John Block

Nasty feud between two Dem senators reaches boiling point in heated late-night floor debate

3 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Late on Thursday, Sen. Daniel Ivey Soto (D-Bernalillo) and President Pro Tempore Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) continued their nasty feud again on the Senate floor after multiple little battles as they butted heads this session in committees.

During a discussion on H.B. 20, which is a “paid sick leave” bill, Sen. Ivey-Soto repeatedly questioned Sen. Stewart on her bill applying to both private and public entities. The provisions of the bill would mandate employers to pay out one hour of sick leave per 30 hours of work. 

She called the bill “very moderate” and “very reasonable.” 

“This bill was not written for a public employee sick leave policy,” said Sen Stewart. 

Ivey-Soto shot back, saying, “While I understand that it was written for [the] private sector when it left the Senate Judiciary, it was no longer was for [the] private sector.” He added, “What I seem to be hearing you say is ‘we the government want to apply a standard to private enterprise that we don’t want to apply to oursel[ves].’ And I just find that very problematic…. The last time I checked, among frontline workers, would not police officers be included in frontline workers?” 

Stewart continued to claim that the bill was designed to cover “people that work in grocery stores, bars, restaurants, food delivery services, the folks that are out there without a plan at all, without a plan to get paid sick leave.” 

Ivey Soto continually used the example of a receptionist at UNM Hospital versus one at Presbyterian and whether they would be eligible for the bill’s paid sick leave. Stewart continued to claim that the bill was for the private sector, intended for smaller businesses. 

In multiple points during the debate, Stewart claimed Ivey-Soto’s questions were “abusive” and at another point refused to recognize Ivey Soto at all. 

After the contentious debate, the Senate took a ten-minute recess requested by Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D-Bernalillo) following Sen. Liz Stefanics angrily scolding Sen. Ivey-Soto for his questions, claiming “we are in a bullying state at this point in time and it’s disgraceful to the public.” 

Watch a supercut of the whole fiery exchange between the two Democrats:

The two senators previously hashed it out in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they gave each other sass while discussing an assisted suicide bill. Ivey-Soto claimed “leadership” told him he could no longer debate on House bills, so he left the meeting and claimed he would not hear House bills in his Senate Rules Committee for the foreseeable future. The Senate floor debate appears to be a boiling point for the two senators’ feud. 

TODAY: Legislators scramble to ram through gas tax on the poor, recreational pot bills

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On Thursday, legislators stayed up late to duke it out over bills regarding a ballot initiative to raid New Mexico’s permanent fund and pass through a trapping ban on public lands. The question of whether to raid the permanent fund will go to the voters in the next election and the trapping ban bill goes to the Governor’s desk. The body also debated H.B. 20, the “Healthy Workplaces Act,” where Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) and Pro-Tem Mimi Stewart continued their feud. The bill passed by 25-16.

However, there are many hotly contested bills that Democrats still hope to ram through in their dead-of-night, closed-door legislative process, including initiatives to harvest gender and sexual identity information from citizens, legalize recreational marijuana, and pass a radical gas tax on the poor.

Recreational Marijuana Bill

The extreme pot bill, H.B. 12, finally was pushed through its final committee this week after Chairman Joseph Cervantes was “pushed” by Democrat leadership to hear the bill and fast-track it so it could reach the full Senate before the session closes at noon on Saturday. 

This marijuana legalization bill according to the bill sponsor, Rep. Javier Martinez (D-Bernalillo) “makes for the perfect conditions if you will. I don’t think the opportunity has ever been better than it is now to pass a legalization bill.” He says New Mexico needs the bill to cover for gaps in the budget, despite revenue projections being astronomically lower with recreational legalization of pot in states that have legalized it like the state of Colorado.

The revenue projections from the fiscal impact report claim in 2022 the law will increase state revenues by $15,186,000. Mind you, the state’s projected budget is over $7 billion, meaning pot legalization would only make up 0.2% of revenues. Even with the bill’s higher projections of $35,128,400 in revenues by 2024, that would only be approximately 0.5% of the needed revenues for a state budget projected at $7 billion. 

Pro-family groups such as the Family Policy Alliance are organizing against the legalized pot bills, making the case that, “Since Colorado legalized recreational weed, our neighboring state has seen a dramatic increase in violent crime, traffic fatalities, and marijuana hospitalizations. And usage by minors – sometimes fatal, from eating poorly regulated marijuana “candies” – has soared.” 

