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Democrat gov. denies press credentials to two conservative news outlets

By John Block and Nick Wilbur

On Wednesday, both The Conservative New Mexican and the Piñon Post were denied entry into Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s media briefing regarding her support for abortion in the State of New Mexico.

Left-wing media went head-over-heels when a far-left reporter, Shaun Griswold, for the foreign-owned “Source New Mexico” was not admitted entry into Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Ronchetti’s private campaign rally with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) earlier this month.

According to the campaign, “Source New Mexico was denied a credential because they are ‘a left-wing advocacy group, not a legitimate news organization.’” The online newspaper’s liberal founding, dark-money funding, and one-sided “reporting” indicate this to be true.

Regarding Griswold not being allowed into the campaign event, leftist media collectively lost it over “freedom of the press.”

The Las Vegas Optic wrote in a melodramatic editorial, “It’s a gross overstep of authority, and one everyone should be concerned about,” adding, “We don’t know about everyone reading this, but that sure doesn’t sound like freedom of the press to us.”

The Santa Fe Reporter chimed in, claiming Griswold’s denied entry was “an obvious affront to press freedom.”

New Mexico Foundation for Open Government (NMFOG) whined that booting Griswold was “a dangerous precedent to let any public servant decide who is and is not a ‘legitimate’ reporter.”

To test this theory of supposed “press freedom,” both the Piñon Post, a news site initially founded in 2018, and The Conservative New Mexican, founded in 2021, requested press credentials for Lujan Grisham’s Wednesday press briefing.

The event was scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday. As of this writing, the governor’s press secretary has yet to respond to either of our requests for access.

We will see if these supposed beacons of journalistic prowess will be crowing from the top of their lungs about “open government” and “press freedom” now that two conservative-leaning outlets were denied access—to a PUBLIC event, no less.

At the presser, Lujan Grisham announced that in the 2023 Legislative Session, if re-elected, she will designate $10 million of public capital outlay money to build a new abortion facility in Doña Ana County, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, which was granted access to the briefing.

Even more damning, every single correspondence sent from the Piñon Post requesting comment on a story or access to an official press conference has gone unanswered, both by press secretary Nora Sackett and former communications director Tripp Stelnicki.

The shameless hypocrisy of these leftist “news” outlets like the Reporter and Optic and “open government” groups like NMFOG prove that the crowing over “press freedom” is all a political ploy meant to dredge up more controversy and take jabs at Conservative voices.

We will patiently wait for these leftist editorial boards and “transparency” groups to denounce Lujan Grisham for her administration’s “affronts on the freedom of the press.”

John Block is the founder and editor of the Piñon Post. Nick Wilbur runs The Conservative New Mexican.

Don’t miss these related articles:

Leftists Demand Answers But Ask No Questions Over Fake News Ban

Woke op-ed: NM’s ‘free’ college holding state ‘hostage’ because oil & gas funds it

OutSource New Mexico: Dark Money Funds ‘Left-of-Center’ SourceNM to ‘Change the Political Debate’

Democrat gov. denies press credentials to two conservative news outlets Read More »

Woke op-ed: NM’s ‘free’ college holding state ‘hostage’ because oil & gas funds it

7 Comments / Editorial, New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

In a hilarious move, the left-wing “Source New Mexico” blog ran an op-ed by a person called Jonathan Juarez-Alonzo, who the website says “is a queer, two-spirit Indigenous climate activist” who is “working on the frontlines of combating environmental racism and ecological destruction here in New Mexico.”

Alonzo claims the extreme taxpayer-funded “free” college passed last year by the Democrat-dominated Legislature doesn’t go far enough because of “climate change” and funds from oil and gas being used to fund the socialist program. Because of the supposed climate crisis, Alonzo says he is “on an indefinite leave of absence from the University of New Mexico”

Oil and gas made up 33 percent of the state’s revenue in the last fiscal year.

“[F]unding these scholarships with volatile oil revenues, students like myself feel our futures are being held hostage: Do we invest in ourselves and take advantage of free higher education? Or should we even be wasting these last fleeting years of our youth in a classroom when our elected leaders are leading us down a path toward total climate collapse,” writes Alonzo.

