‘It has everything to do with blind partisanship’

By Bill McCamley

This is a guest column Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley submitted in response to a column by county Republican Party chair Sid Goddard published Sunday in the Las Cruces Sun-News. You can read more about the situation by clicking here.

Everyone should read Republican Chair Sid Goddard’s piece in last Sunday’s Las Cruces Sun-News because it clearly highlights the difference between partisan campaigning and actual governing. If you don’t have time to go back, it basically said this: “The Democratic chair, Melinda Whitley, wrote some biased comments in an e-mail to supporters. New Mexico’s economic indicators aren’t good. Therefore Democrats are all failed leaders.” Somehow, this wacky logic becomes a good reason to repeat the line “It has everything to do with fear!” over and over.

Because election time is near and he is head of a party, Mr. Goddard can be forgiven for engaging in the very same tactics (trying to stir up rage at Democrats by using a few carefully chosen examples to smear an entire group) that he accuses Ms. Whitley of using. After all, it’s the job of both to lead partisan attacks. But while Ms. Whitley’s comments were kept to a closed list of Democratic Party supporters, Mr. Goddard insisted on dragging these disputes to the public.

Furthermore, there are two other problems with Mr. Goddard’s piece that need to be addressed. First, over the last few years members of the Doña Ana County Commission (consisting of three Democrats and two Republicans) have worked extremely hard to cooperate and compromise. In fact, although you’d never know it from reading Mr. Goddard’s rant, the vast majority of votes that we take are unanimous and we have only had one 3-2 partisan vote since I joined the commission in January of 2005. We fear-mongering Democrats even decided to ignore our majority and create an equally balanced, bi-partisan commission to examine the problems with the county Bureau of Elections. But presumably Mr. Goddard knows that, since we put him on it.

These efforts and others like them, however, are often overlooked in a politically charged environment. Our job as policymakers, which requires work with everyone in the decision-making process, is made exceedingly difficult when we are consistently told why it is evil to work with other politicians purely because they belong to a different party.

Second, New Mexico has actually improved a great deal under Democratic leadership. Under Bill Richardson, job growth has increased, teachers are being paid more, and healthcare coverage has been expanded. Members of our legislative delegation, almost all members of the Democratic Party, have worked together to bring numerous improvements to the community, the most recent examples being the renovation of the Rio Grande Theatre and the soon-to-be constructed aquatic center. The county has labored tirelessly to create jobs (on the border and through the spaceport), make healthcare provision more efficient and widespread, increase housing availability for the lower and middle classes, reform our election process, and come up with a strategy for smart growth without a moratorium on building. These are facts, not fantasies. And, to be fair, most of these efforts have had the support of minority Republicans who also realize that cooperation is necessary to improve the lives of our constituents.

Of course we have lots of work to do for New Mexico, but I’m proud of the progress our state and community have made recently. Mr. Goddard should be too. He, however, does not have to make policy, so it’s easy for him to draw his guns and publicly blast away at those who do. But like so many others in our increasingly negative society, he offers no concrete options on how to make things better.

The fact is that tearing things down is easy; the real effort is in construction. There are good people from both parties with quality ideas. When the smoke clears and the elections are done, those of us, Democrats and Republicans alike, who care about policy and governing more than political mudslinging will continue as we were before: working to help our community grow.

In the meantime, please read Mr. Goddard’s piece from last Sunday to hear why he thinks everyone is so afraid. Here’s a hint: It has everything to do with blind partisanship.