The Senate will likely vote on the proposal Friday after a long debate. The bill, if passed through the chamber, would need to make its way back over to the House of Representatives for the lower chamber to approve the amendments made in the Senate before hitting the Governor’s desk. It is unclear if all of this can be achieved in a single day. 

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

Read more about New Mexico legislators bankrolled by the big marijuana lobby. 

Gas Tax on the Poor

The extreme gas tax on the poor, S.B. 11, passed the House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee on a party-line vote, despite concerns of New Mexicans’ gas prices being hiked by 20+ cents — harming poor and middle-class New Mexicans the most. 

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) callously dismissed these concerns, claiming that in other states who have implemented these extreme policies, “Gas is cheaper now than when they started.”

That was a lie.

“When everybody talks about, ‘Oh the poor are gonna be hurt,’ I do believe the poor care about the climate,” said Stewart.

Despite the concerns from poor New Mexicans, the committee advanced her bill, which is scheduled to be heard today on the House floor. 

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

Harvesting Gender and Sexual Identity Info

This extreme bill, S.B. 316, brought forth by Sen. Carrie Hamblen (D-Doña Ana) harvests gender and sexual identity information from New Mexicans, putting more information into the hands of the state government, for them to use for whatever they want. The bill is mostly copy/pasted from a California bill, Assembly Bill 677 from 2017, and would put this private information in the hands of government bad actors who could weaponize this data against New Mexicans.

The House of Representatives will likely consider this bill today

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

FULL LIST: These sitting ‘GOP’ legislators voted for MLG’s ‘mini’ Green New Deal

2 Comments / New Mexico, News, Opinion, Politics / By

In March 2019, just a little over two years ago, during one of New Mexico’s most destructive legislative sessions to date, Republican New Mexicans were slapped in the face by people they elected and thought they could trust to help stop radical anti-energy bills. 

But unfortunately, thanks to the help of extremely moderate “Republicans” in the New Mexico House and Senate, wolves in sheeps’ clothing came out swinging to aid the failing Michelle Lujan Grisham Administration in pushing forward the single most destructive anti-energy proposal to ever become law in New Mexico — the “Energy Transition Act,” also known as MLG’s “mini” Green New Deal. 

The law forces through stringent environmental mandates, including 50% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. It has already skyrocketed energy costs for New Mexicans, and even the bill’s biggest proponents say it needs to be heavily amended as to not completely wreck the state.

The radical environmental bill has been praised by the farthest-left extremists around, including newly confirmed Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, nominated by Joe Biden.

Now, as New Mexico fights for its political survival against other extreme environmental bills, such as S.B. 11, the gas tax on the poor, the quiet and weak “moderate” Republicans that slither around the roundhouse keep their lips zipped shut and hide as more outspoken members, who are in the extreme minority, fight alone against these harmful proposals.

So, who were these “Republicans” who helped the Governor ram through her destructive, corrosive, and anti-New Mexico “green” agenda? Here is a full list of the members who are still in power:

House of Representatives: 

Rep. Kelly Fajardo (R-Valencia) 

Office 986-4221, room 202A
kelly.fajardo@nmlegis.gov

Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Bernalillo)

Box 14768, Albuquerque, NM 87191
Office 986-4214, room 201B
bill.rehm@nmlegis.gov

See the full vote in the House of Representatives here.

New Mexico Senate:

GOP Leader Sen. Greg Baca (R-Bernalillo & Valencia)

P.O. Box 346, Belen, NM 87002
Office , room 415I
(505) 385-7303(w) greg.baca@nmlegis.gov

Sen. Ron Griggs (R-Doña Ana, Eddy and Otero) 

Office, Room 414A
(575) 439-1331(w) ron.griggs@nmlegis.gov

Caucus Chair Sen. Mark Moores (R-Bernalillo)

P.O. Box 90970, Albuquerque, NM 87199
Office, room 414D
mark.moores@nmlegis.gov

Sen. Cliff Pirtle (R-Chaves, Eddy, and Otero)

Office, Room 414B
cliff.pirtle@nmlegis.gov

See the full vote in the New Mexico Senate here.

Most of these politicians never were challenged during the Republican primary for their seats. Let us never forget these people helped ram through this destructive anti-energy, anti-jobs legislation, leading to the destruction and further decline of our state.

