{"id":720,"date":"2006-10-14T00:28:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-14T06:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/lyons-baca-square-off-in-las-cruces\/"},"modified":"2006-10-14T00:28:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-14T06:28:00","slug":"lyons-baca-square-off-in-las-cruces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/lyons-baca-square-off-in-las-cruces\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyons, Baca square off in Las Cruces"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/object>
This is video of Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 introductory remarks during Friday\u2019s debate.<\/span><\/embed><\/span>
<\/object>
This is video of Baca\u2019s introductory remarks during Friday\u2019s debate.<\/span><\/embed><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pat Lyons fired the first shot during a debate in Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> between the two state land commissioner candidates Friday night, but after that, things remained fairly cordial.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Republican incumbent Lyons, during his opening remarks, said he received a grade of \u201cA+\u201d from the National Rifle Association, then pointed out that Democratic challenger Baca was the only statewide candidate to receive a grade of \u201cF\u201d from the organization.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Baca took time during an answer to a question to respond by listing the nine guns he owns.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cOne of those is loaded right next to my bed,\u201d Baca said, adding that the NRA gave him a low grade because of his opposition to concealed weapons.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

About 110 people were present for the debate, held during the 19th<\/sup> annual banquet of the Southwest Consolidated Sportsmen. Unlike some other candidates, the two engaged in a real debate that included unscripted questions from those who attended the event.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The campaign has been a nasty one. Baca leads Lyons<\/st1:city> in the polls by a few percentage points, but Lyon<\/st1:place>\u2019s fundraising dwarfs that of Baca.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The land commissioner is charged with managing state land and bringing in money for New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s public schools. He or she does that primarily through leases to oil and gas and agriculture organizations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Both spoke of the importance of the office to preserving New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a little known agency, but we make a big difference,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:city> touted what he has done as land commissioner \u2013 bringing in more than a billion dollars for New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s schools. Baca, who was land commissioner in the 1980s and 1990s, said making money is no longer enough, and New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> must begin thinking to the future, when the oil and gas leases that bring in almost all the revenue from state lands no longer exist because the wells have dried up or technology has made them irrelevant.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he is thinking to the future and has begun leasing land to wind energy companies.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The constitutional charge of the land office is to make money off New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s land to fund schools. Baca said that\u2019s no longer enough, and the state must also focus on preserving land. He proposes a constitutional amendment that will allow for more conservation of state lands.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Baca proposes another constitutional amendment that would limit the power of the land commissioner by creating a state land board responsible for approving or denying permanent sales and trades of state land.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really want to permanently protect hunting and fishing in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, you should go for this constitutional amendment,\u201d Baca said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he\u2019s already protecting the land, and is still bringing in lots of money for schools. He said he has invested $1 million each year in taking care of the state\u2019s land.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the commissioner that has put $1 million each year into this,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201cThat\u2019s sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Baca said he believes more of the money the state makes of its land annually should be spent on preservation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need to dramatically increase the amount of funding that is going to wildlife habitat,\u201d Baca said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Both candidates wrote guest columns about the Otero Mesa for my blog in June. You can read Lyons<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019 by clicking here<\/a> and Baca\u2019s by clicking here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is video of Lyons\u2019 introductory remarks during Friday\u2019s debate.This is video of Baca\u2019s introductory remarks during Friday\u2019s debate. Pat Lyons fired the first shot during a debate in Las Cruces between the two state land commissioner candidates Friday night, but after that, things remained fairly cordial. Republican incumbent Lyons, during his opening remarks, said […]<\/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-720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720","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=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}