As I said earlier, Howie is a capable guy with a strong record of commitment to the community. He’s a good choice for the position.

I’ll be back with more later today.

As I alluded earlier, this is interesting: while home, virtually nobody mentioned Howie’s name. I kept hearing that Tony Trujillo would be the replacement.

Trujillo has been a mover and shaker in Santa Fe the past five years: as a lobbyist for Phelps Dodge, regent president for Western New Mexico University, and for a period as president of the Association of Commerce and Industry (the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce). In fact, many people thought Altamirano was showing Trujillo the ropes, grooming him as a replacement.

Suddenly, Trujillo doesn’t even appear to be in the running.

Howie is a good candidate: he’s been incredibly active in the community, was easily elected to his position as Grant County Clerk, and is well respected. If there are any skeletons in the closet I haven’t heard of them.

With two of three counties putting forth Howie’s name, I find it hard to see Gov. Bill Richardson siding with the right-leaning Catron County commission if they name somebody other than Morales.

Again, more on this later, but two quick questions:

1. Does anybody know who Richardson is meeting in New Mexico tomorrow? According to Heath Haussamen, it’s a candidate to replace Benny.
2. Can Richardson name whomever he wants to the seat? Or is he required to name somebody nominated by one of the county commissions?

Also, for full disclosure: Tony Trujillo has been a family friend for many years — I attended grade school with his son. In addition, I went to high school with Howie’s brother. Yeah, Silver City is a small world.

UPDATE: 1/9/08 — According to this Sun News article, Morales is the candidate meeting with Richardson.

What this means for his district is entirely up in the air right now. Following what I can only describe as the fiasco that took place when filling Manny Herrera’s seat, finding somebody to represent the area for the remainder of Benny’s term should be an interesting affair indeed.

The Silver City Daily Press ran an article yesterday quoting the long-time senator; I’ll see if I can track down when the interview occurred.

More later.

If you listened closely tonight, you could hear echoes of the voter bloc that will, in the long term, counterbalance the weakening pull of the angry white voter. The only Nevadan of Latino extraction who got to ask a question, UNLV student, George Ambriz, used his opportunity to finger debate CNN’s Lou Dobbs for “insinuating” a “linkage” between terrorism and security and immigration. “No terrorist threat has come from our southern border” he said before asking, “Are they (terrorism and immigration) “intrinsically related issues”?

Combined with the Democrats’ rightward turn on immigration, such questioning from an Angry Brown Voter bodes ill for a Democratic party that touted its decision to bring the debate—and a much-anticipated early primary—to Nevada as part of its efforts to be more inclusive of Latinos.

I flagged an American Prospect column last month on what the growing number of Latino voters could mean for politics in this country, and, indeed, the “Angry Brown Voter” may soon be a force to be reckoned with. This is the sort of thing to keep an eye out for.

Ambriz was just before my time at WNMU, but I later met him in Las Vegas at a model United Nations conference. Like me, Ambriz was heavily involved in student government and other clubs while at WNMU—he served as president of MEChA and was a member of the student government, the Associated Students of Western New Mexico University. That’s why it’s so hard to read this:

At the previous Senate meeting on September 12, the once recognized MECHA club of Western, a club since 1970, was denied for re-recognition by an 8 to 6 vote. The reason for the club’s denial was due to MECHA’s inability to adhere to rules stipulated in the student constitution. The primary reason the Senate did not pass the motion, according to ASWNMU, was that for the last two years MECHA did not participate in two student events specified in by-laws concerning recognized clubs; they did not help with homecoming or great race.

The article later cites Abraham Martinez, the current ASWNMU president, who says the students at Western helped lobby for $200,000 to renovate the MEChA building, and that the club hasn’t helped the students in return.

MEChA has had an incredible history at Western, and it’s members have been instrumental in many of the positive changes at the school in recent memory. Between 2003-06, I know members, working in conjunction with the Associated Students, were responsible for securing money for more than the MEChA building at the school. These students lobbied on behalf of the dorms, the natural sciences department, expressive arts, and athletics. In addition, they lobbied for a stronger Lottery Scholarship and against higher tuition increases.

The club’s building is the only student-owned facility on campus, and MEChA welcomed other student clubs to use the building for meetings and fundraising. Two such events were held there in 2005 to raise money for the family of slain WNMU football player Nick Arnold.

To be blunt, this is an area of ASWNMU law that needs to be rectified. The student government cited lack of participation in student events as the reason for denying the club’s recognition. However, if the club is not recognized, its members can’t be credited for participation in those events moving forward.

The best solution, in my opinion, would be a conditional recognition: withhold matching funds for the club (ASWNMU will match fundraising dollars for clubs on campus) during a probationary period, and require the club to participate in the required student events. That way, MEChA doesn’t receive any monetary gain for their club projects, while the students at WNMU are ensured the club is meeting it responsibilities. Everybody wins!

Well, unless somebody is trying to get their hands on MEChA’s building. If that’s the case, then recognition for MEChA can’t happen.

I’m too far removed from the situation to know exactly what’s going on, but I think one bit of the story is telling:

That night, [MEChA advisor Magdaleno] Manzanárez challenged the decision made by the Student Senate and requested an appeals process be put into action. Then he went on to state that he was aware that there was no current Supreme Court Committee in ASWNMU and also requested they bring one together for the appeals process concerning the eligibility of the club.

Looks like ASWNMU doesn’t exactly have its house in order either.