GOP senators escape fortressed Roundhouse to honor National Guardsmen stationed outside

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While the Legislature is wrapping up, Senators Gregg Schmedes, M.D. (R-Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe & Torrance) and David Gallegos (R-Eddy and Lea) ventured outside of the shuttered New Mexico state Capitol into the “dangerous” outdoors. 

The pair trekked outside the safe space created by Democrat politicians, complete with over $700,000 worth of metal chain-link fencing, concrete blocks, surveillance, National Guardsmen, and police fortressing the Capitol, where legislators are busy at work sneaking through bills in the least transparent legislative session in New Mexico history.

But the circumstances didn’t stop Senators Schmedes and Gallegos, two freshmen to the Senate after winning upset victories in their districts following their service in the House of Representatives. Despite claims from Democrats that the Capitol needed to be protected from the public, the two senators escaped the fortified building to honor the men and women protecting the Capitol.

“Today, Dr. Schmedes and I went out the secured fence and fought our way through no protestors the give pins to two of our NM National Guardsmen. Even though we have not had a single protester, we wanted to let them know that we supported them,” wrote Sen. Gallegos.

They presented the Guardsmen with silver and turquoise inlaid pins reading “Legislative Detail”: 

The legislative session is wrapping up to a close at noon on Saturday, March 20th, and there is still a lot of work left for Republican legislators to stop the extreme bills being rammed through by Democrats in both chambers. More info on the bills that are being passed through can be found here.

Legislative Update: $7.4B budget passes Senate, anti-police bill heads to Governor’s desk

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Wednesday was busy at the Legislature, with many bills being rushed through the Senate and the House, with many extreme bills moving forward. Here are just some bills that were advanced:

ANTI-POLICE BILL

H.B. 4, sponsored by Speaker of the House Brian Egolf, is a radical bill that would directly line Egolf’s pockets. The civil litigation brought forth from the bill against law enforcers will send lucrative business to civil rights lawyers like Egolf. 

In doing so, the bill would bankrupt local communities and create a hostile environment for police officers. During testimony on the bill during the committee process, many law enforcers spoke up to talk about how the bill would put targets on their backs and force many peace officers to flee the state for less hostile areas of the country. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted 43-26 on a mostly party-line vote. It now goes to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk, where she is expected to sign it.

Read more about the bill here. 

HUGE $7.4 BILLION BUDGET PASSES SENATE

H.B. 2, the “General Appropriations Act,” passed the New Mexico Senate after a lengthy debate between Republicans and Democrats, with Democrats looking to fill more pork and radical funding mechanisms into the bill, while Republicans sought to amend the bill to cut off funding for abortions while also lowering Gov. Lujan Grisham’s contingency fund. 

Sen. Bill Sharer (R-San Juan) called the $7.4 billion pork-filled budget “bloated”

“I’ll remind this body that just a year or so ago, we built a budget about the same amount, and then we had to have a special session … to shore up the budget,” said Sen. Bill Burt (R-Chaves, Lincoln, and Otero) “I think we spent about half the reserves, about $800 million, and y’all correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s a lot of money. Currently, our reserves at this level are $1.76 billion. If we have another downturn like that, that’s going to be a little tough.”

Radical Democrat Sen. Antoinette Sedillo-Lopez sponsored amendments to double the cost-of-living adjustment for state workers to 3 percent and another to raise the wages of any state government employee who makes less than $15 an hour to at least $15.

The spending plan passed on a 29-13 vote. Two Republicans, Sen. Steve Neville (R-San Juan) and Sen. Pat Woods (R-Curry, Quay, and Union) voted with Democrats voted to support the budget. 

RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA BILL HEADS TO SENATE FLOOR

On early Thursday morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance House Bill 12 sponsored by Reps. Javier Martinez (D-Bernalillo) and Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe), an extreme recreational pot legalization bill, on a 5-4 vote. The bill was amended to include “new provisions allowing for a three-year cap on plant production and requiring an independent testing organization to regularly test the product for safety purposes,” according to a report. 

“I don’t believe your bill has been very carefully read,” said Sen. Joseph Cervantes to the bill sponsors during the committee meeting. He voted with Republicans against the bill.

If the bill passes the New Mexico Senate and then gets signed into law, the State of New Mexico would begin issuing licenses on March 1, 2022.

