John Block

Despite Gov. Lujan Grisham’s desperate show on social media over the holiday weekend claiming New Mexico is “back open,” we must remember that the rosy picture she is trying to paint for us came after months of abuse. 

We must face the facts, New Mexico: We are in a toxic, abusive relationship with Gov. Lujan Grisham — whether we asked for it or not. And it’s time to end it before we get beaten even harder.

Here is an incomplete list of the abuses Gov. Lujan Grisham did to us during the pandemic:

• On March 11, 2020, Gov. Lujan Grisham locked down New Mexico in what would be the first step of her abusive virus power trip. “New Mexico’s emergency public health order WILL be enforced. Non-essential businesses that fail to comply will be cited by the New Mexico State Police.”
• Despite closing down small businesses, including restaurants, shops, and other places she deemed “non-essential,” she let abortion mills, big box stores, and marijuana dispensaries stay wide open.
  • As of August 2018, Lujan Grisham received $29,000 from the pot industry, with $11,000 of that originating from former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White’s business, “PurLife.”
  • Lujan Grisham’s abortion contributions totaled over $22,5000 from the likes of late-term abortionist Curtis Boyd, Planned Parenthood, EMILY’s List, and others.
  • One big box store — Walmart — donated $2,500 to Lujan Grisham during the 2018 election cycle and $5,000 in 2019.
• Lujan Grisham snarkily mocked a New Mexican, asking her to reopen the state, writing on Twitter, “That depends, are you going to stay home like you’re supposed to?”
• A KRQE investigation found Lujan Grisham evicted nursing home patients in their 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, one who was 102, many wheelchair-bound to make room for COVID patients.
• Lujan Grisham sends cease and desist orders to small businesses that remain open, including Calibers gun store in Albuquerque, despite it being an essential business due to law enforcement — such as State Police — using its facilities for training. Lujan Grisham’s spokeswoman Nora Sackett told the press at the time, “While we as an administration unequivocally support the constitutional right to purchase a firearm, we recognize that right does not correspond to a right to congregate in a store and infect neighbors.” 
• Lujan Grisham vetoed millions in federal funding allocated for tribal communities.
• Lujan Grisham’s communications director Tripp Stelnicki — who is still in that position today — called the Republican Party in New Mexico a “death cult” for not wanting to cripple small businesses with lockdowns. He said, “You don’t have to ask the death cult their opinion or publish their quotes. False equivalence now is actually life or death. There is no ‘both sides’ to this. There is one group preaching accelerated illness & death because they ‘love’ ‘business’ & if you can’t see through that?”
• Gov. Lujan Grisham closed down places of worship, telling New Mexicans, “home is also holy.” 
• Lujan Grisham’s administration told Mesa Baptist Church in Rio Rancho to “honk their horns for ‘Amen!’ and so on” instead of physical services.
• Bar G. Western Wear, a store selling essential goods, served a cease and desist order. 
• Lujan Grisham’s administration shrugged off GOP reopening efforts, writing, “Any half-thought-out proposal about picking winners and losers and allowing partial closures … will lead to more illnesses and more death.”
• On the eve of Easter, Lujan Grisham banned Easter Sunday services, writing that she wanted to make “absolutely clear that mass gatherings of any type are not permitted in houses of worship.”
• After Grants Mayor Martin “Modey” Hicks rebuked the Governor’s cruel lockdowns, calling her a “little dictator,” she retaliates against Grants business Papas Pawn & Gun with a $60,000 fine.
• Lujan Grisham viciously blasted pro-jobs protesters who wanted to reopen the state for exercising their First Amendment rights, claiming they were “dangerous” for violating her edicts. She said:
  • “Mass gatherings are dangerous and in violation of the public health order. We want any New Mexican who is upset about the state’s efforts to limit illness and prevent mass death to find safe and non-dangerous ways to exercise their first amendment right to protest, one of many rights we are all grateful to have, none of which are infringed upon by the necessary actions the state has taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 and save the lives of New Mexicans. New Mexicans must continue to stay home in order to slow the spread of this incredibly contagious virus – there is no way to safely reopen the state without first doing so.”
