New Mexico

Hispanic and Latinos’ ‘drift’ away from Dems could mean Vasquez’s downfall

13 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Far-left Democrat U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico’s Second Congressional District could be in for a surprise in his 2024 attempt to seek reelection, as Hispanics and Latinos, who make up 60 percent of the District, are shifting away from the Democrat Party.

Vasquez narrowly won his race in November by a mere 0.7 percent, making him one of the most vulnerable GOP targets in 2024.

According to an Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll, “More Latinos continue to favor the Democratic Party, but their allegiance is drifting. Some Latinos signal growing differences on cultural issues and crime — and give Republicans an edge in handling the economy.”

“Latinos are still more Democratic than Republican by significant margins,” Ipsos pollster and senior vice president Chris Jackson said. “But when you’re talking about elections that are won by a percentage point, small losses can make a difference.”

“The Democratic coalition is complicated in the best of times. The more pieces are in play, the harder it’s going to be for any Democratic candidate to thread the needle.”

This could mean imminent doom for the first-term Vasquez, who faces strong opposition by Republican former Congresswoman Yvette Herrell, who has vast support and won the seat over Democrat Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small, a Latina, in 2020. Herrell has national support from U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, along with many top Republicans in New Mexico. 

National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Delanie Bomar wrote, “For years, Gabe Vasquez and the Democrat Party have taken Hispanic voters for granted by ignoring the issues that are most important to them.”

She continued, “Under Biden’s failing economy, it’s clear New Mexico Hispanics are realizing Vasquez isn’t the guy for them.”

Underage victim of trans rapist given cold shoulder by Sen. Heinrich: Report

20 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to a report by The Post Millennial, shocking and tragic events happened in a Rio Rancho public charter school restroom where a girl reported to be 12-year-old “Ray” (pseudonym) had been raped in a girls’ bathroom by an older male student.

The incident allegedly occurred in October 2021 at ASK Academy, but Ray’s mother, Maggie, only discovered it several months later when she found her daughter’s diary. 

“I was raped. I was raped. I was raped. F*cking kill me,” the diary read.

The school’s adoption of gender ideology and trans-inclusive bathroom policies could have contributed to the assault, as Ray was regularly forced to use girls’ bathrooms with boys.

“When the male student first entered the girls’ restroom, Ray said she was washing her hands and didn’t take particular notice of the student’s sex, nor was she aware of his ‘gender identity,’” The Post Millennial reported.

Maggie believes that the school had fully embraced radical gender theory without her knowledge or consent, with students pledging allegiance to the pride flag instead of the American flag. 

“We learned that kids were pledging allegiance to the pride flag instead of the American flag,” Maggie said. “We learned that some teachers were discussing daily, the normalcy of transgender people and gender dysphoria, and that this school had a higher population than anyone would expect for such a small school of kids saying they were trans and parents not knowing.” 

The school is said to have fostered an ideologically far-left culture, pressuring students to accept the presence of men in women’s spaces and stifling any dissenting views. After reporting the rape to law enforcement, Maggie encountered resistance from the school, which dismissed her concerns and blamed her parenting.

The report also mentions other allegations of sexual harassment and assault at ASK Academy involving the same male student and potentially other victims who are too afraid to come forward. It criticizes the school’s lack of transparency and accountability, as well as the slow progress of the criminal investigation. The traumatic experience has had a significant impact on Ray’s mental health, leaving her anxious, depressed, and fearful. 

Maggie and her husband later decided to homeschool their daughters due to concerns about their safety in light of New Mexico’s legislation opening school facilities to individuals based on their gender identity.

“After a year at her local public school, Maggie and her husband decided their two daughters weren’t safe there, either. What solidified their decision was a law New Mexico passed in March that opened school bathrooms and locker rooms to individuals based on their ‘gender identity.’ Maggie wrote to New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat, to express her concerns about the legislation, even sharing the account of what happened to her daughter. Her inquiry, Maggie said, was ‘met with a complete rejection of the notion that he would support anything that goes against gender affirming legislation,’” the report concluded.

Heinrich is running for reelection in 2024, seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate. There have been rumblings he has his eye on the governor’s mansion, as far-left Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is term-limited after her current term.

Far-left group tries to downplay NM’s abysmal child well-being ranking

11 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

A far-left group called New Mexico Voices for Children, which advocates for things such as abortion up-to-birth, weakened election laws, socialized “free” college, and child mutilation via transgender surgery and puberty blockers, is now trying to downplay the state’s abysmal rankings, most recently being listed 50th once again out of all other states in child well-being.

The group’s executive director Amber Wallin’s op-ed recently appeared in the Las Cruces Sun-News, telling New Mexicans the abysmal rankings “shouldn’t get you down.”

