Inside the Capitol

2-13 Legisloature must end Thursday noon

2012-02-13T09:57:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – Ready or not, only one day is left in the 2012 Legislature. This 30-day session ends Thursday at noon – no ifs, ands or buts. The New Mexico Supreme Court decided about 50 years ago that the Legislature no longer could "stop the clock," as it was called, to get its business finished.
Congress and many state legislatures keep going until the leadership decides it has had enough. In New Mexico the watches of the House speaker and the Senate majority floor leader determine when it is noon.
That power used to include stopping the clock for several hours to get business finished. But today, no fudging is allowed. Any legislation passed after noon does not become law. Legislative per diem also stops at noon.
Usually much gets done on the final day. One house or the other often stays in session most of the night. This is true in Congress and virtually every state. But it isn't working quite that way in Santa Fe these days. The rhythm is a little out of kilter.
The fault lies with both the governor and Legislature. Gov. Susana Martinez is accustomed to getting her way. Word floats around the capitol that the first gentleman has been heard to say that he has never won an argument with his wife.
Thus the governor tells lawmakers that unless she gets a bill worded exactly the way she requested, a veto is assured. She fulfilled that threat in spades last year. Even though Martinez says she is communicating better with lawmakers, the conversations don't seem to involve much give and take.
Senate Democratic leaders have reacted by bowing their backs. The almost evenly divided House has tried to work out compromises. But when the answer from the governor is no, the Senate, which is 2-1 Democrat, refuses to even hear the bills.
It would be nice if one out of the 112 legislators could be able to establish some meaningful communication. Or maybe the answer is that it is all political in preparation for the November elections.
Another problem is that compared to our previous governor, Martinez doesn't have much of a legislative agenda.
Halfway through this session, Democrat lawmakers decided they should develop a comprehensive agenda of their own so there would be more to talk about and bargain with.
So this session may not end up as frantic as they used to be. Little need exists for the usual last-minute bargaining because there is no horse trading with this governor.
The only responsibility for this session is to get a budget passed. The House managed to craft a budget that received a first-ever unanimous vote. It even left leeway for the Senate to add its own priorities. If that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Democrats may be cruising for some black eyes. In the House, 26 of them voted against an anti-corruption measure that increased penalties for wayward public officials. The House unanimously passed a package of three constitutional amendments to reform the Public Regulation Commission. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez now says they need to be studied for a year.
Trial lawyers, largely Democrats, killed a spaceport bill to reduce liability of equipment contractors that some of our spaceports biggest competitors have passed.
Gov. Martinez has asked for reconsideration. It could work if there is something Martinez is willing to give Democrats in return. But that's not the way this governor plays the game.
Public Education Department Secretary Hanna Skandera still hasn't been confirmed by the Senate. The excuse now is that there may not be enough time.
House Speaker Ben Lujan has been on the job every day of the session. His son, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan says his father told the family at Christmas that he hoped to be able to last until the first day of this legislative session. The session obviously brought him new energy.

2-13 Gov, Legislature in agreement sometimes

2012-02-07T16:03:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – Amid legislative-executive turf battles, a few islands of bipartisan cooperation have surfaced. The most noticeable collaboration concerns the reform of the Public Regulation Commission. Everyone is working together on that item.
As of this writing, the term "everyone" is not an exaggeration. A package of three constitutional amendments presented by the bipartisan think tank Think New Mexico has unanimously passed the House, including its committee referrals. The measures have the support of Gov. Susana Martinez and will be carried in the Senate by leaders of both parties.
The PRC has been a dysfunctional organization since its inception. Its members often have been politicians prone to extracting favors from industries they regulate. The proposed changes would transfer out several of those industries and require some expertise in those that remain.
These three constitutional amendments are but the first steps in shaping up the commission. Other improvement measures have been introduced this year and more will be needed in the years to come.
The state budget is another area of general agreement between the governor and Legislature. Little fighting occurred over the budget during last year's contentious session. A budget target was agreed upon at a level much below the projected $450 million deficit and both sides worked to meet that figure.
The Legislature's only heartburn was that Gov. Martinez took full credit for the success in her opening address to the Legislature this year. An old pro like former Gov. Bruce King would have shared credit with lawmakers and would have referred to them as his board of directors.
This year may be a smooth ride to budget adoption again. The House got its budget over to the Senate later than its target date of mid-session but much has been agreed upon already. Back in the 1970s, with Democrats firmly in control of everything, the fights were between the House and Senate. Sometimes the House wouldn't get its budget to the Senate until a day or two before adjournment.
This year, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee waited until it could get complete agreement from its Republican members before sending the bill to the House floor. It was my first time in 49 years on the scene up here that I can remember a unanimous HAFC vote.
The bill, as sent from the committee, leaves some room for Gov. Martinez's pet projects and tax breaks. A spokesman says the governor appreciates their decisions.
Basic agreement also exists on the major areas of spending – public schools and Medicaid. Veterans' benefits appear to be another area of agreement. Gov. Martinez has been very interested in helping veterans. Former Gov. Bill Richardson also championed several veterans' benefits early in his administration. It is a popular and justly-deserved benefit.
Tightening necessary areas in drunken driving laws is another area most governors and legislatures have agreed upon. Fireworks legislation became a popular subject last summer when forest fires were devastating the state. Now that the governor and Legislature are considering legislation to curb fireworks in dangerous areas, fireworks dealers are arriving in Santa Fe to deliver the message that this is their livelihood.
If restrictions are applied to the sales, it won't apply to Indian reservations. Martinez says she can work with reservations. Last summer, the governor was looking for a blanket authority to ban fireworks, which she currently does not have. The suggestion has been made that the state forester be given the authority. Gov. Martinez says she can work with that.
The areas in which the governor and Legislature do not agree are not major issues that have to be solved. If drivers' licenses for illegal aliens were an emergency, the licenses either could be taken away or any one of several solutions proposed by Democratic legislators to meet the governor's concerns could be passed.
As it is, licenses and voter identification likely will not pass in an all-or-nothing form the governor can accept and sign. So nothing will happen.

2-10 Metal detectors in our state capitol?

2012-02-06T16:52:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – Soon we may have to go through metal detectors to visit our state capitol. It's too bad. New Mexico has always prided itself on having a very open capitol. In some states it is necessary to have an appointment to get into the area where legislative offices are located.
In New Mexico one can stroll into the capitol and wander through the building, admiring the artwork and visiting legislative offices and committee rooms. Apparently we still could do that under rules suggested by legislators fearful of their security. We'd just have to go through imposing metal detectors first to be checked for handguns and anything else dangerous one might be carrying.
The reason for this legislative paranoia is the dubious acts of "occupiers" who disrupted Gov. Susana Martinez's opening address to the Legislature this year. A few days later, these folks burst into a dinner hosted by a national conservative organization for Republican legislators.
The handful of occupiers did a lot of yelling and distributed fake menus stating some of their grievances with the organization. Evidently they threw some of the menus too because a companion of Rep. Bill Rehm, an Albuquerque Republican lawmaker, was hit in the eye by one.
Although the occupiers have caused trouble, they seem more likely to protest gun ownership rather than carry guns themselves. Members of the Tea Party, on the other hand, are more likely to support gun ownership.
But although tea partiers sometimes carry guns to rallies in support of their second amendment rights, they do not seem to be any threat to legislators despite their summer of yelling at members of Congress at town meetings in 2010.
Thus it seems overly cautious to increase security measures beyond maybe adding a few extra state police at times that might be controversial. The police actually are a friendly presence around the capitol, always pleasant and willing to talk. The capitol, by the way, also has surveillance cameras with monitors in a basement office.
But more security seems to be the direction everything is headed. It's likely every courthouse in the nation has metal detectors at every door. When I arrived in Santa Fe in 1965, the governor had one state policeman assigned to him. For years, it was "Red" Pack, who also chauffeured the governor wherever he went. Now the governor has a corps of police, including those housed in a building next to the governor's residence.
So maybe it is only natural that lawmakers want more security too. In addition to a security detail, Gov. Martinez also has what she calls a tracker who follows her around shooting film of all her public presentations. The president has one of those. He also has a photographer whose latest pictures are posted in a hallway in the White House. Will we be seeing that anytime soon in New Mexico?
As of this writing, Lt. Gov. John Sanchez has everyone guessing about his plans for the future. It seems likely he will withdraw from the U.S. Senate race. Filing day is next week, before the Legislature adjourns and he is very busy being president of the Senate.
Some are guessing that it is likely Sanchez will switch to the 1st Congressional District contest. Sanchez says he won't enter the House race. He would have to put a good amount of time into the switch which would require new nominating petitions.
Sanchez never has seemed to put the energy into his Senate race that he put into building his small roofing company into the major business it is now. The explanation can't be that his job is keeping him too busy. Other than presiding over the Senate, he has only the responsibility to stand in for the governor.
That job takes very little time because the governor's staff handles decision making. Maybe Lt. Gov. Sanchez knows more than we do about Gov. Martinez's future.

2-8 Legislature still dominated by politics

2012-02-05T15:04:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – Politics still dominate the 2012 Legislature. Redistricting helped set the tone. All lawmakers will be running in at least slightly different districts this year. That makes for some tension.
The judicial decision on districts in the almost evenly divided House is being appealed because Democratic leaders charge it will help Republicans. Both parties presented plans designed to help their own. The judge decided the Republican plan was fairer.
Gov. Susana Martinez also is partly to blame. Her campaign manager still is her chief adviser so her relations with the Legislature are being handled as a political race would be. Instead of working with lawmakers to resolve differences, she announces she will not compromise and goes directly to voters to promote her positions.
And Democrats are partly to blame. They control the Legislature and will use that power in any manner that can help them. As an example, consider the confirmation process. Theoretically, the governor should get to choose the team she wants to help her govern.
But if there is a way for the opposition to make her squirm, it will do so. Economic Development Department Secretary-designate Jon Barela considered another run for the 1st Congressional District seat he almost took from Martin Heinrich in 2010.
So the Senate Rules Committee, which controls confirmation hearings, slowed Barela's confirmation to a stop. It removes a slight amount of prestige from Barela's resume to not be able to say he was a cabinet secretary even though he has been doing the job for over a year. Now that Barela has announced that he won't run, will the rules committee quickly give him a hearing?
Public Education Department Secretary Hanna Skandera hasn't received a confirmation hearing in over a year either. Democrats have fought some of her ideas about reforming education. Skandera says she doesn't care about having to call herself a secretary-designate. Her authority is still the same. That must ruin some of the fun for Democrats.
Then there was the grilling the Senate Rules Committee gave three appointees to the State Fair Commission for their votes to award a controversial new 25-year contract to operate the Fair's racino. Gov. Martinez, wanting to reduce the criticism that her appointees awarded the bid to a company that is behind on its payments to the state, withdrew the nominations.
The following day, the Senate quickly approved the nominations, saying the governor doesn't have the authority to withdraw the names. As of this writing, it isn't certain what will happen next but, once again, Martinez has ruined some of the Democrats' fun.
Meanwhile, as Gov. Martinez says she is willing to start communicating with legislators, she remains unyielding to compromise on any of her priorities. House Democrats have worked hard to find ways to eliminate the fraud that accompanies the issuance of driver's licenses to illegal aliens without taking away their driving privileges.
Democrats contend that illegals need to drive their cars to do the jobs that Americans don't care to perform. Efforts to severely restrict those licenses have been met with repeated warnings from the governor that she will veto anything short of a total prohibition.
Insiders say she calculates that voters will defeat Democrats who won't totally support her. It is a campaign issue and Democrats who don't support her will be targeted in the November elections. Some already are being targeted with robocalls into their districts.
The $50 million cap on film rebates is another item of contention. Now that Gov. Martinez seems to have mellowed her feelings about the film industry, efforts to remove the cap or make some exceptions are being rebuffed by the governor saying the industry said it wants some certainty and I'm letting them know they can be certain the cap won't change.
Did New Mexico attract as much film business last year as in previous years? We haven't seen any figures and we haven't seen as many stars around town either.

2-6 U.S. Senate races taking shape

2012-02-01T14:09:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – With filing day and party nominating conventions nearing, New Mexico's congressional candidates will soon be switching into high gear. Quarterly financial reports, which were due the end of January, provide some indication of where races appear to be headed.
The race for the U.S. Senate is extremely important to New Mexicans because once we elect our U.S. senators, we usually keep them for as long as they want. Sen. Pete Domenici served for 36 years. Sen. Jeff Bingaman will have served 30 years when he ends his term at the end of this year.
Four years ago, we elected Rep. Tom Udall to fill Sen. Pete Domenici's seat. Udall had 10 years of experience in the House. That didn't give him any extra Senate seniority but it did mean he could jump into his role immediately without any on-the-job training. Udall's Republican opponent was Rep. Steve Pearce who had six years in the House.
New Mexico finds itself similarly situated this year with the frontrunners in both parties boasting prior experience in the House. Former Rep. Heather Wilson, a Republican, had over 10 years in the House. Rep. Democrat Martin Heinrich has been in the House four years, surviving the Republican landslide of 2010.
Wilson appears to be running the strongest race at the moment. She and Heinrich both have over $1 million sitting in their bank accounts at the moment. That is far more than any of their primary opponents.
Wilson is busy raising money and churning out news releases. Her biggest problem is that although she distinguished herself in Congress, serving on prestigious committees because of her background in national security, she also stepped on some toes.
She is working hard at softening her hard edged reputation. Her website currently shows her in various situations, smiling broadly. She also has a voting record to defend. In order to keep getting reelected in the Albuquerque area, she had to take some moderate positions. That does not serve her well in other parts of the state.
Wilson's strongest primary election opposition is coming from Lt. Gov. John Sanchez. But the opposition isn't as strong as many had expected. He is still self-funding much of his campaign and isn't making the noise that is getting him noticed.
One theory is that he is watching with great interest the notice that Gov. Susana Martinez is getting from the leading Republican presidential candidates. Not only has she been suggested by them as a vice-presidential running mate, she is a very likely choice for a cabinet position if Republicans are victorious in November.
Republicans are not polling well with women or Hispanics at this point, so having our governor out front would be a big help. Gov. Martinez insists she is not interested but she is on record indicating that she has the same presidential ambitions as our previous two governors.
If the governor were to end up in Washington next year, Lt. Gov. Sanchez would suddenly find himself our state's chief executive. Why would anyone want to go to all the work of running for the U.S. Senate when the possibility of being governor is dangling out there?
It would be interesting to see how a lieutenant governor would do taking over the reins of government. Most of our previous lieutenant governors have tried to move up after the previous governor's term. Not a single lieutenant governor since statehood 100 years ago has ever been elected governor. Many have tried but the only ones to succeed have been due to a governor's death or a move to Washington.
If the U.S. Senate race ends up being Wilson vs. Heinrich, the two will be well matched. Wilson ran statewide in the 2008 U.S. Senate primary and was defeated by Rep. Steve Pearce. Heinrich hasn't run statewide before. The little bit of polling that has been done shows Heinrich with a slight lead but that can change.

2-3 Most important events since statehood

2012-01-31T15:34:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – What were the most important events of New Mexico's first 100 years? I'll start the bidding by suggesting my Top Ten. I've listed them in chronological order. Ranking them may be the next step.
Pancho Villa's 1916 raid of Columbus marked one of the few times the United States has been attacked by an outside force. The subsequent Punitive Expedition into Mexico, led by Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing, provided an opportunity to improve U.S. battle readiness for World War I.
In 1917, wealthy heiress Mabel Dodge Luhan moved to Taos and fell in love with its fledging art community. She enticed many of her artist and writer friends in Europe to join her. Those friends, in turn, lured many more. The colony spread and Santa Fe now is one of the top three art centers in the nation.
In 1926, Route 66 was designated through New Mexico. It captured the imagination of the nation and became known as the "Mother Road."
Oil was discovered at Hobbs in 1928. It soon became New Mexico's leading industry in terms of revenue generated and is the major contributor to our state budget.
In the summer of 1941, the New Mexico National Guard was activated to help defend the Philippines and slow Japan's advance through the Pacific to Australia. Its valiant defense of the Bataan Peninsula gave the United States and its allies time to mobilize.
In 1942, Dr. Robert Openheimer convinced Gen. Leslie Groves to locate the Manhattan Project at a boys' school Oppenheimer had once attended in the Jemez Mountains of Northern New Mexico. The world's first atom bomb was exploded at Trinity Site, between San Antonio and Carrizozo, in July 1945. Sandia Base, in Albuquerque, puts nuclear weapons together and stores them. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, near Carlsbad, stores the nuclear waste. Among them, they are the largest employer in the state.
In the spring of 1945, our government decided to continue holding land it took from ranchers for the Alamogordo Bombing Range and convert it into the White Sands Missile Range, where captured German scientists were brought to continue their work on the V-2 and other rockets. WSMR has remained the nation's top area for military space research. It is no accident that New Mexico and its chief tenant, Virgin Galactic, have located Spaceport America adjacent to the missile range.
In July 1947, the Roswell Army Air Force Base issued a news release stating that it had captured a flying saucer. The following day, the story changed to a weather balloon and 50 years later to a spy balloon. Whatever it was, it captured the world's attention. Ufologists say there are better UFO stories than this but Roswell has become the UFO capital of the world.
The 1949 murder of Cricket Coogler, a Las Cruces waitress, wasn't like any other murder. It involved numerous state and local elected and appointed officials, a pro football player and the mafia. A courageous local grand jury swept aside law enforcement officials and judges until it was satisfied it had some who weren't corrupt to pursue the case. The murderer was never found but corrupt officials went to prison, government was cleaned up at the top levels and the mob quietly slipped out of town before making New Mexico the gambling capital it was convinced Nevada never would be.
In 1955, Ernie and Rhoda Blake opened the Taos Ski Valley on Wheeler Peak, the highest mountain in the state, at 13,161. The operation still is managed by the Blake family. Since 1955, eight other ski areas have opened around the state, making New Mexico a top destination for skiers. The Taos ski school is the highest rated in North America.
Notice that five of these top 10 events occurred in the 1940s. It gets my nomination for our top decade, which also included tremendous post-war population growth.
Let me know what you think.

2012-01-31T15:31:00.001-07:00

Just realized I didn't send 2-1 column yesterday. Here it is.

Raising some old political ghosts

2012-01-31T15:26:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – The ghosts of New Mexico's political past are back to raise their mischievous heads again. The opening two weeks of this Legislature have been more lively than most. After a do-little regular session last year, followed by a do-nothing special session, the change is refreshing.
The session is seeing its usual demonstrations but this time some are taking on the aura of the more rowdy demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s. The Occupy movement has shown up twice for legislative events and has stretched the meaning of peaceful to its limits.
First it was the governor's opening day address to the Legislature and a week later it was a dinner hosted by a national conservative organization that were disrupted by a handful of shouting protesters. We may not have seen the end of the occurrences.
A few of the demonstrators walked all the way from Albuquerque in mid-January. That would seem to indicate some sort of resolve to do more than just hold a picket sign.
In the wake of the disturbances, Albuquerque Rep. Bill Rehm, whose female companion was accidently injured during the banquet disruption, questioned on the floor of the House two days later whether the Legislature has enough security and whether Santa Fe is a safe setting for the Legislature or whether another city should be considered.
The increased police presence has been a sore point at times in the past, especially when it was difficult to find a parking place within blocks of the Capitol Building. Police cars always seemed to have all the good spots near the building. That concern has been eased with the construction of a parking garage across the street.
But the suggestion of moving the state capital out of Santa Fe opened old wounds. Albuquerque began pushing for moving the capital back in the 1880s, when the railroad avoided Santa Fe and chose Albuquerque. The city was even blamed by many Santa Feans for burning our second Capitol Building to the ground.
As soon as Rep. Rehm finished his lengthy speech, House Speaker Ben Lujan provided evidence of those strong Santa Fe feelings when he told Rep. Rehm that he resented his suggestion.
For many decades the capital has been slowly moving toward Albuquerque as new state buildings are constructed, first in southern Santa Fe and now south of town. Statewide elected officials and cabinet secretaries, living in Albuquerque, have long opened Albuquerque offices in order to avoid Santa Fe.
Moving the entire state capital would be quite a chore, involving a constitutional amendment and the construction of new government buildings. It would mean much economic development for the city chosen and Rehm didn't mention Albuquerque specifically.
Rehm also mentioned a legislator who did not attend the dinner where the disturbance occurred; whom he thought might have had advance knowledge of the Occupy plan but gave no warning of it. He didn't mention any legislator by name but Santa Fe Rep. Brian Egolf was seen in the building talking with some of the people who later caused the disturbance.
Egolf later said his office is near Eldorado Hotel where the dinner was taking place and that he often drops by the hotel on his way home. He said he was not told of the plan and left before the action took place.
What then appeared to be a heated exchange occurred on the floor between Reps. Egolf and Rehm. It wasn't the first time heated exchanges have occurred during legislative sessions in Santa Fe. Occasionally chairs get knocked over in bars and maybe a few punches thrown.
And more heated exchanges have occurred in the past. I have read more than one source concerning a state lawmaker named "Diamond Tooth" Miller who shot and killed a state Supreme Court chief justice at La Fonda Hotel many years ago.
I have consulted all my trusty historical sources without luck. Google only wants to sell me diamond teeth. I would appreciate someone helping me with the story.

2012-01-30T15:56:00.001-07:00

Redistricting, term limits tie lawmakers in knots

2012-01-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

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SANTA FE – You can't get politicians to vote against their own self-interests. All politicos talk about the sacrifices they make in order to serve the public. But impede their path to the next election and you have a fight on your hands every time. Redistricting and term limits are the best examples.
Look at any redistricting map in any state and you will see some mighty strange shapes. They are the result of the majority party's efforts to protect their own and take some of the other guy's stuff.
At its exaggerated worst, we saw Texas congressional districts, gerrymandered by Democrats in 2001, redrawn by Republican legislators after gaining control in 2002. The result was a switch of more than 10 congressional seats from Democrat to Republican.
A few other states did it also but the impact wasn't as great. That was the year Texas Democratic senators holed up in New Mexico for a month before going home to face the music.
If only there were a way to district fairly. But we aren't going to find a majority of any legislative body that is willing to do what is best for the state.
In states that allow voters to put items on general election ballots, independent redistricting commissions have been created in order to draw fair districts. But if any of those proposals ever favor the minority party, the majority party always springs into action.
In Arizona, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer fired the chairwoman of the independent commission for recommending a congressional redistricting plan that created too many competitive districts. The governor doesn't have the power to appoint or remove the committee chairperson but she did it anyway because competition is bad.
In New Mexico, where Democrats rule, the opposite is the case. Republicans want competition. Democrats don't. The only way to take redistricting power away from a legislature is to go to court. That is where state House Democrats are right now, appealing to the Supreme Court the decision of a judge it appointed. Democrats essentially contend the decision creates too many competitive districts.
Technically, it isn't just Democrats appealing the House redistricting. The suit is in the name of the entire Legislature and we, the taxpayers, are paying for it. Democrats control both houses of the Legislature, so they get to decide.
Term limits for legislators is another area in which lawmakers' self-interest rules. The governor and other statewide elected officials are limited to two four-year terms. Legislative terms have no limits.
Rep. Dennis Kintigh, of Roswell, introduced term limits this year for the third time in his brief legislative career. The bill already has been killed but Kintigh evidently wants to keep the issue before the public.
Kinthgh's bill would have limited all state lawmakers to 12 years in office. A great argument for the idea is that it allows a lawmaker to think more about what is good for New Mexico rather than what it will take to get reelected.
On the other side of the coin, term limits put more power in the hands of paid staff who stick around for a career. It also gives longtime lobbyists an advantage.
But voters tend to like term limits. In 1994 Rep. Newt Gingrich led the GOP in taking over the U.S. House of Representatives. The centerpiece of the takeover was a list of promises called "Contract with America."
Knowing Gingrich, he had tested all items in the contract for public acceptance. One of them was term limits. Gingrich required all Republicans running for office for the first time to pledge to serve only three terms – six years – and then step down.
A term limit bill was introduced in the first 100 days of the 1995 Congress. It failed miserably but Gingrich said he had kept his promise.
As for the House members who had pledged to stay only six years, somehow it slipped the minds of all but a few.

1-27 Traffic cameras may be on way out

2012-01-24T13:48:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – Are traffic cameras headed your way? Albuquerque launched its cameras in 2006 to detect speeders and red light runners. The Legislature didn't like it.
There weren't enough votes to kill it but restrictions were placed on the program. Among them were provisions that the program could not produce any extra revenue for the city. Fines could only be enough to cover expenses. The rest went to the state. Fines were set at $75.
In the next few years, Rio Rancho, Las Cruces and Santa Fe began using traffic cameras. Law suits were filed in Albuquerque. The city council scaled its program back to just red light runners. Public pressure continued anyway so the council held an advisory vote. A majority of 53 percent wanted cameras to go away. The council accepted the voters' desire.
That affected only Albuquerque. But those two Albuquerque lawsuits now have reached the state Supreme Court. Its decision could affect the entire state. The state court of appeals narrowly decided in favor of the cameras but the Supremes could go the other way.
Claims made against the program allege that it is an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, a moneymaker, creeping government and a violation of rights. Also under fire is the presumption that the owner of a vehice is the guilty driver.
Defendants in the suits counter that if the owner of the vehicle identifies who was driving then that person will be charged. The owners never seem to know. Photographs of vehicles' front seats are used in some places to identify the driver. This also identifies a front-seat passenger who is not a suspect but sometimes is an embarrassment to the driver.
As for the privacy argument, what right to privacy does a driver have who is speeding and/or running a red light on a public road? Vehicles are under surveillance but so are individuals in stores, public buildings, airports and on crowded streets.
The moneymaking argument has been addressed by the New Mexico Legislature but it still persists. Unfortunately it was given a very bad reputation by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano in $2008 when the recession was first hitting.
As a revenue raising measure, she talked the legislature into buying a fleet of speed vans to place around the state. The fine was $200 and insurance companies were not notified. If you could afford the fines, it didn't matter how often you were caught. No mention was made of safety.
But safety should be the reason for all traffic laws. Everyone knows no rights exist for drivers to do whatever they want. There must be rules. The problem comes with enforcement. No one likes to be caught. Please enforce the laws against everyone but me.
Unfortunately traffic cameras are a little too efficient. They sneak up on you. But remember how motorcycle cops hiding behind billboards are reviled? What is it that causes people not to like traffic laws being enforced?
It seems as though the biggest opponents of traffic cameras are the American Civil Liberties Union and same people who want law and order. Is it the electronic part of it that seems too big-brotherish?
The Albuquerque police have come up with a solution to losing cameras. It has taken police off the crime beat and put them at the intersections that no longer have cameras. They are watching not only for red light violators but for speeders and vehicles with altered license plates. Fines now run as high as $270.
Santa Fe has an even better solution which others may want to copy. The city has speed vans parked conspicuously in school zones, hospital zones and streets where violations frequently occur. Signs are placed a half block on either side of the van warning that it is a speed zone. The location of these zones is published in the paper every day and on a weekly basis. It is much more pleasant than speed bumps.

1-25 Gov. Martinez being considered for veep

2012-01-22T15:12:00.001-07:00

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SANTA FE – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has confirmed that he is looking at New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as a possible vice-presidential running mate.
When asked what vice-presidential possibilities he was considering, Romney indicated his interest in some of the party's first-term governors. Gov. Martinez was one of the first he named. He, of course, omitted any of those who already have created major controversies in their states. And he didn't mention any U.S. senators.
It is interesting that Romney, a former governor, has his eye on new governors rather than current members of Congress to complete his ticket if he is nominated. Senators often are the choice for running mates because they have the contacts to aid a president in getting legislation through Congress Senators also are preferable to House members since they represent an entire state that they might be able to help win in the general election..
But Romney apparently is looking at people with executive experience to help him run government. One drawback is that governors have little foreign policy background, which often is a major subject in vice-presidential debates.
Gov. Martinez has responded to this and a mention last week on national television that she would be the best balance for a ticket headed by Rick Santorum, the only true conservative in the GOP presidential race.
Martinez says she is not interested in the vice presidency because her full attention is focused on being the best governor she can be for New Mexico. That always was former Gov. Bill Richardson's response the three times he was considered for the vice presidency.
Disinterest almost always has to be a governor's response. The possibility of being the selection out of the many being considered is low. It weakens one's power and popularity at home and it eliminates the embarrassment of not being selected.
One time when Richardson was being considered, he eventually wrote a letter presidential nominee saying he was not interested. Some wonder if Richardson ever was seriously considered. The consensus is that he was seriously considered by Al Gore in 2000, when Richardson was U.S. Energy secretary and former United Nations ambassador.
The gasoline price spike and the loss of documents during the Los Alamos fire ruined his chances that time. In 2004, Richardson had two successful years as governor under his belt and probably wasn't particularly interested in leaving his job.
I do know that he was seriously enough considered that year to be vetted. I received a phone call from a member of that committee asking whether I thought Richardson's interest in Billy the Kid and the Roswell Incident were an indication that he would be too off-the-wall.
Despite their assurances about remaining as governor, if the call ever comes, it is difficult to decline the request to serve one's country.
Martinez wouldn't have to give up her office in order to run. Governors and members of Congress do it all the time. Gov. Sarah Palin and Gov. George W. Bush ran while remaining in office. So did Martinez and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish while they were running for governor. Gov. Martinez, however, has indicated some strong feelings about others running for office while serving in her administration.
She told Lt. Gov. John Sanchez she would strip him of all duties when he announced as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Sanchez noted that he also is an elected official and doesn't take orders from the governor.
Jon Barela is the Secretary of Economic Development for the governor and, as such, is not an elected official. Martinez said that if Barela were to run for Congress in the 1st Congressional District, he would have to resign his position.
Barela waited a long time to declare whether he would run. He finally did so last week, announcing that he will stay put. He, of course, didn't say whether Martinez's requirement that he resign played a part in his decision.