• However, Lujan Grisham completely ignored the “Party for Socialism and Liberation” and its mass protest demanding “free rent” despite requests for comment by the Piñon Post. 
• Due to the Governor’s cruel lockdown, in April 2020, the Governor’s Department of Workforce Solutions (DWS) had over 60,000 jobless claims, where it was used to around 600-800 cases per week. Her administration could not deal with the ramifications of her lockdown by helping those she forced out of work. 
• In May of 2021, it was revealed by the Legislative Finance Committee that Lujan Grisham’s DWS overpaid $250 million in taxpayer dollars during its mismanagement under the Governor’s lockdown. Liberal news outlets called it the Lujan Grisham “unemployment overpayment crisis” and called her out for her silence on the matter. But her office brushed off the crisis as “minuscule,” with press secretary Nora Sackett writing: 
  • The overpayments and fraudulent claims made by claimants, while understandable to an extent given the complexity of the ever-changing federal pandemic unemployment programs, represent a minuscule fraction of the $3.7 billion in benefits the state has paid out to claimants over the past 14 months. 
• Lujan Grisham broke her own edict to buy luxury jewelry from a shuttered Albuquerque business, Lilly Barrack. When called out for the hypocrisy, her spokesperson said, “The store was never ‘opened’ and a good safe process was followed… The governor has, of course in both her personal and professional lives adhered to all of the public health measures the state has enacted for the duration of this pandemic.” The scandal garnered national attention.
• During a far-left “virtual” call with Mike Bloomberg’s gun-grabbing group “Everytown,” Lujan Grisham bashed 29 out of New Mexico’s 33 constitutional sheriffs, saying, “you’ve got elected leaders, some sheriffs, some law enforcement folks who also put out false information — I think there’s some trepidation that if it is somebody in a uniform, that they can’t be putting out false information.” 
• In 2019, during the fight against the unconstitutional gun control legislation, Senate Bill 8, 29 out of New Mexico’s 33 sheriffs united against the law, which Lujan Grisham railed against on Twitter. She claimed they were defending domestic abusers and were throwing a “childish pity party” for refusing to enforce the law.
• While New Mexicans remained on her lockdown, Lujan Grisham set her sights on the White House, cozying up to Joe Biden to choose her as his vice-presidential running mate. 
• Lujan Grisham instituted a draconian mask mandate for every single New Mexican and worker. She said, “If New Mexicans don’t behave safely, we won’t be able to reopen more than we have. Every single one of us has to do their part.”
• Lujan Grisham scornfully mocked critics of her mask mandate, writing on Twitter: 
  • “You: ‘Masks don’t do anything’ Medical and scientific experts and professionals: ‘If 80 percent of us adopt a simple homemade face mask, we could reduce #COVID19 deaths by 17-45 percent over two months.’ Wearing masks saves lives. #MaskUp”

• Lujan Grisham retaliated against a Truth or Consequences congregation, New Hope Revival Church, that was deputized by Sierra County Sheriff Glenn Hamilton, sending her State Police to serve Pastor Caleb Cooper with a cease and desist order. The officer told Cooper, “If you’re going to meet, it has to be in a law enforcement facility.”
• Logan Municipal Schools in Logan, New Mexico, was forced to move its graduation ceremony to Texas after the governor threatened the school district with a $1.75 million fine.
• New Mexico was ranked the state with the strictest pandemic restrictions by WalletHub. 
• Lujan Grisham assisted Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber in trying to dismantle the Civil War obelisk in the heart of downtown Santa Fe and applauded efforts to remove Don Juan de Oñate and Don Diego de Vargas statues. 
• After citizens wondered if Lujan Grisham was once again violating her public health orders for salon visits, Lujan Grisham’s office refused to respond to requests for comment from the Piñon Post, forcing us to file an Inspection of Public Records request to find out. Lujan Grisham’s press secretary Nora Sackett snarkily wrote to a reporter: 
  • Sackett snarkily unloaded on the citizens asking these questions, writing back: “I understand that you have to do your job, but ‘viewers saying something online’ is in no way any actual proof or reason to suspect something. I am so entirely tired of people choosing to spend their time by making up lies about the governor getting her hair done. She has not gotten a haircut, or had it colored, or had her nails done, or anything else that angry people on the internet would like to make up unsubstantiated nonsense about. Nor has she been to Corrales – again, people making things up online does not make them true. Every day, the governor is taking serious action to do her best to save lives and keep New Mexicans from getting sick, and all people ‘online’ want to do is complain about her hair. She has not gotten a haircut, as salons are closed and non-essential person-to-person interactions are not allowed, and she expects every other New Mexican to continue to adhere to the public health order just as she is doing. Also for what it’s worth, woman to woman, you can clearly tell that the governor hasn’t gotten her hair cut just by looking at it. I mean come on.”
