Here’s a round up of top stories around New Mexico.

 

The Albuquerque Journal has a story about the two candidates who have triggered the "millionaire’s amendment."

Don Wiviott (candidate for the House in Congressional District 3) and Harry Teague, who is running for Steve Pearce’s seat in District 2, have both dug deep into their own pockets. From the story: "For a long time, Republicans have always had so much more money in this congressional race," said Teague, a former Lea County commissioner. "I thought it was important to let the Democratic voters know that that wasn’t going to happen to them again this year."

The two candidates appear to be the first U.S. House candidates in New Mexico to trigger the "Millionaires’ Amendment," a 2003 federal campaign rule that requires candidates to notify regulators when they spend more than $350,000 of their own money.

Triggering the amendment allows competitors to triple the amount of money they can accept from each of their own private donors— raising the federal law cap from $2,300 to $6,900 per contributor.

Meanwhile blogger Joe Monahan mulls over the fact that while Senate candidate Pearce has been airing statewide TV ads hammering foes Heather Wilson and Tom Udall, Udall—who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary— hasn’t spent a dime from his coffers. As Monahan put it, Udall "has been getting the snot nuked out of him." Furthermore, he analyzes:

Dems know for sure they have the Senate race won on the issues, but they don’t have it won yet on leadership ability, character, passion and who will fight hardest for this small southwestern state that is losing so much seniority on Capitol Hill. It is on those grounds that the outnumbered R’s will try to have this fight fought.

KOB.com has a story about Albuquerque City Councilors who are upset about the cost of the new fire academy.

"It’s a money pit, five years ago this thing was budgeted at $3.5 million, now it’s going to cost $9.1 million, and it’s still not done," said Albuquerque City Councilor Michael Cadigan.