Throughout the rest of the piece, he claims victimhood, invoking the name of slain fentanyl addict George Floyd, saying that is why he quit college to go into “criminology and social work,” writing that he grew up “surrounded by one of the most violent police forces in the nation.”

Alonzo then calls for the total decimation of the oil, gas, and all extractive industries, writing, “We’re lacking the political willpower to dismantle and transform an industry that holds every aspect of our state in economic hostage.”

“New Mexico is handing out symbolic victories like tuition-free college that are meaningless when thousands of New Mexicans are being displaced by wildfires, and our farmers are losing their crops because the acequias are running dry,” he writes, claiming that fires and droughts are caused by the fictitious “climate change” emergency.

He claims “real solutions” entail “investments in proven renewable energy and battery technologies, and investments in industry cleanup (which our politicians should make the polluters cover),” but does not take into account that states that have implemented far-left enviro-Marxist policies like California are facing raging blackouts statewide, which have led to the deaths of people.

Solar and wind have extreme environmental impacts due to the materials mined to make these “renewable” energies a reality. Also, the ecological impact kills countless wild animals, such as solar killing around 138,600 birds annually and wind turbines responsible for about 538,000 bird deaths and 900,000 bat deaths every year.

But despite the radical Democrats passing the Green New Deal via the “Energy Transition Act” to totally annihilate the oil and gas industry, that is still not enough for Alonzo and the folks at “Source New Mexico.”

Woke op-ed: NM’s ‘free’ college holding state ‘hostage’ because oil & gas funds it Read More »

Beware: the ‘League of Women Voters’ wants to snatch your guns

11 Comments / Editorial, New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

While some may still see the group as a “non-partisan” organization, the League of Women Voters (LWV) is anything but.

Recently, organizers for the group that puts on debates and other events regarding elections wrote an op-ed for the Las Cruces Sun-News, which advocated for partisan Democrat gun control measures.

LWV gave its stamp of approval to the far-left anti-gun bill recently passed by Congress, saying it “limits access to guns for those who have been convicted of domestic violence in a dating relationship, creates federal straw purchasing and trafficking criminal offenses.”

As well, the group went even further to declare support for four other extreme anti-gun measures. The group wrote in the Sun-News piece, “In addition to these two features, the League recommended the following actions in a letter to the Senate and House judiciary committees: (1) closing the gun show loophole which exempts certain sales from the requirement of a federal background check of the buyer of a weapon, (2) providing universal background checks, (3) banning assault weapons and placing limits on high-capacity ammunition magazine size, and (4) funding research and reporting on gun violence in the United States.”

In essence, the group advocates for universal background checks on all firearms sold ever, banning many styles of firearms (making millions of Americans felons if the bill is passed), and extremist “gun violence” reporting, such as in New Mexico with the recently funded “Office of Gun Violence Prevention” aimed at assaulting Americans’ right to keep and bear arms, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

LWV contends in the op-ed that the fact that good guys with guns help stop bad guys with guns is “dangerous” and that “people with guns make mistakes,” whether they are good or bad. It did not, however, speak on the fact that most crimes in America are committed by criminals who do not abide by gun laws — thus, anti-gun laws do not work.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “An estimated 287,400 prisoners had possessed a

firearm during their offense. Among these, more than half (56%) had either stolen it (6%), found it at the scene of the crime (7%), or obtained it off the street or from the underground market (43%).”

The DOJ report added, “Among prisoners who possessed a gun during their offense, 90% did not obtain it from a retail source.”

Despite the facts, the League of Women Voters is propping up the far-left group run by Miranda Viscoli, New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, which helped ram through New Mexico’s “red flag” law that has not been effective whatsoever in stopping “gun violence.”

Since the bill’s passage in 2020, the state has seen a sharp increase in violent crime, suggesting that the far-left anti-gun laws passed in New Mexico have not done anything but exacerbate violent gun offenses.

As well as gun-snatching, LWV put its rubber stamp of approval on socialist “free” (taxpayer-funded) college programs that are costing the state at least $75 million annually.

The group wrote, “Limitations on economic and educational opportunities also need to be addressed. Greater access to community colleges and universities through the Opportunity Scholarships and the efforts by the City of Las Cruces to lift up neighborhoods may help.”

