The director of a Las Cruces environmental organization has inserted himself into the race for the Democratic state land commissioner nomination with a strongly worded attack.
It’s notable because Kevin Bixby is the director of the Southwest Environmental Center and because he used to work for both candidates during their tenures as land commissioner.
Democratic candidate for land commissioner Jim Baca posted on his Web site late last week a letter from Bixby that endorses his candidacy. Baca used to be land commissioner, and was succeeded in that office in 1993 by Ray Powell, his opponent in this year’s June primary election.
Bixby knows Baca and Powell personally, as he worked under both in the land commissioner office. It’s that experience that prompted Bixby to support Baca.
“Fundamentally, they are very different individuals,” Bixby wrote. “Baca is a reformer and a man of action. He is not afraid to shake things up. He understands the issues on state lands, and has shown a willingness to tackle them head-on, regardless of whether it furthered his career or not.”
Then Bixby attacked Powell.
“Powell, on the other hand, is a classic career politician. He says the things conservationists want to hear, but doesn’t back them up with actions,” Bixby wrote. “In my opinion this kind of candidate is worse than an anti-environment ideologue, because he lulls conservationists into complacency with his rhetoric, while allowing problems to worsen through his inaction.”
Bixby claimed Baca, with him acting as an advisor, made many changes that helped shift the focus of the land commissioner office from solely making money off state lands to also conserving them. When Baca left to head the federal Bureau of Land Management Powell restored the status quo, Bixby claimed, and fired him.
Bixby cautioned in his letter that he was writing as an individual, not representing the Southwest Environmental Center.
Bixby also wrote about why voters should care about who gets this job:
“The State Land Office is charged with managing nearly 9 million acres of ‘trust’ lands throughout the state to produce income for public schools and other institutions. Nearly all state lands are leased for livestock grazing, and some are leased for oil and gas, mining and a variety of other uses. Historically, the Land Office has functioned more as an accounting agency than land steward, content to collect fees and let leaseholders do pretty much what they wanted, with little environmental oversight. Even today, the Land Office is woefully ill-equipped to manage its holdings, with only 13 field agents to cover 9 million acres.”
For the record, Powell got 74 percent of votes at the Democrat’s preprimary nominating convention a few weeks ago to Baca’s 26 percent. And Animal Protection Voters of New Mexico has endorsed Powell. If you visit Powell’s Web site, you can read about that, just like you can read Bixby’s full letter on Baca’s Web site.
Many in Las Cruces don’t even know the name of the current land commissioner. He’s Patrick Lyons, the Republican seeking re-election in November. He’s running unopposed in the primary. If he has a campaign Web site, I can’t find it, but click here to view his land commissioner Web site.
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I blogged last week about an Albuquerque Journal article on payday loans regulation and donations one company gave to the Democratic Governors Association chaired by Gov. Bill Richardson.
You can read that post by clicking here. One implication I made was that the industry supported a proposal by Richardson to regulate the industry, which was not as tough as that proposed by Attorney General Patricia Madrid. I got that from the Journal article – one that Dave Contarino, who was Richardson’s chief of staff until he stepped down Monday to run the governor’s re-election campaign, strongly disputed.
“During the recent legislative session, some payday lenders vociferously fought the governor’s legislation, arguing unpersuasively that tough regulations, which would cap fees, require payment plans and limit the number of loans, would limit their ability to earn larger profits,” he wrote in a guest column published in the Journal. “Curiously the Journal only quoted ‘advocates’ who, in their zeal to eliminate the payday loan industry, ironically became industry allies in killing real reform and consumer protection. The fact that neither side was completely happy suggests that the governor struck the appropriate balance.”
It looks like I got one thing right. I pointed out that one lobbyist for the payday loan industry in Santa Fe was former Speaker of the House Raymond Sanchez, brother of current Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen and the majority floor leader.
According to Contarino, Richardson’s proposal passed the House 63-4, but died in the Senate. Why?
I wonder if the Sanchez brothers had anything to do with it.
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