• Amid radical Marxists descending upon the streets to protest the death of drug addict and convicted felon George Floyd, Lujan Grisham formed a taxpayer-funded “racial justice” council to pay for New Mexico’s “embedded injustices.” 
• Lujan Grisham continued to campaign for Joe Biden while family-owned businesses remained closed and the economy in shambles. 
• Pro-abortion Lujan Grisham dared to mock Catholics by wearing an Our Lady of Guadalupe mask to a press conference, despite Our Lady being the “Patroness of the Unborn.”
• Gov. Lujan Grisham’s ally in the Legislature, state Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-Doña Ana), said, “Who said the shut down was only supposed to be temporary?” 
• As of July 10, 2020, the New Mexico Restaurant Association estimated the Governor’s lockdown would force 20% of restaurants in the state into permanent closure. 
• In July 2020, Lujan Grisham bashed New Mexicans for rising cases, saying, “our state’s dramatically rising case numbers reflect that those behavior modifications and precautions have either not been taken seriously or taken up by enough people.”
• Lujan Grisham gave conflicting advice on gathering in groups, saying, “Too many of us are still congregating in groups, taking risks with our own lives and endangering the health of our family members, our neighbors and our state.” She also said at the time, “Please wear facemasks. Please don’t gather in large groups without them.” 
• Defiance of the Governor’s mask mandate would result in a fine of $100 and rotting in jail for up to six months. 
• Bipartisan legislators on the Legislative Council voted to investigate Lujan Grisham for abusing her emergency powers. 
• Lujan Grisham applauded ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter rioters who took to the streets to protest (many without masks or social distancing), writing, “This is a violation of the mass gatherings, no doubt, but we’re just going to take a leap of faith in protecting protesters who have no other way, quite frankly. Right? There’s no other way to be seen, to be heard, to be respected, and to be clear about your message.” Conservatives were met with scorn for protesting. 
• Lujan Grisham claimed New Mexicans were “breaking ranks” with public officials questioning inaccuracies in her Health Department’s data while berating those leaders for claiming Lujan Grisham’s mask mandate is a way to “control or manipulate individuals in our state.” She insisted, “I need folks to not do that!” Regarding those violating her health orders, she said, “I don’t think the individuals were trying to support a local business,” then claiming, “we’re getting… those photos and many calls and many complaints, and we’re going out.” To those traveling out-of-state, she demanded, “Stop doing that!”
• Just hours after the New Mexico Restaurant Association won a lawsuit against Lujan Grisham for targeting the restaurant industry, the Governor’s majority-appointed New Mexico Supreme Court struck it down.
• New Mexico ranked as the state with the highest suicide rate in the United States, with the rate for children ages 4-15 increasing by 88%.
• In July 2020, Lujan Grisham fundraised off of the pandemic with a survey about the virus to donors. 
• Lujan Grisham was exposed for following a satanic cult leader on Twitter, who she thanked for following her.
• In August 2020, a Santa Fe jewelry shop posted a photo of Lujan Grisham with “new” bling from the shop, despite it being a shuttered business, then quickly deleted it, claiming it was taken before the pandemic. 
• In August 2020, Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Supreme Court rubber-stamped her cruel $5,000+ fines for small businesses alleged to violate her health orders.
• Lujan Grisham’s ally, attorney general Hector Balderas, sued the Lea County Sheriff, claiming his office violated the public health order.