The League of Women Voters has come out as an extremely leftist partisan organization and cannot be trusted to be anything but skewing sharply to the political left.

Beware: the ‘League of Women Voters’ wants to snatch your guns Read More »

Radical Democrats desperately want you to care about their Jan. 6 fetish

9 Comments / Editorial / By John Block

Obsessed may be too weak of a word to describe Democrats’ fetish with the January 6, 2021 incursion of the U.S. Capitol in a desperate attempt to keep their dream alive by trying to pin people going into the Capitol on that day on Republicans.

The incursion spawned a year-long witch hunt of those who allegedly entered the Capitol or even got so far as on the balcony constructed for the 2021 inauguration. With the Democrats able to illegitimately grab onto power in the White House, the incursion spawned “the biggest investigation in FBI history,” according to CNN.

The FBI continues on its fishing expedition, already hunting down and arresting over 700 Americans, four of them being from New Mexico.

After the incursion, Republican In Name Only (RINOs) defected to the Democrats and voted not only without an investigation to impeach President Donald J. Trump over the nothingburger, but they voted to certify the fraudulent 2020 election. The list of RINOs grew as some fake Republicans defected to the Democrat side to launch a January 6 witch hunt committee comprised of the likes of Reps. Liz Cheney (RINO-Wyoming) and Adam Kinzinger (RINO-Illinois).

New Mexico Democrats especially, such as Sen. Ben Ray Luján, cried and wailed about what they incorrectly claimed was a “riot” and “insurrection” by the American people entering the Capitol building. Luján claimed, “One year ago, Jan. 6, 2021, our democracy bent — but it didn’t break. That dark day reminded us how fragile our democracy is. On that day, many heroes stood up to protect America — from the Capitol police to Capitol leadership to everyday Americans. We made it clear we will not hide in fear. Rather, we will rise to the occasion to do the jobs we were sent here to do.”

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM-03), who now faces tough reelection due to redistricting, continued on her narrative falsely claiming like Luján that “democracy” was on the line (despite the United States being a constitutional republic — not a democracy).

She told the Santa Fe New Mexican, “But I understood that what we were witnessing on Jan. 6 was the culmination of months of the former president making falsehoods, lying about what happened in November.”

Democrat Party of New Mexico Chairwoman Jessica Velasquez sent out a panicky email trying to fundraise off of Jan. 6. She wrote,“One year ago today, armed insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of a free and fair election. Like many Americans, I watched in horror as a violent mob swarmed into our democratic institutions and forced democratically elected leaders to hide in fear.”

While Democrats whine and continue their parade of tears erroneously claiming the “Big Lie,” they largely ignore widely reported infiltrations of peaceful pro-Trump supporters with ANTIFA/Black Lives Matter rioters who started the violence and the lack of security at the Capitol, with some security guards just leading people inside. And Democrats refuse to condemn ANTIFA/Black Lives Matter domestic terrorists literally burning down minority neighborhoods of American cities to the ground and refuse to call for investigations into racially charged violence.

The Radical Democrats also refuse to acknowledge the fact that the so-called “rioters” were mostly unarmed. The only shot fired on January 6 was that of a Capitol Police officer, Lt. Michael Byrd, who shot and killed martyr Ashli Babbitt, with all other weapons including “stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs.” FBI Assistant Director Jill Sanborn said the bureau did not confiscate firearms from suspects that day. That is not an insurrection.

As President Trump rightly said, “The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!”

But despite the facts, Democrats seem to only be focusing on propagating their fringe conspiracy theories to justify their unhealthy fetish with January 6, which has rounded up and jailed many Americans, with the witch hunt continuing.

Radical Democrats desperately want you to care about their Jan. 6 fetish Read More »

New Mexicans: Brace yourselves for another bloody legislative session

2 Comments / Editorial / By John Block

As if you thought the Radical Democrats in Santa Fe hadn’t already gotten every single thing they wished for in New Mexico, think again.

The Democrats have rammed through their “Green New Deal,” loosened crime laws, legalized abortion up-to-birth and infanticide in New Mexico, legalized assisted suicide, instituted sweeping gun bans, raided the Permanent Fund for “free” daycare, legalized recreational marijuana, and so many other left-wing initiatives.

