Luján won't say if he supports fellow Dem Jerome Block Jr.
ALBUQUERQUE -- Congressional hopeful Ben Ray Luján may be running hard to seal the deal with voters in northern New Mexico, but his campaign is running away from any suggestion that he supports his fellow Democrat running to succeed him on the Public Regulation Commission.
Asked if Luján supports Jerome Block Jr. in his bid to replace Lujan on the PRC, Luján campaign spokesman Mark Nicastre sent NMI this terse answer via e-mail:
"No comment from Ben."
Last month, Block won a six-way Democratic primary to succeed Ben Ray Luján on the PRC. Block, 31, squeaked by with 22.8 percent of the vote.
Why won't Luján say that he supports Block? Impossible to say for sure, but many clues can probably be found in Dave Maass' expose of Block's checkered legal history published in the Santa Fe Reporter last week.
Among the highlights (or lowlights): "Aggravated DWI, unlawful riding, urinating in public, ditching out on court-ordered child-support mediation and breach of contract," according to SFR.
The urinating in public charge stemmed from a 1998 incident in downtown Albuquerque in which Block allegedly relieved himself on a bush just a few yards away from police property.
In the same story, SFR also reported that Block's record is currently "clean" but that's due in large part to his success at having several charges dismissed over the last decade.
Block didn't talk to SFR, but he did speak subsequently with reporters from the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal. He told the Journal's Raam Wong that he doesn't remember the urinating in public citation.
I can honestly say I think I would recall being cited for urinating in a bush. And I don’t think I would urinate in a bush at a police station.
Nevertheless, Block seems confident of victory in his race to win the powerful $90,000-per-year PRC job now that he's won the Democratic nomination and only Green Party candidate Rick Lass stands in his way. From the New Mexican's story:
Right now, my supporters have rallied once again, and they’re upset about this whole deal, and they don’t have any question about my character, and they will show it on Election Day in November when they elect me to the PRC.
Trouble is, Block can't count the man whose PRC chair he's hoping to claim come November as one of those supporters.
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