• Lujan Grisham mask shamed Española residents, claiming, “Last week, I traveled to Northern New Mexico, and in traveling to Northern New Mexico, I went through Española. I saw a lot of activity in Española and traveling through Main Street going North. I didn’t see a single mask, not one. Not in a parking lot, not in a grocery store that we passed, not at a convenience store, not at a gas station, not by someone in a car, not hanging on a rearview mirror, not on a wrist, not as people were walking, nowhere! Not one. The only masks I saw were in the car I was in, and we have to do better than that because if we don’t we cannot successfully introduce risk.”
• In September 2020, Lujan Grisham begged Congress to bail her state out after her destructive lockdown wiped out jobs and industry.  
• In August 2020, New Mexico met the arbitrary benchmarks she set forth for reopening. Despite the state meeting these, she refused to ease her restrictions.
• During a press conference, Lujan Grisham insisted that bingo and karaoke are “high-risk activities.” 
• Lujan Grisham’s endorsed Democrat state House candidate Roger Montoya was exposed for being a porn actor, but she stood by him throughout the election. Now, he is a state representative.
• After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Lujan Grisham remained quiet on a mass gathering by liberals who met up to lament the former justice’s passing. 
• Lujan Grisham tried to blame President Donald Trump for her state crashing and burning economically, despite her draconian lockdowns. She claimed it was the “Trump recession,” despite New Mexico under her reign having a 34.5% higher unemployment rate than the nation.
• Lujan Grisham’s Health Department singled out the New Mexico GOP for alleged non-compliance with her health orders in a politically charged move. 
• During Thanksgiving, Lujan Grisham warned state employees that “traditional Thanksgiving” carried “extreme risk.”
• During the Thanksgiving holiday, Lujan Grisham instituted store capacity limits, forcing New Mexicans to stand in cold bread lines to get food and basic needs. 
• When challenged on this, Lujan Grisham’s communications director Tripp Stelnicki claimed these lines were just “Republican talking points” that were “politically motivated.” 
• Lujan Grisham told New Mexicans they should say goodbye to their dying loved ones over “Facetime.” 
• Lujan Grisham tells people visiting family from out-of-state, “you really shouldn’t be here,” and you should “eat in your hotel room” if you are staying in New Mexico over the holiday weekend. 
• Lujan Grisham threatened a new lockdown if New Mexicans don’t start wearing masks in their own homes. “And you know we’re doing our crackdown, and you know that we’re doing our enforcement,” adding, “More is coming because those opportunities for us to do less because we are doing more in mask-wearing, social distancing, and other public health hygiene didn’t occur,” she said.
• While Lujan Grisham unsuccessfully auditioned to be Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary, New Mexico remained on lockdown.
• Lujan Grisham’s communications director Tripp Stelnicki once again berated New Mexicans — this time the media at KOB 4. He condescended a reporter in a lengthy email response, saying, “Did you read the attachment to the news release yesterday and find it confusing? Please let us know if we can help you understand it. Three colors is not confusing.”   
• Lujan Grisham’s virus relief bill directly funded criminal aliens. Despite GOP protests, Speaker Brian Egolf trampled over House rules to ram through the extreme proposal. 
• After reports of statewide “breadline” protests went viral thanks to reporting from the Piñon Post and others, Lujan Grisham was forced to lift many of her grocery store capacity restrictions.
• A Piñon Post report connected the dots between Lujan Grisham and Communist China. 
• In December 2020, after failing to grab a position in Joe Biden’s regime, Lujan Grisham announced she was running for reelection, saying, “I’m staying.” 
• Lujan Grisham’s press secretary and state Rep. Liz Thomson mocked New Mexicans who are hesitant to take the COVID-19 jab.
• Lujan Grisham and the local media blasted Christian churches for holding in-person Christmas services.
• Tripp Stelnicki, Lujan Grisham’s communications director, claimed that the only resistance to Gov. Lujan Grisham exists in “angsty corners of social media.”
• Despite Lujan Grisham’s supposed lifting of grocery store capacities, New Mexicans still waited in long lines outside of stores like Walmart for food and supplies around the Christmas holiday.
• In January 2021, Lujan Grisham shook down an O’Reilly Auto Parts store for $80,000 for allegedly violating her pandemic orders.
• Nearly a year after her ban on in-person learning, Lujan Grisham was finally pressured to lift it, with heavy restrictions including forced face masking of children, even in school sports. 