Find out out what representatives and senators are bankrolled by the marijuana lobby.

ACTION ALERT:

In these final hours of the New Mexico Legislature, extreme proposals are still making their way through. Please contact your legislators today and ask them to oppose these measures that are on the calendar:

S.B. 11 — the “Clean Fuel Standards Act,” also known as the gas tax on the poor sponsored by Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) would result in a gas price increase of 20+ cents per gallon on New Mexicans. Contact your NM House Representative to oppose this bill. 

S.B. 230 —  the “Institutional Racism In State Agencies” bill sponsored by Sen. Linda Lopez (D-Bernalillo) “SB230 directs each state agency or entity that receives state funding to annually develop and submit a plan to address institutional racism as part of its annual final budget submission. SB230 would require copies of the annual plans to be provided to the Legislature, the Legislative Finance Committee, and the Courts, Corrections, & Justice Committee,” according to the Fiscal Impact Report. 

This bill would foster racism within state agencies based upon arbitrary attributes that employees cannot control. This would further bureaucratize New Mexico state agencies and waste hard-earned taxpayer money on programs that do not directly benefit the state in any way, shape, or form. Contact your NM House Representative to oppose this bill. 

S.B. 316 — “Gender and Orientation Data Collection” by Sen. Carrie Hamblen (D-Doña Ana) harvests “gender identity” and “sexual identity” information from New Mexicans through every state agency, which would put this private information in the hands of government bad actors who could weaponize this data against New Mexicans. Contact your NM House Representative to oppose this bill. 

NM House Dems pass bill letting pedophiles and rapists out of prison and into communities

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On Tuesday night, the New Mexico House of Representatives considered S.B. 114, sponsored by Sen. Bill O’Neill (D-Bernalillo) and Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe), which seeks to allow “geriatric” convicts (age 55 or older) out on parole with a plea to the New Mexico Corrections Department. 

According to the fiscal impact report of the bill, “eligible inmates (or their representatives) submit applications for medical and geriatric parole to NMCD, and the department determines whether to recommend the applicant be granted parole under the medical and geriatric parole program.”

The bill would allow pedophiles and rapists to be released from prison on this parole program, which Republican members of the House took issue with.

Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Bernalillo, Sandoval & Santa Fe) rose to the floor to condemn the bill. She said, “What they found in a study in 2008 is that people who are sex offenders have a decreased brain matter, and it results in a compulsive behavior where they are compelled to rape and molest children over and over again. So, when I was doing my research, there was no cure for pedophiles. And there was extremely limited rehabilitation for rapists, and that was if they were in therapy constantly and there is still a high rate of recidivism.”

“And so when I was reading through this, I was thinking, you know, a really good idea would be not to put these sex offenders back out on the street, and that’s because 50% of all rapists have a prior conviction and the typical pedophile will commit 117 sexual crimes in their lifetime. That’s nationwide. In Virginia, they have found for the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission that pedophiles molest an average of 300 children in their lifetime. So, I started thinking about that. Do we really want to release sex offenders back out into a community when the bureau of justice says they are four times more likely to be arrested on another crime?”

“And our oldest pedophile is 101 years old. So, pedophiles and sex offenders don’t quit raping and molesting children,” continued Lord.

Rep. Lord attempted to amend the bill to stop pedophiles and rapists from being released into communities to continue to cause acts of sexual and other violence upon New Mexicans. 

During the debate on the amendment, Lord said, “I don’t think that’s the kind of people we want to release.” She cited a case in New Mexico where a pedophile was released and in one week raped three children. “Sex offenders sex offend their entire life. They don’t suddenly get better.” 

The bill sponsor, Rep. Romero, claimed the amendment was “unfriendly.” 

Rep. Pettigrew said, “We’ve had conversations on this on a multitude of bills as they’ve gone through CPAC (Consumer and Public Affairs Committee), and unfortunately all of them, they seem to be unfriendly when it comes with respect to sex offense and pedophiles and different serial rapists and stuff like that. And it is unfortunate. I agree with your amendment… and I will support it.”  

However, Democrats, led by Rep. Doreen Gallegos (D-Donña Ana), voted to protect pedophiles and table the amendment on a vote of 41-28. The only Democrats who voted against tabling the amendment were Reps. Harry Garcia (D-Bernalillo, Cibola, McKinley, Socorro, San Juan & Valencia), Candie Sweetser (D-Grant, Hidalgo & Luna), and Marian Matthews (D-Bernalillo). 

