The candidates for land commissioner in the Democratic primary are very different people.
Jim Baca is confrontational and pushes hard to accomplish his agenda. Ray Powell seeks to meet his goals by building bridges and forming alliances.
I’m not going to profile both men. Mainstream media has done a good job of profiling both, who are former land commissioners, and detailing their records.
What I am going to tell you is that either is a viable choice for the Democratic Party.
Baca has no problem being blunt about what he sees as the shortcomings of Powell and Patrick Lyons, the Republican who currently holds the office. He has made many enemies in his years in politics. Democrats overwhelmingly voted for Powell during this year’s preprimary nominating convention.
Long ago, Baca led a much-needed reform of the state’s liquor-license laws. Politicos who own bars have never forgotten it, and that’s why some dislike him.
Others think he’s a poor leader because he is so abrasive.
Baca shakes things up. He’s not someone the party can count on to fall in line.
I like that. Any candidate who isn’t owned by a political party gets my attention.
Powell is better at finding common ground and planting a tree in the middle of it. He audited 15 oil and gas companies as land commissioner and collected more than $120 million in owed taxes through negotiations. He sued the one company that refused to pay, proving he isn’t afraid to make enemies when necessary.
He has many more friends in the party than Baca.
I like his ability to find compromise.
The reality of politics is that there’s not one right philosophy of governance. If all elected officials were Democrats, we would pay too many taxes and be overregulated. If they were Republicans, corporations would control the universe.
If only nice guys like Powell were in government, everyone would seek compromise and no one would push for major reform when necessary. If they were all like Baca, no one would compromise. Everyone would be shouting at the same time.
We need people like both Baca and Powell in government.
After meeting with both candidates in separate meetings in Las Cruces, I’m convinced they have the right intentions and the interests of the people of New Mexico at heart. The voters have a tough choice to make.
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Fernando Macias is continuing his quest to jump back into politics.
This time, he’s applied for a new district judgeship in Las Cruces that was created this year by the legislature and will be assigned to the overworked children’s court.
Macias, a state senator from 1985-2000 and Doña Ana County manager from 1997 to 2000, left to take the prestigious job in Ciudad Juarez as general manager of the Border Environment Cooperation Commission.
He recently began efforts to jump back into politics, first by considering a run for county commission, which he later abandoned, then by applying for a vacancy on the Mesilla Board of Trustees.
Macias didn’t get the appointment. Some speculate that Mayor Michael Cadena didn’t want someone more powerful than himself on the board.
Some also say Macias has little chance of being appointed judge, because he hasn’t practiced law in more than a decade. Though the governor makes the appointment, he’ll have to choose from a group of finalists selected by a committee. The system is set up so that the committee is not political and, historically, that’s how it’s worked out.
Though Macias might have some influence with the governor, he may have a hard time getting to the point where that matters.
The other applicants are Frederick Kennon, Las Cruces Municipal Judge James T. Locatelli, Michael Murphy, Rita Nuñez Neumann, Melissa Reeves and Bernadette Sedillo.
The nominating commission will meet in Las Cruces on July 27 to interview the candidates.
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I keep hearing criticism of Chris Jaramillo, who is running in the Democratic primary against Doña Ana County Commissioner Oscar Vasquez Butler. He is a lobbyist for the cockfighting industry.
I wrote several weeks ago that it would be interesting to see him work with Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, whose senate district overlaps that commission district, since Garcia has been the champion of the unsuccessful effort to outlaw cockfighting in New Mexico, one of two states where it’s still legal.
Animal rights groups have begun a concerted effort to keep Jaramillo off the commission. They have found citizens to write several letters to the editors of both local newspapers, and I’ve been contacted by many people who don’t want Jaramillo on the commission.
Butler has faced criticism in his time on the commission, which has been reported here and in local media. He has upset many Democrats but won over many others, especially in the colonias.
But many are asking whether Jaramillo belongs on a commission that has already outlawed cockfighting in this county.
I don’t think that should disqualify him. Were a vote related to cockfighting ever before the commission, I would expect that he would recuse himself. Commissioners aren’t paid much and have to make a living. Many local politicians hold down other jobs and have to recuse themselves from time to time when their jobs conflict with their political positions.
The question is whether voters in commission District One want someone representing them who supports a practice already outlawed in this county. It’s a question I’ll leave to those voters, but I suspect there’s a wide variety of opinion on the subject. Some in the more urban Picacho Hills area are probably oppose cockfighting, but the district also includes most of the county’s rural communities, and it’s rural voters who have kept cockfighting alive in New Mexico.
Stay tuned.
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I met with Stephanie Gonzales when she was in town recently. She’s one of the Democrats running for secretary of state.
(I’m writing about her and not the others because she came to town and asked to meet with me, and they have not.)
Gonzales said she plans to lobby Congress to reauthorize the 1965 Voter Rights Act, which, among other things, allowed ballots and other literature to be published in languages other than English. It’s critical for New Mexicans that the act be reauthorized.
Who knows why Congress put an expiration date on the law, but it’s up next year. In the context of the current immigration debate, this is likely to become a hot issue.
Gonzales also said, on a party level, she wants to reach out to Greens and other progressives to try to bring them into the Democratic Party.
“We need to bring them to the table,” she said. “We need to listen to them.”
She had an interesting take on voter identification.
“If you really want voter ID and you want teeth in it, it’s going to have to be a photo ID,” she said.
But when I asked whether she supported doing that, she said it would disenfranchise a lot of people, and she is pushing instead for same-day voter registration, which she said would address many of the concerns that have led to the push for voter ID.
When I asked her why she couldn’t push for both, she said, “Fight one battle at a time.”
You can learn more about Gonzales by clicking here.
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I’m on the Michael Swickard show this morning at 8 a.m. If you get a chance, tune in. Don’t forget that you can get the day’s headlines in your e-mail box by entering your address in the subscription box on the right side of this page.
Have a great day, and thanks for reading!