But now, they are coming for more during the regular legislative session slated for mid-January. And scandal-ridden alleged serial groper Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to focus on “crime” after the deadliest year on record in the leftist-run city of Albuquerque and across the board in New Mexico.

“Crime” is a convenient Democrat euphemism for “social justice” and “gun control” measures. Democrats are likely to push a bunch of different crime initiatives into a bill, such as funding for good programs while also lumping the bill with gun control and social justice policies. So, if the bill includes funding for police officers while also including initiatives conservatives don’t believe in, then Democrats can say Republicans “voted against police funding” if they reject the bill on the premise of its leftist pork.

But the Democrats insist the 2022 Legislative Session will only be about crime, the budget, and a handful of other issues, dependent on the Governor’s whims.

Regarding crime across the state, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Santa Fe saw a violence hike with 11 homicides in 2021, Albuquerque had 81 slayings, and New Mexico’s violent crime rate skyrocketed by percent.

In January, with the public still banned from the premises if they do not get the virus shot and a ban on carrying firearms, conservatives are likely not to be allowed inside the building that taxpayers once were supposed to believe was the “People’s House.”

If 2021’s second legislative session was any predictor of what is to come in the 2022 session, New Mexicans will largely be left out of the process with usually only 10 minutes or fewer to speak in “virtual” committee rooms while Democrats ram through bills. Monday is the first day for legislators to file bills for the 2021 session.

Then, on the House or Senate floor, the debate will be dictated by the iron-fisted Speaker Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) or the vindictive Pro-Tem Mimi Stewart (D-Bernalillo) per usual, Democrats have control of the process. Egolf especially has torn up rules of debate and decorum and instead opted to do whatever he wants.

But New Mexicans must not be discouraged. New Mexico is worth saving, and we must stick together to attend committee hearings, as we have in the past, because Radical Democrats can’t stop us all. We must attend committee hearings, track legislation, and continue fighting for our values. The Piñon Post, as we have in the past, will keep you up to date with action alerts on what you can do to stop bad legislation. We can fix our state — but we must show up and work together to do it.

New Mexicans: Brace yourselves for another bloody legislative session Read More »

Welcome to 2022 — the Year of the Lizard People

3 Comments / Editorial, New Mexico / By John Block

We at the Piñon Post are not much into astrology or Zodiac signs for that matter, but what we can sense is that as the clock struck midnight, 2022 already feels different — in a good way. And even though 2022 is technically being called the “Year of the Tiger,” it feels a lot more like the Year of the Lizard People, at least in New Mexico.

In 2021, scandal-ridden alleged sexual predator Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called conservatives who protested her campaign announcement “lizard people” and it stuck.

Her controversy-driven tenure as governor has been marked with scandal after scandal after scandal. From forcing through the most far-left extreme bills through the Legislature to paying off sexual accusers and her own daughter with campaign cash, and then “misplacing” $250 million in Workforce Solutions money, she has weakened her chance of reelection day after day.

She repeatedly skirted her pandemic rules to buy luxury jewelry, used taxpayer funds for fine wine and $200/lb Wagyu beef steaks, berated local communities for not following her edicts, forced New Mexicans to stand in cold bread lines to get food and basic goods, fined churches and businesses tens of thousands of dollars for alleged non-compliance, removed the National Guard from the border and denied an immigration crisis, fired and hired cabinet secretaries on a dime, gave her staff hefty raises while New Mexicans lost everything, and she is giving away $10 million of New Mexicans’ dollars through a “lottery” to bribe people to take the experimental virus inoculation. Her pandemic lockdowns killed 40% of New Mexico’s small businesses.

But 2022 is the year she will be forced to face We The People at the ballot box. It is making Lujan Grisham, her Democrat allies, and weak “moderate” Republicans run scared of the massive Red Wave that will take over at the June 7 primary elections and November 8 general election. New Mexico already has so many new “lizard people” jumping in the ring to not only take out Lujan Grisham but to deliver change in our communities through legislative, judicial, county-level, and statewide seats.

A referendum is coming…

People have had just about enough of Democrat radicalism in New Mexico and they are prepared to win against it through hard-fought political activism and through talking about the issues that matter most to voters.