1-23 Gov. aims to improve economy and education

2012-01-19T09:30:00.001-07:00

12312Legis4

SANTA FE – Gov. Susana Martinez wants to exempt small businesses paying less than $200 a month in gross receipts tax from having to pay the tax. She says it will affect over 40,000 small businesses in the state, most of which are one-person businesses.
I am one of those businesses and the chances are fairly good that you may be one too. And for the life of me, I can't figure out how it is going to help anyone. Supposedly it will help me hire an employee.
This column appears in many newspapers around the state but even if it appeared in all of them, it isn't enough to share with anyone but my wife, who does the bookkeeping for free.
We're not going to benefit from the exemption because we pass the tax on to newspapers, which will be the beneficiaries. But not to the extent any of them can hire another employee.
It also doesn't make work any easier for us because as I understand the bill, which hasn't yet been introduced as of this writing, applies only to the state's share of gross receipts. Several local governmental bodies also levy a gross receipts tax.
The Taxation and Revenue Department of state government collects all of the tax and distributes the local shares to the other recipients. The only change in my work would be to multiply by a lower number. Under the governor's proposal, the state will continue to do just as much work but without collecting any of the tax for itself.
As a small business owner, I can't find much to be grateful to the governor about for having this legislation introduced. The purpose is to improve our state's economy by aiding small businesses but I don't see how this is going to mean jobs for more New Mexicans.
Here's another gubernatorial proposal that Martinez may not have quite right yet. But she's getting there.
We know New Mexico students lag far behind national testing norms. Former Gov. Bill Richardson tried hard to close that gap, mainly by getting significant new revenue into the system. His administration also tried many new programs to improve teacher pay and quality and to get parents involved. But it didn't do much for student performance.
Gov. Susana Martinez also is willing to put more money into public schools but she wants it targeted in different ways. She wants to be sure students develop adequate reading skills in the first three grades.
Last year, she proposed legislation to hold students at the third grade level until they developed the reading skills to move on. Lawmakers learned it is necessary to obtain parental consent before holding a student back.
If school districts hold students an extra year, they get more money from the state – which the state can ill-afford. It also costs the district more because it has to find extra space to educate students for an extra year or two. And class sizes go up or more teachers have to be hired.
Problems also are created by having students who are one and two years older in a class with third graders. They tend to become the bullies.
The solution is to begin providing extra help to poor readers as soon as they are identified in kindergarten so they are less likely to have to be held back at the third grade level. That has been the direction of Gov. Martinez's efforts for the past several months.
Parents are the key factor in school success for a child. If they are unable or unwilling to help their children achieve success in school, it means the schools have to provide that extra help and encouragement.
That means more money for special reading teachers. Gov. Martinez is willing to make that a top priority for our strained state budget. With those students for which it doesn't work, she is willing to hold them in third grade against parental wishes.
She'll get static on that but she's willing to take the hit.

1-20 Can Gov. and Legislature work together?

2012-01-18T13:41:00.001-07:00

12012Legis3

SANTA FE – Lawmakers are scheduled to take their usual Friday recess today. It gives the staff time to catch up with the flurry of bills introduced during opening days of the session and into binders for committee work.
It also gives some lawmakers from the far reaches of the state an opportunity to get back home for the last time before the session ends. The Capitol won't be completely vacant however. Finance committees and others will already be meeting.
Before high speed presses became more accessible, bills were flown by private contractors to places like Portales and Roy for duplication over the long weekend.
Mother Nature didn't send its customary blanket of snow for opening day but she did send some unexpected flurries beginning on Monday to remind us she still is around.
Gov. Susana Martinez said before the session started that legislators need to work every hour of every day to insure that the public's business gets done. That surely was an allusion to the slow-moving nature of last year's 60-day session and the even slower and somewhat erratic pace of September's special session.
The governor was partly responsible for last year's regular session moving so slowly. She laid out her priorities before the beginning of the session and then basically left town to travel, mostly in the southern part of the state, talking to groups about her priorities and reading to children.
Lawmakers had become accustomed to Bill Richardson's style of governing, in which he presented an ambitious program at the beginning of the session and then relentlessly pushed the Legislature to move it along.
There is nothing wrong with legislative leaders formulating their own initiatives and pushing the governor to accept them. In fact, that is the way it is supposed to work. But legislative leaders became so accustomed to Richardson controlling the agenda that they didn't get much done.
We learned on opening day that House Speaker Ben Lujan has been treated for late-stage lung cancer the past two years. Surely that must have slowed him down some. It is amazing that Lujan managed to conceal his illness for so long. Word normally spreads fast in the political arena.
Gov. Martinez has promised to be more engaged and cooperative this session. Her remarks to the opening session of the Legislature gave hope that may happen.
To this writer, she appeared much more confident and self-assured. Her delivery was polished and often passionate even without the tele-prompters used by most at the national level.
Martinez handled the disturbance by protesters at the beginning of her speech with grace. She seemed unflustered as the ever-present state police hustled the protesters out of the House gallery.
Her opening sentences were a little shaky but once she started talking about her family, she settled down. It spoke well for her administration that no arrests were made. The media quickly loses interest and any talk about First Amendment violations is quelled.
So our new governor showed up well in her as she begins her second year. Her popularity polls are all over the map, ranging from high 40 percent to low 60 percent, depending on who is doing the polling.
Her vice-presidential chances continue. If Republicans choose a conservative presidential candidate is chosen, many pundits presume a vice-presidential candidate will be needed to balance the ticket.
Last weekend Martinez was mentioned on a national network as an ideal balance for Rick Santorum whom the analyst speculated is so conservative he needs both a woman and a minority to provide enough balance.
So maybe enough forces will be at work to produce agreement on some of the state's more cantankerous issues. If it could be done on congressional and state Senate redistricting, good things may be possible.
But this is an election year. A change of one more seat from Democrat to Republican will put the House under GOP control. The redistricting map approved by a judge last week makes that possibility look very likely.
Right now, Democrat-turned-Independent Andy Nunez, from Las Cruces, creates a very delicate balance. In her opening day speech, Gov. Martinez teased several times about the uncomfortable situation Nunez creates for Democrats.

oops

2012-01-18T11:27:00.001-07:00

My apologies. Column for 1-18 did not get sent to you two days ago when I wrote it. That is regrettable considering how fast things move up here at beginning of session. 1-20 column should be to you in a couple of hours.

Expect Fireworks

2012-01-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

11812Legis2

SANTA FE – Expect fireworks from the 2012 Legislature even though everyone promises to be nicer. The thaw in relations began when Republicans, Democrats and Gov. Susana Martinez reached some agreements late in the redistricting process.
Short 30-day legislative sessions were created for the purpose of building the following fiscal year's budget. The governor and Republican lawmakers would like to see tax breaks for businesses and Democrats want to reinstate some program cuts.
Now that the word "compromise" seems to be less onerous, a few tax cuts and a few increases in previously cut programs may be on the horizon.
Legislators are limited to introducing only bills relating to the budget but the governor is allowed to request introduction of any additional subjects she desires. The procedure is for her to send messages to both houses on each additional subject she would like them to consider.
At that point, she will have already found one or more legislators to introduce a bill her office has drafted on the subject. That act then allows any other lawmakers to introduce their own legislations on the same subject. Each house has a committee to determine whether such bills are appropriately germane to the governor's message.
It is those non-budget bills that will cause the fireworks this session. Gov. Martinez has said she wants to try a third time to take driver's licenses from illegal aliens. If the vote appears close, Democrats may propose amendments to grandfather existing license holders or to stipulate how the program will be administered.
Martinez had an all-or-nothing attitude on her legislative priorities last year. If she is willing to accept half a loaf on some of her priorities this year, she may get some of them up to her desk and fight for the rest another day.
Former Gov. Gary Johnson insisted in all or nothing during all eight years he was in office. In his final year, revenues were very good and he proposed some big tax cuts. The Legislature sent him a package of smaller cuts, which Johnson vetoed.
The following year, new Gov. Bill Richardson got a similar package of tax cuts through the Legislature, for which he received national acclaim. Rush Limbaugh even praised him. Johnson complained but the fault was basically his for a take-it-or-leave-it approach.
Other non-budget items we likely will see from the governor this session are bills to halt "social promotion" of third graders, Public Regulation Commission reform, requirement of voter identification at the polls and an increase in the age requirement for public employee retirement eligibility.
Gov. Martinez likes the idea of reorganizing state government, which has been discussed since the final year of the Richardson administration. But instead of a major legislative hassle about how to do it, Martinez likely plans to continue her quiet consolidation of government programs and personnel.
Now that the governor has unexpectedly become a fan of the film industry, might she want to remove the cap she got put on rebates to that industry for expenses incurred in New Mexico? She has said nothing and film industry representatives are talking among themselves about doing it in 2013.
It all may become a moot issue now that Disney has announced it will film a big Lone Ranger adventure in the state. It has been difficult to get any figures on whether the cap on film rebates has hurt or not. All I know is that there have been far fewer star sightings reported in the Santa Fe area the past several months.
Speaking of former Gov. Richardson, this column reported a month or so ago that he had dropped from sight after a grand jury began investigating him again. But Richardson was highly visible last week at the huge funeral for former state Tourism Secretary Mike Cerletti at the St. Francis Cathedral Basilica.
His website, www.billrichardson.com, also is full of information again on his travels and activities.

I just discovered I didn't email 1/18 column after writing it two days ago. Bad mistake on my part when events breaking fast up here. 1/20 column should be to you in a couple of hours.

2012 Legislature may feature more cooperation

2012-01-12T16:38:00.001-07:00

11612Legis1

SANTA FE – The 2012 Legislature may be very different than the 2011 version now that Gov. Susana Martinez has a year of chief executive experience under her belt.
Martinez appears to have learned that the adversarial approach necessarily taken by district attorneys doesn't work when dealing with another branch of government. She says a No. 1 priority this year will be to cooperatively work with the Legislature.
The 2001 Legislature had embarrassingly little to show for its efforts. The special session on redistricting was even worse. A surprising improvement in relations was evident when Gov. Martinez and a handful of Democratic legislators presented a bipartisan congressional redistricting proposal to the court last fall.
Judge James Hall ended up approving a plan very similar to the one proposed by Martinez and some Democrats. No such agreement was accomplished on state House redistricting. But after what Democrats considered a Republican-leaning decision by Judge Hall, Senate leaders huddled with Martinez and came up with a joint proposal for redistricting that body.
If Gov. Martinez can agree with Democrats on redistricting, the most controversial of all political topics, there is no telling what might be possible from the legislative session beginning tomorrow.
What caused this new-found openness from the governor? Some guess that former Gov. Garrey Carruthers, a Republican from Las Cruces, may have whispered in her ear. Others note that newly-elected Republican governors in other states have recently adopted a similar approach. Or maybe our new governor may have figured this out by herself.
Martinez and Democratic lawmakers are far enough apart on many issues that bipartisanship won't be easy, but enough small steps can be taken over the next three years – or seven years – to amount to something big.
State economists predict about $250 million in new revenues nest year. That's an encouraging change from the hundreds of millions of cuts necessitated over the past three years. But the fiscal plans of the two sides vary considerably.
Martinez wants tax cuts to stimulate growth in the economy. Democrats want to use the extra money to restore government services that have been cut.
This session is sure to move much faster than last year's, which really never got up to speed. The governor presented her budget plan 10 days ago. The joint Legislative Finance Committee released its plan a few days later.
That meant the House appropriations Committee could begin work a week ago on the session's appropriation bill. This will be a short, 30- day session so early starts are a help. It only is possible to start committee meetings early in even-numbered years because all lawmakers are in the middle of their terms. In odd-numbered years, new legislators have been elected and committees have not been appointed.
Two other committees got off to an early start last week. The House Education Committee and the House Transportation Committee also have input into the budget-making process.
For a change, people traveling from the south aren't forecasted to have bad roads to fight on their trip to Santa Fe, although the folks from Hobbs may have trouble getting out of their driveways this year.
New Mexico has one of the most citizen-friendly capitols in the nation. You may wander the hallways freely, looking for your legislator or anyone else you might like to see. You can't bother your legislator on the floor when the chambers are in session but that is one of the few restrictions.
The governor's office also is in the Capitol Building. That requires an appointment but staff members often are available to talk about your issue. The governor's reception room also is very hospitable and has a nice gallery.
And speaking of galleries, our capitol looks like an art museum, with native New Mexico art everywhere. Even the hallway furniture is handmade by New Mexicans. Another welcome addition is a parking garage across the street, which eliminates blocks of walking.

Mike Cerletti was master hotelier

2012-01-10T10:03:00.001-07:00

11312 Cerletti

SANTA FE – Former state Tourism Department Secretary Michael Cerletti was known to the public for his 10 years heading the department and two years at Expo New Mexico. But that wasn't what made the recently deceased Cerletti the legend he was.
Cerletti had a talent for taking aging hotels that had lost some of their charm and returning them to their former grandeur. In New Mexico, he began with La Posada de Santa Fe. Then he moved on to the old downtown Albuquerque Hilton and made it La Posada de Albuquerque.
Then he took on the De Vargas Hotel near the state Capitol and made it the stately St. Francis Hotel. Then it was the Sprawling Rancho Encantado guest ranch north of Santa Fe. In the course of his career, Cerletti bought and sold many hotels in New Mexico and in the San Francisco area of his native California.
Most of his transactions involved finding partners. That was a natural for Cerletti, with his always-positive attitude and great personality. On the final day of his two-year fight against brain cancer, his family says he donned a sweat shirt saying, "I'm Michael and here's the deal."
In between stints with state government, Cerletti served as director of the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management Department at New Mexico State University. During that time Mike and his wife Helen had a house in the southern part of town in a neighborhood filled with huge pecan trees.
I remember his surprise when he learned that neighbors had contracted with a firm to harvest all their pecans, sell them and distribute the proceeds. Mike was very pleasantly surprised to learn how much he had made off the deal. From that time on, his friends often called him Farmer Mickey – quite appropriate for a director of our agricultural university.
A few days after Mike Cerletti's death, another former hotelier, Michel Fidel, of Santa Fe, passed away. Fidel had owned and managed El Fidel Hotel at the corner of Don Gaspar and Water streets in Santa Fe. Old timers will remember El Fidel Hotel in Albuquerque, which later became the Cole Hotel downtown. And El Fidel Hotel in Las Vegas, NM is still in business.
"Mitch" Fidel came to this country from Lebanon in the early 1920s. He was a chemical engineer, who helped enrich uranium at Oak Ridge, Tenn. during the Manhattan Project. Following World War II, he and wife Christine moved back to Santa Fe to join the family businesses.
I usually stay out of presidential politics unless it involves New Mexicans. But current GOP politics intrigue me. I keep hearing that this race will go all the way to the convention. But I remember four years ago when the same predictions were being made.
Then, suddenly, everyone was out but Sen. John McCain. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul seemed to have plenty of money to go the distance. Conservatives had agreed that Mike Huckabee was their candidate. But they all got out.
This year, Romney looks much stronger to me than McCain did at this time in 2008 but nearly everyone is predicting this one will go down to the wire. I'm guessing that if Romney does well in South Carolina, the bigwigs are going to huddle and say it is Romney's turn so everyone else should get out.
And they will.
Regardless of what happens in the Republican race, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson's switch from Republican to Libertarian will have an impact on the general election results here.
Much can happen between now and then to affect the race between Republicans and Democrats but Johnson is going to pull more votes from Republicans than from Democrats.
Early in the campaign, a poll showed Johnson winning the Republican primary in New Mexico. That may not still be the case but it is an indication that he will tilt the race toward President Obama.

1-11 NM and AZ not sister states

2012-01-08T17:18:00.001-07:00

11112 AZ centennial

SANTA FE – At first glance, New Mexico and Arizona appear to be sister states. Both were claimed and explored by Spain in the 1500s. Both had equal periods of Spanish, Mexican and American rule. And both were granted U.S. statehood a month apart.
But otherwise, the differences were great. For nearly a millennium, New Mexico was peopled by peaceful Pueblo farmers. Arizona was controlled by marauding, nomadic Apaches. New Mexico was colonized in 1598. But Spain had little interest in the land that now is Arizona. It was hard to traverse because of that huge canyon blocking northern exploration and travel. It was left to the Apaches.
When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, it began allowing non-Spanish settlers and traders. That began the Santa Fe Trail, bringing people of many cultures and ethnicities from the East and Midwest.
Most of them didn't keep moving west to Arizona where there was no protection from Apaches. Arizona's early migration came from the Southern states looking for farm land. But the farther west they got, the more arid the land became.
The interest in Arizona didn't start until the United States decided it wanted California. Thus, in 1846, Gen Kearny's California Column claimed Santa Fe, stayed for a while to establish a government and then continued down the Rio Grande and through southern Arizona to California.
New Mexico came close to gaining statehood in 1849 but the compromise of 1850, heavily influenced by the slavery issue, made us a territory. It took Arizona another 13 years just to become a territory. It petitioned the U.S. government five times.
After the formation of the Confederacy, Arizona petitioned twice and finally was accepted as a Confederate territory after the Confederacy invaded New Mexico and claimed both states. That caught Washington's attention, which made Arizona a U.S. territory in 1863 after turning back the Confederates at Glorieta.
Tucson fully expected to become the territorial capital but because of its Confederate leanings, Prescott was the first capital. Soon Tucson grabbed it away. Prescott got it back and it eventually ended up in Phoenix. Santa Fe has been New Mexico's capital for over 400 years.
Between 1875 and 1910, New Mexico and Arizona tried many times to gain statehood from Congress but they never worked together. Several times one house of Congress or the other approved statehood for one state or the other.
In 1906, Congress tried getting everything together. Both houses approved statehood for a combined state called Arizona. It was subject to approval by voters of both states. New Mexicans approved it 2-1. Arizonans defeated it 5-1.Did they fear domination by the bigger New Mexico?
Even though the two states never liked each other, they both were mutually disrespected by Washington. General Sherman's famous comment about declaring war on Mexico again and making it take New Mexico back, he also applied to Arizona.
Gen. Lew Wallace hated his 1878 appointment as New Mexico governor and couldn't wait to get out. John C. Fremont was appointed Arizona governor the same year. When told that meant that meant he had to live in Arizona, he resigned.
According to True West magazine, published in Cave Creek, Arizona, the McDowell Mountains east of Scottsdale, Fort McDowell and McDowell Road all are named for Gen. Irvin McDowell, noted in history for losing both battles of Bull Run.
Also according to True West, which has dedicated its February edition to Arizona's centennial, on Feb. 14, George Warren had drinking and gambling problems and was judged insane. He also lost the Four Queens Mine betting that he could outrun a horse. That didn't keep his likeness from appearing on Arizona's state seal.
So, at the beginning of 2012, we honor two of the most unusual states to be admitted to the union. Both have made outstanding contributions to our nation despite 66 years of misgivings by Washington.

We're off..

2012-01-01T09:13:00.001-07:00

...celebrating my birthday until Jan. 6. No column for the 9th. No email. A little cell phone: 505699-9982.

1-6 What happened to our drone?

2011-12-31T16:15:00.001-07:00

10612 reverse engineering

SANTA FE – Two recent columns assured there is no worry about Iranian scientists reverse engineering the U.S. drone that mysteriously landed in Iran. But Santa Fe reader Mike Patel reminds that although Iranian scientists couldn't reverse engineer a baby buggy, they can provide access to interested countries.
Pitel notes that our friends in Pakistan gave China a look at our crashed stealth helicopter used in the killing of Osama bin Laden. They later gave us back the helicopter's remains .Iran was asked to give the drone back but that's not going to happen.
And you can bet that China already has paid a visit to the drone and may eventually have it in its possession. The price wouldn't be cheap. Pitel suggests the trade-off might be 25 years of Chinese take-out.
My columns also mentioned our country's inability to reverse engineer the space craft that crashed in Roswell in 1947. With the fall of Germany, we had recently captured the best rocket scientists in the world. And they couldn't produce anything like the flying saucers we were hearing about.
Does that mean there is a limit to reverse engineering? It very likely could mean there was no flying saucer to reverse engineer. Or it could mean our military didn't want to turn over alien technology to a bunch of guys who were loyal Nazis a few years before.
We do hear stories occasionally contending that the amazing advances in communications and electronic technology could have come from reverse engineering some sort of alien technology.
The great scientific advances of our society bear little resemblance to the science fiction I read about 60 years ago. Science fiction writers have a reputation of being on the cutting edge of scientific advances. But those guys had it wrong. We still don't have flying cars or a robot in every kitchen.

So we don't know how this apparently undamaged super-secret aircraft got into enemy hands. And believe me, the plane is a marvel of engineering. It looks nothing like the model airplane we see in every television shot of stories about it.
But there seems no denying that they have it. How could we ever have let that happen? Top officials of the Iran's theocracy say God brought to them safely. Military officials say their computers took over control of the plane, which is operated from the United States. Oh, and it had a U.S. flag flying from it.
Iran also claims it is in the final stages of decryption and soon will be manufacturing the drone, with improvements, in mass quantity, for use in the United States.
So much for fairy tales. How did we ever let this happen? There is so much we don't know.
Our military claims the drone was flying over Afghanistan and strayed off course. We've heard that one before. If both countries are telling the truth, Iranian computers are very good to take over a plane just as it enters Iran's air space.
If our drones can be guided to pick off so many al Qaeda leaders, why can't we keep them from straying into Iran? How can we let such a valuable piece of scientific equipment land in enemy territory unharmed?
Was all the drone's scientific equipment automatic equipment automatically destroyed upon losing U.S. control? Why wasn't the entire drone exploded? Why didn't we send another drone to destroy the downed one? Why don't we find where the drone is now and bomb the building?
Our drones are reported to automatically return to the base from which they took off, if control over the craft is lost. That didn't happen in this case.
Obviously, I should have been more worried about the loss of one of our country's most advanced pieces of military equipment. It may provide a primer for many of our enemies. There is much more we need to know.

1-4 Gary goes Libertarian

2011-12-30T15:11:00.001-07:00

20411 Gary the Libertarian

SANTA FE – Gary Johnson is moving. A few days ago, I told you where several of New Mexico's former politicos are hanging out. I said former Gov. Gary Johnson usually could be found in the mountains of New Hampshire doing something adventurous plus a little politicking.
Johnson felt like the victim in the famous movie "Catch 22." He couldn't get on the stage with other candidates for debates because his poll numbers were so low. And his poll numbers were low because the national GOP and its state affiliates omitted him from the ballots they prepared for news organizations to use in determining the candidates invited to speak.
It was obvious to Johnson that it had been decided in a board room somewhere that the Republican Party did not want him to be a candidate. My guess is because Johnson is too conservative on fiscal issues and too liberal on social issues.
So Johnson decided to concentrate on New Hampshire, which has an early primary and is more in line with his beliefs. But a good showing in New Hampshire was looking less likely. So Johnson started talking with Libertarian Party officials, who had been interested in him for 12 years.
In 2000, Johnson likely could have had the nomination for the asking. Now he has to work for it because nine other Libertarians have entered the race. The national nominating convention will be held May 4 and 5, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It will be a process of lining up convention votes just as he had to do back in 1994 to get on the New Mexico Republican primary ballot. Johnson had trouble then and it won't be easy this time either. Johnson will have to get staff and volunteers working Nevada hard because that is where the convention will be held.
One good sign is that the Libertarian leadership knows him. Johnson has always had a Libertarian philosophy and has long talked a Libertarian game.
Mike Blessing, chairman of the New Mexico Libertarian Party says he thinks Johnson has a good chance of winning the national Libertarian nomination.
The chairman of the National Libertarian Party flew to New Mexico to be present at Johnson's announcement. In his remarks Mark Hinkle said that Johnson is the first two-term governor of any state to join the Libertarian Party.
Johnson ran as a Republican only because Republicans are more electable in general elections. Now he has to try it another way. In addition, Johnson will need at least a minimum effort in every other state. He has little staff and little money so that won't be easy.
The National Libertarian Party works very hard at always being qualified for the ballot in every state. So Johnson won't have to bother getting signatures around the country.
What will be Johnson's effect on the national presidential race? Minimal, probably. He'll peel votes from both Republicans and Democrats. Independents may be more pleased with his candidacy. It gives them another choice plus maybe a platform they could like better.
The biggest effect could be in the Electoral College. Although Johnson's total vote will be small, he could make a difference in who wins a state, especially a small state like New Mexico.
We have had some exceedingly close votes in presidential races.
Al Gore won this state by 366 votes in 2000. Johnson will get more than that. A poll early in the GOP presidential primary season showed Gary Johnson winning the state against the Republican candidates at the time. He still will do reasonably well.

Can New Mexico's five electoral votes make a difference nationally? Every year political prognosticators come up with scenarios in which a few electoral votes can make a difference.
Remember back to 2000 again when Florida was figuratively hung up over a hanging chad. The U.S. Supreme Court had to decide that one.
So Gary Johnson's address will change from New Hampshire to America.

new Year Predictions

2011-12-29T11:25:00.001-07:00

NN10212 New Year

SANTA FE -– Happy New Year. Let's see how the crystal ball looks this year. HMMM,,, It looks clearer. Maybe that is because we've had a year to get acquainted with the new state administration.
Oh, I see Gov. Susana Martinez pushing her drovers' license bill up another steep hill. Maybe she should wait until next year and hope she has a Republican Legislature.
I don't see any bill to eliminate the $25 million film rebate cap now that the governor is a supporter of the film industry. Maybe that one is waiting until next year too.
I see the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. We started knowing that last year when items from Marilyn Monroe, Eli;abeth Taylor and Billy the Kid started selling at many times their expected value.
I see Iranian scientists scratching their heads trying to figure out how to reverse engineer the drone airplane they captured.
I see the Aggies beating the Lobos at football once again. That makes how many times in a row?
I see the protest movement morphing several more times to include any cause a group is willing to finance.
I see no more $10,000 bets made on live television – but much joking about it.
I see Mitt Romney h winning the Republican nomination for president.
I don't see New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez as Romney's running mate. But nice comments are made about her.
The ball has a cloudy spot but that looks like Happy Heather Wilson capturing the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.
Somewhere in New Mexico, school will start next year in July – and it won't make kids any smarter.
Cursive writing will be taught next year as a sophomore elective, So will multiplication tables.
Albuquerque Mayor R.J. Berry will keep Republicans on pins and needles over whether he will seek reelection.
State Economic Development Department Director Jon Barela already has the GOP on pins and needles over whether he will enter the 1st Congressional District primary. He nearly won it his previous try but now he has a job he likes and a regular paycheck he probably needs.
The crystal ball is way too cloudy in toward November to see general election results. Will it be another Republican landslide, as in 2010? Will it be a Democratic landslide for Democrats, as in 2008? Too much has to happen at the national level between now and then that will affect New Mexico races.
The towns of Anthony, N.M. and Anthony, Texas no longer will be the Leap Year Capital of the World. For 20 years, they have held that distinction with leap-year babies coming from around the country and even foreign countries. But hard times have ended the celebration unless Santa has a leftover gift for them.
Gary Johnson Will win the national Libertarian primary in May only to learn that his is not the only third party vying for the presidency.
And finally, the world will not end on Dec. 21, 2012. The Mayans insist their calendar has ended before and they know how to make a new one. Other groups also believe the 12/21/12 date has something magical to it. But go ahead and make plans for Dec. 13. Don't give away all your stuff unless you want to send it to me – or to the Anthonys.

12-28 column (with editing)

2011-12-23T13:58:00.001-07:00

122811 films

SANTA FE --—Republicans and the Hollywood crowd seldom seem to be a very good match. Good reasons exist for this standoff. With a few notable exceptions, Hollywood types are more liberal in their thinking than most Republicans, especially on social issues.
Family values are another place the two part company. Certainly not all Republicans behave themselves, but as a whole, their expectations are much higher.
And when it comes to money, Hollywood has been much more generous to the last two Democratic presidents than it has to Republicans.
But why, when a filmmaker wants to film in a New Mexico community is there so often resistance? They bring jobs. They buy in the community. They're not that seedy, are they?
And why, when a movie claims the 25 percent tax rebate, does the governor charge that the money is coming from children's education?
New Mexico needs jobs. We're in bad fiscal shape but does the 25 percent rebate further bust our budget? Other red states, such as Louisiana and Georgia, rebate even more and think they're getting a good deal.
So is it just New Mexico Republicans that don't like Hollywood? Or is it something we're not seeing? One factor we're not seeing is an accurate cost analysis of New Mexico's 25 percent rebate.
Two studies in the past showed that the state is getting back either 15 cents or $1.50 on the dollar for our 25 percent rebate.Gov. Susana Martinez promised a comprehensive study of the rebate when she vetoed a bill to do just that last April. We've seen nothing of the study thus far.
Further confounding this situation is news that with seemingly no additional information on the film industry, Gov. Martinez now is talking with top studio executives, which she hasn't done before and seems to have changed her mind about dealing with Hollywood.
State officials are being very vague about whether the uncertainty of the film industry about New Mexico's feelings is hurting business. We do know of productions that have left the state or are considering it. Maybe that is why Gov. Martinez is putting on her current happy face.
***
On the heels of Gov. Martinez's Hollywood shocker, comes an announcement from Politico magazine that former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson will switch his allegiance to the Libertarian Party today, Dec. 28, in Santa Fe.
Johnson is disillusioned with the GOP over its failure to accommodate his libertarian beliefs in the Republican big tent. About the only right both parties agree on is the right to bear arms. They are both in the same militia on that issue.
Johnson has maintained his dues-paying membership in the Libertarian Party since before he first ran for governor. As I recall, Johnson also was a dues-paying member of Ross Perot's Independent Party at the time.
Johnson still will have to compete at the Libertarian convention for the Libertarian nomination. He could have had it for the asking 12 years ago when he still was governor and was being courted heavily by the party.
But the Libertarians still are interested in him, as they are with any Republican willing to defect.
Running as a Libertarian isn't going to help Johnson win the presidency any more than trying to get the Republican nomination. But it could make him a spoiler in a state or two and maybe enough to lose the race for the Republican nominee.
New Mexico is one of those states. Polling numbers show him still running strong here. Johnson could take away just enough votes from the Republican nominee to throw the race to the Democrat.
Ross Perot may have done that in the 1992 presidential election between President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former New Mexico Lt. Gov. Roberto Mondragon, running as a Green Party member, may have taken enough votes from Gov. Bruce King to put Gary Johnson over the top in 1994.

12-30 How clear was my crystal ball?

