{"id":772,"date":"2006-10-26T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-26T22:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/other-statewide-candidates-speak-at-forum\/"},"modified":"2006-10-26T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-26T22:37:00","slug":"other-statewide-candidates-speak-at-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/other-statewide-candidates-speak-at-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Other statewide candidates speak at forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

In each of the other races for statewide office except attorney general, only one of the two candidates was present at Wednesday\u2019s League of Women Voters forum in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. <\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Democratic secretary of state candidate Mary Herrera didn\u2019t attend, but Republican Vickie Perea was present.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI believe that elections in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> should be secure,\u201d Perea said. \u201cYour vote should be protected at all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Perea said she will strive for proving faster election returns and open government. She also wants a voter ID law that is tougher than the current system.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI believe that a photo voter ID is a foundation to a more secure and modern voter system,\u201d she said. \u201cThe people want it. We need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

And she pledged to modernize the office\u2019s Web site and databases so that campaign finance reports are more easily accessible.<\/p>\n

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

Perea said she\u2019s confident improvements can be made quickly.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019ve really had a lot of problems in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have nowhere to go, ladies and gentlemen, but up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Republican treasurer candidate Demesia Padilla didn\u2019t attend, but Democratic candidate James B. Lewis was present.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI want to be part of the solution,\u201d Lewis said in response to recent scandal. \u201cWe can sit back and complain, but I want to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

He proposed creating a whistleblower program for the office so it\u2019s easier to report misbehaving officials, and said he will do whatever is necessary to restore integrity in the office.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMy No. 1 priority is restoring public trust,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cSome of the things that office\u2019s employees were asked to do is unconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Democratic land commissioner candidate Jim Baca was unable to attend, but Republican incumbent Pat Lyons was present.<\/p>\n

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

He said his priorities are to make money for education, create energy and economic development, and do all of that \u201cin an environmentally clean way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019re the first commissioner to do that,\u201d Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said. \u201cWe believe in better government, not bigger government.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Lyons<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said that takes \u201ca good balance\u201d between raising money and conserving land. He said he opposes drilling on Valle Vidal \u2013 which isn\u2019t owned by the state land office \u2013 but supports drilling for gas on the Otero Mesa.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>In the auditor race, Republican Lorenzo Garcia was unable to attend, but Democrat Hector Balderas was present.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m independent, I have integrity, and most importantly, I\u2019m committed to protecting the New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> taxpayer,\u201d Balderas said. \u201cWe must be more involved in improving government. We must have a say in the ethics of our leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Balderas said the office has done a good job of providing audits in the past, but now must \u201cplay a larger role.\u201d He said he plans to ask legislators to fund a special prosecutor for the office \u2013 something current Auditor Domingo Martinez has proposed before but legislators have killed.<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s necessary because the attorney general and district attorneys\u2019 offices around the state are overworked and have little time to adequately investigate complex financial cases.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWhat I need is my own, independent prosecutor,\u201d Balderas said.<\/p>\n

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

Second, Balderas said, he will push for the creation of an audit fund, so small governments in rural areas can afford quality audits that will help weed out corruption and waste.<\/p>\n

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

He said it\u2019s ridiculous that, currently, small towns can get state money to help fund rodeos, but not audits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In each of the other races for statewide office except attorney general, only one of the two candidates was present at Wednesday\u2019s League of Women Voters forum in Las Cruces. Democratic secretary of state candidate Mary Herrera didn\u2019t attend, but Republican Vickie Perea was present. \u201cI believe that elections in New Mexico should be secure,\u201d […]<\/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-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","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=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}