Republicans have seven options to choose from to take out MLG, they will finally have options in many primary elections against establishment “Republicans,” and have a true shot to bring fighters into power who will work to return as much of that power back to We The People.

So, the one message we “lizard people” have for Lujan Grisham and the New Mexico Swamp is this: Watch out because THE PEOPLE are coming for you and we will win.

Welcome to 2022 — the Year of the Lizard Person.

Shop the official Lizard People 2022 collection!

Welcome to 2022 — the Year of the Lizard People Read More »

Do not applaud MLG throwing crumbs to the peasantry

7 Comments / Editorial / By John Block

Scandal-ridden alleged serial groper Michelle Lujan Grisham believes she is so generous, so magnanimous, and oh so kind to us peasants who live under her rule.

After raiding the permanent fund for her extremist socialist policies, crippling the oil and gas industry at the knees with the passage of her “Green New Deal,” shuttering 40% of New Mexico small businesses with her pandemic orders, forcing New Mexicans to stand in breadlines over the holidays last year, and the constant abuse she has delved out to New Mexicans from Española to Hobbs, now she is ready to throw us some crumbs.

Crumbs that come in the form of one of the most insignificant, insulting “tax cuts” that would make Marie Antoinette faint.

Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to give us New Mexicans a whole 0.25% decrease in gross receipts tax. That means our already mammoth 5.125% tax rate would fall to 4.875% if passed by the Legislature.

A vote against this bill is cheap and easy political fodder to claim Republicans who oppose it “voted against tax cuts,” even though the Lujan Grisham regime has raised taxes far above 0.25% with her policies. Have you checked your gas bill recently? Yeah, it’s bad.

And it being an election year, Lujan Grisham thinks she can steal another term as governor by throwing crumbs at you and me. Pardon my French, but as the old saying goes, “don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”

MLG must think we are all a bunch of idiots who will simply ignore her payments of $150,000 to an ex-staffer who claims she groped his crotch. She thinks these crumbs will make us forget she munched on $200/lb Wagyu beef steaks, whiskey, and fine wine while New Mexicans waited in bone-chilling temperatures outside the local Walmart to get bread and milk.

Lujan Grisham thinks New Mexicans will simply forget her belittling of citizens over supposed lack of mask-wearing, her mocking of people living in Deming, her displacement of elderly folks living in nursing homes during the pandemic, her mishandling of $250 million in federal funds that suddenly went “missing” from the Department of Workforce Solutions, and the countless scandals Lujan Grisham has racked up.

The Governor’s insulting supposed “tax cut” she wants to throw at us New Mexicans as some idiotic form of “charity” shows she truly thinks we are some of the dumbest, easily manipulatable people on Earth. If she really wanted to boost economic development, maybe she shouldn’t displace oil workers with her evil policies, such as those who live in the Navajo Nation and in southern New Mexico in the oil patch.

If MLG was truly serious about helping hurting families in New Mexico, DO AWAY WITH THE GROSS RECEIPTS TAX ALTOGETHER!

At least for me, I refuse to forget MLG’s years of abuse, and I will be doing everything I can, from my local neighborhood meeting to the voting booth, to kick her to the curb, whether she wants to throw crumbs at me or not. What about you?

Do not applaud MLG throwing crumbs to the peasantry Read More »

Runoff: New Mexicans must unite to elect Grout, Robertson to ABQ City Council

2 Comments / Editorial, New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

Although conservative New Mexicans secured many victories in the 2021 municipal elections, including our state’s mayorships, city council seats, school board positions, and other local offices, the work is not yet done.

Two conservatives, Reneé Grout (District 9) and Lori Robertson (District 7), are vying for positions on the Albuquerque City Council after they both got just shy of the 50% threshold in the November 2 elections.

Grout faces off against far-leftist Robert C. Grilley, Jr, who has the endorsements of Sen. Martin Heinrich, abortion up-to-birth group Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico, the eco-Marxist group the Sierra Club, pro-illegal alien group Dreams in Action, among far-left legislators.

Robertson faces off against another leftist, Tammy Fiebelkorn, who has the endorsements of billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s gun-grabbing group Moms Demand Action, the Sierra Club, as well as far-left former city leaders.