During debate on an amendment, Democrats snuck into S.B. 114 duplicative language to a bill regarding felon voting rights that looks likely dead in the Senate, H.B. 74. Republicans, including Rep. Rod Montoya (R-San Juan), brought up the House rule stating how it is against House rules to do such a thing. 

Despite that, Speaker Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) claimed his closed-door, dead-of-night lawmaking (which includes Democrats erecting a fence around the Capitol to keep the people out of the People’s House) was “extreme transparency and openness in this entire process.” He said the discussion was “a wonderful example of complete transparency.”

The bill finally passed, without the amendment barring pedophiles and rapists out on parole, by a vote of 37-33.

Radical anti-police bill bankrupting local governments one hurdle away from becoming law

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On Tuesday, the New Mexico Senate passed H.B. 4, dubbed the “Civil Rights Act,” sponsored by Speaker of the House Brian Egolf, Rep. Georgene Louis (D-Bernalillo), and Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Doña Ana), all attorneys practicing civil litigation. 

The bill has the ability to bankrupt local communities with slews of frivolous civil rights lawsuits, end qualified immunity and put a target on law enforcers’ backs. Local governments from all across the state are vehemently opposed to the measure, as well as many local law enforcement officials from all over New Mexico.

During the Senate debate of the bill, Sen. Bill Sharer (R-San Juan) said, “We don’t want to deprive somebody of their civil rights, but we also don’t want to make the taxpayers of whatever jurisdiction just pour money into this endless pit of lawsuits.”

Sen. Stewart Ingle (R-Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Lea, and Roosevelt) said, “We have the most liberal liability laws of any place except Washington, D.C., and the stuff we didn’t have has now been added through this.” He added, “It’s going to open up areas for liability that we have never seen before. And our counties and our cities, our highway departments, every state agency we have, I think, is going to be subject to things that they have never even thought about.” 

“More money for insurance or claims means less money for essential services or higher taxes,” said Santa Fe County Attorney Greg Shaffer during testimony against the bill in a Senate committee. “This shifting of risk impacts all citizens,” he said. “More money for insurance or claims means less money for essential services or higher taxes.”

In a previous hearing of the bill, Detective Shaun Willoughby of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association said, “This particular bill takes away our ability. This is basically a tax increase. We are taxing the public all over the state of New Mexico. Hurting budgets that can be used for training on the mental health, can be used for resources and social programs in the poorest state in the nation.” 

Proponents of the police-attacking bill came sponsored by dark money groups like billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s “Moms Demand Action,” the Soros-funded “Sierra Club,” “ProgressNow New Mexico,” and “Equality New Mexico.” These groups’ supporters claimed H.B. 4 was a necessary reform for civil rights while not addressing how it would cripple local municipalities’ budgets, open these localities to million-dollar frivolous lawsuits, and put targets on peace officers’ backs. 

Egolf has been criticized for sponsoring the bill, as it would directly benefit his private law practice, which is 60% civil litigation and claims. His unethical sponsorship of the bill led a prominent retired judge to file an ethics complaint against Egolf. He had his lawyer file a motion to dismiss the ethics complaint, as reported on Friday. During House consideration of H.B. 4, Egolf voted against an amendment proposed by Rep. T. Ryan Lane (R-San Juan) to bar legislators from financially benefiting from the bill.

The measure barely squeaked by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a vote of 5-4, with Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Bernalillo) voting with all Republicans against the radical measure. Another similar measure was brought forth by Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Doña Ana) regarding tort claims and qualified immunity. However, it was swiftly rejected, with two Democrats voting to kill the bill. Cervantes also may profit off of his co-sponsorship of H.B. 4 despite his claims that he has “no conflict of interest or financial motive in bringing this legislation.” Only time will tell on that.

The Senate amended the bill to eliminate mandatory attorney fees. However, the small concession did not fix New Mexico’s small communities and local governments’ many concerns. In its amended form, the bill will go to the House of Representatives for concurrence before it is sent to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for a signature. It passed the Senate on a 26-15 with one Democrat in opposition, Sen, George Muñoz (Cibola, McKinley, and San Juan), siding with all Republicans against the extreme bill.