UPDATE: Sunday, 10:30 p.m. — Looks like the crazies are out in full force, concocting conspiracy theories about George and the other folks who asked questions during Thursday’s debate:

In a nutshell, CNN’s six “undecided voters” were:

A Democratic Party bigwig
An antiwar activist
A Union official
An Islamic leader
A Harry Reid staffer
A radical Chicano separatist

Here’s a simple thought: Americans participating in a Democratic primary election or caucus are more than likely going to be Democrats. And—horror of horrors—those Democrats might be undecided as to which Democratic candidate they would vote for! They might even attempt to, you know, find out more about the candidates, and even venture so far as to ask questions! I know, the audacity!

One could even presume that the best people to ask questions at a debate among candidates in the Democratic primary election would be actual Democrats.

And boy, MEChA, the “separatist” organization dedicated to overthrowing the U.S. government. I’m not going to bother duplicating the work of Ted at Crooked Timbers, who had a lengthy post on MEChA way back in 2003.

I met Rep. Herrera in early 2004, when I was just starting my career as a journalist. I had traveled to Santa Fe to cover the Legislature for The Mustang, and was introduced by friends from student government. Herrera dropped legislation on behalf of the students, who were seeking capital improvement funds for Western New Mexico University.

Rep. Herrera welcomed us into his office, showed us around the Roundhouse, and invited my fellow students to testify for the committee considering his bills. In short, he treated us as he did his other constituents, and not like kids.

Over the next four years, I reported on Herrera’s efforts to bring accountability to the University, and to give employees there a voice through the collective bargaining process. He always displayed a dedication to the residents of his district and, even when slowed by cancer, he was a tireless champion for Democratic causes.

Herrera’s personality belied his knowledge of the issues important to his constituents, and a person who underestimated Herrera didn’t make that mistake twice. His death is a huge blow to the residents of Grant and Hidalgo counties.

For more information, see the Silver City Daily Press.

But if everything failed, and we found ourselves negotiating with a newly formed union, then we still shouldn’t lose heart. Instead, we could continue to undermine the union by rejecting all of its demands during negotiations. (In fact, in about a third of the cases after a union victory, employers don’t even agree to a contract.) The trick was in how to word refusals. First, with a shout, Stief demonstrated what not to say in response to a demand for increased wages: “I’m not listening to no stinkin’ wage increases!” He resumed his normal voice: “Does that sound like good faith? No.” Then Stieff showed us the proper alternative: “I’m not inclined to agree to that proposal at this time.” He observed. “Does that sound like good faith? Yes, but I’m saying the same thing I did before.” The lesson? “You can say no to anything.”

Did I say “good old days?” Silly me. Sure, workers at WNMU voted to approve a collective bargaining unit last summer, but, to the best of my knowledge, they still don’t have a contract. The last time I checked (around June), it was under negotiation, and that seems to be the case today.

With all the news recently about UAW and GM, it’s easy to forget that there are smaller collective bargaining units out there, like the one at WNMU. At the time of last year’s election, there were only 38 employees eligible for the union there. In addition, while UAW is seeking a measure of job protection (they don’t want to see their jobs outsourced) and health care benefits, WNMU workers were seeking a living wage and improved safety conditions on campus.

In other words, unions can still (and do still) play major role in protecting workers in this country. If they didn’t, you wouldn’t see companies spending billions of dollars a year trying to fight organized workers.

Hat tip to Kevin Drum for the link.

UPDATE: 9/96/07 6:50 a.m. — Looks like the UAW strike is over.

“It is the trend for PM Newspapers across the country for years now. The last nail in the coffin was the Internet. All those people that used to wait for the afternoon delivery just switched over to blogs and Internet news services.

Silver City is in almost exactly the same situation: it has an afternoon newspaper and a morning paper as well. One of the two flipsides to the Albuquerque situation is circulation: right now, the Silver City Daily Press (the PM paper) has the Silver City Sun-News beat as far as subscribers go. In addition, the Daily Press circulation numbers have been going up (or, at least that’s what my employer told us before I left the newspaper).

Still, the Daily Press can’t become complacent.  More and more residents of Grant and Catron counties will get access to the Internet (and more of those users will have access to broadband) and the Daily Press is going to find itself competing with more and more competitors.

It’s going to be interesting to watch what happens with the Daily Press. I’d love to see a more active Web site for the paper. Their online edition is a unique approach, but I think they’ll eventually find they need more interactivity (i.e. comments sections for articles), a better archive system and more free content.

I’d also pitch making the Daily Press Web site the Internet resource for residents, and for those planning to visit and/or move to the area. The Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce fills part of that role, but I think the Daily Press could find a niche if it invested the time and energy into making it intuitive and useful.

Still, the newspaper business in Silver City should make for exciting speculation and viewing in the coming years, as more and more people get their news and information from non-traditional sources, like blogs, Digg, and podcasts.

One of the things that stuck out while writing the story was the realization of the dependent relationships that make fire season what it is, particularly here in southwest New Mexico and especially after a wet winter or spring.

As the grass and brush that sprouted as a result of those wet months dries out in the early summer heat, the threat of wildfire jumps because there’s more fuel on the ground. The heat, however, plays another role in increasing the danger. The high temperatures mean less moisture is required for convection, so thunderstorms build up and move into the area. However, there’s not quite enough moisture to result in rain.

Thunderstorms – rain = dry lightning. Voila: wildfire!

Of course, the story appeared the same afternoon that we had our first good rain of the summer, and all our newspapers were wrapped up in plastic bags to protect them. Such is the life of a reporter.

Anyhoo, the weather did provide an awesome opportunity for photography (gotta love the overcast light). Below, a few of the images from yesterday, including this shot of a pigeon that let me get within a foot with my macro lens and never flew away:

Don’t live here, or can’t tune in to the radio? Check out High Lonesome’s streaming feed at KSILRadio.com.

Update: Now YouTube clip.