2011-12-23T13:02:00.001-07:00

123011 crystal ball

SANTA FE – So how good were my predictions for the year? In keeping with long tradition, this column made predictions at the beginning of the year about New Mexico politics. Let's see how I did.
The first year of a new administration always is difficult to foresee. Would new governor, Susana Martinez, be able to carry out her campaign promises? This column will deal with those gubernatorial predictions.
Actually she has done a decent job of accomplishing her purposes. She's just doing it more subtly than expected. Her two predecessors, Gary Johnson and Bill Richardson, tended to do things with a flourish.
Gov. Martinez promised bold action. We wondered why she copied Gov. Richardson's slogan from eight years earlier until it was discovered that the words are out of the GOP's national playbook. Many new Republican governors around the country are using the same phrase.
Martinez announced that her top priority would be to cut $500 million out of the state budget but only proposed about a $150 million cut but, quietly, she has slashed much more by reducing staff and lowering salaries.
We predicted she would be different. And that, she is. We predicted she would listen carefully to her party advisers. She has done that more than any other governor.
Since government corruption was a major part of Martinez's campaign, we predicted an emphasis on ethics legislation during the regular legislative session. But, as usual, little happened.
We knew Gov. Martinez's concern about illegal aliens but we didn't mention the drivers' license issue. That became the cause she bled the most for during both the regular and special sessions.
The issue of voter fraud, a Republican staple everywhere, was left to new Republican s ecretary of state Dianna Duran. Since nothing has come of that, so far, Gov. Martinez has managed to avoid any fallout from the issue.
Reorganization was expected to be a major topic of the Legislature this year. The governor's office introduced legislation to merge departments but interest waned, just as we had predicted, when the projected savings didn't turn out to be as big as expected.
But Martinez has proceeded on her own, to quietly merge various functions of several departments.
Surprisingly, she has retained some of the public information officers that former Gov. Richardson had hired out of the media ranks. But they have assumed double duties with other departments and at a lower salary.
Other duties have been combined between departments and many more are expected. All cabinet secretaries were hired with the understanding that their departments might be combined with others and that their salaries could well be lowered.
It appears that Martinez will try to accomplish as much reorganizing as she can without legislative action. She may get away with quite a bit of reorganizing since many lawmakers also see a need for streamlining government.
At some point, a line will be drawn and the governor will find herself in court again for exceeding her powers. Some of that already has happened and Martinez has not fared well.
Quietly, she likely is very irritated but she hasn't taken the approach of former Gov. Johnson, who used to describe our Supreme Court as a bunch of guys who sit around and arrange chicken bones in order to reach decisions.
This seems to be Martinez's style. She hasn't directly confronted her opponents as some other new Republican governors have taken on unions in battles that end up in court or recall elections.
Her style is working, for now at least. Most polls show her popularity increasing since being elected. She is said to be one of only 11 governors in the nation with an approval rating of 50 percent or better. And she is the most popular of the new Republican governors.
Gov. Martinez has fared better than I expected for a district attorney who never had been to Santa Fe. Will next year be as tranquil or will behind-the-scenes tensions erupt?

12-28 Governors pulling the old switcharoos

2011-12-22T12:33:00.001-07:00

122811 films

SANTA FE --—Republicans and the Hollywood crowd seldom seem to be a very good match. Good reasons exist for this standoff. With a few notable exceptions, Hollywood types are more liberal in their thinking than most Republicans, especially on social issues.
Family values are another place the two part company. Certainly not all Republicans behave themselves, but as a whole, their expectations are much higher.
And when it comes to money, Hollywood has been much more generous to the last two Democratic presidents than it has to Republicans.
But why, when a filmmaker wants to film in a New Mexico community is there so often resistance? They bring jobs. They buy in the community. They're not that seedy, are they?
And why, when a movie claims the 25 percent tax rebate, does the governor charge that the money is coming from children's education?
New Mexico needs jobs. We're in bad fiscal shape but does the 25 percent rebate further bust our budget? Other red states, such as Louisiana and Georgia, rebate even more and think they're getting a good deal.
So is it just New Mexico Republicans that don't like Hollywood? Or is it something we're not seeing? One factor we're not seeing is an accurate cost analysis of New Mexico's 25 percent rebate.
Two studies in the past showed that the state is getting back either 15 cents or $1.50 on the dollar for our 25 percent rebate.Gov. Susana Martinez promised a comprehensive study of the rebate when she vetoed a bill to do just that last April. We've seen nothing of the study thus far.
Further confounding this situation is news that with seemingly no additional information on the film industry, Gov. Martinez now is talking with top studio executives, which she hasn't done before and seems to have changed her mind about dealing with Hollywood.
State officials are being very vague about whether the uncertainty of the film industry about New Mexico's feelings is hurting business. We do know of productions that have left the state or are considering it. Maybe that is why Gov. Martinez is putting on her current happy face.
***
On the heels of Gov. Martinez's Hollywood shocker, comes an announcement from Politico magazine that former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson will switch his allegiance to the Libertarian Party today, Dec. 28, in Santa Fe.
Johnson is disillusioned with the GOP over its failure to accommodate his libertarian beliefs in the Republican big tent. About the only right path parties agree on is the right to bear arms. They are both in the same militia on that issue.
Johnson has maintained his dues-paying membership in the Libertarian Party wince before he first ran for governor. As I recall, Johnson also was a dues-paying member of Ross Perot's Independent Party at the time.
Johnson still will have to compete at the Libertarian convention Libertarian nomination 12 years ago when he still was governor when he still was governor and was being courted heavily by the party.
But the Libertarians still are interested in him, as they are with any Republican willing to defect.
Running as a Libertarian isn't going to help Johnson win the presidency any more that trying to get the Republican nomination. But it could make him a spoiler in a state or two and maybe enough to lose the race for the Republican nominee.
New Mexico is one of those states. Polling numbers show him still running strong here. Johnson could take away just enough votes away from the Republican nominee to throw the race to the Democrat.
Ross Perot may have done that in the 1992 presidential election between President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former New Mexico Lt. Gov. Roberto Mondragon, running as a Green Party member, may have taken enough votes from Gov. Bruce King to put Gary Johnson over the top in 1994.

12-16 Centennial celebration coming quickly

2011-12-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

122611 centennial

SANTA FE – New Mexico's centennial activities are in full swing around the state. My two columns recapping major events of New Mexico's 66 years of trying to become a state and the 100 years that followed have brought responses.
Both columns were written from information on two large posters prepared by the state Department of Cultural Affairs. The posters are designed for school classrooms.
Author-historian Dave Clary, of Roswell, reminds that New Mexico almost became a state in 1850, when the Mexican-American war ended and California became a state.
Clary and other scholars mention that President Zachary Taylor wanted statehood for the entire route to California. At the time, the New Mexico territory extended all the way from Texas to California.
But other compromises had to be made. It was a time of great controversy among the states concerning slavery and other issues. So New Mexico lost out on quick statehood in the Compromise of 1850.
I mentioned in my recap of the last 100 years that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was opened in 1988.That is the date WIPP was completed. It didn't receive all its clearances to open until 1998. The mistake was mine.
Albuquerque's International Balloon Fiesta was listed as having begun in 1973. A company that helps publicize the event informs us the date should be 1972. That is important information when a 20th anniversary is being planned.
The Grand Centennial Ball is being advertised prominently. It will be held on Jan. 6, our anniversary of statehood. Tickets for the Santa Fe event begin at $250.
Proceeds from the ball will benefit the newly-created Centennial Children's Legacy Fund. It is advertised as "New Mexico Governors' Initiative for the Next 100 Years."
The Fund will benefit children's activities throughout the state. It sounds similar to the New Mexico Children's Foundation created by former First Lady Alice King 20 years ago.
Tom Sharpe of the Santa Fe New Mexican came up with an interesting factoid about the centennial a few months ago. New Mexico was the 47th state admitted to the union.
The Museum of New Mexico has three of the 47-star flags that flew during the 39 days before Arizona became the 48th state. I have received a report that Alamogordo and Portales also have 47-star flags.
Technically, those flags were illegal. Sharpe says an 1818 law provides that when a new state joins the union, its star may not be added to the flag until the next July 4th.
Tomas Jaehn, head librarian at the Fray Angelico Chavez History library, says no one seemed to mind back then. Likely, no one will mind too much if we break the law just a little next month.
***
Such acceptance, however, was not the good fortune of Gov. Susana Martinez and a bipartisan group of legislators who had reached agreement on a map for redrawing the state's three congressional districts.
That agreement was along the lines of the least-change formats usually favored by the courts.
The controversy centers on the makeup of congressional districts 1 and 2. District 1, centered around Albuquerque, can swing either way. So naturally, both parties would like to make it lean their way just a bit.
District 2 is a different proposition. It has been solid Republican, except in the Democratic landslide year of 2008. But some Democrats see the district slowly headed their way and don't want to take any Republican precincts that District 1 Democrats would like to throw their way.
The result was that the judge went ahead and heard the presentations of all sides, meaning that the legal fees on that case will be as high as ever.
There have been no bipartisan agreements on redistricting the state House or Senate or the Public Regulation Commission. Those cases all will be heard by the same judge, culminating in early January with a judicially imposed redistricting and a legal bill running in the millions when all lawyers are paid.

12-23 How to create jobs

2011-12-18T14:31:00.001-07:00

122311 jobs

SANTA FE – What is the secret to creating jobs? Candidates promise it is their top priority but when legislative sessions roll around, conversations turn elsewhere. Blogger Joe Monahan is compiling a list. Most of the suggestions presented to far have involved the construction industry or the film industry.
Both of those industries provide somewhat seasonal jobs. But with the state of our state economy, seasonal jobs are just fine. The state has a big pile of capital outlay money sitting around but disagreements in the regular and special sessions this year prevented most of the money from being spent.
The more capital outlay funds that are spent, the more construction jobs we will see. And the beauty is that this is money that doesn't come directly out of taxpayers' pockets.
The film industry has been providing a large amount of employment in the last several years. Lawmakers suggested a thorough study of the rebate system. Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed the legislation and said she would do it herself.
So far, nothing has happened. Now that the governor's relationship with the film industry has mysteriously warmed, industry representatives are suggesting a joint study by a well- respected group.
As for other job producers, Gov. Martinez and Republican lawmakers would like to see lower taxes, especially on businesses and the wealthy because they are the ones that create jobs. They also want fewer regulations that might impede businesses.
Democrats have been trying for several years to force out-of-state corporations to pay taxes on their sales in New Mexico. Current law allows corporations operating in several states to declare New Mexico profits in states that have lower tax rates.
Lobbyists for those corporations have been able to beat down the legislative proposals. That likely will continue. Businesses operating only in New Mexico are disadvantaged by the current arrangement.
In fact, businesses based in New Mexico because they want to be in New Mexico have long been taken completely for granted. Large amounts of money have been spent by the state and local communities on travel and entertainment to lure new business to the state.
Even more money is then spent on tax incentives spread over many years. Big press conferences are held with great media coverage. Politicos from the state and local levels show up to share in the credit.
But not many of those jobs remain in the state. Once companies indicate they are movable, other states continually try to entice them into moving again. As soon as a better offer is made, those companies move again.
New Mexico must begin to pay attention to its small companies that already are here because they want to be here. It didn't take any money to get them here and it won't cost anything to keep them from moving.
What we need to worry about is keeping them in business and helping them grow. If each of our state's thousands of small businesses could be helped to add one more employee, the effect would produce many times more jobs than bringing in big companies for a brief stay.
The problem is that it isn't as sexy. It isn't as flashy for politicians and no one gets to take expensive trips or pick up the tab for big meals.
For 10 years a non-profit group in Santa Fe called Santa Fe Economic Development tried to convince state and local governments that growing our own would prove to be more reliable for creating jobs than luring new companies.
Its president, Catherine Zacher, and staff got out in the community and found out who needed help and what kind of help was needed. Training, networking and loans were arranged. Companies grew.
But the recession brought added pressures. The economic development group's resources dwindled and no governmental agency was willing to help pick up the slack.
The state must look for ways to help its loyal, home grown businesses with the level of financial resources it spends betting on strangers.

2011-12-18T14:29:00.001-07:00

12-21 The Presidents Roosevelt in the news

2011-12-17T12:45:00.001-07:00

122111 Teddy

SANTA FE – Teddy Roosevelt has long been a popular president.
Recently he has become even more so as President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Gary Johnson have compared themselves to him.
In his effort to prod more tax money out of the rich, President Obama has likened himself to Teddy the trust buster, going after greedy Wall Street robber barons.
For his part, our former governor, Gary Johnson has taken a very different tack. He compares his adventuresome lifestyle to what Roosevelt termed his strenuous life of hunting, boxing, rowing and exploring. So far the comparison hasn't done Johnson much good.
He has combined many of his public appearances with athletic endeavors. It gets him some local notice wherever he happens to be but so far, the persona just hasn't caught on.
Johnson has been working the strenuous life angle for quite some time. Late in his second term as New Mexico governor, Johnson attended a National Governors Association winter meeting at which the U.S. Olympic ski team put on a demonstration.
Johnson convinced the team to allow him to take part. He skied off a ramp, doing a back flip in front of his fellow governors. In a recent interview with "Outside" magazine, he admitted it didn't go him much good with his fellow governors.
***
In other political news, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall has re-introduced legislation he first proposed as a House member in 2008 to honor the veterans who defended Bataan and suffered through the Death March 70 years ago.
Udall proposes a group Congressional Gold Medal for Bataan's brave defenders. In recent years group gold medals have been authorized for the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee Airmen and the Women's Air Force Service Pilots.

Some 12,000 Americans were sent to the Philippines in mid-1941, before World War II began for the United States. The Philippines were the last cog in Japan's grinding effort to rule the Pacific, including Australia.
Sure enough, the Philippines were attacked on the same day Pearl Harbor was hit. On the calendar, it appears as Dec. 8 but the difference is that pesky International Date Line.
The defenders soon were all pushed onto the peninsula of Bataan where they mounted a defense without which Japan could not have been stopped in the Pacific.
And they did it without logistical support. No one knew that President Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had secretly agreed on a "Get Hitler First" strategy of fighting World War II. The Japanese were left to run rampant over everything they wanted from the Aleutian Islands to the South Pole.
The Bataan troops were constantly assured that more supplies and more troops were on their way. But they never came. The awful truth became obvious when Gen. Douglas McArthur left the Philippines for a base in Australia.
The weapons and ammunition that did arrive for New Mexico's 200th Coast Artillery was soon recognized as the duds discarded from the World War I artillery used in their training at Fort Bliss, Texas a year before. Fortunately New Mexico's farm boys could fix anything with some bailing wire and a wrench.
Our guys were willing to hold out until the end but malnutrition, malaria and starvation coupled with no resources and no reinforcement forced those in commend to surrender their troops. New Mexico's 1,800 have always insisted they didn't surrender. They were surrendered.
So that's the story. The Bataan veterans made the ultimate sacrifice so the United States could mobilize and Europe could be won first. That certainly deserves someone's gold medal.
***
Our military is worried that Iran will reverse engineer the U.S. drone that fell into its hands. Don't they realize how hard reverse engineering is?
We've been working on it since 1947 when the Roswell Army Air Force Base announced it had captured a flying saucer. We had just captured the top rocket scientists in the world from Germany. Iran and scientists don't belong in the same sentence.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-16T06:54:00.001-07:00

We're headed to Phx a little early to sneak between storms. I'll have computer. Cell: 505-699-9982

1219 Is Christmas Different This Year?

2011-12-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

121911

SANTA FE – Does Christmas season seem different to you this year? I've noticed a difference so far. In the past we've seen grumpy old men complain about how Christmas has been stolen away from Christians and how Christmas is so commercial that the true meaning has been lost.

This year we hear every day about how well retail sales are going and how much higher they are over last year. And now, Black Friday has been augmented by Cyber Monday, and two weeks later, Green Monday.

But the biggest difference is the Republican presidential race. With caucuses and primary elections getting started immediately after the New Year, there doesn't seem to be time for a Christmas break.

The airwaves are full of talk about who is ahead in the polls this week and who bombed the worst in the last debate. And then there are the negative ads for the presidential race. Our primary isn't until June but since New Mexicans almost always seem to predict the winner, candidates still want to influence us.

We'll be spending Christmas in Phoenix again this year. That's no big change. It's easier on the kids and grandkids and our son-in-law usually is on call at Mayo Hospital on Christmas Day.

The difference this year is that Jeanette and I no longer look forward to a white Christmas. It seems like every year, we have to fight the snow getting to Phoenix with a carload of gifts and pots of chile and posole.

We no longer dream with Irving Berlin about a white Christmas. Interestingly, the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, in Phoenix, claims Berlin wrote "White Christmas" while sitting beside its magnificent pool.

The verse of the song mentions orange and palm trees swaying but it also mentions being in Los Angeles where Berlin spent time writing movie scores.

The Biltmore says Berlin also was known to stay at its hotel and write songs. The only reason he didn't say Phoenix is that it doesn't rhyme with much of anything.

The Biltmore has been a landmark for nearly 80 years and has hosted many stars. Its pool is said to have been Marilyn Monroe's favorite. Many political events also are held there, including John McCain's election night party.

New Yorkers, of course, say Berlin wrote the song there despite the orange and palm tree references. They contend that since Berlin didn't read or write music, he composed on a piano, which would have been difficult by the pool.

Maybe Berlin wrote it both places. Since he wrote both words and music, he might have written the words by the Biltmore pool. Regardless, it has long been the world's most popular song.

Berlin got the secular Christmas music tradition started on Tin Pan Alley with "White Christmas." Numerous others followed during the 1940s, mostly written by Jewish songwriters.

They weren't offended about Christmas. Many were immigrants, as was Berlin, and they were embracing everything American. And since America is majority Christian, they were willing to participate in the experience without partaking of the religious aspect.

Oh, that everyone could be that tolerant.

Actually, the observance of Christmas has had a mixed history in the United States. Early settlers on the East Coast strictly opposed Christmas celebrations because they encouraged public drunkenness, shooting and swearing.

The attitude spread to mainstream churches. Throughout the 1800s, mainstream churches still were trying to hold the line on Christmas celebrations by not accepting the day as a holy one. And since the Bible doesn't mention Dec. 25, the date must have been derived from pagan customs.

But gradually feelings began to change. Clement Clarke Moore's "Visit from St. Nicolas" at mid-century gave a family feeling to Christmas.

By the early 1900s, the retail industry had caught on that Christmas could become a buying bonanza. It is now abundantly obvious where that has led.

Will Christmas always be celebrated in the manner it is now? We always have had a dynamic society. More change could be coming.

12-16 where are they?

2011-12-12T17:18:00.001-07:00

121611

SANTA FE – As we near the end of the year, let's pause to see where New Mexico's political personalities are and what they are doing.
One of the most frequently asked questions wherever I go is "What's happening with Bill Richardson these days?" He's back in the news again for a fourth grand jury probe but for those of you who want to know what he's doing the rest of the time, Richardson has a website www.billrichardson.com.
The site tells about our former governor's recent trip to central Africa and a recent appearance on Meet the Press. Under the heading "Upcoming Engagements" is the note: No upcoming engagements are available currently. Please check back soon.
So the answer may be that he's not doing much these days. You'd think he'd get invited to a few Christmas parties or something.
Bill and wife, Barbara, have just finished the purchase of a $1.67 million Cape Cod vacation cottage. Barbara is from the area and loves it. Their permanent residence still is in Santa Fe however.
***
Gov. Susana Martinez doesn't spend any more time in Santa Fe than necessary. She isn't missing any national meetings of governors and she gets down to her hometown of Las Cruces as often as possible.
When the governor is down south, she'll dash across the border to see family and her ailing father as often as possible. Our state constitution says that when she is out of state, she also is out of office and the lieutenant governor takes over.
It is a useless requirement in this day and age. She stays in close contact with her staff, which can handle anything when she is gone. The solution is to not even mention the absence. No one is hurt. Lt. Gov. Sanchez doesn't file for the extra pay he receives while acting as governor. He's not complaining but others have noticed.
***
Although John Sanchez has an office and staff at the Capitol, reports say he's usually at home in Albuquerque, conducting state work and probably some personal business and some congressional campaigning.
He can be in constant touch with his staff and the constitution doesn't require him to live in Santa Fe as it does for other elected officials. That's because the constitution didn't envision the lieutenant governor ever being a full time job.
***
Former Governor Gary Johnson is still in the Republican presidential race but he's usually on a mountaintop in New Hampshire these days. The former New Mexico governor is disillusioned with the national Republican Party for basically ignoring his presidential candidacy,
It is a strange state of affairs. Former governors usually aren't given such short shrift. Johnson at least expected to get an opportunity to present his views on stage with fellow candidates. He has been shut out of nearly every debate and his name hasn't been included in most polls that help determine who gets into the debates.
What's his problem? Johnson's libertarian views are embraced by the Republican Party only when relating to smaller government. And Libertarians like a much smaller government than Republicans.
And when it comes to individual rights, they differ even more. Both Republicans and Democrats believe everyone should have the individual rights with which they agree. Otherwise they make them illegal.
So issues such as gay marriage and legalized drugs drive a huge wedge between the two party beliefs. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas has managed to establish a position for himself on stage at Republican debates after having been excluded four years ago.
Johnson had hoped Paul, 76, would choose not to enter the presidential race again this year and would encourage his followers to get behind Johnson. But it didn't happen.
Might Johnson, like Paul, decide to make another try in four years, hoping that the Republican Party and the news media will give him a shot next time?

12-14 More troubles for state law enforcement academy

2011-12-11T15:41:00.001-07:00

12-14-11

SANTA FE – The state Law Enforcement Academy is still having big problems. This time it involves police, who have been fired, moving to similar jobs in other communities because the Academy never files statewide charges against the officer.
The Albuquerque Journal in a copyrighted story has covered the present situation well. The following is a review of what happened three years ago when the academy was called on the carpet. Both times the problem apparently was disinterest by Attorney General Gary King.
In November 2009, an interim legislative committee heard evidence that police brutality charges never get prosecuted by the state...
Testimony indicated that complaints to local officials seldom result in any action. Albuquerque has some police oversight mechanisms but no one present recommended those mechanisms as being models others should employ.
Generally, there appeared to be agreement that law enforcement misconduct should be handled at the local level but that most attempts to do so are not working because local officials tend to support each other.
Likewise, internal affairs investigations by police departments seldom result in any penalties against officers. According to testimony internal reviews protect law enforcement from the public and there is no mechanism for protecting the public from police.
The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy trains and certifies law enforcement officers and can decertify them after receiving and investigating complaints. Typically it is a cumbersome, slow-moving process that doesn't result in many decertifications.
Arthur Ortiz, director of the academy, testified to the committee that he was speeding up the process but that failure of local sheriffs and police chiefs to report misconduct is his biggest problem.
Paul Borunda, a citizen from Las Cruces, presented the panel with numerous instances of police misconduct that have gone unpunished in Las Cruces because of interlocking relationships among local law enforcement officials. He recounted his efforts to find anyone at the local or state level to take any responsibility for overseeing law enforcement misconduct.
Borunda also spoke of efforts to get Attorney General Gary King involved in law enforcement misconduct but his reply was that his job is to protect the state and not the people.
King then told the committee that his client is the state and not its people. He said misconduct charges should be taken to local elected officials and if they aren't handled to the satisfaction of the public, they can be turned out of office at the next election.
Committee Chairman, Sen. Cisco McSorely, of Albuquerque, complimented Borunda on his tireless efforts doing what no local or state agencies do.
McSorely concluded that since law enforcement oversight is not working at the local level, an entity should be created at the state level to oversee, investigate and punish law enforcement misconduct. He asked King to compute the costs of establishing a state review board.
It seems as though our country is missing something if we can't protect our citizens from those few cases when law enforcement officers get out of hand. Our founding fathers knew the horrors of living in police states. They wanted to protect the public against such a system.
They provided us with a judicial system to insure that protection but that is a very cumbersome and expensive process. And if local law enforcement violates a person's civil rights, the answer can't be found in local or state courts. Only federal courts handle such charges.
It seems to me I have heard attorney general candidates run for office as being the people's lawyer. It sounds good in campaign material. But it's not the truth. The attorney general defends the state against its people.
Have you noticed that when governors take an action requiring legal defense, they hire their own lawyers? Sometimes the attorney general is on the other side of the case. So who is representing the people? Both the governor and the attorney general would say they are. But are they really?
JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

12-12 Billy the Kid Always Will Be an Icon

2011-12-08T10:25:00.001-07:00

121211 Billy

SANTA FE – Billy the Kid keeps producing for New Mexico. Recently he was the subject of a statewide treasure hunt which put millions of extra dollars into the state tourism industry, according to new Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson.
More recently, The Kid was the subject of a History Channel documentary, which is still in reruns. And next month, a Public Broadcasting System hour-long special on Billy will begin airing featuring many New Mexicans and other authorities in the field.
Why, you ask, is a long-dead, no good cowboy having so much effect on our culture? Well former Gov. Bill Richardson spent over a year soon after he took office in a controversial effort to dig him up. That controversy stretched from Texas to Arizona and involved numerous lawsuits, some of which still are continuing.
Then there was Richardson's abortive effort to pardon Billy for shooting Sheriff Brady on the main street of Lincoln, N.M. Former Gov. Lew Wallace may have promised Billy a pardon on that one, but if so, he reneged and Richardson wanted to know why.
In the process, people from around the world weighed in on the question and Richardson ended his term without granting the pardon.
But the real reason The Kid attracts so much attention around the world is that to a great many he isn't a juvenile delinquent, cattle thief, cop killer, as many New Mexicans see him.
Billy the Kid also was a talented, orphaned, fighter for the little guy against a ruthless government. Billy didn't rob banks, stagecoaches or trains. He took what he needed to survive and shared the rest with the needy.
He was intelligent, had excellent handwriting, was musical and somehow knew the words to all the church songs. Fate led him to having to scramble for a living in the Old West. And I may not need to tell you how much the Old West is revered in much of the rest of the world.
So we may just have to learn to accept our most famous New Mexican as an attraction to the rest of the world.
` The two film productions out now aren't perfect attempts at reality. Billy and the story are so complex that 52 minutes just won't do it.
Every production has to have an angle to capture viewers. The History Channel's "Billy the Kid Decoded" is an effort to present several versions of The Kid's story and let the viewer decide what happened.
That's fun, but the leading authorities all are basically in agreement that Sheriff Pat Garrett killed The Kid in Fort Sumner and that is where he is buried.
But people don't want to see their heroes die. That is why so many are willing to believe every crackpot who comes along claiming to be Billy or Elvis or other heroes.
Next month, public television's "American Experience" history series will feature The Kid. The series has won many awards over the years for its coverage of people and events.
PBS is beginning a new series on the Old West. Billy the Kid won out over many other candidates to kick off the series. Last week, the program's producer and director were in New Mexico to help promote the series.
Along with some Billy the Kid consultants, they appeared at roundtable discussions in Albuquerque and Santa Fe to screen clips of the film and to describe their efforts to humanize The Kid by getting into the "interior" of Billy to understand who he really was.
Perhaps the most telling observation came from writer Hampton Sides who said just a year ago he wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times describing his amazement about the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, wasting time deciding whether to pardon a two-bit thief and murderer.
Sides says he got beaten up by so many people throughout the nation and world that he decided he had better become an expert on The Kid also.

2011-12-06T14:22:00.001-07:00

120811 Guv

SANTA FE – Gov. Susana Martinez has been in office almost a year now and we're still not sure who she is. That's because she still is a work in progress.
Gary Johnson came into office in 1995 with no gubernatorial or legislative experience and so did Garrey Carruthers in 1987.But Carruthers hired longtime Legislative Finance Committee Director Maralyn Budke as his chief of staff. Budke also had been Gov. David Cargo's chief of staff. She knew New Mexico government from all sides.
Gov. Gary Johnson hired David Harris as chief of staff. Like Budke, Harris had headed the Legislative Finance Committee for many years. He also knew state government inside and out. He knew how legislators think and the maneuvers they make.
Susana Martinez hired Keith Gardner of Roswell as her chief of staff. He had been a respected and efficient House minority whip and frequently the spokesman for House Republicans.
But Gardner was a part time legislator. He wasn't immersed in the intricacies of operating government from the inside on a day-to-day basis.
And neither Johnson nor Carruthers had their former campaign chairman making major decisions about how government operates. Campaign consultants think very differently than government managers.
They don't spend any time working on building coalitions with the opposition party to make things happen. So Martinez didn't spend much time with talking with legislators at all.
During the special session of the Legislature, Martinez called most lawmakers to her office to pitch the issues she was squeezing into the redistricting session. But to my knowledge, the subject of those conversations did not involve finding out what legislators had on their minds.
But Martinez is showing signs of learning. Currently she is working with a bipartisan group of legislators to promote a congressional redistricting plan to Judge James Hall who is hearing the cases.
The plan involves making as few changes as possible, a solution judges tend to like. Other groups are trying to change the balance of power in the central and southern congressional districts.
Gov. Martinez also is softening on some of her early positions opposing programs former Gov. Bill Richardson had pushed. She has surprised many observers with her friendly positions toward the spaceport and the film industry.
Her early comments were that if the spaceport is going anywhere, it will be with private industry sharing the bill. Private industry makes huge investments in developing space hardware but it sounded as though she was asking for help financing spaceport construction.
Martinez didn't show up at the dedication of the two-mile runway last spring but when the terminal building was dedicated this fall, she was all smiles and enthusiasm, even saying she'd like to go on a flight herself.
Fortunately Virgin Galactic owner Sir Richard Branson remained loyal to New Mexico during that period. He is training travel agents to handle those who will be attracted to New Mexico by the action. And he is handling the publicity.
Then there is the film industry Last January it was depriving kids of an education with its big rebates. At Martinez's insistence the rebate was capped at $50 million – half of what had been paid out the year before. And free loans were eliminated.
Legislators passed a bill designed to track the rebates but the governor vetoed it, saying she would do it herself.
But before telling us anything about those figures, Martinez suddenly has gotten quite friendly with movie execs. We're not sure what caused the change in attitude and we're not sure but what New Mexico may have lost the momentum it was building with the movie industry.
Might we see an effort to uncap those rebates in the 2012 Legislature?
As for other Richardson pet programs, the Rail Runner isn't back on anyone's favorites list. The Richardson penchants for cronyism and pay-to-play are beginning to rear their heads in this administration. Only time will tell where those will go.

12-7 NM Troops Aslo Attacked 70 Years Ago on Pearl Harbor Day

2011-12-05T11:00:00.001-07:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE – On Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 1941, New Mexico's National Guard troops, deployed to the Philippines, knew the Japanese would attack them the same day.
They had been watching reconnaissance planes fly over every day, but had orders not to fire. Our reconnaissance planes saw the huge buildup on Formosa. Japan had captured everything to the north, including China. The Philippines were the last major obstacle on the way to Australia.
Our men just didn't know when the attack was coming. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was about 4 a.m., on December 8, in the Philippines, on the other side of the International Date Line. The attack on the Philippines was planned for 8 a.m., but clouds over Formosa delayed it until noon.
That gave eight hours advance notice. During that time, rumors of the attack spread among various units of our troops, but they received no orders to mobilize. Some of the delay was attributed to sabotage.
Clark Field was a prime target of the air attack. Tommy Foy, later a New Mexico state legislator, was unable to get through to Clark Field from his post. Neither could anyone else. The warning never got through. The planes and trucks, lined up with military precision made perfect targets for strafing runs.
Washington had not shared everything it knew with its military commanders in the Pacific, but many still wonder why Gen. MacArthur wasn't better prepared for alerting his troops. The 200th Coast Artillery still hadn't gotten all its guns and equipment unpacked. That task had to be finished under fire.
The story of the equipment was the same as before. It was either defective or outmoded. The ammunition was corroded and most of the shells were duds. As box after box was opened, our men realized that these were their rejects from Fort Bliss, where they had trained outside El Paso. Much of it was left over from World War I.
But despite only one out of 10 shells being good, they scored five confirmed hits the first day. Four years later, in a speech at Deming, Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright confirmed that that the 200th had been the first unit in the Philippines to fire on the enemy.
It didn't take long for the competence of the New Mexico guardsmen, who comprised the 200th Coast Artillery, to be noticed. That first night, the undermanned 200th, too small to defend Clark Field, was split.
A third of the regiment was sent to Manila and christened as a new regiment, the 515th. It was America's first war-born regiment, composed of only 500 men, instead of the usual 1,800. The following day, another 200 men were transferred to other units in need of their expertise. "The old 200th" was now down to only 1,100 men.
The equipment situation was just as bad in Manila as it had been at Clark Field. Nearly everything, including communications equipment, was World War I vintage. But our guys got everything working well enough to go into action within 24 hours of their arrival.
As our troops were approaching Manila on December 9, the Navy was pulling out, headed south to the Dutch East Indies. But reinforcements for our anti-aircraft units were on the way. Seven ships and a heavy cruiser were headed to Manila with planes, artillery and ammunition.
Later that day, however, Washington redirected the convoy to Australia and turned four troopships, bound for Manila, back to San Francisco. MacArthur was not told, nor was he informed of the secret Roosevelt-Churchill accord to "get Hitler first." Instead Gen. George Marshall radioed him to "expect every possible assistance."
On December 10, Japanese assault forces began landing, preparatory to a full-scale invasion, and Japanese bombers and fighters began massive assaults on air fields and Manila Bay.
And thus began a terrible four months, holding the line to disrupt Japan's quick advance to Australia, and control of the entire Pacific.
FRI, 12-07-07

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

12-5 column continued

2011-12-01T14:44:00.001-07:00

12-5 column cont.

