Here’s your Top 10 for 2021
Yeah, yeah, farewell and good riddance to 2020. But what — and who — will make the news in ’21?
Read on.
1. Alan Webber: A year ago, this newspaper didn’t see him as one of the top newsmakers of 2020. My fault, and one of the more idiotic calls of the year. Webber’s 2020 was unreal. He may have ceded control of his political future to forces beyond his control when the obelisk was felled in October; it’s an event that won’t easily fade. But I stand by this thought: Dismiss his mayoral reelection possibilities at your own risk. If Webber chooses to run (no sure thing), he’ll be well-armed with campaign funds and well-versed in the city’s weird ranked-choice voting system. What Webber needs, most of all, is a return to normalcy — tourists clogging downtown; builders pouring concrete foundations and footings for houses. If he gets those things by midsummer, who knows?
2. Deb Haaland: To the consternation of the conga line of Democrats lining up to run for New Mexico governor in five years, President-elect Joe Biden has crowned the early favorite. Yup, it’s Haaland, whose background and timing make her a real threat in 2026, regardless of how she performs in Washington.
3. Michelle Lujan Grisham: Ina year that needed someone willing to operate government while the world began to collapse, the governor stepped up. But now, incredibly, comes the really hard part: She’ll have to parry with a progressive wing of her party that won’t take no for an answer, plus an angry Republican Party that fuels not just opposition, but a dislike bordering on pathologic. Don’t believe me? Check out the posts on Lujan Grisham’s Facebook feed during her news conferences.
4. JoAnne Vigil Coppler: Her mayoral ambitions are the talk of the town. But you know what’s really interesting? She may be the first Santa Fe city councilor under the new mayor/council configuration to understand the mayor and council are natural rivals — as opposed to the days when they were all relative equals, clubby confidantes. If she runs, Vigil Coppler will be a handful.
5. Danny Gonzales: Look, he’s the football coach at the University of New Mexico, which by definition means he’s a glutton for punishment. But then COVID-19 and state health orders that resulted in an autumn-long bivouac in Nevada made things even tougher. Somehow, Gonzales persevered, got the Lobos to two wins (with the help of a fifth-string quarterback) and gave the 15 or so college football fans left in the state something to cheer. My prediction: Lobo football gets relevant again, quickly.
6. Brian Egolf: The Speaker, as he’s known (and not just inside the
Roundhouse), continues to torment outnumbered House Republicans. He engenders the kind of enmity from the GOP not seen since Raymond Sanchez ruled the chamber. When Republicans say “Santa Fe” with a sneer, it’s a pejorative aimed directly at the man with the gavel. I’m not sure Egolf cares, though, and expect him to conk his rivals — procedurally, of course — upside the head a few more times, just for fun.
7. Mark Ronchetti: Not long ago, he was telling you about a low-pressure system moving into New Mexico from the Pacific Northwest. Now, he’s the most bankable hope the Republican Party has in any statewide election for the next couple of years. Ronchetti lost to Ben Ray Luján for the U.S. Senate, but he was always going to lose that one. That he came within five percentage points of a wellknown political property says there’s a future, and a realistic one at that.
8. Rebecca Dow: Who’s Rebecca Dow? People in the Roundhouse know. In a party bereft of young legislative talent, the Republican representative from Truth or Consequences could be the future.
9. Veronica García: School superintendents almost never are in a winning situation, even in normal times. But with COVID-19 throwing a hand grenade into public education now and for at least another six months, it’ll be interesting to see whether García can move Santa Fe Public Schools back into a hybrid model before the end of the school year.
10. Tracie Collins: The good doctor is the new head of the state Department of Health, which in one year has gone from an afterthought to perhaps the most important agency in New Mexico. How she navigates the toughest boss in New Mexico — quite frankly, Lujan Grisham fires Cabinet secretaries as often as she says “quite frankly,” makes me want in on some of their Zoom meetings.