Posing as local voters on Oct. 20, SFR called the clerks’ offices in all of the 13 counties in the district for instructions on this procedure. Four counties—Bernalillo, Colfax, Guadalupe and DeBaca—told SFR voters can’t vote straight party and vote for a candidate in a different party.

PLUS: See which commercial properties are using the most water, as well as how much water Santa Fe city councilors (and SFR’s management) used last summer.

A $350 payment made by PRC candidate Jerome Block Jr to the Attorney General’s constituent services coordinator for “mailout assistance” may have been illegal, SFR has discovered.

If Karl Rove is George W Bush’s “Turd Blossom,” then that makes Lee Atwater the lump of poop from which Rove flowered. In the ’70s and ’80s, Atwater authored the Republican playbook of smears.

What do breasts and extraterrestrials have in common? For one, both contributed to the R-rating for the film Species. For another, local Raëlian guide Alaric Balibrera wants to give both more exposure in Santa Fe, figuratively and literally. The Raëlian movement is promoting a woman’s right to bear her chest in public. Balibrera organized a bare-breast demonstration on the Plaza in August

Even if Public Regulation Commission candidate Jerome Block Jr. violated state law and has to return $100,000 in public campaign funds, it’s too late to take his name off the ballot as the Democratic Party’s candidate on Nov. 4. And political observers believe, despite the ongoing scandals involving Block’s campaign, he still has the upper hand over his only opponent, Green Party candidate Rick Lass.

Having developed the ultimate convenience food and the ultimate food service efficiency system, McDonald’s decided the best way to control a fiercely competitive market was to sell a completely artificial—but thoroughly America—“experience.” Dave Maass experiences the magic.

He’s a young Latino Democratic politician who won a six-way race for his party’s nomination. He shares the same name as his prominent power-broker father, espouses the benefits of renewable energy and is often criticized as lacking experience. That description fits both congressional candidate Ben Ray Luján and PRC candidate Jerome Block Jr.

Could it be that the celebrity star power of the presidential election is actually a product of the celestial stars? Astrologer Arielle Guttman says so and, as she celebrates her 35th year in the business of star charts, horoscopes and predictions, she foresees a hard-fought election given that Republican presidential nominee US Sen. John McCain picked an Aquarian running mate.

Michelle Obama’s Sept. 3 event at the College of Santa Fe was billed as a “roundtable” for military families, but one Albuquerque-based wife of an active duty Naval reservist left the event feeling more marginalized...