My previous column on redistricting, touting independent commissions drew comments from academics in several states explaining how independent commissions still can be thwarted by majority political parties in any state.
These academics are developing various formulas to objectively apportion districts. No legislature ever will adopt them but in states where voters still can put them on the ballot, there is plenty of time before the next round of redistricting in 2021.
That still leaves New Mexico out of the game. But if today's court hearing results in a bipartisan congressional redistricting plan, New Mexico can hold its head high.

12-5 Redistricting always dirty

2011-12-01T08:49:00.001-07:00

120511 Redist

SANTA FE – Redistricting of legislative and congressional seats has to be the most politically dirty activity in government. Any party in control will attempt to draw new districts to benefit itself in any way possible.
No one's seat is safe. The majority party leadership may be the safest. But a governor of the opposite party might be able, through a veto and subsequent court action, to make the road bumpy.
Former House Speaker Raymond Sanchez made it rough on himself by letting his district move closer to the Albuquerque Heights in order to give fellow Democrats easier precincts in the Valley.
The strategies involved in putting together district maps are complex and often very subtle. It is easy to spot a gerrymandered district when it looks like a salamander designed by its namesake Elbridge Gerry. But a district can be fairly compact and still have political or racial subtleties that are difficult to spot.
That is why a group of Republicans has asked for and received communications between Democratic leaders and Brian Sanderoff, the Legislature's redistricting consultant.
Democratic leaders claimed those communications were privileged but redistricting Judge James Hall ruled that even if they were privileged, they lost their status when Sanderoff's name showed up on the expert witness list provided by the legislative leadership.
The leaders claim the release will have "terrible policy implications" but the judge ruled that Republicans are entitled to know the instructions given Sanderoff so they can determine Democratic motivations.
Legislators always have maintained that the determination of legislative motivation protected by the state constitution. Judge Hall steered clear of that subject by saying Sanderhoff would have to answer all those questions on cross examination anyway.
This could be a crack in the dike that may be explored more fully on a future occasion. You can be sure Republican lawyers are, at this moment, sifting through all the memos, emails, notes of conversations and other documents in preparation for court hearings scheduled to begin today.
A very promising sign is the announcement to Judge Hall last week that a bipartisan agreement is in the works on the congressional redistricting map. The changes would be minimal. A few details need to be worked out before the hearing scheduled to begin today.
Changes in legislative district maps will be heard later this month and into January. No public word has been heard on any behind-the-scenes negotiations on those maps. The recent flak around release of the Sanderoff communications won't help any agreement there.
But possible agreement on congressional alignments would make New Mexico stand out nationally. All states are having problems.
Recently, I wrote about the only states in the nation with a fighting chance for agreement on redistricting are those in which citizens are allowed to put constitutional amendments on the ballot without them having to go through the legislature and being signed by the governor.
Those states have created independent redistricting commissions. But now the news has been pouring in showing that even in those states political leaders are doing everything they can to override the will of the people.
In Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer fired the chairman of the independent committee even though she had no power to either appoint or remove the chairman. The state Supreme Court ruled she couldn't do it but the governor insists she is going to do it anyway.

I have a couple of final paragraphs to add but am still wrestling with this new computer and can't get them tacked on right now.

12-2 A new slant on Gary Johnson

2011-11-29T17:18:00.001-07:00

120211 Johnson

SANTA FE – A recent article in "Outside" magazine provides some new insights into what makes former Gov. Gary Johnson tick and what keeps his presidential campaign from ticking.
"Outside" is an international outdoors magazine headquartered in Santa Fe. It celebrates the sort of life that Gary Johnson lives. So who better to get an insight into Johnson and why he can't get anywhere on the national political scene than a contributing editor from "Outside" magazine?
Why is Johnson not succeeding in this political endeavor as he has in so many other facets of his life? The article didn't say this in so many words but it helped me remember a thought I had formed in my mind years ago and then forgotten.
Gary Johnson excels at individual endeavors. He is not a team sports kind of guy. And to be successful in politics, a candidate cannot go it alone. He needs to be one of the boys and acceptable to the party faithful.
Nick Heil, the interviewer for the magazine, notes that Johnson is a person who establishes outrageously ambitious athletic goals for himself and then sets out to methodically accomplish them. In the process he has become what Heil calls a world-class adventure athlete.
The character traits associated with his accomplishments – grit, strength, courage and tenacity – are what people would like to see in any leader. But, he says, Johnson doesn't make good use of that information.
Johnson doesn't talk about what makes him a world-class adventurer. He would prefer to sell his libertarian ideas, rather than toot his own horn some of the time.
Heil asked Johnson if he has considered hiring a media coach. Johnson answered that what people would hear would not be him. It would be someone's idea of who he should be.
Johnson wants to come across as a problem solver – someone who could turn a handyman business into a million-dollar operation. He admits he isn't good at the showy stuff but he is very good at doing what he sets out to do.
That is why Johnson is so frustrated about his inability to crack into the Republican field of candidates that get invitations to the numerous debates being held. Without those debates, he can't make any headway toward his goal.
When he ran for governor of New Mexico in 1994, Johnson was an unknown. But the state was small and so was the field of candidates. His opposition was Richard Cheney, a legislative leader; John Dendahl, a businessman and former Gov. Dave Cargo.
As it turned out, the odd man out of that field was Cargo. He was well known but GOP leaders knew "Lonesome Dave" wouldn't play ball with them. He was a loner, just like Johnson.
By investing $500,000 of his own money, Johnson won the primary election. His general election opponent was then-Gov. Bruce King, who was considerably weakened by having to run against both of his former lieutenant governors.
Johnson's Democratic opponent for reelection was Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez. Johnson isn't known as a great debater but he agreed to debate Chavez, a trial lawyer, throughout the state. Johnson did well enough to handily win reelection.
Johnson faces a much tougher situation now. If any other Republican candidate were to be included in the debates, it almost certainly would be Johnson. But he keeps barely losing out. One problem is that television networks usually leave his name off the ballot in their polling.
So the Republican Party isn't completely to blame. Party officials say over 20 candidates have filed for president, some of whom are former governors or members of Congress.
But Johnson is disillusioned. Some of the candidates included in the debates aren't polling any better than he is. He is talking about leaving the Republican Party and seeking the Libertarian nomination.
National Libertarian officials were very high on Johnson when he was governor back in 2000. But now, even that would be a fight.

11-30 Highlights of NM's 100 years of statehood

2011-11-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

113011 NM 100 years

SANTA FE – What were the most important events of New Mexico's first 100 years of statehood? Mine appear below. The state Department of Cultural Affairs has a list, available in poster form. The New Mexico Blue Book has a list available from the Secretary of State's Office.
1912 – Any such list must beginning with Jan. 6 when President William Howard Taft signed the statehood proclamation and Gov. William C. McDonald, a Democrat, is elected to office.
1916 – Pancho Villa's troops raid Columbus, NM. A massive Punative Expedition into Mexico, headed by Gen. Black Jack Pershing, ensued. It involved the first tactical use of air craft . A state park museum in Columbus tells a good story.
1926 – Route 66, the much celebrated "Mother Road," from Chicago to L.A., provides many with their first view of New Mexico and gave tourism a big boost..
1928 – Oil discovered near Hobbs. The Spanish had found insufficient gold, silver and copper to make New Mexico worth much to them but oil soon became New Mexico's biggest moneymaker.
1930 – Dr. Robert Goddard is convinced by Charles Lindbergh to move his rocket testing to the vast expanses of New Mexico. His many successful experiments earn him to title "father of rocketry."
1940 – Milton "Doc" Noss claims to have discovered a huge storehouse of gold at Victorio Peak, very near what is now Spaceport America. The Army later closed the area for Alamogordo Bombing Range. Noss never could retrieve the gold he claimed but stories have persisted of government excavation of the hill. It became a topic of the Watergate hearings.
1941 -- New Mexico National Guard activated and shipped to the Philippines.
1942 – 1800 New Mexico Guard troops were surrendered on Bataan Peninsula. Half died on Death March, Hell Ships and Japanese work camps.
1943 – Manhattan Project locates in Los Alamos on secret mission.
1944 – Navajo Code Talkers distinguish themselves ffor development of unbreakable code.
1945 – Over 100 Nazi scientists and engineers, along with V-2 rocket parts, shipped to Alamogordo Bombing Range, which became White Sands Missile Range. White Sands ranchers, removed from their property in 1942, will remain permanently disposed of their land. World's first nuclear device exploded at Trinity Site.
1946 – U.S. Rep. Georgia Lusk, D-Carlsbad, first woman elected to statewide office. Members of Congress ran at large.
1947 – Roswell Army Air Force Base issues news release claiming it captured a flying disk.
1950 – Smokey Bear rescued from forest fire in Lincoln County. Becomes national symbol.
1960 – Interstate highway system begins in New Mexico. Brings many more tourists.
1966 – New Mexico's fourth capital building dedicated. Nicknamed "The Roundhouse."
1973 – Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta inaugurated in a dirt parking lot. Has grown into the world's largest and most photographed bllooning event.
1974 – Very Large Array telescope system begun on St. Augustine Plains, near Socorro.
1988 – Waste Isolation Pilot Plant opened near Carlsbad to handle low-level transuranic waste. Safety record outstanding.
2005 – Spaceport America groundbreaking as a joint project of the state of New Mexico and Virgin Galactic The project fulfills longtime dreams of many in the Las Cruces business and educational community.
2010 – Susana Martinez elected New Mexico's first woman governor and the first female, Hispanic governor un the nation.

11-28 NM took 66 years to achieve statehood

2011-11-22T17:11:00.001-07:00

112811 NM statehood

SANTA FE – On Aug. 28, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez kicked off our state's centennial celebration. The governor may have been a little early for our Jan. 6 birthday but despite being the Land of Manana, New Mexico seldom is late to start a celebration.
On Sept. 1 Gov. Martinez ordered that all state agencies promote the centennial. One of the first agency promotions we saw was some magnificently large posters documenting New Mexico's significant events from the time the United States occupied our territory in 1846 until today.
One three-foot by two-foot poster tells the story of New Mexico's long, 66-year effort to gain statehood. The other poster chronicles important New Mexico events from our state's past 100 years.
The posters have been produced by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and are targeted primarily at schools libraries and museums. They also are available to the general public by contacting Sarah Ives at the Department of Cultural Affairs, 505-984-2012. You may email her at sarah.ives@nmcentennial.org.
The following are some of the important events leading up to statehood that are listed on the chart. (My comments are in parentheses.)
1846 – Mexican American War begins. US Army under Stephen Watts Kearny occupies New Mexico.
1847 – U.S. forces suppress the New Mexico Revolt of 1847. (This often is referred to as the Taos Revolt, in which Gov. Charles Bent was scalped, then killed. The lives of his family and Kit Carson's wife were spared.)
1848 – Mexican American War ends with the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
1850 – In the Compromise of 1850. New Mexico becomes a territory of the U.S. including much of what is now Arizona and southern Colorado. Boundary conflict with Texas is settled and war averted. (Texas always wanted as much of New Mexico as it could get, preferably all the way to the Rio Grande. This agreement gave them about 600,000 acres along the border.
1854 – Gadsden Purchase from Mexico adds 45,000 square miles to New Mexico territory.
1862 – Civil War battles of Valverde, Glorietta Pass and Peralta are fought ending the invasion of New Mexico. The California Column of Union troops arrives in New Mexico.
1863 – U.S, Territory of Arizona is established.
1872 – New Mexico Territorial Legislature approves a constitution.
1875 – Act enabling New Mexico statehood fails in U.S. Congress.
1876 – Another enabling act for New Mexico statehood passes in Senate but dies in U.S. House.
1878 -- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad tracks cross into New Mexico at Raton Pass.
1880 – Railroad reaches Santa Fe , ending commerce on the Santa Fe Trail.
1885 -- New Territorial Capitol Building is completed in Santa Fe.
1889 – Act enabling statehood for New Mexico (which called for a name change to the State of Montezuma) fails.
1890 – Proposed state constitution voted down by New Mexico voters by over 2-1.
1892 – Fire destroys Territorial Capitol Building. Archives Saved.
1895 – New Mexico statehood bill dies in U.S. Senate after passing House.
1901 – Statehood Convention passes resolutions critical of U.S. Congress for not granting New Mexico statehood. Former Gov. L. Bradford Prince delivers famous "Statehood for New Mexico" speech in which he says, "In no part of the nation has there ever been such a protracted struggle for self-government as in New Mexico."
1902 – Omnibus bill enabling Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona statehood passes U.S. House.
1903 – Omnibus bill dies in Senate after long filibuster led by Sen. Albert J. Beveridge.
1905 – Bill to admit Arizona and New Mexico as one state dies in Congressional conference committee.
1906 – Joint Arizona-New Mexico statehood bill (as one state to be called Arizona) passes Congress. People of New Mexico vote yes. Arizona votes no.
1910 – New Mexico constitution is written.
1911 – New Mexico voters approve constitution. Congress accepts.
1912 -- President Taft signs on Jan. 6.
(The New Mexico Blue Book contains a much longer history dating back to the Indian era. It is available from the Secretary of State's Office 505-827-3600.)

11-25 Redistricting

2011-11-20T15:56:00.001-07:00

112511 AZ Redistricting

SANTA FE – Two months ago, I asked if there might be a way to take all politics out of redistricting. It stands to reason that with the stakes being so high for the two political parties, they will do anything possible to game the system.
New Mexico Democrats, of course, deny they did anything to help their party in the redistricting plans they passed and which Republicans now are challenging in court. New Mexico Republicans claim Democrats produced fewer competitive districts in which Republicans might have a chance to win and eventually gain a majority.
The courts will decide. But then courts aren't free of politics either. We have seen courts tilted in both directions that have been accused of deciding elections.
So how do we design a completely nonpartisan redistricting system? I described some state plans two months ago in which independents cast the deciding votes. I liked neighboring Arizona's system in which Republican and Democratic leaders choose two members apiece and those four choose an independent to be chairman.
But we have just learned that this method isn't working either. Why? Because the plan had too many competitive districts that Democrats might win. Wait a minute. In New Mexico, Republicans wanted more competitive districts.
It depends on who is in control. It is good for voters to be in competitive districts because their vote is more likely to count. But the party in control wants as few competitive districts as possible. It has nothing to do with what is best for voters.
But what could Arizona Republicans do about the independent who voted for more competitive districts? They didn't appoint the person so they couldn't remove her. But, wait a minute. Another part of Arizona law gives the governor power to remove a member of any state committee for gross misconduct. So that's what Gov. Jan Brewer did.
The Arizona Supreme Court said that wasn't good enough. Brewer at least needed to explain the actions that constituted gross misconduct. Brewer said whatever she said was gross misconduct was gross misconduct. The Supreme Court disagreed. She said the court needed to explain.
But Brewer isn't giving up. She is meeting with her top advisers to determine what she can do to the decisions of the independent redistricting committee. Evidently her options will not include explaining what sort of gross misconduct the independent redistricting chairman committed.
Gov. Brewer's defense reminds of former President Richard Nixon's Watergate defense that if the president did it, it was legal. Even Nixon's friends didn't buy that one.
A better explanation came from former New Mexico Senate President Pro Tem Les Houston. When told that what he was trying to do was unlawful, he replied that anything for which he could get 22 votes (in the 42-member body) was legal.
Houston was closer to correct. The Senate is a lawmaking body and therefore can make decisions that a chief executive of a state or nation cannot.
So would it be possible to give independent redistricting commissions powers that a governor cannot override? To be constitutional, the courts would need to be in on the final action. Could the burden of proof for overriding an independent redistricting commission decision in court require something stronger than a preponderance of evidence?
Could overturning a redistricting decision require evidence beyond a reasonable doubt?
Of course, New Mexico will never have such an independent redistricting process until voters have the ability to put items on the ballot. It is called an initiative and referendum process. Gather enough signatures from registered voters and an issue can be put on the ballot for a public referendum.
Republican legislators have tried in the past to convince the Legislature to put initiative and referendum on the ballot. But Democrats, who almost always have been in control since 1930, don't like seeing voters going over their heads.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-18T06:25:00.001-07:00

We'll be in PHX today through next friday. You can reach me by c omputer or cell: 505-699-9982.

11-23 Hooray for Thanksgiving

2011-11-17T16:48:00.001-07:00

112311 THANKSGIVING

SANTA FE – Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. One of the reasons is that Americans still remember why we celebrate it. Thanksgiving isn't just another holiday to which we give not one thought other than that it is a day off work.
Nearly all of us truly remember to give thanks and truly celebrate the holiday. Unlike Christmas, there is no stress around giving and receiving presents. The purpose of celebrating Thanksgiving is very simple and very easy to observe.
We're told that all cultures observe some sort of day to give thanks. It seems to be a basic human need to back away from trouble, stress and daily commotion and reflect on one's blessings no matter how meager they may be.
In this part of the country where we can boast a European presence that predates English settlements on the East Coast, we have some fun claiming that America's first Thanksgiving occurred near El Paso in 1598.
That's when Don Juan de Onate and his ,large group of settlers paused on their journey northward to feast and give thanks to God for getting them through the desert and providing them with a river crossing. But it will never replace the story about Squanto and the Pilgrims.
The observance of Thanksgiving is so comfortable. Family gathers, often from afar. Sometimes good friends without family are included. Generations of cooks gather in the kitchen to discuss and prepare old recipes.
The smell of turkey and the trimmings begins to fill the air. Old stories are told, getting better every year. And after dinner, generations of males step outsider to toss around a football. And sometimes grandpa is taken to the emergency room after aggravating that old shoulder injury.
Which brings us to those who can't take off for the holiday -- the nurses and emergency room workers, police and firefighters, airline employees and truckers and most of all, those who serve and protect us around the world. For some, this will be the first Thanksgiving away from home and loved ones. Some will be in National Guard units called to active duty stations far away. For them, the taste of turkey will have very special meaning.
Here are some more reasons Thanksgiving is special. It is a four-day weekend for most people. Who works on the Friday after Thanksgiving? Most employers don't even expect it. Employees trade it for a vacation day or for a non-observed holiday like President's Day.
Of course, mall employees work even harder than usual on the day after Thanksgiving because it is the beginning of the holiday season, the busiest shopping day of the year. It is called Black Friday because it is the day when many retailers say they finally get to quit using red ink on their bottom line.
Thanksgiving also is a day when it is acceptable to stuff oneself and grudgingly permissible to watch sports all day. Well, almost all day. Do we really have to turn off the Cowboy game during dinner?
Thanksgiving gives political columnists the opportunity to give thanks for another controversial governor about whom there always will be something to write. The holiday also gives the opportunity to talk about the politicians who have made our turkey lists this year.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Can occupiers survive without a song?

2011-11-17T14:18:00.001-07:00

112111 Protest Songs

SANTA FE – My wife and I were watching the Country Music Awards last week when we realized that country music has gone the way of almost all other forms of music – single octave shouting, with the same words yelled over and over.
We wondered what students do on bus trips these days. They can't sing popular songs because there are few words and no melodies. Guess they just vegetate while listening to their smart phones play music.
That led to a discussion of what all the kids, camped out in parks these days do for songs. We remember the 60s and all the great songs of that protest movement, recorded by top stars on top labels. It was easy to sing those.
Can a movement survive without songs? Maybe it can. The tea partiers did a good job. We never went to a rally. Maybe they sang patriotic songs. But they were more organized and mature.
We didn't participate in the 1960s protests either. We were out of college, had jobs and I was in the New Mexico Air National Guard. But we certainly heard the music and could see how it would make a young person want to get up and march.
Maybe it will happen but there isn't much to work with. Television networks no longer carry musical and variety shows. Many bands or individuals have recorded protest music and many are available to play for the occupy gatherings.
But these groups don't record for big labels. They don't get much publicity and although their music carries strong messages, it isn't the sing-along sort of thing.
In the past week, I have become aware of groups promoting social issues that are teaching old protest songs to their members. Some are writing new lyrics to the old songs. And there are plenty of old songs.
How far back do protest songs and marching songs go? They are at least as old as our nation. Our revolutionary troops had many songs. Americans have always been musical. It drew notice from foreigners even in colonial days.
The most inspiring of all fight songs is "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from the Civil War period. It was the Union Army's marching song, penned by Julia Ward Howe to the tune of "John Brown's Body."
Howe improved on the words dramatically and produced a song that has endured for 150 years and should continue for much longer.
"Battle Hymn of the Republic" has become a standard in church hymnals and patriotic observances. Phrases from the lyrics have been lifted for speeches, sermons and book titles.
And with different words it is used for college fight songs, by athletic teams of all types worldwide and by labor movements as Solidarity Forever.
I recently saw a version written for a labor group that could become the anthem for the occupy movement simply because of the familiarity and stirring nature of the melody.
But musicians of the protest movement won't like it. This isn't 1960; it is 2011, they say. Musical tastes have changed.
They have, but it will take a toe-tapper to keep them going. There's no need to write a new melody. In the early days, the tunes of protest songs were taken from popular beer-drinking songs.
Of course, the marching songs of military troops had to be considerably sanitized before they could hit the pop charts. And, of course, our national anthem was once a British beer drinking song with very bawdy words.
Roswell historian Dave Clary helped me with the marching (or walking) songs from other wars we have fought. The anthem of the Texas war for independence was "Green Grow the Violets."
I seem to remember that song title is one of the theories about how the term "gringo" came about.
Clary has a feeling that the movement will never get anywhere as long as they call themselves "occupiers." He thinks "99ers" has a much better ring to it.

11-18 Lieutenant governors are a nuisance

2011-11-15T14:45:00.001-07:00

111811 Lt Gov

SANTA FE – Here we go again. The lieutenant governor is getting in the governor's way. They are such a nuisance. Why do we even have them?
That, by the way, is a good question. Some states don't have lieutenant governors. And those states do just fine. New Mexico governors not only are saddled with lieutenant governors, the lieutenant governors get to be full time employees if they desire. And why wouldn't they want to be on the top floor of the Merry Roundhouse in the middle of all the action?
The problem is that they don't have anything to do except preside over the Senate when it is in session. And, oh yes, take over for the governor when he or she can't serve or is out of state. A century ago, when our constitution was written, governors didn't travel out of state often and when they did, they weren't as accessible as they are now.
Gov. Susana Martinez believes the travel provision now is archaic and should be repealed. In reality, that is the way it happens now. The governor's staff and cabinet secretaries handle the operation of state government anyway. When the governor is out of state, nothing changes. If something unusual occurs when the governor is out of state, a quick check with the governor is easy enough.
It isn't practical for the reins of government to be turned over to a separate elected official every time the governor sets foot outside the state. The lieutenant governor is not answerable to the governor. Lt. Gov. John Sanchez is free to do whatever he desires and Gov. Martinez can't fire him for it.
The lieutenant governor is not part of the governor's team. They are in the middle of the action at the Roundhouse but they aren't part of it. If something unusual happens, lieutenant governors are as likely as not to find out in the morning paper.
So that is not who you want to take over government temporarily every week or so. The governor's team has to stay in control. The lieutenant governor cannot give orders to the governor's team or cabinet secretaries.
According to an Albuquerque Journal article, Gov. Martinez wants a constitutional amendment to retain her power when she leaves the state. That's fine but she will have to spend a great amount of political capital convincing the Legislature and then New Mexico voters to make the change.
It would be much cheaper politically to hammer out an agreement with Lt. Gov. John Sanchez as to what he will do when Gov. Martinez is out of state. Authorizing an acting governor to sign a certain bill or bills is a common courtesy.
The lieutenant governor sometime might arrange to be out of state at the same time as the governor, thereby making the secretary of state be acting governor for a day or so.
The chain continues down through the president pro tem of the Senate to the House speaker. Delegation that far down the line is not likely this term. Since both are Democrats, it could be risky. Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish signed a bill last year that she wanted but Gov. Richardson didn't.
The possibility also exists that Martinez's poor relationship with Lt. Gov. Sanchez may be the reason Martinez does not want to relinquish control. She denies it. The reason could be that Gov. Martinez simply doesn't want to tell anybody when she briefly leaves the state because she doesn't want the word leaking out and getting to the media.
Gov. Richardson occasionally did not have his staff notify Lt. Gov. Denish's staff when he was briefly going somewhere fun, such as sporting events. But the media always found out and Denish would read about it in the next morning's paper.
So as long as we are talking about taking away one of the lieutenant governor's last political powers, let's consider taking back the full-time employment option too.

11-16 Voter Fraud?

2011-11-14T11:45:00.001-07:00

111611 suppression

SANTA FE – How much voter fraud do we have in New Mexico? Voter fraud stories are rampant. And fun to tell.
We hear of stuffed ballot boxes, boxes that disappear on their way to county clerks' offices, boxes that are found by county clerks just before tallies are finalized, fixed voting machines and dead men voting.
A favorite story told for years involves a statewide candidate in danger of losing an election, who calls a northern New Mexico county chairman and asks how many votes he has for him. And the chairman replies, "How many do you need?"
In Texas the favorite stories are about Lyndon Johnson. He won his first election by only a handful of votes, leading to the nickname Landside Lyndon.
Stories soon emerged that the night before the election Johnson was seen in the local cemetery copying names off gravestones. It became known as the night of the living dead.
The story was told that a young boy found wailing in the street the day after that election. He explained, "They told me my dead father came back to vote for Lyndon Johnson but he didn't come by to see me."
I recently read that the same story was told almost a century earlier following President Rutherford B. Hayes' suspicious victory over Democrat Samuel Tilden.
Later President Hayes played a role in trying to straighten out New Mexico political corruption. Upon learning of Gov. Samuel Axtell siding with the Santa Fe Ring in land and economic disputes, Hayes replaced Axtel with respected Gen. Lew Wallace.
Unfortunately Gov. Wallace was more interested in finishing his book, Ben Hur, so the trouble continued in Lincoln, Colfax and other counties.
Political corruption and voter fraud have been present since free elections began. Both parties have been guilty. Usually the party in power has been guiltier. That is likely why the focus has been on the Democratic Party for the past many years in New Mexico.
Control of the secretary of state's office by Democrats during the past 80 years didn't help reduce suspicions.
Last November's victory by Dianna Duran, a respected state senator and former Otero County clerk finally presented the opportunity for a close look at past practices.
Duran reported her concern to the 2011 Legislature that many people are illegally registered to vote and that some actually vote. That was followed by her request to the state police to look into 64,000 registrations in which there were inaccuracies.
She also told lawmakers in March that she had found 37 people who had obtained driver's licenses with foreign national credentials who had later registered to vote. She didn't know if any of those people had actually had voted.
This month we have gotten some updates. Two non-citizens have voluntarily reported to her office that they registered to vote. One said she had never voted.
The other said he has been voting regularly, thinking that would help him on his road to citizenship. He was surprised to learn he was breaking the law and seriously hurting his effort.
The following day Duran announced her office has found 641 deceased people on the state voter list. She didn't know if any of them voted. County clerks regularly check death notice s in the papers and delete those names from voter rolls.
Duran soon will be able to check voter rolls against lists of deaths from the Vital Records Office for an even better tally. She attributed the delay to lack of action by her predecessor and failure of the state's computer system to do the job it is supposed to do.
But even with those obstacles, it appears the secretary of state and county clerks are doing a bang up job of maintaining New Mexico's voter rolls containing over a million names.
And maybe we will find out that the unsuccessful efforts by the George W. Bush administration to dig up voter fraud mean there really isn't that much anymore.

11-14 Have relaxed regs given economy a boost?

2011-11-10T10:11:00.001-07:00

111411 dereg

SANTA FE – Does New Mexico have too many regulations? Gov. Susana Martinez thinks so. She campaigned for smaller government.
Eliminating regulations is one way of making government smaller. With fewer regulations, fewer inspectors are needed to monitor and enforce the regulations. And it is easier to conduct business with fewer rules to follow.
So Gov. Martinez appointed a Small Business Friendly Task Force The group has reported on ways to eliminate regulations and reduce waste. As one might guess, the Regulation and Licensing Department and the Construction Industries Division were two of the first targets.
Gov. Martinez has heard plenty from the construction business about the onerous regulations they face. Many of the regulations involve improving the environment, which was a major goal of former Gov. Bill Richardson.
Richardson wanted to be known as the greenest governor in the nation. That is a popular item in the national Democratic platform. Many also believe that production of alternative energy equipment is a way for the nation to regain some of its international trade leadership.
But Martinez thinks Richardson overreached considerably in his efforts. Her task force has recommended to her that New Mexico go no further than federal environmental requirements. New Mexico was quickly becoming the leader in that field.
The task force also recommended New Mexico withdraw from the Western Climate Initiative and become merely an observer. Martinez says she still wants green businesses to come to New Mexico.
Martinez and the task force encourage small businesses with complaints about state regulations to call the Office of Business Advocate, 505-827-2486, with any problems on interaction with government agencies. All complaints will be kept confidential.
Many findings of the Task Force seem to be common sense. Environmental interests likely are pushing for too much regulation. Martinez likely wants too little in terms of environmental controls.
The task force also had recommendations about middle management personnel in state agencies who have an anti-business attitude. Some of the staff shuffling in state agencies that we have seen in the past seven months may be a result of that finding.
The task force was established by Gov. Martinez on Jan. 1, her first day in office. It called for 90 days of study, followed by a report. That report was submitted on April 1.
The Small Business Friendly Task Force was neither small in size nor composed of representatives from small businesses. The Web site lists 29 members composed primarily of top management and lobbyists from New Mexico's largest businesses.
There isn't a mom and pop operation on the list. Representatives of environmental groups claim their meetings were closed to the public and that it was necessary to file public records requests to obtain any of the work products of the meetings. That information is now on the Web.
The governor's office and the Economic Development Department now have had the report for seven months. Little has been said publicly about any action on the report.
Possibly some legislative action will be required in January but these recommendations were intended mostly for executive action, which doesn't require changes in the law. Regulations fall within the purview of the executive branch of government.
So the question is, has there been a reduction in regulations as a result of the report and, if so, have we seen any improvements yet in our economy?
One might have expected to see a rise in housing starts but that may be hampered by the lending market being so stingy.
As long as interest rates remain as low as they are, banks say what they spend on due diligence and paperwork make the measly interest they make from a loan less than what they can get investing their money.
This summer, the Legislature and governor's office reported some fairly rosy revenue projections but by fall those projections were backed off considerably.
So the answer seems to be that it is too early to have seen any economic results from trimming back regulations.