“While these improvements show up in the data, they don’t yet show up in the 50-state rankings. The rankings are based on data, but the various factors behind each indicator go beyond policies implemented by states. Childhood outcomes in a state are also intrinsically tied to its geography, history, assets, systemic inequities, and various other factors that contribute to a nuanced picture of child well-being that cannot be accurately represented by any one number or ranking,” she claimed.

Wallin also touted extreme government-growing programs, claiming they are helping, but the data hasn’t produced their results yet.

She wrote, “Our investments in child care assistance, voter-approved expansion of early childhood services, and child-focused tax policy improvements all received national accolades. These, along with the creation of a statewide paid sick leave policy for all workers, ending of predatory lending, and expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act all help ensure that New Mexico’s families have access to the resources we all need to thrive.”

Although she acknowledged, “This is not to say that there’s no room for improvement,” Wallin’s answer to the 50th ranking, which had multiple categories worsen in the latest “The Kids Count” report on child well-being, is more big government, Critical Race Theory in classrooms, more taxpayer money being flung at “free” daycare, and giving salaries to a legislature that has so far produced nothing but worse results for the state.

She concluded, “For example, we must continue our investments in early childhood. We must mandate that our K-12 curriculum reflects and validates our diverse child population. We must ensure that our Legislature has the resources it needs – including salaries and staff – that allow a broader segment of residents to serve in elected office. We must broaden our revenue base to cushion our budget from oil and gas volatility. We must ensure any new revenue comes from the sectors of our society who can afford to take more responsibility for supporting the services and infrastructure our people and businesses all rely upon. And we must ensure a just transition toward a greater reliance on renewable energy sources.” 

Ethics complaint filed against SOS Maggie Toulouse Oliver: Report

9 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to a report from the website “Estancia.News,” an ethics complaint has been filed against New Mexico’s Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver over her attempts to crush referendum petitions challenging the state’s far-left laws recently passed during the 2023 Legislative Session.

The outlet reported that referendum organizer Ramona Goolsby “filed an ethics complaint against the New Mexico Secretary of State for dereliction of duty, malicious abuse of process, and abuse of power. Goolsby also filed a judicial complaint against District 13 Judge, James Noel, for improperly closing a case dealing with the referendum, apparently for purposes of a media campaign to discredit the effort,” reported the outlet. 

“The organizers allege that the SOS has purposely misinformed the public about the referendum process to serve her personal political agenda.”

Although none of the six laws attempting to be challenged were labeled for the “preservation of the public peace, health or safety,” which are exempt from referendum, Toulouse Oliver is using this as a pretext to try and stop them from going forward. 

Bills attempted to be overturned via referendum include legislation trying local jurisdictions’ hands from regulating abortion, an expansion of school-based health centers pushing abortion and “gender-affirming care,” bills weakening New Mexico elections, a bill harboring criminal abortionists, and legislation expanding the “Human Rights Act.” Read more about the referendum petition project being organized by Better Together New Mexico here.

Goolsby told Estancia.News, “The reason I filed the ethics complaint against the SOS is that she is being dishonest with the courts and dishonest with the public. I think she has become used to saying things that aren’t true and people don’t question her and go along with it. New Mexicans are fed up with being lied to and having their rights dismissed by the elected class who are supposed to be working for us.”

Even left-wing columnists have decried Toulouse Oliver’s attempts to thwart the referendum petition, claiming they are attacks on democracy by the Democrat official. 

The Albuquerque Journal previously reported, “The Secretary of State’s office has directed county clerks not to provide voter lists to those pushing the repeal effort, and warned voters that current petitions circulating are not valid since they have not been approved.” 

Goolsby concluded, “We are very disappointed that the SOS has not been willing to work with any of the grassroots organizations that have reached out to her. She continues to openly block a constitutional right the citizens of New Mexico were provided with by the founders of this great state. Her attitude smacks of elitism which is not sitting well with the average New Mexican.”

U.S. Census Bureau report sounds the alarm on NM’s long-term poverty

9 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

A newly published report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows where New Mexico stands regarding long-term poverty. 

The report “incorporates poverty estimates from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, the 2005–2009 American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates, and the 2015–2019 ACS, 5-year estimates.”

“While most previous studies used three datapoints, this report uses four datapoints to more accurately count persistent poverty areas and to use roughly equal periods between readings,” it noted.

It revealed that New Mexico has 21.3 percent of the population (434,600 people) suffering from persistent poverty since 1985, with nine of the state’s 33 counties with long-term poverty.

The persistently impoverished counties include Cibola, Doña Ana, Luna, McKinley, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Roosevelt, and Socorro.

