I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico’s Sen. Jeff Bingaman is key to the health care bill before the Senate Finance Committee, according to Roll Call. This morning the Albuquerque Journal’s Michael Coleman gives us a synopsis of the Roll Call story in which the author quotes an unnamed lobbyist. The story says Bingaman supports the public option, but won’t hold up the bill’s progress if it isn’t in the legislation. In fact, the story is full of interesting tidbits.
Read it fore more nuggets like this:
“A mild-mannered lawmaker known to aides as “Jeff,” Bingaman shuns the limelight and declined to be interviewed for this article. Despite his liberal voting record, however, he is considered a moderate on many issues, particularly those before the Finance Committee. According to one lobbyist, Bingaman is considered the panel’s “heart and soul” ideologically among Democrats.
On his ideological left? Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rockefeller. To his right: Baucus and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). And despite his apparent lack of media savvy in this summer’s gang of six negotiations, Bingaman was considered to be an influential participant during the months of talks.
He’s in the middle on the Democratic side,” the lobbyist said. “He’s not a liberal like Schumer, Kerry and Rockefeller — and not [conservative] like Conrad or Baucus.”
Everyone has been quoting everybody except him,” the source added. “Anything that’s decent in that bill was Bingaman and [Sen. Olympia] Snowe [R-Maine] … it wasn’t Baucus or Conrad.”
Coleman is right to point out that some news outlets are quoting New Mexico’s senior U.S. Senator, notably those in New Mexico.
Sometimes the media in Washington and New York forget that there’s a country between the East and West coasts.
