Democratic Land Commissioner candidate Ray Powell, left, and Republican Land Commissioner Pat Lyons
Republican Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is inserting himself into the other party’s primary in the race to replace him by telling Democratic voters they should pick anyone but Ray Powell on Tuesday.
“The commissioner of public lands is integral to the fiscal solvency of New Mexico’s schools, which is precisely why now is not the time to elect Ray Powell,” Lyons wrote in a guest column submitted to NMPolitics.net and published today.
“Mr. Powell says he proudly stands by his record of public service. If this is the case, then New Mexicans shouldn’t vote for someone with such low standards,” Lyons wrote.
Powell responded with his own guest column, also published today, that defends his record and says it’s the Lyons administration that “has been a disaster.”
Powell preceded Lyons in office, serving as land commissioner from 1993 to 2002. After serving for eight years, Lyons is term-limited from seeking re-election this year and is instead running for a seat on the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
Powell faces two primary opponents on Tuesday – Sandy Jones and Harry Montoya. Powell was leading both candidates in two publicly released polls of the race, though one showed him in a tight contest with Jones while the other showed Powell significantly ahead.
The winner will face one of two Republicans – Bob Cornelius or Matt Rush, who led in the only publicly released poll of that contest.
Asked why he felt it necessary to insert himself in the other party’s primary days before the election, Lyons said education funding from state trust lands is critical to the state’s future, and he believes that funding will drop if Powell is elected.
“This is the time we need to be thinking about finding more money for education, not hurting education,” Lyons said.
Asked who he supports in the land commissioner race, Lyons responded by saying “anybody but” Powell.
Powell suspects there are other reasons.
“I can only imagine that the reason Commissioner Lyons has inserted himself into the Democratic primary race for land commissioner is because he knows I am the strongest Democrat candidate to oppose a Republican candidate in the November general election,” Powell said. “It also gives him publicity for his Public Regulation Commission race.”
In addition, perhaps Lyons “dreads what I find upon returning to the land office,” Powell said.
“As I’ve said many times, one of the reasons I am running is because I’ve been appalled at how the Land Office has been managed the last eight years,” Powell said. “It has been the focus of controversy, audits, and has demonstrated a lack of transparency, public inclusion and accountability.”
“It is my intention to clean house and restore credibility to this important institution,” Powell said.
You can read Lyons’ commentary by clicking here, and Powell’s response by clicking here.