New Mexico was only beaten by Mississippi, which had a 24.4 percent poverty rate. 

The Census Bureau noted, “For the 1989 to 2015–2019 period, 8,238 census tracts (11.3 percent) were persistently in poverty. There were 28.5 million people living within these tracts, which is 9.0 percent of the total population for whom poverty status could be determined in 2019.”

That means New Mexico’s poverty level is 236.6 percent of the national average — an abysmally high number for the state.

According to the World Population Review, 21,317 out of every 100,000 New Mexicans is on welfare, approximately 21.3 percent. 

MLG takes full credit for NM’s lackluster jobs numbers trailing most states

14 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Friday, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham erroneously claimed her far-left “policies” were leading to job growth in the state — with a heavy spin.

She claimed that because of her, the state is now seeing the highest number of jobs in its history.” 

She wrote, in a press release, “The robust job growth in New Mexico is proof positive that we are enacting all the right policies to grow our economy,” adding, “We are paying people a livable wage, providing child care for working parents, and making it easier for employers to find prepared candidates by putting more people through college and technical training.”

Ironically, the press release admits that the state’s multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded “free” daycare is, indeed, “child care” — not the “Pre-K” that she previously claimed. 

The higher minimum wage has resulted in a higher cost of living in New Mexico, especially in more urban areas where rents and mortgages have ballooned to levels working-class citizens cannot afford. Her taxpayer-funded “free” college programs is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. 

In the statement, she pointed to the fact that there were 869,400 jobs in New Mexico, which she says is the highest in history. 

However, according to historical data, jobs had increased in New Mexico for decades, including a high of 863,400 during the Donald Trump administration in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic, when Lujan Grisham locked down the state and plunged the number of available jobs to 758,100 in May of 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

During this extreme plunge during the Lujan Grisham lockdown, the unemployment rate ballooned to a massive ten percent, with it leading the nation during many months of her shutdown. She forced 40 percent of all small businesses in the state to close their doors due to her pandemic-era edicts, according to her own New Mexico Department of Tourism.

Also, during the Trump administration, the labor force participation rate was a healthy 58.1 in 2019 and 2020 (right at the start of Lujan Grisham’s tenure in January 2019), while now (with supposedly 869,400 jobs available), it sits at only 56.9. 

At 3.5 percent, New Mexico’s unemployment rate sits as the 34th-lowest out of all 50 states. 

Weak-on-crime policies by Lujan Grisham and her leftist allies in the Legislature have forced businesses to close due to shoplifting and unsafe environments for both patrons and employees. 

“The economic policies of Gov. Lujan Grisham and this administration are working,” claimed Economic Development Department Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes. 

“Gov. Lujan Grisham’s administration is not only growing our economy at a historic pace, but making the investments in higher education and career training we need to ensure that New Mexicans are ready to enter these high-skill, family-sustaining jobs,” chimed in Higher Education Department Secretary Stephanie M. Rodriguez.

Despite New Mexico’s employment failures under her administration, Lujan Grisham’s appointed cabinet secretaries are singing her praises, claiming she alone is responsible for any uptick in economic vitality in the state beleaguered by her failed far-left policies. 

Leftists celebrate NM law harboring criminal abortionists taking effect

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On Friday, the far-left George Soros-funded group ProgressNow New Mexico (PNNM) gleefully celebrated an extremist law, S.B. 13, taking effect. 

S.B. 13, signed by Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, will harbor criminal abortionists in New Mexico who are wanted for extradition to other states. 

Section 4 of the legislation reads, “It shall be a violation of the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Protection Act to request from a third party, or for a third party to transmit information related to an individual’s or entity’s protected health care activity with the intent to: . . . (6) deter, prevent, sanction or penalize an individual or entity for engaging in a protected health care activity.” 

Section 9 of the bill expressly exempts from extradition criminal fugitives who commit or conspire to commit illegal abortions, so long as the perpetrator remains in New Mexico during the commission of the crimes. 

PNNM hailed the extreme law, writing, “SB13 Protects information of New Mexico abortion and gender-affirming care providers, seekers and helpers. This includes protecting New Mexican’s health care information, health care providers’ licenses, prohibiting extradition for the provision of in-state abortion and gender-affirming care, and preventing the state from cooperating with out-of-state investigations.”

On Twitter, the extremist group wrote, “Oh Happy Day,” sharing what they like about the new law.  

The Soros dark money organization claimed, “Gender affirming medical care is safe, evidence-based and medically-necessary,” which is not true. 

The bill is currently being put up for referendum if organizers get enough signatures to have it put on the ballot.

