{"id":21853,"date":"2010-09-23T05:00:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T11:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=21853"},"modified":"2010-09-24T07:13:34","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T13:13:34","slug":"rush-says-the-land-office-needs-%e2%80%98new-blood%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/09\/rush-says-the-land-office-needs-%e2%80%98new-blood%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Rush says the land office needs \u2018new blood\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Matt Rush<\/p><\/div>\n

Matt Rush<\/a> says it\u2019s time for a younger generation to take the reins of state government.<\/p>\n

The Republican nominee for state commissioner of public lands is 36, and he says it\u2019s time for his generation to \u201cstand up\u201d as New Mexico approaches its 100th anniversary in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there is anyone out there who would stand up and say New Mexico has reached its full potential,\u201d Rush said during a recent interview in Las Cruces. \u201c\u2026 People who have served in the past, thank you, but it\u2019s time for new leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

In talking about those who have served in the past, Rush is referring at least in part to his Democratic opponent, Ray Powell<\/a>, who was land commissioner from 1993 to 2002 and wants the job again. Rush is sounding what has become a familiar theme in the 2010 election cycle, saying voters need to elect people who aren\u2019t \u201ccareer politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush is a fourth-generation farmer and rancher in Roosevelt County, and he also does leadership training, consulting and motivational speaking for agriculture and corporate clients in a number of states.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s an unabashed defender of the oil and gas and agriculture industries. Rush said the land office can be more than an office that collects royalties from leasing state trust land: It can promote those industries.<\/p>\n

Rush said there\u2019s a disconnect in America. People will protest actions of those industries but stop to put gas in their vehicles and buy a hamburger on the way. The industries need to do a better job of educating people about what they do, he said, and he can help do that as land commissioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to reintroduce ourselves to our customers,\u201d Rush said.<\/p>\n

Rush has been involved in doing just that through his work with the national Farm Bureau. One program on which he has worked involved getting \u201caccurate\u201d textbooks about agriculture into schools.<\/p>\n

Rush said he\u2019s also interested in diversifying the money the state makes off leasing trust lands beyond oil and gas and agriculture. He mentioned uranium in Northwest New Mexico and potash in Southeast New Mexico as resources that have potential to make more money for the state.<\/p>\n

He also said he\u2019s interested in wind and solar, but said those industries exist because of government assistance, and the land office needs to work with them \u2013 but do so carefully.<\/p>\n

The State Investment Council<\/h3>\n

The land commissioner is a voting member of the State Investment Council, which has been plagued by scandal<\/a> in recent years. Rush said hundreds of millions of dollars have been \u201clost or stolen\u201d from the investment agency, and \u201cthat\u2019s got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to cut that kind of business out of our state,\u201d Rush said, adding that a good first step is electing people who have honesty and integrity.<\/p>\n

Powell and Lyons<\/h3>\n

In response to questions, Rush had some interesting things say about the previous two land commissioners \u2013 current Commissioner Pat Lyons<\/a>, a Republican, and Powell, who preceded Lyons in office.<\/p>\n

Powell, Rush said, is a \u201cnice man,\u201d but he\u2019s too far to the left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis office is not about a far left agenda, and for that matter it\u2019s not about a far right agenda,\u201d Rush said. \u201cIt\u2019s about doing what\u2019s right for New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Lyons, Rush pointed out that he\u2019s operated the land office on a flat budget for eight years, reverted money back to the general fund and will end his tenure with nine fewer employees than when he took office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf every state agency ended with a flat budget, imagine where we\u2019d be,\u201d Rush said.<\/p>\n

Lyons has faced a great deal of scrutiny during his tenure and found himself in the middle of controversy related to some high-profile land deals in Las Cruces and elsewhere. Rush said he believes the controversy followed Lyons in part because he\u2019s the only Republican statewide elected official. Still, he said Lyons \u201ccan be very polarizing,\u201d and talked about what he would do differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that I bring a very non-polarizing vision,\u201d Rush said. \u201c\u2026 I really feel like I have the ability to sit down with anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing the land office into the 21st Century<\/h3>\n

Rush says he\u2019ll be a full-time land commissioner, which he said is \u201cdifferent than the majority of land commissioners in the past.\u201d He said he has told his father, with whom he operates the family farm and ranch, that he won\u2019t be around to help if he is elected.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s not in the office in Santa Fe, Rush said he will be in schools or at meetings around the state talking about what the land office does. Rush says he\u2019s energetic and passionate.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll also focus on bringing the office into the 21st Century and making it more transparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still area of the land office that aren\u2019t on computers,\u201d Rush said. \u201cWe need to bring the land office into the 21st Century, and that\u2019s why we need new blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush said he will work to put all departments in the land office on computers. He will also put land office records online so the public can access them and scrutinize the land office\u2019s dealings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every branch of state government has that responsibility,\u201d Rush said.<\/p>\n

Rush acknowledged that modernizing the office\u2019s records systems and putting documents online is a huge task that could take an entire term in office. He said that\u2019s why past commissioners haven\u2019t done it.<\/p>\n

But Rush said he\u2019s the candidate to get it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who are of the younger generations understand the need and the complexity of doing it\u201d and have the ability to make it happen, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Rush says it\u2019s time for a younger generation to take the reins of state government. The Republican nominee for state commissioner of public lands is 36, and he says it\u2019s time for his generation to \u201cstand up\u201d as New Mexico approaches its 100th anniversary in 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,119,147,111,107],"class_list":["post-21853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-energy-policy","tag-environment","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}