Appreciate our Veterans

2011-11-09T15:40:00.001-07:00

111111 Vets

SANTA FE -- Today is a very special day. Most importantly, it is a day to honor our veterans, living and dead, who fought that we might be free.
Secondly, it is a special day for those interested in numbers. Today, ceremonies are being conducted in many parts of the world to celebrate a treaty signed on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, of 1918.
It was billed as the war to end all wars. Unfortunately the claim was most naïve. The scores weren't settled on that war for another 27 years, in 1945. In reality, the fighting in outlying areas continued for some time past Nov. 11.
There are those who contend that the date and time were chosen by powerful Europeans because of the significance they attached to all those elevens. This year, the numbers are even more fascinating because it is the 11th year of a century and a millennium.
And just as with the treaty signing being moved up to coincide with a significant date, it is expected that many more babies will be born today to mothers anxious to have children on such an unusual date.
Expectant mothers aren't the only ones who will be taking advantage of the date. I'm guessing that if you look at the ads in today's paper, you will find some 11-11-11 specials on cars, restaurant meals and all sorts of shopping items.
And, to top it all off, you likely have heard many prophesies about world peace suddenly breaking out today. Ether that, or it will be the end of the world. Of course, we've become weary of end-of-the world prophesies in the past few years. They always seem to turn out the same.
Instead, veterans and their families will attend ceremonies at 11 a.m., maybe with a jet flyover. Other than hearing the noise, most people will give Veteran's Day little further thought. But there are some places in the world where the day still is very special indeed.
I will never tire of recalling my most memorable Veterans' Day. My wife and I were in Brussels, Belgium. We had never been there before and were anxious to see the sights. But we were told at the hotel desk that it was a very important national holiday and we were unlikely to find anything open.
We had encountered holiday celebrations in other countries and figured this was just one more that we would know or care little about. Imagine our surprise when the desk clerk explained they were celebrating the armistice that ended World War I, which had been very devastating to their country.
Of course, this was Nov. 11, Veterans' Day, as we would call it. We were in downtown Brussels and thought it would be interesting to see how Belgians celebrated the day. And we weren't disappointed.
Following our walking tour map we quickly found the famous Manekin Pis fountain, a 300-year old brass sculpture of a little boy doing what little boys do. The statue is dressed in many different costumes, depending on the time of year.
On Nov. 11, it was clad in an American Legion uniform and holding an American flag. We expressed our surprise and appreciation loudly enough that a local overheard us and explained how much the Belgians feel indebted to the United States for all we did for them during both the first and second world wars.
She said she hoped we could stay for the parade and ceremonies just down the street. We walked to the main thoroughfare, saw a large reviewing stand and more American flags lining the street than I have seen in any American city.
We didn't stay long because the speeches were in Dutch, French and German, the nation's three official languages. Belgians speak many other dialects, also, but enjoyed telling us, in perfect English, that English is their fourth language.

11-9 Statehood Celebrations Have Begun

2011-11-07T11:38:00.001-07:00

110911 centennial

SANTA FE – Most New Mexicans likely are aware that New Mexico celebrates its 100th birthday on January 6. Few New Mexicans, at this point, seem aware that the centennial celebration already has started.
That's the way it usually happens. To avoid a one-day celebration, start early and keep it going for a year or more.
New Mexico is no exception. Gov. Susana Martinez kicked off the festivities in Las Cruces back on the 28th of August. That was followed by an executive order on September 1 directing all state agencies to promote the centennial.
Union Pacific is adding to the celebration by sending one of its vintage locomotives steaming through New Mexico Nov. 4 through Nov. 9 from Tucumcari to Lordsburg. We know that special ceremonies were planned in those communities and we've seen that Alamogordo also had a celebration last Sunday when the steam engine came through.
The train is scheduled to be in Lordsburg today, Nov. 9, before continuing on through Arizona, which is celebrating its centennial also. Arizona became a state Jan. 14, 1912.
Railroads reached New Mexico at Raton in 1878. By 1880, they had reached Santa Fe, ending commerce on the Santa Fe Trail.
Maybe I just missed it, but I have seen almost nothing about this in newspapers or on television. Of course, I'm stuck with living in northern New Mexico where I see Santa Fe and Albuquerque media, which thinks if it doesn't happen here it isn't happening.
And nothing much seems to be happening here yet. Albuquerque celebrated its 300th anniversary a few years ago with numerous activities and generous media coverage. Santa Fe celebrated its 400th anniversary last year, hoping to make as big a splash as Jamestown, Va. a few years earlier. Jamestown had fabulous coverage with large sections of major national magazines devoted to it.
Interestingly Jamestown didn't have anywhere authentic to celebrate since the location of Jamestown is a mystery, covered under many feet of water now. Santa Fe has its original plaza and Palace of the Governors but attracted no national attention.
Of course, any event has to attract its own publicity – unless it is a disaster. New Mexico didn't do well with Santa Fe's 400th or the state's 400th in 1998 to celebrate Onate's first encampment north of Espanola. The best publicity in the last 40 years went to the Pueblos'300th anniversary celebration of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.
It's not that New Mexico doesn't know how to attract attention. The 400th anniversary of Coronado's 1540-41 trek through New Mexico searching for our fabled Cities of Gold attracted a large national audience back in 1940. The University of New Mexico history department took charge of that effort and succeeded in getting a generous appropriation from the Legislature.
But the biggest New Mexico celebration ever took place in the summer of 1883, soon after railroads had spread through New Mexico. The railroad companies wanted easterners to learn about our unique cultures and scenic beauty. They slashed their rates, marketed to large clubs and gave free rides to travel writers.
There was no event to celebrate so the railroads created one. It was the Tertio-Millennial celebration of the first European exploration of the West. No one bothered arguing with the dates or the title.
The event was supposed to last three weeks. It went on all summer. There were trips to the pueblos, Indian dances every afternoon. And the oval we call Federal Place was created as a horse track. It was a public-private partnership that worked quite well.
Word is slowly filtering up from the South about events down there. A longhorn cattle drive from Hobbs to Carlsbad will be staged May 9-11, 2012. The Roswell Museum and Art Center will feature a year-long exhibit of accomplishments in the community. And Sierra County will feature tours of the Elephant Butte Dam Site all year long.
Throughout the next year, we'll be talking about New Mexico's difficult road to statehood and some major events of our past century.

Gov eliminating waste, fraud and abuse

2011-11-02T15:47:00.001-06:00

110711 sheriff

SANTA FE – "I will eliminate waste, fraud and abuse." It's the popular refrain heard from every politician running for office. Gov. Susana Martinez seems determined to actually do it.
She immediately took out after waste in state government. She declined to fill many political appointee positions from the Bill Richardson administration – even after Richardson already had cut over 100 of a reported 500 political appointees. Martinez's appointees are considerably below the level during Gary Johnson's fiscally prudent administration.
The governor also has continued the modified hiring freeze from the last two years of the Richardson administration. Vacant positions are not filled unless their need can be demonstrated.
Gov. Martinez has been similarly frugal with supplies, equipment and the state's motor pool. We don't know about her policy on saving paper clips but she did turn back to the general fund a considerable amount from her office at the end of the fiscal year.
Alleged fraudulent use of taxpayer money was a cornerstone of Martinez's campaign a year ago. Since taking office, she has made new appointments wherever she can to guard against future occurrences.
The governor has been after abuse also. Her current target is denial of flextime for state employees. Previously employees were allowed to work alternative schedules in which they arrived or left either early or late as long as they worked eight hours.
One benefit of the alternate schedules to Santa Feans has been that commuter traffic has been spread over two hours instead of having massive traffic jams at 8 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. Gov. Martinez says she will allow cabinet secretaries to grant exceptions. Reportedly those have been rather stingy. Some employees say they will have to quit their jobs because of child care problems.
An Albuquerque television station reported on a cabinet secretary who said his first day on the job he heard a jangle of phones ringing throughout the office at 4:30 and learned that everyone had gone home at 4 p.m.
Obviously that is a problem in need of correction. But the solution may be overdone. A report last night on the TV news said a recent study has found that working women are more productive and happier when they can work alternative schedules.
The memorandum that went to employees rescinding flex time reportedly cited budgetary reasons. That is difficult to figure unless unsupervised employees are less productive causing a need to hire more employees.
More recently, I have heard the governor's office say it is a customer service problem because there are fewer staff to take care of people needing assistance. That appears to be an indication that there are some jobs that may not work with flextime.
Coverage during the noon hour also can be a problem. That is the only free time some people have. Phones that don't get answered until 1:15 are another evidence of poor customer service. It was a major concern of former Gov. Jerry Apodaca. He decreed a 55-minute lunch hour. Restaurants in the vicinity of the Capitol featured 55-minute lunch hour specials guaranteed to get state workers back to the office on time.
Gov. Apodaca made sure his edict was followed. He personally sat at his desk and called several agencies each day at 1 p.m. And he usually asked to speak to the boss to be sure someone was taking attendance.
So Gov. Martinez is making a better stab than any past governor at curbing waste, fraud and abuse. And I'll lay you odds she's not through. The word is that she is looking at telecommuting from Albuquerque offices. The Public Education Department already has closed its Albuquerque office. Maybe she'll look at teleconferencing to eliminate travel between Albuquerque and Santa for meetings.
One final note. State employees are good people. They don't want to see other employees abusing the system. What happens in state government happens in any bureaucracy.
Let's not get carried away.

11-4 Congressional races pick up more candidates

2011-11-01T13:18:00.001-06:00

110411 CDs

SANTA FE – U.S. House races are beginning to take shape. Senate races already are well set because they are statewide. Senate candidates don't have to worry about what redistricting might do to their campaign plans.
Heather Wilson and Martin Heinrich reported impressive third quarter fundraising totals. Lt. Gov. John Sanchez still can give Wilson a race in the GOP primary, with Greg Sowards lurking as a possible spoiler. State Auditor Hector Balderas still has a shot at Heinrich in the Democratic primary.
But it is the House where interest now is turning. The 1st Congressional District has a full-blown race on the Democratic side. Rep. Martin Heinrich is giving up the seat to run for the Senate post being vacated by Sen. Jeff Bingaman.
State Rep. Eric Griego got in first and has been raising money and picking up endorsements from progressive groups. Former Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez soon jumped in and has been doing well raising money among more moderate voters. County Commissioner Michelle Grisham joined them in mid-August. She too has posted strong fundraising totals. Her politics lie somewhere between Griego and Chavez.
Republican hopefuls in District 1 still haven't stirred up much interest. City Councilor Dan Lewis got in first, followed later by former Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones. Neither one has caught fire. Their fundraising totals are meager. It appears obvious that GOP powers are not excited about either one.
They may be waiting to see whether Economic Development Department Secretary Jon Barela jumps in. Barela ran Heinrich a strong race for the seat a few years ago. Barela has a bit of a problem. He has a good job, which he says he likes very much. But it appears he won't be able to keep his job if he runs.
Even though it is customary to do both, Gov. Susana Martinez made a major issue out of Lt. Gov. John Sanchez running for the U.S. Senate. She contended there wasn't time to do both even though the lieutenant governor's post is a do-nothing job. She followed that up by saying if Barela runs, he must resign.
Could it be that Barela quietly has the support of GOP leaders and is staying on the state payroll as long as he can? It is a sure bet that party leaders eventually will back some candidate in a big way, just as they backed Martinez for governor last year.
The 2nd Congressional District remains quiet. Rep. Steve Pearce is in control despite many complaints from the environmental community. Democrats Evelyn Madrid Erhard and Frank McKinnon are staging longshot bids. Blogger Heath Haussamen reports that former state Rep. Jeff Steinborn, of Las Cruces, may jump in also.
Democratic candidates don't have much chance in the heavily Republican performing district. But there may be hope in the future. The district, especially in Dona Ana County, is growing and becoming more Democratic. Some possible future candidates think that with a little redistricting help they can be strong enough to win before this decade is over.
The 3rd Congressional District, in northern New Mexico, is much the opposite. It is almost impossible for a Republican to win. Incumbent Rep. Ben Ray Lujan took 57 percent of the vote last year despite a national Republican landslide.
But the GOP is trying again with an impressive candidate who should run a good race. Rick Newton, an international businessman, with roots in Taos and Albuquerque, will run a campaign based out of Taos.
According to his campaign brochure, Newton has been involved in high-profile, deep water recovery projects using special equipment he invented. Working for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, he prepared Soviet nuclear threat assessment and managed a nuclear weapons effects team.
Although he has worked out of Albuquerque most of the last 14 years, he has kept close to the Taos community and says he has planned to end up there ever since beginning his career in New Mexico in 1969.

11-2 Governor doesn't live in a mansion

2011-10-31T13:46:00.001-06:00

110211 gov mansion

SANTA FE – This is the governor's residence, not the governor's mansion. Thus decreed our new governor Susana Martinez.
Actually residence isn't a bad idea. As mansions go, it is small potatoes. The only thing grand about New Mexico's residence is its parking lot.
Not being a mansion isn't, particularly unusual. Most states don't get carried away with their governor's residences.
If Gov. Martinez were appointed by royalty, she would live in a mansion. New Mexico's governors for its first 250 years were appointed by a king and they lived in what was called a palace. Actually the Palace of the Governors wasn't very palatial but it was better than any other house in the village.
Our first U.S. territorial governors, appointed by the president, lived in the Palace of the Governors. After 1889, they were allowed to live in private residences but they used the Palace as their office.
In 1907, after 60 years of trying to become a state, the territorial legislature decided it would have to start looking more like the rest of the United States if it ever was going to be admitted to the Union.
So they built a capitol with a dome on it and a large Victorian governor's mansion. It worked. But once we were safely in the Union, state buildings headed back toward pueblo and Spanish territorial styles. The dome came off the capitol and the mansion was torn down.
In 1951, a tract of land in the hills a mile north of the plaza was donated for a new residence and a modest Spanish territorial home was built for our governors.
The concept was that the home should fit in with the surrounding area and not be ostentatious. After all, the residence houses an elected official who should not be lording it over his or her constituents.
Former Gov. Bruce King, in his book "Cowboy in the Roundhouse," told of visiting the governor's residence in the early 1960s and going home to his small farm house to tell his wife Alice that he wanted to be governor someday so they could live in such a nice house.
Ten years later, the Kings moved into that house. When King's four-year term ended and they moved back to the ranch at Stanley, the Kings built themselves a very nice home.
But some other governors haven't been as impressed with the residence. It was reported that Gov. Toney Anaya's family, who lived nearby, didn't want to move in because it wasn't nearly as nice as their own home. Anaya sought some major improvements to the residence but they were ridiculed as Toney's Taj Mahal.
The living quarters always have been cramped, especially for families with children. Although several expansions and improvements have been made to the public areas of the mansion over the years, governors never particularly wanted to ask lawmakers for improvements to the private family area.
But former Gov. Gary Johnson did future governors a favor. He said since he had no future political ambitions, he wouldn't mind doing a little begging. He got money for the private quarters. His wife Dee, who had run a very successful construction business, oversaw the project.
It is common throughout the country for governor's residences to be called mansions even if they aren't. Some states provide no residence for the governor. In others, the "mansion" is a tract home. New Mexico falls somewhere in the middle but is generally agreed to be the most representative of its state's architecture.
Gov. Martinez is not the first New Mexico governor to insist on using residence instead of mansion. Former Gov. Jerry Apodaca also felt strongly that residence was the proper term. By the end of their third term, the Kings often referred to the residence as "the house."
Gov. Bill Richardson preferred the term "mansion." But he also liked to call it "the people's house" meaning that it was open to the people much more than under previous governor Gary Johnson.
Richardson claimed to have hosted 170 events, involving over 7,000 guests during his first year in office.

10-31 Post office closings hurt rural America

2011-10-27T10:31:00.001-06:00

103111 post office closings

SANTA FE – The U.S. Postal Service study on closing some 3700 post offices in the nation poses a real crisis for rural America. The problem is an $8 billion budget deficit. New Mexico has 54 of those target post offices. Hearings currently are being held to determine which offices should be cut.
Rural post offices are more than just a place to pick up mail. They are locations to congregate and see your neighbors at the appointed time when the mail truck is scheduled to arrive. Driving to the nearest open post office can take hours and be impossible in the winter.
The only thing worse is losing a school house. School closings began in New Mexico in the late 1940s. World War II changed much about our culture. Increased industrialization and a how-do-you-keep-'em-down-on-the-farm syndrome weakened small towns.
New Mexico had over 600 school districts at the time. That was pared down to 90 districts over a decade. Since that time, many remaining districts have had to close rural schools. It hasn't been pretty.
During the time that over 500 districts were being closed, the elected state Board of Education was the villain. The board members really didn't see themselves in that light. Science and technology was taking hold of our society and small schools were seen to be deprived if they didn't have chemistry labs and couldn't offer a broad curriculum.
The rapidly escalating Cold War and Russian space challenges prompted school faculty to encourage brighter students to prepare for science and engineering degrees.
But rural schools were the hearts of their communities. That's where people gathered. Basketball and sometimes six-man football were popular. That included girls' basketball teams.
Communities like Virden and Forrest won state basketball championships back in the days when all schools, regardless of size, played in one division.
I watched Virden, led by the rangy Merrill brothers, play during their two championship seasons. To get a 10-man traveling squad, they had to dip down into the junior high grades. Several of the Caton family from Forrest became friends and state leaders in later years.
The small schools were producing a good product and with 100 percent graduation rates. And they still are doing a good job, as documented by Think New Mexico, a Santa Fe-based think tank.
The organization currently is lobbying for a return to smaller schools, citing better attendance, graduation and test performance in the remaining small schools of the state.
The main reason is that the small communities are close. Students don't fall off radar screens. Everyone is interested in everyone else's children.
Rural residents tried to explain to state Board of Education meetings the good reasons for keeping their schools open. But, curiously, the only ones who seemed to succeed were those represented by powerful legislators.
Now those students ride a bus for hours each day. They can't stay in town for after school activities. Many are lost in big student bodies. And it was all in the name of giving them a broader education.
There was some thought of it being cheaper but Think New Mexico has come up with figures disputing that notion.
Let's hope that in the hearings on closing rural post offices, creative ideas can be developed that will prevent the rush to judgment we saw with the closing of small school districts 60 years ago.

Today is Halloween. Despite efforts to curb its celebration, it sells more costumes, more decorations and more candy than any other holiday of the year. So have fun.
***
Tomorrow is 11/1/11. Imagine the people getting excited about those numbers and all they might symbolize. County clerks report more marriage licenses than usual issued on such days.
This day may be even more special because of the unity theme symbolized by the numeral 1. And coming up in 10 days is an even bigger cause for celebration -- 11/11/11.

10-28 More tourists for less money?

2011-10-26T13:43:00.001-06:00

102811 tourism

SANTA FE – New Mexico can attract many more tourists without spending any more money. That was the message from state Tourism Department Secretary Monique Jacobson to the Legislative Finance Committee last week.
Jacobson says we just have to work smarter and elevate our game. And that we can do without any increase in appropriation. The message, of course, was music to legislative ears. But will it work? Our neighboring states spend many times New Mexico's $2.5 million advertising budget already.
Jacobson says the secret lies in how we spend our money. New Mexico's measly $2.5 million will be switched from tourism services to tourism generating expenditures.
"We've got to serve the traveler and not the destination," she explained. The New Mexico tourism industry has not appreciated the new secretary from the beginning. This will ice it.
But frugal-minded lawmakers likely will be willing to give Jacobson's austerity program a chance.
Attracting younger visitors is another of the young cabinet secretary's solutions. Playing to the young set is a popular fix to many ills for some reason. Our favorite piano bar in Santa Fe is getting rid of its grand piano in favor of pop music bands in order to attract a younger crowd.
The place already is packed with middle-aged and older folks with disposable personal income. I'm not sure what more is needed. The young folks will stay later but will they spend as much?
Some quick tactical wins are another part of Jacobson's strategy. Her "Catch the Kid" contest had New Mexicans and out-of-state visitors finding and arresting Billy the Kid.
To find the Kid, it was necessary to log onto a computer and see all the locations around the state where the Kid had stashed loot and left clues.
Then it was necessary to travel around New Mexico, with a smart phone onto which you had downloaded an app for the contest. Uh, what was that again? A fair segment of the adult population was lost right there.
Personally, I formed a posse composed of my kids, grandkids and several experts on New Mexico history to figure out what was going on. Among us, we quickly pinpointed the Kid's whereabouts, and when he would be caught.
We didn't participate in the final chase for the arrest, during the last weekend of the state fair. But our kids used the "loot" they had collected electronically to purchase "Catch the Kid" T-shirts for the grand kids.
Surprisingly little publicity was given to the final chase to arrest the Kid. From the news snippets I caught, the $10,000 prize was split between two winners.
Jacobson told the legislative committee the contest cost about uickly$600,000 and produced about $4 million in tourism revenue. She said she is pleased with the interest generated considering it was put together so quickly.
The responses I received were not as good but that's the way it goes in this business. The oldsters said they enjoyed my columns on the contest but had no idea what I was talking about.
Others said Billy the Kid was a horrible subject for the contest. All I can say is that my file on Billy the Kid is thicker than any other. In second place is UFOs. The governor comes in third. My conclusion is that people must like to be entertained.
Secretary Jacobson is going to stay in the news. Along with Education Secretary Hanna Skandera, the two have been the flashpoints for this administration.
They have been the ones to give walking papers to many staff members while building new programs. They both have been criticized by leaders of the constituencies they serve but if they can produce some results, New Mexicans will be happy to see them succeed.
We knew education results were bad but we hadn't heard that about tourism. We thought we were doing great but now we are told we are 38th at attracting tourists.
Good luck to both secretaries.

10-26 Behind the U.S. Senate Race Scenes

2011-10-24T18:07:00.001-06:00

102611 US SEN RACES

SANTA FE – Any visible action still is sparse in New Mexico's congressional races. It is surprising because U.S. Senate contests without an incumbent usually happen only once every 30 years or so. House districts #2 and #3 are slam dunks but Congressional District 1 will be lively because Rep. Martin Heinrich is leaving it to make a run at the U.S. Senate.
Labor Day is the usual kickoff for such races but it didn't happen this time. Neither did the kickoff of nomination petition signing in early October create a stir. But much has been happening behind the scenes. Here is a run-down of the action there.
In early September, I wrote a column reporting that Lt. Gov. John Sanchez couldn't be doing much on his U.S. Senate campaign for a while because he would be busy presiding over the state Senate's contentious redistricting session.
Sanchez put my column on his website. That column also included my statement that Sanchez's two-year state House term early last decade included a voting record that was very moderate but that now he is running with strong conservative support.
Candidate Greg Sowards, of Las Cruces, wonders why Sanchez ever would have put my entire column on his website when it points out that his record is moderate. Other of my columns since early in the year have included my impressions from numerous past communications with Sowards that he is the true conservative in this race.
Sanchez's past moderation could help him gain independent support in a general election but he first has to get through a tough primary election in which former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson is generally considered the favorite. Wilson has amassed a bigger bankroll than any other candidate in either party.
The New Mexico Watchdog, an insightful conservative website. Has wondered about New Mexico not electing a Hispanic to the U.S. Senate since Sen. Joe Montoya left office in 1977. The combo of Montoya and Dennis Chavez held the seat from 1935 to 1977. But since then, the seat has been held by Harrison "Jack" Schmitt for six years and Jeff Bingaman for 30 years.
Does it matter that New Mexico have an ethnically balanced Senate tandem? I can remember for at least 65 years hearing my bilingual father say New Mexico takes pride in having a balanced congressional delegation.
Originally the state had only one U.S. House member and about half the time, he was Hispanic. In the early years, those Hispanics were Republicans. Then, as a result of New Mexico's wartime growth, we gained a second House member, also elected at large, in 1943. Antonio Fernandez held that seat for many years.
In 1969, those two seats were districted and Manuel Lujan always held the northern seat. In 1983, New Mexico gained a third seat. Bill Richardson captured that seat eight times while Lujan held the Albuquerque seat for three terms until retiring in 1989. Ben Ray Lujan has held that seat since 2009.
In summary, New Mexico has had a fairly ethnically balanced congressional delegation since soon after statehood. What does the future hold? Both Republicans and Democrats have a strong U.S. Senate candidate running this year.
Republican John Sanchez will have to best Heather Wilson and Greg Sowards. Democratic state Auditor Hector Balderas faces off against U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich. Wilson and Heinrich are considered the favorites at this point to win their primaries but Sanchez and Balderas both have decent shots.
Does ethnicity play a role in New Mexican voting? It has long been popular for both groups to claim it doesn't. But statistics prove that wrong. National Republicans have been working especially hard to showcase Hispanics elected to top posts last year. Gov. Susana Martinez is a beneficiary. John Sanchez may get considerable national assistance.
Sanchez and Balderas both steer clear of being ethnic candidates. The Watchdog observes that the topic is so radioactive for the other candidates that they should stick to saying how much they like posole.

10-24 Gov. Jumps Aboard Space Plane

2011-10-20T11:12:00.001-06:00

102411 spaceport

SANTA FE – Finally, we have some encouraging words from Gov. Susana Martinez about Spaceport America. The words came during her first visit to the site for dedication of Virgin Galactic's terminal building and hanger.
Earlier, Gov. Martinez skipped ceremonies dedicating the 10,000-foot runway. And in January, she had some very discouraging words for the Legislature about the spaceport's finances and the necessity of private industry picking up further costs.
But she was all smiles when posing for pictures with Virgin Galactic owner Sir Richard Branson. Her positive comments didn't get much coverage but Albuquerque Journal reporter Rene Romo interviewed her later.
Gov. Martinez said during her public comments at the dedication that she is so impressed with Virgin Galactic that she may have to add a suborbital flight to her bucket list. Romo then caught up with her to ask about her apparent change of heart.
Martinez said her visit to the spaceport increased her enthusiasm for the project. She said she never was unenthusiastic about it. She just wanted to make sure our tax dollars are being spent wisely.
Judging from the experience of backers of other projects championed by former Gov. Bill Richardson, this may have been the first time Gov. Martinez had met with Virgin Galactic representatives.
Spaceport supporters had worried that the governor's lack of enthusiasm might turn off Sir Richard who is being pursued by countries worldwide to relocate his space program. Branson's continued commitment to New Mexico during the past 10 months has been a welcome sign.
Branson and his two children rappelled from the roof of the Virgin Galactic terminal at the beginning of the ceremonies. If relations had warmed a little earlier, Gov. Martinez might have joined them. A few weeks ago, we saw film clips of her qualifying for a concealed carry license, notching a perfect score.
It has been a long time since New Mexico governors have needed to carry a gun so she must have been doing it to demonstrate her skills. She also showcased her ballroom dancing abilities at least once since becoming governor. She won a Las Cruces dance competition when she was a district attorney. So why not show off with Sir Richard? It would have made international news.
Or why not take a ride on the first space plane to lift off from New Mexico? Branson and his two children will be on it.
When Bill Richardson was governor, he said he wanted to be on the first flight. That was early in Richardson's administration when plans called for the spaceport and the spaceship to be ready by 2010.
Virgin Galactic has had much good news lately. Former NASA shuttle program manager Mike Moses is leaving the space agency to become Virgin Galactic's vice president of operations. He will be in charge of all the company's operations at Spaceport America.
Virgin Galactic is involved in more than just tourism. NASA plus several research and educational institutions have already made reservations for space aboard the flights. The company also has an agreement with NASA to collaborate in the development of equipment to conduct space flight operations.
The equipment development is said to include space suits, heat shields and other space flight elements. Space suits and heat shields will be necessary when the commercial market advances to orbital flights.
Bill Richardson should not receive all the credit or blame for the spaceport. The idea was conceived by space enthusiasts centered in the Las Cruces area during the latter days of the Garrey Carruthers administration.
Gov. Bruce King supported their efforts and delegated the responsibility to Lt. Gov. Casey Luna. Gov. Gary Johnson didn't like the idea. He felt New Mexico had too many highway improvement needs.
It was in the early days of the Richardson administration that spaceport supporters found a big friend in state Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans, who took the idea to Richardson. You know the rest of the story.

10-21 New Mexico Loses a Leprechan

2011-10-18T17:04:00.001-06:00

102111 Tom Foy

SANTA FE – New Mexico lost one of its most pleasant citizens recently with the death of former state Rep. Tom Foy. If ever a person could be said to always have a smile on his face, it was Tommy, or Tommie, depending on how his friends wanted to spell it.
To my knowledge, he always spelled his name Tom but seemed to have no objection to the diminutive form. He was diminutive. Many thought of him as a leprechaun. But Tom didn't need to prove he was a tough guy.
He played football in high school and then survived the horrors of the Bataan Death March and Japanese hell ships and prison camps. Tom didn't seem to mind talking about his war experiences and the pleasant look on his face didn't seem to change even then.
When Tom signed up for the New Mexico National Guard, he had no idea what was coming. In 1940, he had just graduated from Notre Dame Law School and taken a job with a Silver City law firm. Congress had just passed a draft act and Tom figured enlisting in the Guard might be a way to stay closer to home.
But problems implementing the new draft law meant that Guard units throughout the nation were called on to fill in the gap to prepare for what looked like an impending war. The Guard activations were for only a year and the New Mexico National Guard would stay together.
When word came they would be deployed to the South Pacific, rumors spread that they were headed to the resort islands of Samoa, one of the few U.S. possessions in the South Pacific. And that's where some units were sent. But when our guys saw anti-aircraft artillery and ammunition loaded on their ship, they knew they were in for another disappointment.
But Foy didn't let it bother him. He had enlisted as a private but soon became a sergeant in charge of the right areas to make his cabin the gathering place for the Guard's officers. Eventually he became an officer too.
Later those organizational skills enabled him to help establish a secret area for holding rosaries in prison camp. Foy was awarded many medals and commendations for his service.
Foy didn't get back to Silver City for five years. He opened a law practice of his own and two years later became district attorney. Then he was on to the Legislature where he served in the House for 28 years.
During that period, Foy served as chairman of many committees and was instrumental in the passage of major legislation such as New Mexico's Equal Rights Amendment, the Uniform Probate Code and the veterans' property tax exemption. Foy also was active in many community and religious organizations.
I knew Tom and his wife Joan well during his 28 years in the legislature. We also were district governors of Lions Clubs International. And we were graduates of the same high school. When Tom graduated, it was called State Teachers College High School.
By the time I graduated, the college's name had changed to New Mexico Western College and the high school, which served all of Silver City and the surrounding area, was called Western High School. It now is Silver City High School.
Other graduates of that high school were U.S. Sens. Harrison Schmitt and Jeff Bingaman. Schmitt also was the last astronaut to set foot on the moon. Billy the Kid also attended that high school and is its most famous drop out. He was a good student but other matters led to his early departure.
Foy had a large and distinguished family. His son Jim has been a district attorney and daughter Celia is the chief judge of the state Court of Appeals. Judge Celia Foy Castillo's husband, Al Castillo, was a state representative from Raton and also was state auditor.