According to the New Mexico House Republicans at 10:37 p.m. on Tuesday that “[W]e are recessed until the Speaker’s bill, HB 4, is passed by the Senate and he can bring it to our chamber for concurrence.” 

Sen. Stewart callously dismisses concerns as committee rams through gas tax hike on the poor

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On Tuesday, the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee convened to discuss S.B. 11, the de-facto gas tax on the poor by over 20 cents per gallon. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo). 

When asked simple questions about her bill and the math not adding up in the cost of gasoline pushed on consumers, she erroneously claimed, “Gas is cheaper now than when they started.” However, according to raw gas prices from California and Oregon, the states she championed as models for New Mexico, the prices in 2014 and 2015 for California and Oregon respectively were cheaper then than when they implemented the clean fuel standards.

Rep. James Strickler (R-San Juan) brought up the fact that the California equivalent of New Mexico’s Legislative Finance Committee urged the state to shut down the clean fuel standards program due to cost concerns with transportation that ultimately went on to the consumer. 

He noted how in Farmington, where he is located, “We pay probably 25 to 30 cents higher in gasoline costs up here.” 

Stewart clapped back, “I don’t” have concerns. “I’m certainly proud that you all are concerned about low income. I don’t think it’s going to impact us,” she said, adding, “We’ve got two years to phase this in. We’re going to do it right.”

Rep. Rod Montoya (R-San Juan) echoed Rep. Strickler’s concerns, saying, “The poor are going to be the ones who are going to be the ones most affected by this.” 

At this point, Stewart got frustrated, as she did in multiple other committee hearings when faced with the truth about her unaffordable gas tax on the poor. She said,  “When everybody talks about, ‘Oh the poor are gonna be hurt,’ I do believe the poor care about the climate,” she said.

“This is bigger than just the cost of gasoline…. This program does not really affect the cost of gasoline, like so many other factors that go into it.” 

“Two cents a year — That is nothing,” she said, claiming, “I am not concerned about that because I do believe this is kind of fear mongering…. I want to answer honestly because that’s how I feel about it.” 

“The cost is in the transportation — that’s where the poor people in rural New Mexico get hit,” Montoya clapped back.

He added that the example of supposed “new investment” in New Mexico used by Stewart, a company in Clovis, had their production in Texas which was across the border.

“The problem was the delivery cost,” said Montoya. He noted that transportation costs would be “astronomical” if someone lived in a more rural area, such as Deming. “The cost was going to be outrageous,” said Montoya. 

“That’s where the poor people in rural New Mexico get hit,” he said, “The cost to transport is where the cost comes from.” 

“If you live in California and you have a lot more outlets like that, the cost goes down…. that’s a real number that’s a real factor.”  

When Stewart was pressed on the lack of legislative oversight that the commission responsible for implementing the clean fuel standard would have, she replied, “No. I have seen us year after year after year come back and make changes” She added, “I have no fears about that.” 


After dismissing the very real concerns of the rural representatives, Democrats made a motion to pass the bill, with all Democrats voting for it while all Republicans stood up for the poor and voted against it, with the S.B. 11 passing on a vote of 7-4. The gas tax on the poor bill now heads to the House floor for final approval.

Find and contact your legislator to oppose the bill by clicking here.

TODAY: NM House considering 20+ cent per gallon gas tax on the poor—sign up to testify

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On Tuesday, the New Mexico House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Torrance, and Valencia) will hear radical gas tax on the poor bill S.B. 11 sponsored by Sen. Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo). Your testimony is requested to stop this anti-worker, anti-energy bill.

S.B. 11 puts extreme clean fuel standards on businesses that produce or import transportation fuels and fuels used in motor vehicles. The restrictions on these companies would force them to invest in costly upgrades to their fuel standards, meaning these costs would transfer to the consumers. The bill also adds vague and sweeping “enviro-justice” provisions to state law.

In California and Oregon, where clean fuel standards are already in place, there are already increased costs of up to 24 cents per gallon on gas, which directly hurts poor consumers. Similar bills have been enacted in Oregon and California, states where the gas prices are 119% and 135% higher than the national average, respectively, according to AAA.

In Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee, Stewart got flustered with people calling her bill out for harming poor New Mexicans, where she insisted, “You know what gas costs in Europe? It costs $6-7 a gallon!” She said people drove smaller electric cars in the region and said she didn’t appreciate “the sky is falling” arguments regarding concerns attributed to her bill. Stewart also complained about the committee hearing nearing two hours long on her bill. 

