thomas leverett weblog

NM-2 One more update

Miracle of miracles, the last 8,000 votes were counted, and put Xochitl Small Torres on top. She beat Yvette Harrell by less than 2000 votes, but more than a razor-thin margin that would require a recount. She won and she's going to Washington.

This will make New Mexico entirely blue, in governor, two senators, and three congresspeople; it makes our congressional delegation the first to be all "people of color."

This sudden turnaround has gone somewhat unnoticed in the press. We found out from the Las Cruces Sun News, and the New York Times picked it up, but it went virtually unnoticed on politico or other sites that we follow. A turn of a seat is usually news, at least on the day it happens, but this wasn't - far overshadowed by the firing of Sessions, etc. The dust settles on the southern desert, and we have a Democratic congressperson, but the world goes on. I haven't heard either of their names mentioned at all today or yesterday.

I find New Mexico to be polite in a genteel, kind of southern way. A lot of the people say "y'all" and they don't call each other by first names for a long time, long after meeting, only with permission, etc., as is an old Hispanic custom. That's why they don't talk politics much. You have to get to know someone; you can't go around disagreeing with each other. It disrupts the harmony and the general rhythm of life.

Their margin was less than 1%, and I think on some level people won't forget. Two more years, and it'll be a whole new game. My own guess is that two more years and we'll be hurting economically; tariffs will have sunk in, and T will be mired in a corrupt and ineffective administration. The battle we are preparing for is the release of Mueller's report, but there will be more; the ever-shifting line, marking the center of American politics, will move one direction or another.

I find it very noteworthy that it landed here, in southern New Mexico, where ranchers share a sparse landscape with old Mexican-American families and an occasional set of young folks who move in for the same reason they've occupied Colorado, Arizona, and Montana. Really the ranchers dominate, but, in our case, we have a thousand mile border and this issue of $45 mil/foot wall. You'd think they'd welcome the jobs, but we don't; New Mexico's senators were the only ones, besides Kamala Harris, who voted against the wall. My own feeling about it is that walls will be outdated with the arrival of drones (which are already here) and since you'll need drone protection anyway, forget the wall and put it all into drones. A wall would be an utter waste of $45 mil/foot.

Or whatever. The price keeps going up, on account of the tariffs.

posted by tom @ 12:22 PM