These were NMPolitics.net’s most-read articles in 2018

As we say goodbye to 2018, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at some of NMPolitics.net’s most-read posts of the year. I broke them into two categories — our most-read news articles and the most-read opinion pieces I wrote.

News articles

First, NMPolitics.net’s most-read news articles from 2018:

5. Who and what will the 2018 Mexican elections bring?

Few foreign journalists understand Mexican politics like New Mexico’s Kent Paterson — and Mexico is hugely important to our state economically, culturally and in other ways. Paterson’s February explainer on why the 2018 Mexican elections mattered was widely read, demonstrating that New Mexicans care about what happens south of our border.
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4. Krahling’s ‘intimate relationship’ with employee hurt clerk’s office, investigation concludes

This article was a follow-up to our initial reporting (see below) telling the public that then-Doña Ana County Clerk Scott Krahling was resigning weeks before the November elections he was supposed to oversee. The follow-up article was the first reporting to give the public a sense of why Krahling had resigned and detail problems that plagued the clerk’s office.
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3. With election approaching, Doña Ana County clerk abruptly resigns

Several weeks after I published an in-depth report in July on efforts by Krahling to increase voting and civic engagement, I found myself digging into a darker situation that would lead to Krahling’s resignation. Krahling resigned shortly after I informed his attorney I was writing this article, which was the first heads-up to the public that something was amiss. Krahling’s resignation led to a transition in the county clerk’s office weeks before the November elections.
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2. Torres Small comes from behind to win 2nd Congressional District race

This article, a follow-up to NMPolitics.net’s most-read post of the year (see below), declared Democrat Xochitl Torres Small the winner of southern New Mexico’s congressional seat. “A day after several news outlets prematurely declared that Democrat Xochitl Torres Small had lost the race to replace Steve Pearce in the U.S. House, she came from behind to win,” I wrote.
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1. The race between Yvette Herrell and Xochitl Torres Small isn’t over

I knew on election night in November that other local and national news organizations were premature in declaring Republican Yvette Herrell the winner of the 2nd Congressional District race before thousands of outstanding votes in Doña Ana County were tallied. This article detailed why those news organizations were wrong and declared the race still up in the air. After all ballots were counted, Torres Small was the clear winner. This article received national attention and was by far NMPolitics.net’s most-read post of 2018.
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Haussamen commentaries

And here are the most-read opinion pieces I wrote in 2018:

5. A journalist’s view of the groundswell that lifted Torres Small to victory

I’d been watching an extraordinary movement growing in Doña Ana County since President Donald Trump’s election in 2016. In this column from November, I shared my observations and thoughts about the ground-up movement that helped flip southern New Mexico’s congressional seat in 2018.
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4. Misbehaving men bring shame to Doña Ana County

I wrote in February about two powerful men in Doña Ana County government who had behaved inappropriately and, at that point, not been held accountable — then-Undersheriff Ken Roberts, who forced an unwanted lap dance on a female employee, and then-County Commissioner John Vasquez, whose bad behavior included harassing and berating women, journalists and others. Roberts was later fired; Vasquez eventually resigned.
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3. How Libertarians blew their chance to build a legitimate party in NM

I’m a fan of third-party and independent movements, so I was disappointed to have to write in October that Libertarians had squandered their chance to build more power in New Mexico. “It’s too bad that isn’t happening. I like some of the Libertarian candidates. I’d like to see a strong third party,” I wrote. “Maybe someday.”
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2. Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric should be a wake-up call

Fed up with Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and others, and our nation’s continued history of persecution of certain people, I wrote in May that Trump was wrong to call MS-13 gang members animals who aren’t human. “The lesson we must learn from our mistakes is that seeing and treating all people as human beings is a critical step toward creating a more just and equitable world,” I wrote. “Being consistent about fighting for justice, regardless of which political party is in power, is also critical.”
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1. This is a crime against humanity

After we learned that the Trump administration was separating migrant children from their parents to intentionally inflict trauma in the hopes of deterring illegal immigration, I wrote in June, “It’s one thing to take a hardline approach to curbing illegal entry into the United States. It’s an entirely different thing to intentionally harm innocent children.”
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