A Return to Blogging for the New Year.

I am not sure anyone noticed but I took an unplanned respite from blogging for the last couple of months in 2008. I am not one for resolutions however, I did say I would return to this blog in 2009. As luck would have it the day I decided to sit down and blog again became the biggest news day to hit New Mexico since the last big news day in New Mexico.

Governor Bill Richardson dropped his nomination proceedings to the Commerce Secretary position offered him by President Elect Barack Obama.

I probably can't add more to this than every local and national news source has added since the bombshell dropped Sunday Morning. My phone rang constantly for about two hours after the news hit the airwaves. Most wanted to see what my take would be on the Lieutenant Governor race of 2010 which I had previously thrown my hat into.

It is early to say a lot, I like many will be watching the Pinon Nuts as they fall from the trees. I am the only candidate who has expressed an interest in Lieutenant Governor who has no ties to the Richardson administration and his fundraising efforts. Other than a $50 ticket here and there I just have never had the funds to attend and donate to the countless $1,000 or more a plate dinners, round tables, and other functions. I have never been appointed to a high paying job or position in State Government. Of course I am not saying that if you have ties to the Richardson Administration that you are automatically tainted and I actually hope that for the sake of New Mexico and its recent string of corruption trials that the whole CDR Investigation is a wash and no illegal activity occurred.

I have not given up on the race for Lieutenant Governor and my resume was in the hands of Lieutenant Governor Dianne Denish and her transition team. This recent event was not one I nor most others were expecting but it is in line with the string of political firsts that have occurred throughout 2008. From Senator Pete Dominici's departure to the loss of Heather Wilson to Steve Pearce, and then the great democrats sweep of congressional seats, culminating with the election of the first Democratic Black President, 2008 was an astonishing political year which seems now to carry on into 2009 for New Mexico.

An interesting side note, CDR Financial Products the company involved in the investigation which triggered Governor Richardson's pulling his name from the Secretary of Commerce broke the top 100 of googled items on Jan 4, 2009. Google has a feature called Google Trends where you can see the top items googled on a particular day. Coming in at number 100 was CDR Financial Products. As part of the feature you can see the time of the day an item peaked and where in the country the largest hits came from. The largest number of hits 7% came from Albuquerque N.M. . As you can see in the chart below provided by Google Trends the hits peaked at 11:00 am just 40 minutes after the news of Governor Richardson's withdrawal hit the national airwaves.



One final interesting side note Republican Mike Huckabee took 3 of the top 100 spots in the top 100 googled searches, 11th, 24th and 37th. Because people can search for name, website, and other variations or spelling errors typed in to google's search feature persons can make the list in more than one spot. Interesting, anyway it is good to be back writing again. I want to end this with a wish that 2009 is a good year for all of you, yes it is already Jan 5, 2009 but it is never to late to wish good for someone.

.