{"id":4485,"date":"2009-04-22T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/former-land-commissioner-will-run-again-in-2010\/"},"modified":"2009-04-22T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-22T14:59:00","slug":"former-land-commissioner-will-run-again-in-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/former-land-commissioner-will-run-again-in-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Former land commissioner will run again in 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ray Powell, who was the New Mexico land commissioner from 1993 to 2002, says he will run for the office once again next year.<\/p>\n

The Democrat wrote this in response to an e-mail asking if he will enter the race: \u201cThe short answer to your question is an enthusiastic YES in 2010!\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell was term-limited from running again in 2002, but after sitting out four years, he ran again in 2006. He narrowly lost the Democratic primary that year to Jim Baca<\/a>, another former state land commissioner, but has kept his 2006 campaign Web site<\/a> online.<\/p>\n

The current land commissioner, Republican Pat Lyons<\/a>, is prevented by term limits from running again next year. At this point, Powell is the only announced candidate in next year\u2019s land commissioner race.<\/p>\n

Powell, a veterinarian by training, has spent the last few years working with the Jane Goodall Institute<\/a>. He said his job is to get young people in the West \u201cengaged and active,\u201d and said he\u2019s learned a great deal from that experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking on behalf of Dr. Jane, I have met amazing people from all over the globe. Many are the world\u2019s experts in land management, wildlife science, economic development, sustainable energy production, issues related to water, public health, politics, and many, many others,\u201d he said. \u201cI aspire to use these relationships and ideas to create a host of new opportunities on trust land in New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell said he sees \u201cno reason why we can’t lead the world in innovative and restorative land-use practices that ensure we create a real future for all of our children and grandchildren in New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Lyons\u2019 controversy<\/p>\n

Asked about the controversy Lyons has faced during his tenure — most notably over his dealings with Las Cruces developer Philip Philippou — Powell said he looks forward \u201cto bringing back openness, transparency, integrity, accountability and a strong collaborative style of leadership that works with and on behalf of our land office beneficiaries, our communities, and the health of the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my previous tenure at the land office, I told my employees, \u2018Just do things in a manner that, the closer anyone looks, the better you look,\u2019\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n

Lyons has faced criticism because he bypassed his own bidding process — which he was not required by law to use — to lease thousands of acres of land to Philippou in December 2006. Months earlier, while Lyons was running for re-election, Philippou gave $20,500 to a political action committee run by lobbyists he employs. The PAC gave most of it to Lyons\u2019 campaign, and the lobbyists gave another $3,600. After Lyons leased the land to Philippou, the developer gave another $6,000 to Lyons.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a land deal Attorney General Gary King<\/a> has said is flawed. The AG\u2019s formal opinion<\/a> states that the lease agreement\u2019s<\/a> method of compensating Philippou\u2019s company for developing the land is \u201cnot comprehended by and in conflict with\u201d a statute that allows developers who improve land for the state to be compensated only for the appraised value of the improvements.<\/p>\n

In response to the Lyons\/Philippou controversy, Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> recently signed a bill<\/a> that will require competitive bidding on all land office development leases in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray Powell, who was the New Mexico land commissioner from 1993 to 2002, says he will run for the office once again next year. The Democrat wrote this in response to an e-mail asking if he will enter the race: \u201cThe short answer to your question is an enthusiastic YES in 2010!\u201d Powell was term-limited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4485","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=4485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}