3. "Wreck on the Highway" -- either the Roy Acuff version or Bruce Springsteen's -- are ripe for an auto insurance commercial.

4. "People Who Died" by The Jim Carroll Band is just begging to be picked up for a commercial by a life insurance company.

Any other ideas? Post 'em in the comments section.

On a completely different subject, my friend Judy pointed out that Gov. Richardson isn't the first gov in these parts to get stylish transportation. Below is from today's New Mexican's "The Past 100 Years."

June 16, 1905: Two handsome Ford automobiles are on the road for Santa Fe people. One is for Gov. Otero and the other will be used by Territorial Secretary J.W. Raynolds.

GOP ATTACKS LEATHER SEATS, WET BAR AND MAKE-UP ARTISTS

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 15, 2005

The radio war between Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Republican Party escalated Wednesday.

The GOP unleashed two more commercials -- in English and in Spanish -- that blast the governor for his administration’s purchase of a $5.5 million jet airplane and what they call his “high-roller lifestyle.”

Both ads make pointed references to the eight-passenger jet and to Richardson having a “make-up artist” on staff. Both will be running on six stations across the state for the next week, state GOP executive director Marta Kramer said Wednesday.

The ad comes a week after a similar GOP radio ad ran in New Mexico and New Hampshire, where Richardson made a political trip last week. Richardson quickly responded with his own ad that ran on New Mexico stations defending his purchase of the jet.

State Republican Chairman Allen Weh said the notion that Richardson leads “the lifestyle of the rich and famous” — at taxpayer expense — will become a theme in next year’s gubernatorial race. Richardson has said he’ll seek re-election.

“I don’t know of another governor in any of the other 49 states who has such a pampered lifestyle as Bill Richardson,” Weh said.

Richardson’s political director Amanda Cooper said the ads are “full of lies.”

Cooper it was “unconscionable” and “disgraceful” that the Republicans would run such ads during a time when the governor is working with Sen. Pete Domenici and other Republicans to save Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, which the Pentagon has recommended for closure.

“Bipartisan work needs to be done,” she said. “Let’s save Cannon”
But she said it’s likely the Richardson re-election campaign will pay for another round of ads attacking the new GOP spots.

One ad features a narrator acting as a pilot, welcoming passengers to “Gov. Richardson's new Cessna Citation Bravo.”

The “pilot” continues, “This 5.5 million dollar jet is the lap of luxury, with leather seats and wet bar.”

The ad gives a little history of Richardson’s efforts to get the new plane, specifically how he tried to purchase it without approval by the Legislature, until Attorney General Patricia Madrid issued an opinion saying that plan was illegal.

The “pilot” also talks about Richardson’s “$4 million helicopter, a Cadillac Escalade, three chefs and the largest personal staff of any Governor in the state's history ... that even includes a make-up artist.”

The ad claims Richardson has raised taxes to pay for personal extravagances. “Well, maybe that 's why he wears all that make-up.

“I guess it's hard to look at New Mexicans with a straight face while he raises taxes on the sick and elderly to pay for his high-roller lifestyle.”

The ad concludes, “So sit back, strap in and hold on to your wallet. Gov. Richardson is taking you for a ride... so he can fly first class.”

The second ad consists of a man and woman discussing Richardson’s response to the jet controversy, also referring to the leather seats and wet bar.

“Bill Richardson says it's the Republicans fault,” a woman says.

“How can he say that?” a man says. “ The Legislature never voted on the jet itself. It says right here that the jet was tied to funding for schools, senior centers, and over 3,000 other projects. ...”

The jet was in the general appropriations bill.

The couple jokes about Richardson having a staff make-up artist, whose job included fetching the governor cigars. This was based on a 2003 Washington Post story in which a reporter followed Richardson the day of a Democratic presidential candidate debate in Albuquerque.

That staffer, whose job title was executive assistant, now works for another state agency.

Cooper said there is no make-up artist on staff. She also said Richardson has only one chef, not three.

She said the image of Richardson as a pampered high roller isn’t fair. “Gary Johnson had a car. He had a cook,” she said. She added, “The governor does not do politics at taxpayer expense.”

But Weh said the Republican ads are resonating with New Mexicans who see Richardson as “an egotistical guy who indulges in perks."

