The first full day of Spring had an extra sweetness this year. It was Filing Day, when those seeking various elective offices must file and make known their candidacy. My wife is Merri Rudd, Bernalillo County Probate Judge. She has held that office for most of one full term, preceded by a few years filling out the term of her predecessor, Ira Robinson, who left office to move up to the NM Court of Appeals.
Merri has run in two contested elections. She is as smart and hard-working a candidate, as she is a judge, but campaigning is a brutally draining process. The first time, she opposed Tom Mescall, the incumbent. The next time, she was in a race against fellow Democrats, John Wayne Higgins and Ira Robinson, who filed his candidacy 5 minutes before the deadline. That experience of having someone jump in the race at the last minute (and later win) left an indelible mark on Merri and me.
For good or bad, there are few requirements for county offices. You file your paperwork and pay your $50 and you, too, can run (if you are over 18, a NM resident not currently in jail, etc). In most counties, the Probate Judge doesn’t even have to be a lawyer, though in Bernalillo County, that is a requirement.
Most people who have paid any attention realize Merri is the perfect person for this job. If I say she may be the best probate judge ever, you’ll dismiss that as spousal prejudice, but it is actually at least a possibility — no offense intended to other judges (many of whom Merri has trained and who seek her views daily).
This year, like the previous race, no one filed to run against her. Most of us believe that potential opponents realized she deserves the office or might even be unbeatable. Merri, more modestly, thinks few people care about the office enough to run. Either way, the crescendo of worry on Filing Day quickly passed and Merri gets the proverbial “free ride.”
So, Bernalillo gets to keep its great probate judge for 4 additional years, at which point term limits prevent her for staying in office forever. And Merri gets to relax a bit and neither of us has to worry about the devastating effects of a campaign — it is an exhausting process that must end in someone’s heartbreak, no matter who is the most qualified.
I might go so far as to say “the system worked” but, though the outcome was the best one possible, I’m not sure this is a measure of the system.
Monthly Archives: March 2006
What Would Stop the Violence?
It is truly tragic that anyone ever suffers through deliberate violence. It is also sad that public servants may be murdered in the line of duty. Life is short; we should let each other have as much time as we can fairly squeeze in.
That said, I have two thoughts about the recent murder of a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy, beyond my sincere sympathy for him, his family and friends and our community. Two thoughts I don’t expect to see expressed anywhere else.
When Cal Thomas Calls for Another Revolution, Is That Sedition?
Cal Thomas Spending obscenities
That Republicans are outspending the most reckless 1980s Democrat (and 1960s Great Society Democrats and 1940s FDR Democrats) is the sorriest spectacle of all.
The Senate vote increased the debt ceiling for the fourth time in five years. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since President Bush took office. That any Republican majority could preside over such fiscally irresponsible spending ought to be grounds for revoking their party membership.
This is mostly about politics, not terrorism. …
Coolidge left the presidency with a surplus. So did Bill Clinton. That a Republican Congress and administration are engaging in such promiscuous spending is obscene. If voting in Democrats —who in the past engaged in deficit spending — punishes Republicans, little will change. What to do?
Maybe it’s time for a strong third party, or failing that, another revolution.
Grants Flow To Bush Allies On Social Issues
Grants Flow To Bush Allies On Social Issues By Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post Staff Writer
Under the auspices of its religion-based initiatives and other federal programs, the administration has funneled at least $157 million in grants to organizations run by political and ideological allies, according to federal grant documents and interviews. …
Among other new beneficiaries of federal funding during the Bush years are groups run by Christian conservatives, including those in the African American and Hispanic communities. Many of the leaders have been active Republicans and influential supporters of Bush’s presidential campaigns. …
“If what you are asking is, has George Bush as president of the United States established priorities in spending for his administration? The answer is yes,” said Wade F. Horn, who as assistant secretary for children and families at HHS oversees much of the spending going to conservative groups. “That is a prerogative that presidents have.” …
“These are just slush funds for conservative interest groups,” countered Bill Smith, vice president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, one of the most outspoken critics of abstinence-only sex-education programs. “These organizations would not be in existence if not for the federal dollars coming through.” …
Most, but not all, of the money going to conservative groups has come from two programs that did not exist before Bush took office in 2001. …
Hundreds of struggling antiabortion and pregnancy crisis centers have received federal grants that often doubled or tripled their annual budgets, allowing them to branch out and hire staff, especially for abstinence education. …
The shift under Bush in part grows out of the administration’s Faith and Community Based Initiative. …
In a Dec. 12, 2002, executive order, Bush addressed one of the major concerns of religious groups considering applying for public money. Bush declared that religious groups receiving federal grants would not be required to comply with certain civil rights statutes, and could discriminate by hiring employees of specific religious faiths.