10-19 Redistricting always a cutthroat process

2011-10-17T14:45:00.001-06:00

101911 cutthroat

SANTA FE – Redistricting of governmental bodies is the most cutthroat exercise in the world of politics. New Mexico is not unique. The process takes place in every state at all levels of government. At stake are the political fortunes of every elected official and political party.
Regardless of the pronouncements of Gov. Susana Martinez and Democratic legislative leaders that voters should be able to choose their representatives rather than representatives choosing their voters, everyone involved in the process is looking for maximum advantage.
So what is the fairest way to conduct the process? Over half the states are using an independent redistricting commission. I may have been hanging out on the wrong planet the past decade but I haven't heard any legislative discussion of such a commission in New Mexico.
The idea is great but New Mexico really hasn't lost much by not investigating the possibilities already. All states with an IRC are having their problems. Some started operations following the 2000 census or earlier. Here's a look at what has been happening.
Arizona and California have the most independent commissions. Both completely exclude elected officials from involvement in drawing district lines.
Arizona does allow the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate to select a commission member from a list presented by a group called the state Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. Those four appointees then select a chair from a list of independents.
Other state's have independent commissions of equal numbers of legislators from each party or a group of legislators that acts if the legislature fails to agree. And some commissions are merely advisory. Several of the most independent commissions are from Western states.
But in all cases, courts are the final arbitrator. And some group always can find a way to claim to be disadvantaged. In New Mexico, for instance, the state GOP complains that not enough districts are competitive. Since they are in the minority in the Legislature and in our congressional delegation, they need as many competitive districts as possible in order to have a shot at gaining a majority.
In Arizona, where Republicans dominate, the situation is reversed. The Arizona GOP contends that the independent commission has made too many districts competitive, thereby making it possible for Democrats to win more seats in the Legislature and in the Arizona congressional delegation.
Why are Arizona and California redistricting commissions the most independent? Both are states where voters can put items on the ballot for a public referendum.
The story is that when New Mexico was writing its constitution, Congress was worried about us "making laws in the street." So it wanted us to have a completely representative government, hoping our legislators would be more discerning than the general populace.
It is difficult to imagine the New Mexico Legislature ceding its redistricting power to the people. But it may be a little unusual that the Republican Party hasn't tried.
The history of redistricting movements in states without an initiative and referendum process suggests it is the minority party that makes the effort for independent redistricting commissions.
But why bother with independent commissions? Courts ultimately have the final say. So, if courts make the final decision, can't someone figure a legal way for them to make the initial decision?
In New Mexico judges have to run for their office in the next election after their initial appointment. That means they have to declare as a Republican or a Democrat. If a redistricting panel could be composed of an equal number of judges, or retired judges, from each party, what could be fairer than that?
The answer likely relates to the separation of powers. Everyone always has a right to appeal any governmental decision. So although the courts can have the final say, they can't be involved before that.

Wouldn't you know that lawyers could figure another way to make a buck?

10-12 Reforming the PRC again

2011-10-11T09:31:00.001-06:00

101211 picking leaders

SANTA FE – How is the best way to pick our leaders? It is a problem every democracy wrestles with. In our country, we try it two different ways.
At the federal level, we elect a president and he chooses everyone else. If one of them messes up, the president is responsible so the appointee usually is gone quickly. The result is a team effort.

At the state level, voters choose a governor, secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, land commissioner and five corporation commissioners. If one of them messes up, that person is responsible. The governor usually is not well acquainted with the individual. Few voters are acquainted with the individual either. They likely voted based on party line.
So the offending public official hires a lawyer and begins the lengthy process of defending himself or herself. Depending on the situation, taxpayers may be picking up the tab.
Over the years, New Mexico voters have decided they prefer the second method. In that way, the governor doesn't get too powerful and maybe some of those elected officials might be people they have heard of and they might even like their ideas.
The New Mexico constitutional convention in 1969 tried to switch to the appointive method but voters turned down the new constitution. So now the state spends big money trying to get errant politicians removed from office.
By my count, we have had commissioners from four of the five Public Regulation Commission districts mess up badly enough to either have to resign or come close to it. I haven't been able to find a commissioner from Albuquerque who has stepped in it very badly. Otherwise, we haven't been able to elect very good PRC commissioners often enough.
This isn't to say that allowing the governor to choose his or her top administrators is foolproof either. Several readers have worried that allowing Gov. Susana Martinez to pick new PRC members would negate the entire reason for a Public Regulation Commission by making it a deregulation commission. It would hand everything over to industries that require regulating, they say.
So how do we solve the problem? Make some commissioners elected and some appointed, has been suggested I'm not sure what good that would do but it is worth studying.
And what about qualifications? Some states require a degree in engineering, law, economics or accounting. Or an alternative would be five years of work experience in a field regulated to the PRC. But would that run the danger of people who would be disposed toward favoring that industry? Many worry
And then we have commissioners without any specialized education or experience asking who is to decide they aren't smart enough to learn what they need to know. Besides, experts can be hired to do the technical analysis. We don't need a commission of elites.
True. What we do need is a commission composed of members who know how to do their job and perform their duties legally and ethically. Evidence during the entire life of the PRC and of the elected State Corporation Commission before it tells us it isn't happening. The job, because of its high salary and great power, tends to attract career politicians who too often don't meet the standards required.
The Think New Mexico organization has produced a booklet on rethinking the PRC. Its primary suggestions are to strengthen qualifications of commissioners and to transfer most of the enormous load of responsibilities to state agencies under the governor. Both suggestions seem to be part of the solution. But I'm not sure it is the total package.
For years lawmakers and other New Mexicans have sought an answer. Many pieces of legislation have been introduced. One, in 1966, sponsored by Rep. Bob Perls became the PRC as a result of his boundless energy. It is time to try again.
I have just received word of former Rep. Tom Foy's death. When I return from my current travels, I will devote an entire column to him.
Good morning fromest week. Jay PHX. Babysitting with grandkids will trump tyhe next two columns for Friday and Monday. Wee you Wednesday n

10-12 Reforming the PRC again

2011-10-11T09:27:00.001-06:00

101211 picking leaders

SANTA FE – How is the best way to pick our leaders? It is a problem every democracy wrestles with. In our country, we try it two different ways.
At the federal level, we elect a president and he chooses everyone else. If one of them messes up, the president is responsible so the appointee usually is gone quickly. The result is a team effort.

At the state level, voters choose a governor, secretary of state, attorney general, auditor, treasurer, land commissioner and five corporation commissioners. If one of them messes up, that person is responsible. The governor usually is not well acquainted with the individual. Few voters are acquainted with the individual either. They likely voted based on party line.
So the offending public official hires a lawyer and begins the lengthy process of defending himself or herself. Depending on the situation, taxpayers may be picking up the tab.
Over the years, New Mexico voters have decided they prefer the second method. In that way, the governor doesn't get too powerful and maybe some of those elected officials might be people they have heard of and they might even like their ideas.
The New Mexico constitutional convention in 1969 tried to switch to the appointive method but voters turned down the new constitution. So now the state spends big money trying to get errant politicians removed from office.
By my count, we have had commissioners from four of the five Public Regulation Commission districts mess up badly enough to either have to resign or come close to it. I haven't been able to find a commissioner from Albuquerque who has stepped in it very badly. Otherwise, we haven't been able to elect very good PRC commissioners often enough.
This isn't to say that allowing the governor to choose his or her top administrators is foolproof either. Several readers have worried that allowing Gov. Susana Martinez to pick new PRC members would negate the entire reason for a Public Regulation Commission by making it a deregulation commission. It would hand everything over to industries that require regulating, they say.
So how do we solve the problem? Make some commissioners elected and some appointed, has been suggested I'm not sure what good that would do but it is worth studying.
And what about qualifications? Some states require a degree in engineering, law, economics or accounting. Or an alternative would be five years of work experience in a field regulated to the PRC. But would that run the danger of people who would be disposed toward favoring that industry? Many worry
And then we have commissioners without any specialized education or experience asking who is to decide they aren't smart enough to learn what they need to know. Besides, experts can be hired to do the technical analysis. We don't need a commission of elites.
True. What we do need is a commission composed of members who know how to do their job and perform their duties legally and ethically. Evidence during the entire life of the PRC and of the elected State Corporation Commission before it tells us it isn't happening. The job, because of its high salary and great power, tends to attract career politicians who too often don't meet the standards required.
The Think New Mexico organization has produced a booklet on rethinking the PRC. Its primary suggestions are to strengthen qualifications of commissioners and to transfer most of the enormous load of responsibilities to state agencies under the governor. Both suggestions seem to be part of the solution. But I'm not sure it is the total package.
For years lawmakers and other New Mexicans have sought an answer. Many pieces of legislation have been introduced. One, in 1966, sponsored by Rep. Bob Perls became the PRC as a result of his boundless energy. It is time to try again.
I have just received word of former Rep. Tom Foy's death. When I return from my current travels, I will devote an entire column to him.
Good morning from Scottsdale. Babysitting the grand kids will override the next two c olumns -- for this next Friday and Monday See you Wednesday. Jay

10-10 update

2011-10-07T06:47:00.001-06:00

101011 PRC apps

SANTA FE – We were surprised last week to see 17 applicants for the Public Regulation Commission seat vacated by Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. Those applications were submitted on only two days' notice. And the notice wasn't particularly widely distributed. Those 17 had to be waiting to pounce.
Newspaper coverage of the 17 applicants mentioned that applications would be accepted for another three working days and that additional applications were expected.
But 70 more applications? That's a little mind blowing. Is it a commentary on our lousy job market? Or does it say something about a job that pays $90,000 a year with good benefits and no qualifications?
And it is low profile. Commissioners don't get much news coverage. Few voters know the PRC candidates so a person who already has political connections is at an advantage. And once on the commission, you get to hire your own staff.
Nearly all 87 applicants have held either an elective office, worked for a major political office holder, held a political party office or worked in a high ranking state government position. It may not be far off to say every unemployed politico in northern New Mexico is trying to get the job.
Gov. Susana Martinez has not given a date by which she will make the appointment. After all, she has 87 resumes to comb through although it seems highly likely she will be able to eliminate many very quickly.
It doesn't seem logical for a Democrat to even bother applying. Appointments such as this almost always go to a member of the governor's party. The four current members include two Democrats and two Republicans. So why would Martinez, a Republican, appoint a Democrat?
It should be noted, however, that the two republicans are former legislators and savvy politicians. Patrick Lyons, the commission chairman, was elected at the beginning of his first term despite being in the Republican minority.
Ben Hall, the other Republican and also new to the commission, could have been elected vice chairman to replace Block but he and Lyons agreed with Democrat Jason Marks that electing the other Democratic commissioner as vice chairman would be a good show of unity in the face of the turmoil the PRC currently is facing.
It seems very likely that Lyons and Hall told Block at the beginning of the year that if he voted for Lyons to be chairman of the commission, they would vote for him to be vice chairman.
We have talked recently about how Gov. Martinez's appointment of a replacement for Block may affect how people will feel about an appointive PRC, something I have been advocating.
My feelings have been influenced by watching the old appointive Public Regulation Commission, which functioned smoothly and professionally while the elective Corporation Commission had the same problems the PRC has had since its inception.
Since proposing an appointive commission composed of experts in the fields covered by the PRC, concerns have been expressed that these experts are likely to have vested interests because of having worked for industries they regulate.
An especial concern has been expressed about a regulation commission appointed by Martinez, a firm supporter of deregulation. It is a legitimate concern. The possibility of conflicts of interest is substantial. As we have said before, Gov. Martinez's selection to fill Block's position could influence whether she or any future governor might be allowed to appoint an entire commission.
The PRC was created 15 years ago for the same reasons further reform is being considered news. The latest good government features were added in, such as public financing and no contributions from lobbyists for industries regulated by the commission. Voters approved a constitutional amendment to make it happen. But it wasn't enough.

Eliminate paragraph toward the end re Block not resigning yet. This attachment correct.

10-10 87 want PRC Job

2011-10-06T14:53:00.001-06:00

101011 PRC apps

SANTA FE – We were surprised last week to see 17 applicants for the Public Regulation Commission seat vacated by Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. Those applications were submitted on only two days' notice. And the notice wasn't particularly widely distributed. Those 17 had to be waiting to pounce.
Newspaper coverage of the 17 applicants mentioned that applications would be accepted for another three working days and that additional applications were expected.
But 70 more applications? That's a little mind blowing. Is it a commentary on our lousy job market? Or does it say something about a job that pays $90,000 a year with good benefits and no qualifications?
And it is low profile. Commissioners don't get much news coverage. Few voters know the PRC candidates so a person who already has political connections is at an advantage. And once on the commission, you get to hire your own staff.
Nearly all 87 applicants have held either an elective office, worked for a major political office holder, held a political party office or worked in a high ranking state government position. It may not be far off to say every unemployed politico in northern New Mexico is trying to get the job.
Gov. Susana Martinez has not given a date by which she will make the appointment. After all, she has 87 resumes to comb through although it seems highly likely she will be able to eliminate many very quickly.
It doesn't seem logical for a Democrat to even bother applying. Appointments such as this almost always go to a member of the governor's party. The four current members include two Democrats and two Republicans. So why would Martinez, a Republican, appoint a Democrat?
It should be noted, however, that the two republicans are former legislators and savvy politicians. Patrick Lyons, the commission chairman, was elected at the beginning of his first term despite being in the Republican minority.
Ben Hall, the other Republican and also new to the commission, could have been elected vice chairman to replace Block but he and Lyons agreed with Democrat Jason Marks that electing the other Democratic commissioner as vice chairman would be a good show of unity in the face of the turmoil the PRC currently is facing.
It seems very likely that Lyons and Hall told Block at the beginning of the year that if he voted for Lyons to be chairman of the commission, they would vote for him to be vice chairman.
Gov. Martinez is not under any great pressure to appoint a replacement for Block since he has yet to fulfill his plea agreement to resign.
We have talked recently about how Gov. Martinez's appointment of a replacement for Block may affect how people will feel about an appointive PRC, something I have been advocating.
My feelings have been influenced by watching the old appointive Public Regulation Commission, which functioned smoothly and professionally while the elective Corporation Commission had the same problems the PRC has had since its inception.
Since proposing an appointive commission composed of experts in the fields covered by the PRC, concerns have been expressed that these experts are likely to have vested interests because of having worked for industries they regulate.
An especial concern has been expressed about a regulation commission appointed by Martinez, a firm supporter of deregulation. It is a legitimate concern. The possibility of conflicts of interest is substantial. As we have said before, Gov. Martinez's selection to fill Block's position could influence whether she or any future governor might be allowed to appoint an entire commission.
The PRC was created 15 years ago for the same reasons further reform is being considered news. The latest good government features were added in, such as public financing and no contributions from lobbyists for industries regulated by the commission. Voters approved a constitutional amendment to make it happen. But it wasn't enough.

We're off to PHX for birthdays. I'll let you know if babysitting is going to interfere with any columns.

10-7 attachment

2011-10-05T12:15:00.001-06:00

100711 This n' that

SANTA FE – Currently there is a lull in the redistricting battle as lawyers file challenges with the courts. Expect many lawyers and many suits because the state is obligated to pay their fees regardless of what they charge.
Courts will have to wait for Gov. Susana Martinez's action on redistricting bills before swinging into action. Then they will move as quickly as possible since candidates already can start circulating nominating petitions.
Now that Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. has agreed to resign, the only major action remaining on that matter will be Gov. Martinez's appointment of a replacement. Applications for the position were closed two days ago.
So with those two big issues briefly lying dormant, we can talk about other matters of interest in New Mexico politics for a few days.
Where's Bill Richardson? The question is asked frequently now that the former governor is out of the headlines. Richardson hasn't been kicking back as much as he talked about before leaving office last Dec. 31.
He has kept a small staff and is bouncing around speaking and looking for gigs as a consultant. He recently landed a spot at the James A. Baker Institute, at Rice University, in Houston, Texas, as a fellow in Latin American affairs. Baker was a top advisor to President George W. Bush and headed the legal team that halted the recount of Florida votes in 2000.
It may not have been intentional but before Richardson was governor, he was associated with the Kissinger firm in Washington; D. C. Kissinger was a top hand at the White House in the Nixon administration. That is bipartisanship for you.
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is having a heck of a time getting his presidential campaign noticed. Fox News has given him some air time and invited him to the Florida debate. Johnson was mainly ignored by the moderator in that debate. His speaking skills and debate skills are not exciting but he vows to keep going.
It still is unclear whether Johnson will be invited to any more debates. It is likely the national GOP hierarchy would prefer not to have him around because they find some of his libertarian views embarrassing. He wants us to get out of all our wars – Iraq, Afghanistan, drugs – and is close to the position of Texas governors on immigration.
What is it about New Mexico governors who can win by big margins in the state but can't capture the imagination of voters elsewhere? Is it because they still have trouble remembering New Mexico is a state? Is it because the word "Mexico" in our name makes us seem too foreign?
Probably not. President Obama overcame both those factors. Evidently we just haven't found anyone who is quite ready for prime time yet. Four years ago, Americans seemed to forget that governors tend to make better presidents. They have had experience turning dreams into reality and they have a feel for guiding us through crises.
The way candidates keep flaming out of the GOP presidential race, Johnson's endurance and perseverance could leave him as the last candidate standing.
We haven't said much about the 1st Congressional District race in the Albuquerque area to fill the spot left by Rep. Martin Heinrich who is moving up to run for the Senate seat being vacated the retiring Jeff Bingaman.
On the Democratic side are state Sen. Eric Griego, who got in the race early and is capturing the liberal vote, former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, who should attract the more conservative vote and County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is in the middle. Lujan Grisham hasn't picked up much of a base yet but could end up being a factor.
On the GOP side, are conservative City Councilor Dan Lewis and moderate former state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones. Jon Barela, who carried the flag for Republicans four years ago, may stay in his state Economic Development Department post.

10-7 Catching up on the rest of the news

2011-10-05T12:07:00.001-06:00

2011-10-03T07:23:00.000-06:00

10-05 further explanation

2011-10-03T07:20:00.001-06:00

It is confusing how this new computer shows explanatory notes. They show up as part of the text of the column. Please eliminate then at end of the column.

10-05 correction

2011-10-03T07:08:00.001-06:00

100511 PRC reform

SANTA FE – The latest Public Regulation Commission scandal should be enough to convince all concerned that something must be done. There is no need to recount the litany of Jerome Block, Jr.'s misdeeds or of those commissioners before him. You are likely as sick of them as I am.
The question is where do we go from here? It has become so bad that even PRC commissioners, Republican and Democrat, are willing to talk about changes. Legislators included the PRC in their discussion of government restructure last year but the PRC wasn't particularly interested.
But this year, after two commissioners have had to resign due to felony pleas, commission members know they are on the spot. One of the possibilities being discussed is transfer of some of the PRC's many duties to other state agencies.
The PRC is a constitutional body so any change will require a constitutional amendment. New Mexico voters aren't too keen about constitutional changes but after years of problems, voters may be willing to shake things up.
It has been just 12 years since we last approved a big shake up. That one combined the much-troubled elected Corporation Commission with the appointive Public Utilities Commission, thereby combining regulation of all utilities, along with other extraneous responsibilities. Those include insurance, trucking, telecommunications, corporations, pipeline safety, towing, ambulances, limousines, taxis and the state fire marshal's office.
That's quite a conglomeration of powers. In fact, New Mexico's PRC is one of the most powerful bodies of its type in the nation. It is governed by five commissioners who are not required to have any expertise in any of the areas being regulated.
A previous column talked about how many commissioners have been former legislators or other public officials. It also is a good launching pad for sons of high public officials. That, of course, includes Jerome Block, Jr. whose father preceded him on the commission. Their terms were separated by Ben Ray Lujan, son of House Speaker Ben Lujan.
Talk also is being heard about making the commission appointive or partially appointive. There is no telling how partially appointive would work. A totally appointive commission is desperately needed. We don't need politicos with scant background regulating these important industries.
One solution suggested by PRC Chairman Pat Lyons is to require a college degree or maybe an advanced degree in order to run for the commission. It is not a bad idea.
Today is the final day for applications to be appointed to Block's seat on the PRC. As of Friday, 17 applications had been received with more sure to come. The applicants are promising. Seven of the first 17 are politicos but seven also are engineers along with a lawyer and an accountant. Three have doctorates. Several also have experience in areas related to the PRC.
Gov. Susana Martinez promises to be thorough and deliberate in finding the best person to represent Block's constituents. It is highly likely she also will be looking for a well-qualified Republican who might have a chance of winning the seat in 2012.
But some of the politicos also are Republicans with good qualifications. The quality of Gov. Martinez's appointment might have some bearing on whether lawmakers and voters decide to relocate the commission under the governor.
This past weekend, Think New Mexico, a Santa Fe-based think tank, announced it has PRC recommendations to those mentioned above. I haven't seen its report yet but the group does high-quality work and is effective in getting its recommendations adopted.
It appears Think New Mexico wants to keep the commission elective. That is better in terms of accountability but it doesn't address the problem that voters just don't get adequate information about the candidates.
Too often they vote simply based on political party. Block was elected even after information surfaced about campaign finance irregularities.
I got appointive and elective mixed in penultimate graph. This attachmentis correct.

10-5 Public Regulation Commission changes in the wind

2011-10-02T10:18:00.001-06:00

100511 PRC reform

SANTA FE – The latest Public Regulation Commission scandal should be enough to convince all concerned that something must be done. There is no need to recount the litany of Jerome Block, Jr.'s misdeeds or of those commissioners before him. You are likely as sick of them as I am.
The question is where do we go from here? It has become so bad that even PRC commissioners, Republican and Democrat, are willing to talk about changes. Legislators included the PRC in their discussion of government restructure last year but the PRC wasn't particularly interested.
But this year, after two commissioners have had to resign due to felony pleas, commission members know they are on the spot. One of the possibilities being discussed is transfer of some of the PRC's many duties to other state agencies.
The PRC is a constitutional body so any change will require a constitutional amendment. New Mexico voters aren't too keen about constitutional changes but after years of problems, voters may be willing to shake things up.
It has been just 12 years since we last approved a big shake up. That one combined the much-troubled elected Corporation Commission with the appointive Public Utilities Commission, thereby combining regulation of all utilities, along with other extraneous responsibilities. Those include insurance, trucking, telecommunications, corporations, pipeline safety, towing, ambulances, limousines, taxis and the state fire marshal's office.
That's quite a conglomeration of powers. In fact, New Mexico's PRC is one of the most powerful bodies of its type in the nation. It is governed by five commissioners who are not required to have any expertise in any of the areas being regulated.
A previous column talked about how many commissioners have been former legislators or other public officials. It also is a good launching pad for sons of high public officials. That, of course, includes Jerome Block, Jr. whose father preceded him on the commission. Their terms were separated by Ben Ray Lujan, son of House Speaker Ben Lujan.
Talk also is being heard about making the commission appointive or partially appointive. There is no telling how partially appointive would work. A totally appointive commission is desperately needed. We don't need politicos with scant background regulating these important industries.
One solution suggested by PRC Chairman Pat Lyons is to require a college degree or maybe an advanced degree in order to run for the commission. It is not a bad idea.
Today is the final day for applications to be appointed to Block's seat on the PRC. As of Friday, 17 applications had been received with more sure to come. The applicants are promising. Seven of the first 17 are politicos but seven also are engineers along with a lawyer and an accountant. Three have doctorates. Several also have experience in areas related to the PRC.
Gov. Susana Martinez promises to be thorough and deliberate in finding the best person to represent Block's constituents. It is highly likely she also will be looking for a well-qualified Republican who might have a chance of winning the seat in 2012.
But some of the politicos also are Republicans with good qualifications. The quality of Gov. Martinez's appointment might have some bearing on whether lawmakers and voters decide to relocate the commission under the governor.
This past weekend, Think New Mexico, a Santa Fe-based think tank, announced it has PRC recommendations to those mentioned above. I haven't seen its report yet but the group does high-quality work and is effective in getting its recommendations adopted.
It appears Think New Mexico wants to keep the commission appointive. That is better in terms of accountability but it doesn't address the problem that voters just don't get adequate information about the candidates.
Too often they vote simply based on political party. Block was elected even after information surfaced about campaign finance irregularities.

10-3 Lawyers Full Employment Act

2011-09-28T19:10:00.001-06:00

100311 redistrict suits

SANTA FE – It wasn't intended to be a jobs creator but the recent special session stalemate over redistricting plans has effectively produced the Lawyers' Full Employment Act.
Without even waiting for Gov. Susana Martinez to exercise her threatened vetoes, three lawsuits were filed within two days of the special session's adjournment. So the courts, once again, will have to do the dirty work, aided by several million dollars' worth of lawyers.
Redistricting lawsuits have been filed in Bernalillo, Lea and Santa Fe counties. More may be on the way. It is likely the state Supreme Court will end up consolidating all suits into one and assigning a mutually agreeable district judge to hear the case and draw new maps.
Courts don't like to get involved in political battles so they will exercise as limited a role as possible. The prime consideration of the court will be the one person-one vote requirement. Districts must be as within five percent of the ideal. All the lawsuits are certain to use that standard as their reason for establishing their standing in court.
Certainly many districts are out of whack. Some have more than twice the population of others. The Lea County lawsuit contends that the legislative plans are biased in favor of urban districts at the expense of rural districts. Two Albuquerque lawmakers recently have issued statements charging just the opposite.
Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a Democrat, and Rep. James White, a Republican, both from Albuquerque, cite statistics to prove their point. The Lea County arguments to the contrary are not yet available. It doesn't seem both can be correct.
If the size of districts is within five percent of the norm, they meet the rule. Ortiz y Pino's argument is that 10 years ago rural districts were allowed to be on the low side of the norm in order for them to lose as few districts as possible.
That means that the Albuquerque area's fast growing districts began on the high side of the norm and in 10 years became twice as large as some rural districts. A judge is going to have to decide whether fast growing districts should start out above or below the ideal size.
The judge also will look at the shape of districts, which should be as compact as possible. Gerrymandering, in order to include desired precincts, is frowned upon.
Laws also prohibit diluting minority voting strength. That is an important consideration in New Mexico and is likely to appear in some suits. Some Indian tribes complicate that matter, however, by wanting to have representation in as many districts as possible.
The most controversial factor in this decade's redistricting has been political fairness. Republicans complain that Democrats used their majorities in both houses to create too many districts that either are safe Democratic or safe Republican.
Since most of the contests below the gubernatorial line on the ballot are traditionally won by Democrats, Republicans contend that there aren't enough marginal districts to give them a chance at winning a majority of legislative seats.
Normally legislators want a district they easily can win. But it can get too easy. By packing as many Republicans as possible into a district, the chance of having toss-up districts decreases. But there is no law against politically motivated redistricting. If there were, Texas Democratic senators wouldn't have spent the summer of 2003 in New Mexico attempting to prevent losing many congressional seats.
There wasn't much need for the recent million dollar special session. Legislators and the governor likely knew it would end up in court. Democrats may have wanted to pass something advantageous hoping the court would use it as a starting point.
Ten years ago, the Judge Frank Allen gave mixed signals when he used legislative redistricting bills as a template but refused to do so with congressional redistricting.
We must find a better method of redistricting.

9-30 Dems can't criticize gov on job creation

2011-09-27T14:42:00.001-06:00

93011 JOBS

SANTA FE – Ever since Gov. Susana Martinez presented her initiatives to the Legislature last January, Democrats have accused her of concentrating on wedge issues instead of job creation.
Gov. Martinez countered that insisting on no new taxes and reduction of regulations on businesses was the best jobs program possible. Democrats disagreed and argued that more immediate solutions were necessary.
Democrats picked up some extra ammunition as the Legislature adjourned in March. A group of Republican senators, upset that some of the governor's priorities were not scheduled for debate, staged a filibuster that caused a big capital outlay bill to die upon adjournment.
An omnibus bill, funding public works projects throughout the state is usually always the final item heard on the floor of the Senate before adjournment. The strategy is to preclude senators from last-minute efforts to add projects in their districts.
Martinez had no visible connection to the death of the capital outlay bill but it could be argued that she was more interested in issues other than jobs.
When the special session rolled around in September, that capital outlay bill was a major priority of the governor. The state's business and labor communities got together to support it. Capital outlay bills are popular because they don't require taxpayer money. They are funded by taxes on the minerals that are mined or pumped out of our state land.
Capital outlay bills are especially popular these days since they fund infrastructure projects at a time when our state and nation is becoming aware of our decaying infrastructure.
So it came as a big surprise when the Senate Finance Committee pared the capital outlay bill from $213 million to $86 million. Committee chairman John Arthur Smith, of Deming, took the lead in arguing that in a time of such economic uncertainty, we should hold some money back in case there is less income to the fund or in case interest rates on severance tax bonds increase.
It was assumed that more moderate Democrats, along with Republican supporters of Gov. Martinez, could push the appropriation back up to its original level. But it didn't happen. Republicans were not united behind the governor's proposal.
Any hopes of House members rallying in support of a higher figure were dashed when the Senate passed the bill at its lower amount and then adjourned at 1 a.m. last Saturday morning, leaving the House with no choice other than to accept the Senate's figure or go home empty handed again.
In fact, the zero option almost was the case. Several Republican House members made numerous attempts to adjourn the session without passing any further measures. Eventually the $86 million bill was passed 68-1.
Special sessions differ from regular sessions in that they are authorized by law to last as long as 30 days but never do. Therefore, there are no deadlines for adjournment. That is why the Senate could pull a fast one on the House.
So why couldn't full funding of the capital outlay bill get through the Legislature? Lawmakers haven't said much about their reasons but several possibilities exist. Some obviously agreed with Sen. Smith. Others, possibly even including a few Republicans, may not have wanted to give Gov. Martinez a big victory. Let her claim a partial victory but that's it.
Remember what the capital outlay bill normally is called. This is the pork bill, sometimes called the Christmas Tree Bill. It has a little in it for everyone. Legislators like to pass those just before elections so they can go home and brag about bringing home the bacon.
The items in the $86 million mainly were of statewide interest and, therefore, more important to the governor. Years ago, an agreement was made to divide the pork equally between the governor and each house of the Legislature. This was the governor's third. And if she wants her piece of the pie now, we'll give it to her.

