Gov. Richardson Hosts Reception For Mayor Coss ... yawn.

I parked my 1980 pick-up truck at the end of the line of expensive cars with Obama bumper stickers that were leading to Steve and Kristen Flance's beautiful Wilderness Gate home. I hustled to catch up to City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez who was walking alone toward the reception. He turned and said, "I thought I heard someone."
I then asked a question that I knew the answer to, "Did you bring your check for two hundred and fifty dollars?"
He simply replied, "No."
"Me neither. I'll just say I'm with you."


Mayor Coss speak with his wife, Earl Potter, City Councilor Chris Calvert, Jack somebody and an unidentified women working on her wedgie.

We were greeted at the door by Carol Oppenheimer. Extending my hand I introduced myself, "Hi, I'm Cove."
"I know" she said. "Remember me from the old days?"
"I do. And I know you are one of the hosts."
Carmichael tried to slip right in but Carol said to wait and sign the guest book and get a name tag to stick on your shirt. As if all the insiders inside didn't know each other already.
Funny thing as I wrote my name on the sticker I notice the bowl of donation checks sitting there. The two checks on top were not made out to anyone or to any committee. Humm?
"You missed the Governor", Carol said. "He came, he ate and he left."


In the split second it took for me to lift my head she had realized (as Obama says) that she should have calibrated her words differently especially since she was talking to a guy who writes a blog about Governor Bill Richardson called "Fat Bill and Me."
"I mean I don't know if he ate ... he spoke and then he left." Nice recovery Carol, I thought.
Inside, the first person I saw was Coss' Mayor Pro Tem, City Councilor Rebecca Wurzburger. There weren't that many more people there than the almost 30 people who were listed as "hosts" on the invitation.


A silhouetted Rebecca Wurzburger in shadows.

On the way over to the small group surrounding the Mayor, I shook Morty Simon's hand. Basically he is Coss' campaign manager and money guy. Morty like Bill Sisneros, David Barker, Earl Potter, Flance, and Oppenheimer have mixed feelings about seeing me anytime no less at one of their gatherings.

The Mayor saw me approaching and nervously spoke first.
"You see we got the fountain going." He was speaking about the only public fountain (Fountainhead Rock) in Santa Fe. That fountain has been neglected and in a state of disrepair for the last ten years.
"Yes." I said. "Now you owe me a game." I was referring to a chess game because I had put on a outdoor chess tournament near the fountain's vicinity to call attention to its condition, among other things.
"I promise to throw the match." I joked.
The Mayor smiled as if to say 'Isn't that understood?'

I looked around and realized beside thanking Flance for letting me into his house I really didn't want to hang around. As I did just that, thanking my 'bud" Steve Flance, I turned back toward the Mayor and snapped the photo on the left. I think it was a tell.