Skepticism about the distribution of money under the religion-based initiatives abounds in both parties. …
Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.) was more outspoken. “I believe ultimately this will be seen as one of the largest patronage programs in American history,” he said. …
In addition to liberals, there are conservative critics of taxpayer funding of groups on the right.
To Uphold the Constitution?
FindLaw: U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
USNews.com: The White House says spying on terrorism suspects without court approval is OK. What about physical searches? By Chitra Ragavan
In December, the New York Times disclosed the NSA’s warrantless electronic surveillance program, resulting in an angry reaction from President Bush. It has not previously been disclosed, however, that administration lawyers had cited the same legal authority to justify warrantless physical searches. But in a little-noticed white paper submitted by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Congress on January 19 justifying the legality of the NSA eavesdropping, Justice Department lawyers made a tacit case that President Bush also has the inherent authority to order such physical searches. …
During Senate testimony about the NSA surveillance program, however, Gonzales was at pains to avoid answering questions about any warrantless physical surveillance activity that may have been authorized by the Justice Department. …
In 1975 and 1976, an investigative committee led by then Sen. Frank Church documented how the FBI engaged in broad surveillance of private citizens and members of antiwar and civil rights groups, as well as Martin Luther King Jr. The committee’s hearings and the executive-branch abuses that were documented in the Watergate investigation led to numerous reforms, including passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978.
The nation has never seen anything like this
Conservationists Vie To Buy Forest Habitat By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer
A recent U.S. Forest Service study predicted that more than 44 million acres of private forest land, an area twice the size of Maine, will be sold over the next 25 years. The consulting firm U.S. Forest Capital estimates that half of all U.S. timberland has changed hands in the past decade. The Bush administration also wants to sell off forest land, by auctioning more than 300,000 acres of national forest to fund a rural school program.
“The nation has never seen anything like this,” said Conservation Fund President Lawrence A. Selzer, whose 20-year-old group is hoping to raise $48 million in the coming months to buy the 16,000 acres that make up Big River and Salmon Creek. “It has the potential to permanently and profoundly change the landscape of America.” …
Today, a third of the U.S. land mass is forest — the same proportion as in 1907 but just 71 percent of what existed before settlement by Europeans — and 57 percent of it is privately owned. But competition from cheap imported lumber, soaring land prices and pressure from Wall Street are now prompting timber companies to sell. …
The forest sales have sparked a sense of urgency among conservationists because the holdings constitute much of the remaining intact ecosystems outside of public lands, he said: “It’s sort of like Humpty Dumpty. If they’re sold, we’ll never get them back together again.”
more on the right are breaking ranks
On Iraq, Plenty of Scores to Settle Even If the Dust Hasn’t By Howard Kurtz, Washington Post Staff Writer
As Bush continues to flounder in the polls, more on the right are breaking ranks. Bruce Bartlett, who was dropped by a free-market think tank over his new book “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” recently called the administration “unconscionable,” “vindictive” and “inept.”
Peggy Noonan writes that she would not have voted for Bush had she known he was going to turn into a big-spending Lyndon Johnson. Jonah Goldberg writes that “most conservatives never really understood what compassionate conservatism was, beyond a convenient marketing slogan,” and the “reality” is “that there was nothing behind the curtain.”