• Lujan Grisham erected a fence around the Roundhouse, with added security for the Legislative Session costing New Mexico taxpayers $33,000.  
• Lujan Grisham demanded New Mexicans not protest the illegitimate inauguration of Joe Biden, telling them to “do that from your living room.”  
• With a closed-door legislative session, Lujan Grisham was able to ram through extreme proposals, including assisted suicide, abortion up-to-birth, robbing the permanent fund of cash for “free daycare,” the abolition of qualified immunity, anti-police measures taking away peace officers’ rights, among other corrsive proposals she would never have gotten through if not by keeping the public out of the process.  
• After failing to pass her extreme recreational marijuana bill, Lujan Grisham called a special session, yelling, “I AM NOT GOING TO WAIT ANOTHER YEAR!” 
• Lujan Grisham failed to ram through her 20+ cent per gallon gas tax on the poor during the Legislative Session.
• It was revealed that Gov. Lujan Grisham used taxpayer funds to purchase tens of thousands of dollars in $200 per pound Wagyu steak, ahi tuna, fine wine, dry cleaning, and other personal expenses. These expenses came while New Mexicans struggled to get by and had to stand in cold breadlines to buy food and supplies. 
• Lujan Grisham’s staff tried to explain the irresponsible spending away, saying, “There’s a difference between inviting someone into your house for the Super Bowl or someone’s birthday and having three or four Cabinet secretaries there to talk about their budgets.” 
• Lujan Grisham was caught giving hefty raises to her highly paid staff, many of whom make over $100,00 already. Press secretary Nora Sackett said, “Governor’s office staff play a critical role in the operation of the state’s executive branch and the governance of the state – all of which is amplified during a yearlong crisis.” Here’s the breakdown: 
  • Comm. Director Tripp Stelnicki ($18,600), Director of Boards and Commissions Melissa Salazar ($12,000), Chief of Staff Teresa Casados ($10,800), Chief of Staff Matt Garcia ($10,600), Cabinet Director Dominic Gabello ($10,600), Policy Advisor Diego Arencon ($10,000), Director of Cabinet Affairs Caroline Buerkle ($10,000) and Director of Legislative Affairs Victor Reyes ($7,500).
• In March 2021, Michelle Lujan Grisham lets “minorities” get the COVID-19 vaccination first and says that “absolute mask mandates” are not going away.
• Despite over 18,000 New Mexicans asking Lujan Grisham not to sign an anti-conservation, anti-science trapping ban bill, she signed it any way, giving another blow to rural citizens. 
• After lifting her one-year ban on in-person learning, she has a photo-op at a Los Alamos school.
• Lujan Grisham paid off $62,500 in campaign hush money to a former staffer who alleged she poured water over his crotch area and then groped him.
• Planned Parenthood gave Lujan Grisham an award for signing the abortion up-to-birth and infanticide bill. 
• Amid Joe Biden’s border crisis, Lujan Grisham denied pleas from Congresswoman Yvette Herrell to deploy National Guard troops to the southern border to help with the catastrophe. But Lujan Grisham was quick to send guard troops to Washington D.C. to help with Joe Biden’s installation as “president.”
• On Earth Day 2021, Lujan Grisham bashed the United States and claimed our country “has the worst record on greenhouse gas emissions for every country represented on this panel.”
• Amid the Governor’s groping scandal, Dominic Gabello, who allegedly told the victim to stay quiet, resigned from her office. He now consults on her campaign through a firm he recently founded. 
• In April, it was reported that Gov. Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico had the third-worst unemployment rate in the nation. 
• Lujan Grisham tried to squash nonprofit groups’ lawsuit over unequal treatment under her pandemic orders. 
• Lujan Grisham refused to send help to the family of a missing National Guardsman. 
• Gov. Lujan Grisham’s State Polcie shut down Backstreet Grill, an Albuquerque Old Town restaurant for violating her health orders, but they resisted her tyranny. 
• In April, Lujan Grisham dangled a “9-week” “100% reopening” goal in front of New Mexicans if enough of them took the vaccine. 
• Lujan Grisham gave James Kenney, her cabinet secretary for the Environment Department a $12,480 raise while New Mexico families remained suffering. 