9-28 Plenty of blame to go around

2011-09-25T16:52:00.001-06:00

WED, 9-28-11

SANTA FE � New Mexico�s special legislative session on redistricting has adjourned. Everyone is blaming everyone else for not getting much done. They all are correct. Everyone bears some blame.
Democrats control both houses of the legislature so they could pass about anything they wanted. But they knew that Gov. Susana Martinez would veto it. So why go to the trouble of passing something they know she will shoot down?
It now will be up to the state Supreme Court to draw the lines for legislative and congressional redistricting. They know from experience that those lawsuits will cost millions. Some estimates run as high as $9 million.
Privately, Democrats likely figured the best strategy would be to get something before the court that is as favorable to them as possible. Let the court start from there. Everyone likes to talk about saving taxpayer money but it may be that none of the parties to this dispute had any intention to keep redistricting out of court.
All legislators who plan to run again for office want to make their district as winnable as possible. Usually the majority party is willing to allow minority party members to protect their seats. There are exceptions, such as eight years ago when Texas Republicans took over their legislature and decided to redistrict their congressional delegation that had been redistricted two years earlier.
That is when Albuquerque had a visit from Texas Democratic senators for several weeks. Numerous Texas Democratic members of Congress lost their seats over that redistricting.
When an area of the state falls behind in growth, such as frequently happens on New Mexico�s Eastside, someone has to go. That sometimes becomes a personality contest, in which the district of the least popular lawmaker reappears in a fast growing part of the state.
This year, Republicans knew they would see some of their districts squeezed out of some slow growing areas. They hitched their wagon to an argument that Democrats ought to be fair in designing districts that would give them a chance to win in future years. But there is no law requiring political balance in a district.
Republicans knew the governor had their back. If they didn�t get everything they wanted in the Legislature, she would be there with her veto pen. That allowed them to be much more demanding that if they didn�t have a governor in their corner.
The Senate pulled a fast one on the House, going into the wee hours Saturday morning to complete its business and then adjourning. That left the House with no ability to negotiate any changes in Senate bills.
That led to what may be another first in state history � a redistricting session that doesn�t produce a U.S. House redistricting bill. The court will not even have a place to start on that one.
Gov. Martinez was no help with redistricting. In fact, she may have been a hindrance, calling in legislators to lobby them on her issues during the session. She said she worked hard during the session but none of it was directed at facilitating agreement on redistricting.
The Legislature passed redistricting bills for the Public Regulation Commission and the Public Education Commission. Will the governor sign them? She says she hasn�t reviewed them yet.
It appears that redistricting will be a political topic in next year�s campaigns. Martinez often has said that voters should be given a choice of candidates in their legislative districts rather than to have legislators choosing their voters in a redistricting session. It speaks to creating politically balanced legislative districts rather than safe districts.
Three of the 11 items the governor presented to the Legislature during this special session were passed. In-state preferences for state contracts were tightened to cut down on companies opening an office in the state just to bid on a contract.
A food stamp supplement was passed to take advantage of federal money. And $86.5 million was appropriated for capital outlay projects.

9-26 State layoffs no longer a surprise

2011-09-22T12:37:00.001-06:00

MON, 9-26-11

SANTA FE � It was another big surprise from the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez. A second round of state employee layoffs eliminated 27 jobs from the Tourism Department and Expo New Mexico, which runs the State Fair. The first round layoffs were in June when 44 employees were terminated, mainly at the Public Education Department.
The two rounds of layoffs were a surprise because Martinez, during her gubernatorial campaign last fall, repeatedly said she didn�t plan any furloughs or layoffs for the following year.
Gov. Bill Richardson had imposed several furlough days for all employees the previous year. On furlough days, employees do not report to work and are not paid.
Richardson also imposed a hiring freeze, beginning in the fall of 2008, which reduced several thousand state employees over the next two years and increased the workload on many employees.
The actions lowered Richardson�s popularity with state workers, who already were upset about his hiring of large numbers of political appointees who often were not qualified for their jobs. And workers were mad about Richardson�s veto of a bill doing away with double dippers, who retired and then went back to work drawing salary plus retirement.
As election time neared, many state employees were heard to say they would vote for Martinez because they were tired of Richardson�s policies and fearful that Democratic candidate Diane Denish would continue them. There even were rumors that Denish would require employees to work on their unpaid furlough days.
When newly elected Gov. Martinez submitted her budget proposal to the Legislature last January, it contained no provisions for furloughs or layoffs. Employees drew a sigh of relief and figured they had a governor they had an understanding governor.
So the layoffs came as a surprise � actually in more ways than one. Terminated employees were given no advance notice. They were told to have their offices cleaned out by the end of the day. Such action is not unheard of in personnel practices but it surely can mess up a person�s day.
Another surprise was that the majority of the layoffs were in the education and tourism departments � two areas about which New Mexicans feel strongly. The cuts were not system wide as were Gov. Richardson�s furloughs. Some of the biggest departments have not had a single layoff. Why would public schools and tourism get the first cuts?
One similarity between the two departments is that both are headed by young cabinet secretaries with big ideas. Hanna Skandera, at the Public Education Department, came to the state anxious to employ successful methods she helped develop in other states. Monique Jacobson, at the Tourism Department, came to the state eager to use promotional methods used in private industry.
One wouldn�t expect either of them to quickly dump a large portion of her staff. But then, maybe they felt some of the current staff was incompatible with the new ideas. That�s not what they said. They pled poverty. Maybe it is easier to fire people based on lack of funding. State employee unions have said they aren�t sure the terminations meet the rules.
The unions suggest just as much money will be spent on temporary employees and contract employees as was spent on longtime state workers. Skandera says her department�s big loss of funding stems from Gov. Martinez�s desire to cut down on school administration. Jacobson says the Legislature cut back her advertising budget severely.
Both Skandera and Jacobson have been criticized for not putting much effort into fighting the cuts. It also should be noted that Jacobson found $650,000 in the budget she inherited to fund the �Catch the Kid� contest. My guess is that the $10,000 prize will be awarded before you read this.
The bottom line is that layoffs no longer should be a surprise. They have happened in two departments where many might have least expected it. And government restructuring may claim many more.
I'll be at UNM homecoming activities through Sunday.

9-23 Can't we just all get along?

2011-09-21T16:06:00.001-06:00

FRI, 9-23-11

SANTA FE � As we predicted two days ago, the pace of this special legislative session on redistricting finally has picked up.
Both chambers have developed plans for redistricting New Mexico�s three-member congressional delegation, the state House and Senate, the Public Regulation Commission and the Public Education Commission.
The problem is that the Senate hasn�t developed much legislation that is likely to get through the House and none of the redistricting measures stand much chance of getting past Gov. Susana Martinez�s veto pen.
In the Senate, Democrats, with a 27-15 advantage, are moving plans through the system that never will get through the more evenly divided House, where Democrats hold a scant 36-33 margin.
That margin is even closer than it appears because Democrats lost their 37th vote last January when Rep. Andy Nunez, of Dona Ana County, bolted the party and became independent. Nunez nearly always has voted with Republicans ever since, thereby giving Democrats only a 36-34 advantage.
The result has been that anytime one of the 36 Democrats wants to gain some leverage, he or she will vote with Republicans, thus creating a tie that stalls legislation until that Democrat is satisfied.
That is exactly what Democrat Sandra Jeff, of Crownpoint, did last Tuesday to the House redistricting plan. As of this writing, on Wednesday evening, the bill is stalled until Rep. Jeff can be appeased. That still may not free the Democrats� bill because any other of the 36 Democrats could decide to copy Rep. Jeff�s example and threaten to vote with Republicans.
Any bill that House Democrats pass will sail through the Senate but that doesn�t help because it stands to reason that Gov. Martinez will veto anything that Republican lawmakers do not like. The only answer to this stalemate is for Republicans and Democrats to find common ground.
A two-thirds majority of each house can override a veto but that isn�t going to happen in the House so both sides might as well get together now. If the Legislature remains in session three days after the governor gets a piece of legislation, she has only three days in which to act on the measure rather than 20 days.

But that matters little either � another reason for getting together now. The three weeks for which the Legislature appropriated funding ends this coming Tuesday noon. Lawmakers usually have some extra money stashed away for emergencies but probably not enough to extend the session another week or 10 days, which would reach the maximum 30 days which special sessions can last.
Passing another feed bill to fund an extended session is a possibility, although it has never been done. That would give an advantage to the governor since she could veto the appropriation. The only remaining options would be to reach bipartisan agreement or for lawmakers to call themselves into extraordinary session, which requires more than a majority, and therefore, requires bipartisan agreement.
Here is the reality. Democratic-leaning areas of the state are growing faster than Republican-leaning areas. Democrats blew it in the 2010 elections, resulting in a Republican governor and close to an even match in the House. Both realities demand some give and take.
If common ground cannot be found, the state Supreme Court will craft a plan that attempts to treat both sides fairly. Attorney fees will cost the state money it can ill afford. Logic calls for working out disagreements now but the situation doesn�t appear to be ruled by logic.
No law or court decision exists that requires political districts be as evenly-matched as possible. That is what Republicans are seeking. Democrats are trying to make evenly-matched districts slightly more Democratic by switching in Democratic precincts and switching Republican precincts into districts that already are Republican.
That trend can be seen in the redistricting plans for our three House seats. Republicans are being switched out of the evenly-matched District 1, in the Albuquerque area into the southern District 2 and Democrats are being switched in from northern District 3.

9-21 Session should be over

2011-09-19T17:32:00.001-06:00

WED, 9-21-11

SANTA FE – As we enter the third week of New Mexico's special session on redistricting, we begin to see some signs of life. Some of the easier bills are popping out into public view.
The easiest bill is the one redistricting the elected Public Education Commission. The PEC is so inconsequential, it hardly exists. Its predecessor, the elective State Board of Education was powerful, indeed, making all the important decisions about education.
But in 2003, newly-elected Gov. Bill Richardson convinced New Mexico voters that in order for him to make the bold changes that education needed, he must have the power to accomplish it.
That fall, voters gave him the power on a bipartisan vote. An advisory elective Public Education Commission was created in order to make voters happy that they still had something to vote on – even though they never had been able to name a single member of the formally powerful board.
As evidence of the new education board's inconsequential nature, often no one ran for some of the positions on the board. Sometimes positions would be filled by last-minute write-in candidates.
A few years later, the board was given the authority to approve or disapprove charter schools. Now, at least, the board has an official duty. One wouldn't think that would be enough for map makers to make enough changes to carve two incumbents into the same district.
But it happened. The oversight now having been corrected appears to be in sufficiently good shape to move along to the governor for her signature.
But that may be the only bill to make it through the system without ending up in court. The Public Regulation Commission redistricting measure, which also survived without court attention 10 years ago, now has Democrats and Republicans battling over how to make the five districts lean either Republican or Democratic.
So we can add some more to the $3.5 million, plus inflation, that appealing this year's redistricting plans will cost taxpayers this year.
It is such a silly exercise. Lawmakers know the courts are not going to make any more changes than they must in order to draw the new districts. Lawmakers certainly are capable of drawing those same lines and avoiding what I'm guessing to be $5 million in legal fees for a judge to draw those lines.
There is no constitutional or court-ruled standard for districts to be politically balanced. The most important provision is that districts be as equally balanced in terms of population as possible. That's the one person-one vote rule.
The other important factor is not to dilute the voting strength of minorities. One other factor that redistricting is supposed to take into account is Most communities prefer not to be split between two districts. Also two similar communities in close proximity usually don't like to be split.
One exception is the state's Indian tribes and pueblos. In most cases they like to be in different districts. Evidentally they feel they have influence over more members of a public body that way.
Lawmakers have only until next Tuesday, September 27, to finish their work. They projected to be through by now. But unless they went into overdrive yesterday, they are nowhere near through.
The pace must really pick up in the next six days. Legislative leaders plan to get all redistricting bills to the Gov. Susana Martinez by at least three days before the end of the session so she will have to act on them by the end of the session.
That does not seem to give time to reach agreements among Democrats, Republicans and the governor in order to avoid disagreements that will end all these redistricting bills in court
The session can be extended to 30 days. But will lawmakers be willing to do it? And will the governor be willing to sign it?

9-21

2011-09-19T17:12:00.001-06:00

Hope you get this OK. I'm working on a new computer

9-19 Time's a-wastin'

2011-09-15T12:55:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- Time's a-wastin'. Tomorrow is the end of the second week of the New Mexico Legislature's special session on redistricting. And not much has happened.
The first encouraging sign emerged the middle of last week when 13 of 15 Republican senators signed a bill redistricting the Senate so that no returning Republican senator gets hurt.
That feat was accomplished soon after Sen. Kent Cravens, an Albuquerque Republican, announced that he will be leaving the Senate to become director of governmental affairs for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association.
Senate Democrats also have an Albuquerque member, Sen. Eric Griego, who has announced his intent to leave the Senate to run for Congress. With those two advantages, Senate Democrats and Republicans might be able to get together on an agreeable redistricting plan.
It's about time. The general timetable reportedly in legislative minds calls for redistricting to be decided in about two weeks, followed by several days of discussion about Gov. Susana Martinez's 11 agenda items.
Sufficient money has been appropriated for a three week session ending September 27. By that time, the House, Senate, Democrats, Republicans and the governor need to agree on redistricting of the U.S. House, state House and Senate, Public Regulation Commission and state Board of Education districts.
Mere passage of redistricting legislation does not accomplish the task. Unless bipartisan agreement can be reached, including the governor, the court is going to end up drawing the new districts at a cost to the state of about $5 million in attorney fees.
It isn't important to fret about this session costing $50,000 a day. That is one-percent of my estimated cost to taxpayers of legal fees if everything goes to court.
All parties might as well agree now because if it goes to court, the baby will be split resulting in a least-change compromise. So let's make those compromises now -- even if it takes a few days longer. If it takes the entire 30 days, that is all right too.
Nothing on Gov. Martinez's agenda is much of an emergency. The capital outlay work would be good to get started soon. It will create more jobs and the money will come out of severance tax income rather than from the state's general fund.
It would be a real feather in everyone's cap if agreements can be reached. There will be some members leaving the House also, which may help the combining of districts there.
Another consideration is what New Mexico's population pattern will look like 10 years from now. Albuquerque's West Side is projected to continue its rapid growth so it shouldn't be shortchanged now.
Dona Ana County's Hispanic population is expected to grow enough that the 2nd Congressional District area of dominance could shift from the East Side in a decade.
One strategy being considered by Democrats this year is to make the southern congressional district even more Republican so the 1st Congressional District in the Albuquerque area can be made easier for a Democrat to continue winning.
Southern Democrats aren't happy with the possibility of being thrown under the bus this time because they think voting patterns will begin shifting in their favor before the end of this decade.
So where is state government's head right now? Is there a desire reach accord and save state taxpayers the money for a court solution to redistricting? Or will we see an effort to load up for the 2012 election campaigns?
Gov. Martinez and House Republicans appear to be aiming toward a GOP takeover of the House in next year's elections while Senate Republicans and Democrats show signs of wanting to make everything work.
For the past decade, and longer, the dynamics have been just the opposite. The House got its work done in a businesslike manner and the Senate was always in uproar. It's likely due to a change in personalities.
MON, 9-19-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

9-16 Session dull so let's look elsewhere

2011-09-14T15:25:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- The first week of this decade's special legislative session on redistricting has been anything but exciting.
The only action has been complaints from Democratic leaders that Gov. Susana Martinez has loaded other items onto the agenda, something no other governor has done.
And now we have complaints from Republican lawmakers that nothing is happening so they should be considering items the governor added to the agenda.
Interest about that argument has its limits so let's move on to looking at some truly momentous events that occurred on this date in past years.
On September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo delivered his Grito to the people of Delores, Mexico, calling on them to unite in overthrowing the Spanish government. What followed was a bloody 11-year war of independence.
The little town of Delores still uses the letters cdr, Corazon del Revolution, in its address. Why doesn't Mexico celebrate its victory in 1821 instead of the beginning of the revolution? We do the same with the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Father Hidalgo was inspired by the American and French revolutions. So were most of the Latin American countries, many of which are celebrating their bicentennials soon.
On September 17, 1841, New Mexico Gov. Manuel Armijo and his troops captured the advance party leading a Texas invasion. The Texans were surprised that the New Mexicans didn't welcome them as liberators and benefactors. Quite the opposite, they were all marched barefooted to Mexico City.
On September 16, 1940, our nation initiated its first peacetime draft when the Selective Service Act took effect. Political maneuvering retarded effective implementation of the law for over a year.
To fill in the gap, many national guard units across the nation were federalized and sent to trouble spots, especially in the Philippines. That meant some 1800 New Mexicans found themselves in the Bataan Death March.
It was a misfortune for New Mexico but there is no telling what would have happened to our nation's war plan if a bunch of raw recruits had been defending Luzon. New Mexico's more mature country boys knew every trick to holding off the Japanese until Australia could be fortified.
On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland. The Germans had done the same two weeks earlier. The two pushed each other back and forth until the Soviets took over in 1945. The last Russian soldier finally left Poland on September 17, 1993.
Back in our own country, the United States Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. Few Americans know that since we don't get a three-day weekend.
The situation bothered Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., so much that in 2004, he attached a rider to an appropriation bill requiring any education institution receiving federal money to teach about the Constitution on September 17.
The rules are flexible as to how the instruction will occur but the law is doing enough good that more students know about Constitution Day than do adults. Previously it had been called Citizenship Day. No one remembered that either.
Some schools have an assembly and invite a public official to speak. State Attorney General Gary King frequently is a speaker. King has been promoting Constitution Day since he assumed office in 2007.
U.S. history normally is taught in fifth grade and again in high school. Fifth graders are at a popular age for patriotic activities. In many schools they will present the program for school assemblies.
At some point textbook companies quit putting the Declaration of Independence and Constitution in the back of U.S. history books. In many communities, Lions Clubs distribute pocket-size booklets containing the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.
At the state capitol yearly one can often find a class of fifth graders running around with those booklets asking legislators questions about the Constitution. It has forced some lawmakers to brush up on their history.
FRI, 9-16-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

9-14 Legislative plan becoming evident

2011-09-11T16:35:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- The master plan for this special session on redistricting seems to be falling into place. Although surprises always are possible in the give and take between the governor and lawmakers who aren't particularly fond of each other.
Gov. Susana Martinez says the session can easily be over in two weeks. The Legislature appropriated enough money for three weeks. The maximum length allowed by law is 30 days but no one would benefit by it going that long.
The likely scenario is for lawmakers to wrap up redistricting in about two weeks and then turn their attention to the governor's agenda for several days.
By remaining in session, Gov. Martinez will have to act on the redistricting bills within three days. That will give lawmakers an opportunity to override any vetoes. It also allows for all sorts of horse trading.
The governor will be very busy during those days analyzing the redistricting bills plus advocating for her own package of an expected 11 bills.
Of course, Gov. Martinez said before the session that she was planning to work hard and intimating that most lawmakers weren't anxious to work. Some legislative leaders, during last winter's regular session charged that Martinez hadn't adequately prepared for the session.
But she did prepare for this session. Rep. Paul Bandy, R- San Juan, has introduced a 72-page bill to merge the Tourism and Cultural Affairs departments. Reportedly two more governmental restructuring bills will be introduced soon.
A year ago, government reorganization was a hot topic. A large committee of legislators and others met often during the interim and presented a major report to the 2011 but little was done with the report.
In Gov. Martinez's defense, the job of restructuring government takes a great amount of time and thought, which a new governor doesn't have. She did the one thing she could and it actually was the most important step. She told her top appointees restructure was possible and to be prepared to cooperate.
This didn't happen during the last year of the Bill Richardson administration. Former Gov. Richardson was amenable to reorganization but his appointees had developed loyalties to the present organization structure and fervently fought any change.
So reorganization has a chance under Gov. Martinez. It just won't happen during this session. It requires much more analysis and debate.
Some items on the governor's agenda lawmakers really want to see. They intended to pass the capital outlay bill in the regular session but it got caught up in a political spat involving other legislation.
Bills strengthening preference for in-state bidders and clarifying tax credits for companies paying high wages should get through easily.
That could be about it. Both sides want to shore up the unemployment fund. The governor wants to take the money out of reserves. Lawmakers voted to hike employer premiums during the regular session. The courts said to agree on something. Compromise could be an answer but that's a bad word.
Both sides know the state needs to increase highway maintenance funding. Gov. Martinez has asked for $41 million, which is the amount that was transferred for the Rail Runner. That complicates the matter.
The governor and a majority of the Legislature want fireworks restrictions but that can be handled just as well in January so Democrat leaders may postpone.
That leaves the tough stuff. Gov. Martinez wants to repeal the law granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens. The Senate proposed a compromise during the regular session, which it says meets all her objections. House Speaker Ben Lujan has introduced that Senate proposal in the House. Martinez says she'll veto.
The court has said to figure out the third-grade social promotion. As the battle continues, more good ideas surface. Everyone wants better reading. This seems to be the Legislature taking another slap at Education Secretary Hanna Skandera. She deserves a chance.
WED, 9-14-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

9-12 Legislature off to contentious start

2011-09-08T11:52:00.001-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- The New Mexico Legislature is off to its expected contentious start. The starter's gun is fired by the governor with a proclamation setting the time and date of the session and the subjects to be covered.
Normally proclamations are very official sounding but Gov. Susana Martinez's version seemed argumentative, more like a campaign speech. Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, of Roswell, called the proclamation "political rhetoric and antagonistic."
Jennings charged in an opening day floor speech that the governor unfairly portrayed lawmakers as tax-raisers who increase burdens on small businesses.
Those weren't the only shots fired back and forth. In a Sunday Op-Ed piece in the Albuquerque Journal, Gov. Martinez said she was willing to work during the session but suggested that most legislators would have little to do so they should get busy with her agenda.
Jennings shot back that Martinez's comments were absurd. He noted that he has been through four redistricting sessions and she has been through none. "What does she know," he asked?
Sen. Jennings is not a liberal Democrat, by any means. He led an insurgency of all Senate Republicans and a few Democrats to overturn the Senate Democratic caucus' selection of Sen. Carlos Cisneros, of Taos, for Senate president pro tem.
Jennings was former Gov. Bill Richardson's bitter enemy for eight years. It was expected that he and Gov. Martinez would see eye to eye on many matters. But they haven't gotten off to a good start.
One of Martinez's problems seems to be a reluctance to talk with Democratic leaders. Or maybe it is her political handlers who don't want her making deals with Democrats. They likely would rather lose now and use the loses to help win more legislative seats next year.
Martinez often is compared former Gov. Gary Johnson, who also was a Republican faced with a Democratic legislature. But lawmakers appreciated Johnson's accessibility. They didn't agree on much. But they didn't fight. Johnson kept his comments positive just as he kept his campaign commercials positive.
Johnson didn't get much legislation passed but he didn't have much legislation he wanted to pass. He was a proponent of limited government and was able to accomplish that through numerous vetoes.
Blogger Joe Monahan is suggesting that Martinez may be more like former Gov. Toney Anaya, a Democrat faced with a Republican controlled legislature. Anaya couldn't get anything passed and was in a constant war with lawmakers.
Martinez may find herself in the same situation. She has initiatives she wants to pass but she didn't get them in the regular session and isn't on track to get anything passed in this session except for some cleanup legislation left over from last spring.
Catholic bishops have been asking Gov. Martinez to compromise on banning driver's licenses for illegal aliens. During the regular session, the Senate passed legislation strengthening penalties for illegally obtaining drivers licenses.
But Martinez wants to go all or nothing rather than getting what she can now and coming back to do more later. Last Wednesday evening we heard Republican presidential candidates laud former President Ronald Reagan's leadership.
Reagan was a very pragmatic president, however. He was famous for the art of the deal. Today compromise has become a bad word. Bismarck, or whomever said "Politics is the art of compromise," would be in for some major arguments today.
Gary Johnson just can't seem to catch a break. He wasn't invited to the first big presidential debate, which was held in New Hampshire earlier this summer because he was only polling one percent. He was told he needed to be at two percent in the CNN poll to be invited.
Now Johnson is polling two percent with CNN and he still didn't get invited to last Wednesday's big debate. Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum, who only polled one percent, were invited.
Johnson says he'll stick to New Hampshire and try to make his mark there.
MON, 9-12-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

9-9 Achieve redistricting agreement and save $5 million

2011-09-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- What is most important about the current legislative special session on redistricting?
Is it getting as much of Gov. Susana Martinez's add-on agenda enacted? Numerous opinion pieces have been written about the importance of various of the items she wants lawmakers to consider.
Is it keeping the session as short as possible? Much has been written about the $50,000 a day cost of the session. If the session is wrapped up in 10 days, as many hope, it will cost a half-million dollars. If it lasts the maximum allowable 30 days, it will cost a whopping $1.5 million.
That's a lot of taxpayer money, isn't it? But the figure pales in comparison to the cost of not getting the redistricting job agreed to by the Legislature and governor.
That's what happened 10 years ago -- and Gov. Gary Johnson didn't add any extra items to the agenda. The legal costs of straightening out the mess that time came to $3.5 million.
A decade of inflation would take that figure to $5 million easily. A handful of lawyers are a heck of a lot more expensive than 112 legislators and all their employees.
So it appears that what should be most important about this redistricting session is to reach agreement on how to redistrict the state House and Senate, New Mexico's U.S. House delegation and the state Public Regulation Commission.
And what are the chances of doing that? Not very good. Gov. Martinez's only interest is in passing nine extraneous items of importance to her. To accomplish that, she is diverting the attention of legislators from what should be their only task.
The result is hostility from the majority leadership of the Legislature. The governor says she is talking with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to push her agenda. But talking doesn't mean agreement.
There doesn't appear to be agreement from the majority leadership of either legislative chamber. If there were, the nine items could be passed quickly and might set a tone for agreement on redistricting issues.
But who is this bipartisan group the governor is talking with? It wouldn't be surprising to learn that the group consists of Republican leaders and some Democrats who might cross party lines to pass some of her issues. That is going to make reaching agreement on redistricting even more difficult.
So what is the likely outcome? One scenario has the Democratic leadership of both houses quickly shuffling the governor's controversial items off to oblivion.
This can be done in many ways. The most common method is to conduct a hearing on unwanted bills and then temporarily table them for further consideration. The temporarily eventually becomes permanent.
A little more controversial is to never hear some of the bills. Even more controversial is to place them on the House speaker's table or the Senate president's table as soon as they are introduced.
Gone are the days of flamboyant bill killings. Legislative rules call for a bill passed by the Legislature to be the original version, not a copy.
In the 1960s, House Education Committee chairman Fred Foster locked a bill in his bottom desk drawer and said it would not come out until the session ended.
In the 1970s, colorful Sen. Tom Benavidez got hold of the original version of a bill he didn't like and headed to Juarez with it.
Another legislative rule states that when a governor puts a subject on the agenda for a legislature to consider, lawmakers can introduce their own bills on that subject. Both houses have a rules committee that decides whether each bill introduced is appropriately on subject.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez has suggested that Gov. Martinez's nine bills could turn into 90 bills, or 900 bills.
Since New Mexico never has had a governor add extra items to a redistricting session, predicting its outcome is difficult. My guess is that several lawyers are going to greatly improve their financial health -- at taxpayer expense.
FRI, 9-09-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

9-7 Special Session and U.S. Senate race compete for attention

2011-09-03T02:43:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- The Labor Day weekend usually is the kick off for the following year's major political campaigns. This year may be a little different however.
The state legislature's special session on redistricting undoubtedly will grab many of the headlines for a few weeks. That likely means no major announcements by the candidates but it won't stop behind-the-scenes jockeying.
The wide open U.S. Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Bingaman picked up four major candidates very quickly last spring but has been rather quiet since then.
Here is where that contest stands at this point. The Democratic primary features a struggle between 1st Congressional District Rep. Martin Heinrich and state Auditor Hector Balderas. Andres Valdes, an Albuquerque activist, also has announced.
On the Republican side of the ballot are former 1st Congressional District Rep. Heather Wilson and Lt. Gov. John Sanchez. Two other candidates, Las Cruces businessman Greg Sowards and William English of Alamogordo, also are in the race.
These lineups promise exciting primary elections on both sides followed by a hard fought general election battle. This is as it should be for an important U.S. Senate seat that traditionally only comes open every few decades in New Mexico.
Lt. Gov. Sanchez will be very busy the next few weeks presiding over the state Senate during the redistricting session that also is being asked to consider close to a dozen additional items.
Most of the controversy that is expected in the session is likely to occur in the Senate. Sanchez will have his hands full trying to hold things together. He may get his name in the paper a lot but it may not be the sort of news that will help his campaign.
Don't be surprised to see senators rig some votes so that Sanchez will have to break ties on controversial issues. They did it to former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.
During Sanchez's two-year state House term early last decade, his voting record was very moderate but he has had the banner of conservatism wrapped around him for this race.
Sanchez appeared a little uneasy in his new clothes at first but with polls showing 60 percent of New Mexico Republican voters embracing the tea party, he can win the primary with just that element on his side.
Early Republican frontrunner Heather Wilson calls herself a conservative but has trouble making voters believe it. The truth is that winning a general election in the Albuquerque area requires a fairly moderate voting record. But it doesn't win GOP primary elections.
So Wilson is bypassing a fight with Sanchez at this time by firing at Democrat frontrunner Martin Heinrich. If she can get Republican voters thinking she is the best candidate to beat Heinrich, maybe she can convince primary election voters to give her a shot in the general election.
Heinrich is taking the bait and firing back at Wilson for causing a national fiscal crisis by supporting two wars and tax breaks for the wealthy. Those charges are likely to help Wilson in her primary election so her strategy appears to be working.
Hector Balderas recently has put out the news that the Politico.com website has tabbed him as possibly the best underdog candidate for the U.S. Senate anywhere in the nation.
That's pretty heady stuff. Balderas can claim victory in two statewide primaries and two general elections for state auditor. Lt. Gov. Sanchez can claim victory in a gubernatorial primary and a lieutenant gubernatorial primary, plus victory as a running mate with Gov. Susana Martinez.
These statewide victories for Balderas and Sanchez are important because it means they both have the beginnings of an organization in every county.
And don't forget Lt. Gov. Sanchez's official tour of all 33 counties assigned by Gov.-elect Martinez before either one of them even took office. The current frontrunners, Wilson and Heinrich, never have won a statewide race.
WED, 9-7-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

9-5 Redistricting causes some political deaths

2011-09-01T11:09:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- Get ready for a slam-bang legislative session beginning tomorrow. Redistricting sessions are especially brutal. At least one political death always occurs.
As usual, the Albuquerque metropolitan area is set to devour a few more legislative seats from the rest of the state. The size of New Mexico's legislature is set by law. So high growth in one region means seats will be lost in areas of slower growth.
But isn't there a way that districts can be redrawn so that no legislator loses a seat? Yes, there is, but the Legislature's redistricting consultant, Brian Sanderoff, says the map would be good only for comic relief.
Picture a map with many districts having tentacles reaching into the Albuquerque area from all over the state in order to grab enough population to remain in existence. It not only would be a comical map, it would violate federal guidelines and court decisions designed to prevent gerrymandering.
Sanderoff has presented numerous possible maps to a redistricting committee, which has been traveling the state this summer conducting public hearings.
Various versions of those plans are expected to be introduced during the upcoming special session. All lawmakers will be keeping their eyes on all plans to see which treats them most favorably.
They may develop amendments to those plans that will treat them better. In addition, lawmakers will be developing plans to redistrict New Mexico's three congressional seats and the state Public Regulation Commission.
And they will be lobbied by present members of those bodies and by challengers for those offices. Gov. Susana Martinez says only a few lawmakers will be busy handling redistricting so they will be free to consider a slew of items she would like to add to their special session agenda.
Martinez never has seen a redistricting session in progress so she does not comprehend how encompassed lawmakers become in the redistricting process.
Tension between governors and legislators always exists before and during special sessions, with lawmakers insisting that the governor is adding too many items.
That tension also exists during 30-day regular sessions such as we will have next January and February. That session is limited to budgetary items plus topics introduced by the governor.
Lawmakers usually seem to get most of the governors' extra items considered during 30-day sessions so Martinez is arguing that they can get her extra items considered during a redistricting session.
But that may not be correct. The Legislative Council Service reports that previous redistricting sessions never have considered extra items.
Gov. Martinez is correct that only a few legislative committees meet during a redistricting session. That requires fewer staff. But if additional items are introduced, additional committees need to meet and additional staff will have to be hired, which will increase the amount spent per day on the session.
Everything could get considered during the session if there were bipartisan agreement on everything going into the session. But that never happens, even on the redistricting questions.
Only once in the history of redistricting sessions have at least some of the results not gone to court, according to the Legislative Council Service. This doesn't appear to be the year when that will change.
The Senate Democratic leadership has expressed antagonism about the governor piling on extra items for the session. For awhile, it was a new item every day.
A few items can be agreed on quickly and they should be. But animosities could escalate to the point that legislative leaders decide they are going to stick to just redistricting issues.
That situation occurred during the first year of Gov. Bill Richardson's administration when he loaded down a special session with too much work, none of which he had discussed with leaders beforehand.
One item lawmakers have the power to add to this session is the impeachment of Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. But consistent with their opposition to overloading the agenda, that will wait until later.
MON, 9-05-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

Fw: [Inside the Capitol] 9-2 Battleship New Mexico Invited to Japanese Surrender

2011-08-29T11:23:00.000-06:00

I'll try embedding the attachment.