“The emperor isn’t wearing any clothes," Weh said. "and we’re going to tell people.”

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: ROUNDHOUSE HOME COMPANION

As published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
June 16, 2005

There was a time, not too many years ago, when you could predict how Republican legislators would vote on any given bill by knowing how the New Mexico Association for Commerce and Industry — the state’s most prominent business lobby — stood on it.

Republicans tend to vote in favor of ACI positions on bills relating to such issues as taxes and easing regulations on businesses. And thus, traditionally, Republicans get the highest scores in ACI’s annual report on the Legislature.

But this year it seems there have been some tensions between the ACI and some GOP lawmakers. During a House floor debate this year, Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, sarcastically referred to the ACI as the “Association of Conflicted Interests.”

And in one of his periodic mass-e-mail “Legislative Reports,” Sen. Rod Adair, another Roswell Republican, says the ACI’s rating of lawmakers is “of absolutely no value whatsoever, even worse they communicate a completely false picture of the attitude of the Legislature toward business.”

He suggests the group has manipulated its scoring system to make Democrats look better.

Borrowing a line from radio humorist Garrison Keillor, Adair wrote, “Some might call the New Mexico Legislature ‘ACI's Lake Wobegone’ where everybody is above average.”

Adair points out that several longtime conservative Republicans this year were rated the same or even lower than some of the most liberal members of the Legislature.

For instance, Rep. Gail Beam and Rep. Miguel Garcia, both Albuquerque Democrats, got higher scores than Rep. Richard Cheney, R-Farmington, while Don Bratton, D-Hobbs, tied Beam with a score of 73. Meanwhile, House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Nambe, tied ultra-conservative Foley with a score of 80 percent.

Adair said he doesn’t want ACI to become a laughingstock. He doesn’t want people to start saying, “Oh, yeah ACI, that's the organization that says Miguel Garcia is more pro-business than Richard Cheney and Don Bratton.”

“I want to make it clear that far from being a critic of ACI,” said Adair, who has been deemed a “Business Star,” by the ACI for having a cumulative score of better than 85 percent for the past four years. “My point is not to criticize the organization, but to encourage a serious discussion of ACI, with the goal of trying to keep it from becoming completely irrelevant,” he said.

Points of conflict: Three bills caused many Republicans to lose ACI points and helped Democrats get better scores this year.

One was a pre-kindergarten pilot program. Another created a new cabinet department, The Department of Higher Education. The third, House Bill 410, delayed implementation of personal income-tax cuts for the state’s richest citizens but contained several tax incentives.

Republicans voted overwhelmingly against these bills, which were backed by Gov. Bill Richardson and supported by the ACI.

ACI lobbyist J.D. Bullington said, “Education reform has been at the top of the business community’s agenda for many years. In Florida, it’s the Republicans who are working for pre-kindergarten.”

As for HB 410, Bullington disputed Adair’s argument that delaying the tax cut is the equivalent of raising taxes.

“HB 410 was the most important economic-development legislation in the session,” he said.

The bill eliminated some of what the business community calls “pyramiding” — charging gross-receipts taxes on business-to-business transactions -- a change which the ACI has advocated for years. It also established a gross-reciepts tax holiday, tax credits for high-tech start-ups, renewable energy production and creating jobs in rural areas.

But by delaying the tax cuts, the state over the next three years will collect an estimated $121 million in personal income taxes that would have been lost if the tax cuts had taken effect on schedule.

“That does not meet our definition of a tax increase,” Bullington said. “We’re still moving downward (in taxes).”

Another reason for high Dem scores: Bullington said besides those issues, there’s another explanation for the Democrats and Republicans having closer ACI scores in recent years. The scores, he said, are based on floor votes.

“We used to see floor votes on whistle-blower bills, union laws, bills that punished business,” he said. “We don’t see those bills coming to the floor any more.”

According to Bullington, lawmakers have “gotten so sensitive to (the ACI) report card for the last 15 years, they’ve shut off the flow of anti-business bills.”

El Queso Grande: There have been two cheese-related announcements coming out of the governor’s office in the past couple of weeks.

First there was the plans for a whey factory in Clovis that will use byproducts from the nearby cheese factory to make food for piglets.

Second, Richardson appointed ‘70s pop star Tony Orlando to the state Music Commission.