• In a political ploy, Lujan Grisham invited D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to join the Democrat Governor’s Association despite her not being a governor of a state. 
• Gog. Lujan Grisha gave Justin Garoutte, a special assistant to New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney a gargantuan $32,000 raise, boosting this individual’s salary to $87,000 on a 40-hour-a-week schedule. That’s a 58% increase while New Mexicans struggle.
• For her reelection announcement event, Lujan Grisham forced toddlers to wear masks while teens were forced to take the jab. 
• Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Children, Youth, and Families Department deleted countless public documents with the “Signal” app and two whistleblowers who blew the alarm on the practice were fired.
• Lujan Grisham told all other departments to follow a similar practice by using Microsoft Teams, which is set to auto-delete messages after 24 hours. This has been happening since January 24, 2021.
• Michelle Lujan Grisham paid her daughter, Erin Grisham, over $6,000 for hair and makeup, violating state law. The Piñon Post’s editor John Block filed an ethics complaint, which is still pending. 
• The Governor’s NM Supreme Court ruled against harmed businesses during the lockdown, instead claiming the draconian rules were “reasonable” in a biased court opinion.
• Before Lujan Grisham’s campaign announcement, she mysteriously turned the whole state “turquoise” on her Covid rainbow, a suspect move. 
• At Lujan Grisham’s reelection campaign announcement, she bashed protesters drowning her out as “QAnon lizard people.” She then canceled events after the disgraceful appearance in fear of said “lizard people.” 
• Lujan Grisham praised candidate Melanie Stansbury, who made racist comments toward Native Americans, saying to displaced Dinè workers to “sell your art or your wool.” 
• In a desperate move, Lujan Grisham lashed out at her GOP challengers running against her, claiming, “these candidates parrot Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and are hellbent on disenfranchising voters. Many of the GOP’s top picks also cater to far-right extremist groups – pushing hateful agendas to take away LGBTQ rights and reproductive freedom and threatening to roll back all of the progress we’ve made in the last two years.” 
• Lujan Grisham gave away $10 million in taxpayer dollars through a lottery to bribe New Mexicans to get the jab. She even gave out $100 cash to people — including children — to get the inoculation.
• Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Department of Transportation appears to be injuring and killing bikers with “fog sealants” added to roads. 
• Gov. Lujan Grisham blamed unvaccinated citizens for her slow reopening. “The variants across the globe and in the U.S. present very serious risks to unvaccinated people, even young people. We all, each of us, have the power to stop the serious illnesses and deaths: Get your shot. It’s safe. It works. It’s that simple. Don’t wait for COVID to infect you or someone you love and wish you’d decided differently,” she claimed.
• Lujan Grisham claimed she paid off the victim of her alleged crotch grab because of the pandemic. 
• After calling anti-MLG protesters “lizard people,” Lujan Grisham claimed she was taking the “high road” and erroneously claimed the protesters were dangerous. 
• Lujan Grisham repeatedly ducked the press, giving her first interview in months to KOB 4, where she refused to apologize to protesters for calling them “QAnon lizard people.” She said, “I don’t because I didn’t say it in a mean way. We know that that’s happened in campaigns. The tension in that moment when I came on stage was really ugly. And I wanted to make a light-hearted moment about a conspiracy theorist.” 
• Lujan Grisham paraded around the state after her alleged “reopening” of the state. She even posed with and praised a prostitute “Jello shot girl,” who has a “conviction for sex work.” 
• After a KOB 4 poll showing her failure on the economy and crime, Lujan Grisham again ducked the media. 
• Lujan Grisham fearmongered over a new “Delta” variant of the virus, claiming, ‘It’s not going to go away.” 
• Lujan Grisham renews her divisive rhetoric, bashing “Trump loyalists.”
• 40% of small businesses in New Mexico have closed due to Lujan Grisham’s pandemic rules, according to the Department of Tourism.

These actions by Lujan Grisham are the opposite of what someone who cares for New Mexicans does. In 2022, it’s high time we break up with Lujan Grisham and end this toxic, abusive relationship once and for all.

* The above list is by no means exhaustive. It is representative of the time between her first pandemic order on March 11, 2020, to today, July 5, 2021.