By JAY MILLER

Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- On September 2, 1945, Japan made formal the surrender it had declared on August 15. The ceremony occurred aboard the USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay.

The Japanese delegation, unable to find any vessel seaworthy enough to take them into the bay, boarded an American destroyer to take them on the 16-mile journey.

An impressive 258 Allied warships filled the bay, making it one of the most formidable displays of naval power ever assembled in one anchorage. Many more could have joined them, but it was an invitation-only event for warships that had distinguished themselves in Pacific battles.

The Battleship New Mexico was there, honored for her service in the Gilberts, Marshalls, Solomons, Marianas, Philippines and Okinawa. In her last two battles, she suffered three kamikaze hits, killing a total of 83, including the commanding officer, and injuring 206.

Also present was Gen. Jonathon Wainwright, the beloved commanding officer who remained in the Philippines after MacArthur left.

Wainwright, who had endured all the prison camp atrocities experienced by his troops and looking like a skeleton, was quickly rescued from a prison camp in China and brought to the ceremony.

He took a place of honor, near MacArthur and reportedly received the first ceremonial pen when MacArthur signed the surrender document as the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan.

The Navy was not impressed that MacArthur became supreme commander or that he would conduct the surrender ceremonies. MacArthur's promotion made it appear that the Army had won the war in the Pacific and not the Navy.

Obviously, it took both But neither wanted to admit it because the two services were completely separate entities. Had Japan not created the same problems for itself, our divided command would have caused us even more problems.

And the only reason the Air Force wasn't part of the argument was that it wasn't created until 1947.

The solution to the Navy's displeasure was to have MacArthur conduct the ceremony aboard a Navy ship. And to get President Harry Truman's cooperation in the deal, the vessel chosen for the surrender ceremony was the Battleship Missouri.

Instead of being conducted on the broad fantail of the Missouri, the signing took place on a narrow quarterdeck, around a worn table from the ship's galley, covered by a coffee-stained green tablecloth. The ceremony was short, which pleased both MacArthur and the Japanese.

Another indication of evident downplaying of the ceremony was that the American officers wore khaki uniforms, the British wore shorts. Our other allies wore dress uniforms. The Japanese wore top hats and tails. That's an interesting progression from those who had the most to do with winning the war to those who lost.

Although the ceremony was simple and understated, it was followed by a massive show of strength, as 1,900 Allied aircraft came roaring overhead.

Following the August 15 surrender declaration by Emperor Hirohito, it took two weeks before the first American soldiers landed in Japan. Air drops to prison camps had been occurring and agents from the Office of Strategic Services had parachuted into prison camps to keep order until troops arrived.

One of the first tasks of the soldiers who landed was to get to the airfields to remove propellers from Japanese aircraft. There still was unrest among many of the military and a fear that mutinous kamikaze pilots might make a last-minute bid for immortality during the surrender ceremonies.

The first stage of the occupation was to provide for the care of Allies who had been held captive. It was accomplished as quickly as possible because our troops were clamoring to get out and families back home wanted to know of their loved ones.

The Battleship Missouri can be visited in Honolulu by going to Pearl Harbor and taking a shuttle. Tours are conducted of various parts of the ship. Or one may go directly to view the surrender location and listen to a recording of MacArthur's words.

FRI, 9-02-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505

(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

From: Jay Miller

Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 10:59 AM

To: insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

Subject: [Inside the Capitol] 9-2 Battleship New Mexico Invited to Japanese Surrender

--
Posted By Jay Miller to Inside the Capitol at 8/29/2011 10:57:00 AM

9-2 Battleship New Mexico Invited to Japanese Surrender

2011-08-29T10:57:00.000-06:00

8-31 Skandera Closes Albuquerque PED Office

2011-08-27T12:13:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- Public Education Department Secretary Hanna Skandera is closing the department's Albuquerque office and transferring the 18 employees to Santa Fe.. This follows her cut a few months ago of 33 jobs in Santa Fe
How can she do all this when Gov. Susana Martinez has frequently said she will protect public schools from budget cuts? Well, she later amended that position by stating she wouldn't touch classrooms.
At the same time Gov. Martinez said she wants major cuts in bloated school administration. In that category, she includes the Public Education Department, despite charging it with reforming education.
Skandera's position is that she doesn't need a lot of employees to bring about the education changes she wants. Plus, her department was hit with more than a 20 percent funding cut by the Legislature.
Some departments require more than one office because the staffing has grown to the point that one building won't hold them. But with the hiring freeze of the past three years, it now should be possible for many departments and agencies to consolidate into one building.
During the years of staff expansion to second and third locations, Albuquerque was a very popular place. A primary reason for this was that many cabinet secretaries already lived in Albuquerque and it was far easier to frequently work in an Albuquerque office than face the daily commute.
And there always were plenty of state employees living in Albuquerque who were more than willing to staff an Albuquerque office.
A few years ago when telecommuting became popular, many state employees living in Albuquerque opted for it. But the rule was that they had to report to an Albuquerque office.
That arrangement does nothing to help save on office space but the worry was that they would just goof off at home. Reports I received revealed that when the person in charge of the office had to be away, nearby coffee shops were full of state employees.
Working from home or from an unsupervised office is successful only when a specific amount of work is assigned and monitored. And that didn't appear to be very successful under the previous administration.
Another popular move in state government during the previous administration was to move Santa Fe offices as far south of town as possible so they would be closer to Albuquerque and Rio Rancho.
A massive office building complex was rejected by the Legislature at the end of the previous administration because of state budget problems. Otherwise we may have seen a further move away from the state Capitol complex.
The intent of the framers of our state's constitution a century ago seemed to be to consolidate state government in one place.
The constitution says, "The officers of the executive department, except the lieutenant governor, shall during the terms of their office, reside and keep the public records, books, papers and seals of office at the seat of government."
Lieutenant governors were excepted because they have no records, books, papers or seals of office. They didn't have an option of a job in Santa Fe until 1971.
When Albuquerque surpassed Santa Fe in size after the railroad arrived in the 1880s, the Duke City began trying to move the capital 60 miles south.
Those hopes were somewhat dashed with the construction of a new colossal capitol building in 1886. In 1892, the capitol burned to the ground. Many Santa Feans blamed Albuquerque for torching it but the cause of the fire never was determined.
It must be said that many Santa Feans didn't like the capitol either because of its audacity and high cost.
Will Secretary Skandera's decision to close the education department's Albuquerque office lead to similar closures by other departments?
It would seem to be consistent with the cost cutting efforts of Gov. Susana Martinez's administration.
MON, 8-29-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

8-29 Billy the Kid Still at Large

2011-08-25T14:09:00.001-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- Here's an update on the Miller posse's efforts to Catch the Kid.
New Mexico's attempts to increase tourism have long been a favorite subject of this column. So when new Tourism Department secretary Monique Jacobson came up with a Billy the Kid treasure hunt, I was intrigued.
This contest is somewhat targeted toward younger adults because Jacobson noticed that most New Mexico tourists are older than average.
The game is easier to play using a smartphone. Since I'm not smart enough to have such a gadget, we included our kids and grandkids in the Miller posse.
They all live in Phoenix, where one doesn't like to be this time of year. So they plan summer trips this direction anyway. And besides Mom was laid up in the hospital and needed company.
I previously told you that one carload of the posse came last month and found lots of Billy's loot but no clues, due to technical difficulties. The second carload had better luck -- three clues and lots more loot.
The contest rules suggest enlisting family and friends for your posse. So I rounded up some Billy the Kid historians. After they started deciphering the clues, I realized that a knowledge of the Kid's history was not necessary. A knowledge of New Mexico is.
Fortunately, one of my Billy historians also has a superior knowledge of our state. That's as it should be. The purpose of the contest is familiarize people with our state, not with Billy the Kid.
After combining those three clues, we decided we know where Billy is hiding and even have a good idea when he will be found.
Since the thrill of the hunt was the important factor to us, we decided we will not vie for the $10,000 prize. In the immortal words of Mike Pitel, who figured out the most important clue, "I don't want the money, just the glory."
For those of you who would like a shot at that money, there still is time. It can be done. It is much fun. And there are many other great prizes.
Every week a prize drawing is held among those who have uncovered a clue. The prizes include lodging, meals and participation in the area's many activities.
Then there is a general store where loot gathered in every county of the state can be redeemed for resort nights, restaurants, services and merchandise. An indication of the contest's popularity is that nearly everything has been redeemed.
But there is still the $10,000 prize and the weekly prize drawings for posses that find clues during the coming weeks of September.
And the bonus is that you will have fun traveling the state. The loot is hidden in state parks and monuments. You've been wanting to get out and see those anyway, haven't you?
This may even encourage you to figure out how a smartphone works. What you do is download an app that opens when you get to the GPS coordinates of a clue or loot. It tells you the clue and the number of coins you have just won. The rest is done for you.
The big computer in the sky at the state Tourism Department credits your account with the number of coins awarded at that location and enters you in the drawing for the weekly prize.
Secretary Jacobson tells me the app developed for this contest is the first of its kind. A similar contest now is being run by a big national chain to try to get people to as many of its locations as possible.
You still can sign up your posse by going to www.catchthekid.com. Over 2,000 posses already have registered. Jacobson says she expected most of the posses to come from New Mexico but half of them have been from out of state.
Jacobson's background and creativity appear to have New Mexico tourism headed in the right direction.
MON, 8-29-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

82611Texas gets different rules

2011-08-22T16:45:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- Texas has done it to us again. The state has enjoyed bullying us ever since it came into existence. This time it involves playing by different rules for the collection on drought insurance.
Last year, as the effects of drought became very obvious, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began touting a new drought insurance policy. Ranchers in New Mexico and Texas jumped at the opportunity.
Sure enough, both states are experiencing the worst droughts in recorded history. Texas ranchers have received $65 million in payments. New Mexico ranchers have received $2,000 for the $1.5 million they paid in premiums.
The Agriculture Department says New Mexico's problem is that pinons, junipers, cactus and snake weed that still are living count against us even though cows don't eat them.
So in Texas, the lack of rainfall qualifies ranchers for tens of millions in drought payments, while New Mexico ranchers qualify for a pittance.
The difference seems to be that New Mexico ranchers insured themselves against a decline in vegetation greenness. It wasn't drought insurance. Except New Mexico ranchers insist it was called drought insurance when they bought it.
On the surface, this may appear to be ineptness on the part of the U.S. Agriculture Department. And some of that likely is involved. But it also has a lot to do with Texas having a congressional delegation many times the size of New Mexico's delegation.
With 32 House members and two senators, Texas can pound the Agriculture Department for a favorable interpretation of the rules. With three House members and two senators, New Mexico is in a considerably weaker position.
We've also talked about New Mexico's seniority problem after the retirement of Sen. Pete Domenici and the resignation of all three House members in order to vie for his seat.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman and his 29 years of experience is all we have left. The combined experience of the other four members of our delegation hardly totals 10 years. That leaves Bingaman to fight the fight.
Bingaman is chairman of the Senate Energy Committee but in this situation, it doesn't carry the clout of former Rep. Joe Skeen who as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on Agriculture, could promise to take a close look at the Agriculture Department's budget.
Anyway we are accustomed to getting knocked around by Texas. In the matter of Rio Grande water, New Mexico's allotment always has been unfairly low.
New Mexico farmers complain about having to conserve every drop of water they can, while Texas farmers flood their crops to the point water runs over the roads.
This may be a long, sad story. Scientists tell us we could be in for a 30 to 40 year mega-drought and Texas isn't going to do anything to help its poor New Mexico neighbor despite Texas Gov. Rick Perry's "miracle economy" and his close connection with the Almighty.
Texas began its efforts to dominate New Mexico back in 1841, when it invaded us from the east. Fortunately they never had seen mountains so they crumbled after hitting Anton Chico. They were marched barefoot to Mexico City.
The next invasion was from the south in 1862. The Texans did well as long as they stuck to the Rio Grande. But when they veered east at Santa Fe to take the supply depot at Fort Union, they ran into mountains again.
After we destroyed their supplies and killed their mules, we lent them shovels to bury their dead and sent them packing back down the Rio Grande.
That experience convinced Texans they weren't fighters so they resorted to being politicians. When New Mexico finally became a state, Texas required that we accept an incorrect boundary survey, which gave Texas an extra half-million acres.
A few years ago, then-Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons challenged the Texas land commissioner to a quick draw contest with the stakes supposedly being that disputed 500,000 acres. Lyons says the Texan cheated.
FRI, 8-26-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

8-24 Is Media Piling on PRC?

2011-08-20T16:32:00.001-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist
SANTA FE -- Is the media piling on Jerome Block, Jr. and the Public Regulation Commission? That's what PRC commissioner Ben Hall says. He notes that in America people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Granted, a day seldom goes by without a new charge against Block making headlines. First I will note that all media are very careful to use words like alleged, charged and faces when talking about accused lawbreakers. It allows company lawyers to sleep better at night.
There has been one recent exception. For a brief period between jobs, former state public safety chief Darren White was the crime reporter for an Albuquerque television channel.
Station management reportedly joked that during his brief stint, White convicted more people than the district attorney by not being careful to use language presuming innocence.
But care in use of language aside, the media have found a fertile source of news in headline stories about daily revelations of Block's missteps.
Hall suggests that we report on good actions the PRC takes. The question is whether you would read it. Local newspapers go in and out of business based on the belief that people want to hear good news. That is what they say. But do they mean it?
Those "good news" papers usually don't stay in business long. It's like negative campaigning. No one likes it but it works. Political consultants wouldn't use it if it didn't work.
Political campaigns and the media both rely on frequent public opinion polls to determine their most effective message. They are not going to run something the majority does not like. Negative news is here to stay.
It should also be noted that the other four PRC members asked Block to resign and then stripped him of his vice chairmanship. So much for presuming innocence.
One group of public officials who likely don't begrudge the attention given to the PRC are state court judges who were taking it on the nose until the PRC redirected that attention.
In a previous column, I cautioned readers not to count Block out. No matter how many charges pile up against him. He is not going to resign that $90,000 a year job until forced to. No one is going to talk him into resigning.
The impeachment route is a possibility but it isn't practical. The process takes a very long time. If New Mexico had a full time legislature, the situation would be easier.
But as it is, lawmakers would have to tack the proceedings onto the end of the upcoming special session if the process could be readied in time. Otherwise it would take another special session or cramming it into the short 30-day session next January.
Gov. Susana Martinez likely would be willing to call a special session or add it to her call for next January's session. She already has called for Block's resignation and she could appoint a Republican to the seat if Block were to be impeached.
But there also are cost concerns. Everyone would have to lawyer up. The House committee that meets to decide whether to recommend an impeachment trial will need much legal advice. Say $100,000 worth.
The House will need its own legal advice for the actual impeachment proceedings. If impeached, Block then would go to trial by the Senate, which would need its legal advice.
Expert witnesses and extra staff would be needed. And unless these proceedings can be sandwiched into the Legislature's other business, which is unlikely, figure on another $50,000 a day. Some warn it may take 20 days.
Block could give up because of lack of funds to pay for his defense. That's not likely but many of Block's woes over the past two-and-a-half years have been financial.
Criminal charges could bring him down as they did with former commissioner Carol Sloan. But he may still be around for the 2012 elections. And remember, Block survived a primary and general election in 2008 despite much bad publicity.
WED, 8-24-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

8-24 Is Media Piling on PRC?

2011-08-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

8-22 Expect redistricting session fireworks

2011-08-17T11:02:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- New Mexico's 2011 legislative redistricting of state political boundaries promises to be unique in terms of timing, content and politics.
September special sessions are not unusual in New Mexico but a special session beginning this early in the month is rare.
Redistricting special sessions normally are confined to that topic plus a few non-controversial items of a truly emergency nature. Not so this year.
Until 10 years ago, New Mexico's decennial redistricting sessions were fairly devoid of politics. The 2001 session shows us what likely will happen this year.
September special sessions are popular. They don't disrupt summer vacations and Santa Fe tourist traffic has subsided. But this session, called by Gov. Susana Martinez for September 6, comes before Santa Fe has finished its summer activities.
Santa Fe's 299th annual Fiesta activities start Saturday, September 3, the beginning of the Labor Day weekend. They continue for nine days, ending on Sunday, September 11.
Hotels still are full. Streets are packed. And even though the Capitol is several blocks south of the Plaza, it still will be impacted. Lawmakers requested a September 12 start but it is the governor's decision to make
So far, Gov. Martinez has not been sensitive to local conflicts. Asked to pick a date for an important event earlier in the summer, Martinez chose three possibilities. They were the dates of Spanish Market, Indian Market and the International Folk Art Market.
Had it been the Whole Enchilada Fiesta, she might have seen a problem. Typically, Republican governors seldom have had much love for Santa Fe. They don't get to know it ahead of time because there aren't many votes here although there is Republican money.
But lawmakers can work around the inconvenience. It will be their staff who will be most affected. Many of them have Fiesta responsibilities.
This redistricting session will be full of content. The extra items the governor has been adding to the session have been getting more discussion than redistricting itself.
The big item is taking driver's licenses from illegal aliens. Gov. Martinez promised that would be on the agenda as soon as it was defeated in the regular session. Animosities over that issue could color decisions on redistricting.
Allowing statewide restrictions on fireworks became an issue in early July when fires were raging around the state. This could wait until next January's regular session. It won't be uncontroversial. We have fireworks manufacturers in the state and they are friendly with our lawmakers
A capital outlay bill died during a session-ending filibuster. It means many jobs. This is the type of bill that usually gets added to a special session.
Among other bills the governor is likely to add to the special session are food stamps, in-state preferences for procurement, an unemployment tax adjustment, and a high-wage tax credit for employers.
The politics of redistricting will be cranked up just as it was 10 years ago when Republican Gary Johnson faced off with a Democratic Legislature.
Bruce King had been governor during New Mexico's previous three redistricting sessions. He had Democratic legislatures all three times but he told the Democratic leaders to cool it on any punitive changes they might have been plotting.
But this year, as in 2001, the shackles are off and anything is fair. If Democrats go too far, Gov. Martinez can veto anything she wants, just as Johnson did 10 years ago. That would leave the state Supreme Court to decide as it did in 2001. And that decision again is likely to be a "least change" one.
In 2001, Gov. Johnson began the session during Fiesta week and it went 17 days at a cost of $700,000. Don't expect anything better this time.
MON, 8-22-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

Cargo Bust & a $2,000 Turkey

2011-08-16T20:17:00.001-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- Who were New Mexico's most off-beat governors? My choices are Dave Cargo, Gary Johnson and Clyde Tingley.
It isn't difficult for most New Mexicans to remember Gary Johnson. He was governor back just the other side of Bill Richardson. It often seemed as though Johnson was more interested in his athletic feats than in being governor.
But Johnson did attend to business, keeping New Mexico's budget under firm control while pushing his libertarian views of restraining government from interfering in people's business or private lives.
That famously included allowing people to do drugs as long as they didn't hurt anyone else. He also vetoed a motorcycle helmet law, saying people should be allowed to enjoy motorcycling any way they want as long as taxpayers don't foot the medical bills for bikers mistakes.
Clyde Tingley was governor way back during the Depression. He was a heavy equipment operator, with little education but his boundless energy, big personality and an eagerness to make things better led to tremendous improvements in the infrastructure of Albuquerque.
Many monuments to his efforts still are standing. They include the state fairgrounds, Tingley Coliseum, Tingley Field and Tingley Beach. A visitor Tingley was showing around remarked "Clyde, looks like they're going to canonize you.." Tingley's reply: "They've tried but I beat them every time."
Tingley's colorful speech and joy for life endeared him to President Franklin Roosevelt who invited him to the White House an amazing 23 times. Tingley parlayed that relationship into many more than our share of Depression-era programs for New Mexico.
And then there is "Lonesome Dave" Cargo. He wasn't really lonesome. He had many friends. But none of them were in the Republican Party hierarchy. No wonder. Cargo was a liberal Republican -- something we don't have many of in New Mexico.
He always had trouble winning Republican primaries. General elections were a bit easier even though there weren't many Republicans in the state back then.
Without any backing and no money, Cargo ran an entirely retail campaign. He had no ads in the papers or on radio or television. His motto was "Why buy the back page when I can get the front page for free?"
And that he did. Cargo always had a biting quip with a strong message. The media loved him. During his first campaign, Cargo drove the state in a beat up Volkswagen, painting his name on every roadside rock he could find.
When he ran for reelection, Cargo got a few good sized donations. His observation: "I have $56,000 to spend this time and I don't know how I'm ever going to spend it. Today's campaigns spend 100 times that amount.
That was well over 40 years ago and Lonesome Dave is still around. That's because he was the youngest governor in our state's history. In fact, he ranks as one of the youngest governors in our nation's history.
Cargo also is the first governor to have his bust placed in the state Capitol. That happened yesterday as a result of legislation passed unanimously in the 2011 Legislature.
As with many of Cargo's doings, the story of how it happened doesn't seem quite right. During the first year of his administration, sculptress Storm Townsend was commissioned to create a bust of Cargo.
Townsend says she doesn't remember who paid her but she cashed the check at Safeway and had enough money for a nice Thanksgiving turkey. Cargo says he paid her $2,000 out of his own pocket.
The placement of the governor's bust also raises some questions. It sits between the busts of two territorial legislators near the west entrance of the Capitol. I can remember seeing those two busts in that location ever since the building was dedicated in 1967. They have been the only busts in the Capitol.
But the joint memorial allowing placement of Cargo's bust in the Capitol approves its placement in the office of the governor.
FRI, 8-19-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

81711 PRC always in Turmoil

2011-08-14T14:54:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- The current Public Regulation Commission difficulties involving Jerome Block, Jr. aren't the first time that five-member body has been in turmoil.
In its dozen years of existence it has been in almost constant disorder. The PRC was created in 1998 to replace a three-member state Corporation Commission that was always in havoc.
The solution created by the Legislature and passed by voters was to replace the Corporation Commission and the appointed Public Utilities Commission with one elected body that would be reined in by various popular "good government" features such as public financing and a ban on campaign donations or other favors from utilities they regulate.
Districts were created that were intended to provide seats for Albuquerque, North Central New Mexico, Northwest New Mexico, the Eastside and the Southwest. The political divisions looked good, with two districts leaning Democrat, two Republican and the Southwest district being a toss up.
It worked but it didn't make much difference. Just as with the former three-member body, political affiliations didn't matter much. Affiliations were based on personalities and who could gang up on whom.
In the beginning, it appeared Republicans had the edge but they elected a Democratic chairman. Then redistricting came along and the Democratic controlled Legislature sought to give Democrats an edge. But somehow the wrong bill got sent to Republican Gov. Gary Johnson to sign and he gladly obliged.
In the redistricting special session 10 years ago the focus was on urban vs. rural PRC districts. Albuquerque was upset that it had only one seat despite having almost a third of the state's population.
Little has been said about redistricting of the PRC in next month's special session but it could end up being a sticking point.
It appeared the 1994 Legislature was ready to abolish the elected PRC and make it appointive by the governor. The former Public Utilities Commission, which was appointed by the governor, had operated smoothly.
Three bills were introduced to create an appointed commission composed of experts in utility regulation. But then Ben Ray Lujan, son of House Speaker Ben Lujan, decided to run for the PRC. Little was heard of those bills again.
Streamlining of state government was a popular idea at this time last year but it too has disappeared. An appointive PRC wouldn't be a bad idea, along with sending some of its duties to other departments of state government.
Among the PRC's present duties are regulating utilities, insurance, transportation, pipelines and fire safety. That's a big order that might be more appropriately handled by other agencies, with more expertise.
As it currently stands, PRC members need not know anything about any of those subjects. All they need do is show up to work occasionally and collect a $90,000 a year paycheck.
The offices have attracted an interesting assortment of candidates over the years. They can be a launching pad for youngsters of well-connected politicians. Jerome Block, Jr.'s father preceded him on the commission as did Rep. Ben Lujan's son Ben Ray.
Or it can be a place where former office holders can settle in for their later years. PRC chairman Patrick Lyons is the former state land commissioner. Former chairman David King is a former state treasurer. Several former legislators have been on the commission including Linda Lovejoy, Shirley Baca and current PRC member Ben Hall.
The current state of affairs regarding PRC member Jerome Block, Jr. includes requests that he resign and moves by the state House of Representatives to impeach him.
But don't count Block out yet. He was in trouble before he ever got elected. There were requests then for him to drop off the ticket. But Block stayed in the race and beat some tough primary and general election opposition without attending forums or debates to answer questions.
WED, 8-17-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com

8-15 Japanese surrender freed Bataan vets

2011-08-08T21:33:00.000-06:00

By JAY MILLER
Syndicated Columnist

SANTA FE -- Recent discussion of a Manhattan Project National Park and the use of atomic bombs on Japan make recognition of Japan's surrender 66 years ago today seem appropriate.
Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers on August 15, 1945, thus ending World War II -- except for the paperwork. This sometimes is called VJ Day but President Harry Truman decreed that September 2, the official document signing, would be observed.
In 1945, winning the war was cause for great celebrations in every city, town and village throughout the nation. The same was true in all the allied nations.
Next to the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, the most famous picture in the world may be of a sailor kissing a nurse on Times Square during New York City's celebration on August 14.
Confused about the dates? Was it August 14 or 15? It was August 15 in Japan but Aug. 14 in the United States. There's that messy thing about the International Dateline between us.
The event isn't celebrated anymore. Neither is the date of the German surrender. We don't like to rub the nose of two present allies in the dirt on an annual basis.
At high noon on August 15, Japan announced its acceptance of the Potsdam Agreement demanding complete surrender. Official confirmation was announced by President Harry Truman at 6:10 p.m. that same day, which was August 14 here.
I remember the day well. I was a seven-year-old, staying with my grandparents, on Melendres Street, in Las Cruces. At about 4:30 p.m., my grandmother and I heard many sirens and car horns. She said she had been hearing on the radio all day that the war might end soon.
We sat on the front steps to hear all the celebrating around town. I knew it meant that the fathers of some of my friends would be returning to Deming from Japanese prison camps. It was a joyous occasion.
What I didn't know was that boys who had just graduated from high school had been drafted and would soon be on their way to the Pacific to prepare for an invasion of Japan.
They had great reason to celebrate. U.S. military leaders estimated that we and our allies might lose as many as a million troops during the invasion. Japan would suffer even greater losses because of the number of civilians who would be killed.
We learned later that Japanese military leaders were trying to recruit a million kamikaze fighters to give their lives in suicide missions to repel our attack.
Another reason we don't commemorate the day when our last worldwide war ended is because of another commemoration that occurred last week and has occurred every year for a great many years.
Our decision to use the bombs was controversial. How could we have done such a horrible thing?
The bombs killed no more people than the saturation bombings of Tokyo and other Japanese cities we were conducting from Tinian Island every night.
But these bombs were different. They were bigger and they released radiation that brought disfigurement and death to many more people.
They were scary enough that even though many other countries now have nuclear arsenals, the weapon hasn't been used again in over 60 years of international strife.
But in 1945, we were aware that both Germany and Japan were working on nuclear devices. Germany didn't get its first bomb finished by the time it surrendered.
But a few days before, a German submarine slipped into the North Sea and out into the Atlantic, headed for Japan with all the makings Germany had assembled up to that point.
Fortunately the U.S. Navy intercepted the sub early in its voyage and diverted its cargo to the American nuclear program. But Japan was still in the war and with a little more time, it might have its weapon ready to use against us.
MON, 8-15-11

JAY MILLER, 3 La Tusa, Santa Fe, NM 87505
(ph) 982-2723, (fax) 984-0982, (e-mail) insidethecapitol@hotmail.com