However, senators from rural areas did, indeed, have concerns about her bill since many people in more remote areas have to drive farther to go to work and to get basic needs from neighboring towns. This de-facto gas tax would harm the poorest New Mexicans. 

But despite any logical argument otherwise, Stewart insists her bill will bring industry to New Mexico, while poor citizens foot the bill for her pipe dream. S.B. 11 was rammed through the Senate and now is being fast-tracked through the House of Representatives. The bill is a priority of far-left Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

ACTION ALERT: 

The New Mexico House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee will meet today (Tuesday, March 16, 2020) at 8:00 a.m to consider the bill. Please attend and give your testimony against the radical measure which will hurt the poor and middle classes. You can join the meeting with the below information:

Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88692377623  Or iPhone one-tap : US: +16699009128,,88692377623# or +12532158782,,88692377623# Or Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 669 900 9128 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 646 558 8656 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 Webinar ID: 886 9237 7623

Please reach out to members of the committee and urge them to oppose S.B. 11:

Deb Haaland makes history: Becomes least qualified person to ever serve in cabinet

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On Monday, The U.S. Senate shamefully confirmed Rep. Deb Haaland to head the U.S. Department of the Interior, dealing a crippling blow to the integrity of the country’s public lands, which will now be under the control of the radical anti-energy “Green New Deal”-loving extremist.

You have to give it to the Democrats, though. They did, indeed, make history with her confirmation, making her the least qualified candidate to ever reach a presidential cabinet position, not only with the support of every single one of their members but with four Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) lining up to support her, like sheep to the slaughter.

Despite vast swaths of Alaska under the control of the Department of the Interior and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) calling out Haaland for singling out The Last Frontier, she and spineless RINO Dan Sullivan (R-AK) joined Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Linsey Graham (R-SC) in supporting Haaland. The final vote was 51-40 with nine senators not voting.

To be crystal clear, Haaland has no accomplishments whatsoever to speak of other than being a walking, talking, breathing embodiment of the Peter Principle. The Peter Principle is merely a management concept about competent employees in a low role being promoted into positions for which they are incompetent (Congress and Interior in Haaland’s case).

If you did not watch Haaland’s confirmation hearings in the Senate Energy Committee, you didn’t miss much other than hours of painful lines of questioning demonstrating Haaland’s lack of knowledge of the Department of Interior and a lack of awareness of the department’s resources, which she will now be tasked with overseeing. She also demonstrated the lack of a coherent train of thought, using the sounds “uh” and “um” to fill every other gap while Haaland attempted to form a sentence. This can be demonstrated by the below clip, which is particularly painful to watch:

But then again, we must remember that this nomination comes from an illegitimate non-president whose allies weaponized election fraud to steal the 2020 election. Biden also can barely form a sentence and was likely advised to pick Haaland so he could meet a racist diversity quota in his administration while also claiming a “history-making” nomination.

Haaland tried and failed on multiple occasions to pass the bar after law school, then somehow became the Democrat Party of New Mexico chair, and then ran for Congress in the First Congressional District while hilariously claiming to be “fierce” in the process.

Then once elected, she hid from constituents, and when election time rolled around, she ducked debates for months until she finally was compelled to show to “remote” debates where she stumbled on her words again and again. She consistently lied about multiple issues and could not defend her radical agenda.

During a candidate debate in October, Haaland misled on multiple issues. She claimed she worked in “a bipartisan way” while in Congress, despite voting with socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 95% of the time, she called a leftist Black Lives Matter/Antifa mob committing arson and vandalism in Lafayette Square near the White House “peaceful,” she claimed she did not support Antifa, despite calling them “peaceful protestors,” saying she has never “missed a vote,” despite missing several, and falsely claiming President Trump called COVID-19 a “Democrat hoax,” which liberal fact-checkers have even admitted is incorrect. 

Now, Haaland, the least accomplished and most embarrassing cabinet pick of any administration in history will go on to lead the Department of the Interior, overseeing 480 million acres of public land, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals, and 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf. She also has pledged to ban fracking, which will cripple states like New Mexico who rely heavily on the critical industry. We can only hope her incompetence keeps her from getting anything done because the less she does, the easier people, especially those who rely on these public lands, can sleep at night. 

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