See where NM ranked in child well-being on ‘The Kids Count’ report

14 Comments / New Mexico, News / By

The Baltimore-based nonprofit, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, recently released its annual “The Kids Count” report. The report examines data across 16 total indicators in four broad categories: education, health, economic well-being, and family and community. New Mexico was once again ranked last overall. The data is derived from the years 2021 to 2022. 

The state ranked 49th in economic well-being, with 24 percent of children in poverty — a mere once percent change from last year’s 25 percent.

35 percent of New Mexico children’s parents lack secure employment, an increase of three percent from the last year at 32 percent.

Children living in households with a high-cost burden remained the same at 26 percent, but still very high.

Teens not in school and not working shot up one percent to 12 percent from last year’s 11 percent.

In the category of education, New Mexico ranked 50th, with 59 percent of children ages three and four not in school (the same percentage as last year), 79 percent of fourth-graders not proficient in reading (up from last year’s 76 percent), 87 percent of eighth-graders not proficient in math (up from 79 percent last year), and 23 percent of high school students not graduating on time, a slight improvement from 25 percent previously.

New Mexico ranked 44th in health, with 9.4 percent low birth weight in newborns, slightly up from the previous 9.3 percent, six percent of children without health insurance (the same figure from last year), 43 teen deaths per 100,000 (up from 36 previously), and 36 percent of teens ages 10 to 17 who are overweight or obese (up from the previous 32 percent). 

In the family and community category, 44 percent of children in New Mexico live in single-parent households (the same as before), 12 percent of children live in households that lack a high school diploma (slightly better than the previous 14 percent), 19 percent of children living in high-poverty areas (up from 22 percent), and 19 teen births per 1,000 (down from 42 previously).

Leftist columnist rips Toulouse Oliver over thwarting referendum effort

23 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

A leftist columnist, Walt Rubel, the opinion page editor for the Las Cruces Sun-News, wrote a recent op-ed supporting organizers collecting petitions for a referendum vote on laws passed in the 2023 Legislative Session.

He wrote regarding the failure to get 2014 a wage-related bill on the ballot in Las Cruces that it “relied on slimy legal tricks” to stymie the effort.

Regarding the current referendum drive by conservative groups, he opined, “Unfortunately, Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has greeted this effort of citizen involvement with the same obstructionist mindset as our former City Council. More specifically, she has decided that one of the new laws can never be repealed, regardless of how many citizens support it.”

“Toulouse Oliver is arguing that the bill can never be overturned by the citizens because it falls into a protected class of legislation necessary for the ‘preservation of the public peace, health or safety’ of the state. That seems like an enormous stretch. Does anybody believe the peace, health and safety of residents in Hobbs or Carlsbad will be endangered if they don’t have an abortion clinic? I suspect the opposite is true. Any facilities in those towns would surely draw protesters.” 

He added the caveat, “To be clear, I don’t agree with the proposed referendum, and would vote against it if given the chance. I’m just saying I should have that chance, if the referendum organizers collect the necessary number of petitions.”

“Toulouse Oliver said if any of those efforts are successful, they will be thrown out as well, because referendum organizers have not followed the proper procedure to begin a petition process. She may be right. But this sure looks like a Democratic secretary of state doing everything possible to thwart an effort by her political opponents. And I’m not sure why. I don’t think any of these five proposed referendums would pass if put to the voters. But lawmakers simply can’t stand to have their decrees challenged by the unwashed masses.”

Legendary author Cormac McCarthy, 89, passes away in New Mexico

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Legendary author of “Blood Meridian,” “The Road” and “All the Pretty Horses,” Cormac McCarthy, passed away on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the age of 89.

The famed American author died of natural causes, according to his publisher, Penguin Random House. 

“Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,” Nihar Malaviya, the CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.

“For sixty years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word,” Malaviya said. “Millions of readers around the world embraced his characters, his mythic themes, and the intimate emotional truths he laid bare on every page, in brilliant novels that will remain both timely and timeless, for generations to come.”

McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Road,” as well as the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

“McCarthy’s style and thematic preoccupations drew from disparate influences, ranging from the haunting Southern Gothic prose of William Faulkner to the lyrical intricacy of James Joyce and the fire-and-brimstone intensity of Scripture,” wrote NBC News.

His 1985 masterpiece “Blood Meridian,” which is a horrifically violent epic about bloodthirsty bounty hunters, is considered by many to be his crowning achievement.

Other books he wrote, such as “No Country for Old Men,” 2005, gained acclaim after its initial release.

The film adaptation of the book directed by the Cohen Brothers won four Academy Awards, including best picture. 
“Death is the major issue in the world. For you, for me, for all of us,” he said during an interview with Vanity Fair. “It just is. To not be able to talk about it is very odd.”

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