If anyone can make the spaceport work, it’s Homans

I’m writing a political column for the Albuquerque Tribune that will run every other Wednesday beginning today. I’ll also publish the columns on this site on the days they run in the Tribune. Here’s the first:

New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans stood on a street corner in Las Cruces on April 3 and held a sign encouraging passing motorists to vote for a tax increase to help fund Spaceport America.

That was the same day I first heard he might run for Congress next year, and I wondered what would happen to the spaceport if Homans left his job. He is the glue that has held together a fragile project with no certainty of success.

That day, voters in Doña Ana County narrowly approved a gross receipts tax increase that will generate $49 million for the spaceport. The funding was critical to the project, and the 1.6-percent margin of victory humbled spaceport backers. There is enough public support to get the project done, but only barely.

Homans and Gov. Bill Richardson said at a celebration in Las Cruces later that week that the hard work is just beginning.

They’re right. The state is attempting to do what no one has done before: build the first commercial spaceport designed specifically for that purpose and convince the fledgling commercial space industry to make Las Cruces its home. Officials also have to deal with an optimistic but impatient public that expects big results in return for its investment and a Legislature that is lukewarm to the project.

Homans knew all this. Though his potential campaign against U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., excited many who thought he would have a better chance at victory than some of the more liberal Democrats considering the race, he decided against running.

Instead, he’s quitting his corner-office job as secretary of economic development to personally oversee construction of the Southern New Mexico facility as executive director of the spaceport authority.

It’s an unselfish move that impressed many, including me. Instead of trying for the personal gain that would come with knocking out an incumbent member of Congress, Homans is moving to an office with no windows. He’ll be doing his own scheduling, and making frequent trips to Las Cruces and Upham, where the spaceport will be built, but he’ll be doing it in a car he’s driving instead of a helicopter or plane flown by someone else.

Homans told me the move was necessary for the project.

“This is really at such a critical point,” he said. “There are so many moving pieces right now, and I’m the one person who has my fingers in all the pieces.”

In the coming months, Homans will have to coordinate a campaign for approval of tax increases in Sierra and Otero counties, negotiate a final lease agreement with Virgin Galactic, work with Federal Aviation Administration officials to secure a license for the facility, finalize design plans and prepare for an early-2008 groundbreaking, coordinate a number of UP Aerospace launches, and begin the search for someone with more technical knowledge to take his place as soon as the facility becomes operational in late 2009 or early 2010.

The hard work really is just beginning. The spaceport could transform the state or it could be an expensive bust. If anyone can make it work, it’s Homans.