If these two candidates win the runoff election, the Albuquerque City Council will shift power from a leftist majority to a conservative majority — putting a huge barrier on Tim Keller’s apparent unchecked power with the current makeup of the Council. This election is a critical one, especially since the fate of New Mexico’s largest city hangs in the balance with this runoff election.

In the past, far-left Albuquerque city councilors have attempted overreaching gun bans, eco-leftist proposals, plastic bag and straw bans, and “demilitarization” of the police: code for defunding the police and leaving them defenseless against the enemy. More of this extremism will creep into the Albuquerque City Council if Grout and Robertson do not win on November 7.

VOTING DETAILS:

December 7, with early voting starting November 14 through December 4. Early voting sites are closed Nov. 25 through the 27th for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Early voting locations:

Clerk’s Annex – 1500 Lomas Blvd NW, Suite A 87104 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Caracol Plaza – 12500 Montgomery NE, Suite 101 87111 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Central Mercado – 301 San Pedro Dr. SE Suites B, C, D and E 87108 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Daskalos Center – 5339 Menaul Blvd NE, 87110 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Four Hills Shopping Center – 13140 Central Ave SE, Suite 1420 87123 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Holly Plaza Shopping Center – 6600 Holly Ave NE, Suite B-6 87113 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Los Altos Plaza – 4200 Wyoming NE, Suite B-3 87111 Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
The Shoppes at 6001 San Mateo – 6001 San Mateo NE, Suite B-3 87109 Monday- Saturday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m

Learn more about Lori Robertson here.

Learn more about Reneé Grout here.

Runoff: New Mexicans must unite to elect Grout, Robertson to ABQ City Council Read More »

Why you need to vote in Nov. 2 municipal elections — whether you want to or not

Leave a Comment / Editorial / By John Block

While most of New Mexico’s mainstream media is glued to the dumpster fire Albuquerque mayoral race, the truth is, that is not the most important issue citizens need to focus on, especially if you are like me, and you don’t live in the Albuquerque area or a big city.

Most folks don’t pay too much attention to local elections or care to vote in them, but at least in my town, these local elections, especially for school boards, will matter a great deal more.

In Alamogordo where I live, our Alamogordo Public School Board of Education is full of leftists. Three members of our five-member board voted in August to forcibly remove Board President Angie Cadwallader and install a leftist registered Democrat in the post, despite not following proper protocols and not re-voting on every member of the board.

Now, as President Cadwallader remains outnumbered with only one other ally on the five-member board, she faces tough reelection, while that one other ally is not running for reelection and a union-backed candidate is trying to defeat conservative Sara Weihausen, an anti-CRT candidate.

In many ways, our school board elections are some of the most important, and despite the decisions made by our school boards, they don’t exactly make for salacious news, although the Piñon Post has tried to make them a priority in reporting.

In my city, conservative Commissioner Susan Payne goes up against a radical far-leftist, Nadia Sikes, who calls constituents and media who don’t agree with her “a**holes” and mask-shames the public. Sikes has a poisonous hatred for President Donald Trump and has participated in many pro-abortion marches while promoting Planned Parenthood and other abortion up-to-birth groups.

These races don’t make the front page often, but they should matter to every single New Mexican because they determine things like the teaching of the racist Critical Race Theory in our classrooms or the implementation of Gov. Lujan Grisham’s tyrannical mask and jab mandates.

Don’t like those potholes you hit every day on the way to work? Well, then make sure to vote for candidates who will represent you and fix those issues you care about. Being involved in elections makes it much more likely you will get involved further, such as attending city commission or council meetings and talking directly with your representatives.

Although these might not be the most exciting elections in the world, the people we elect make a direct impact, good or bad, on our lives. Please show up to vote for good, conservative candidates who will make the right decisions for communities across the state. On Saturday, October 30, most polling places are open from 7-5 for early voting, and on Election Day, polls open at 7:00 a.m. Find Republican candidates in your area here, find your polling location here, and see your sample ballot here. I will be voting in person on Election Day.

Remember, if you don’t vote, you have no reason to complain.

Why you need to vote in Nov. 2 municipal elections — whether you want to or not Read More »

NM’s acceptance of conflicts of interest in the Legislature breeds corruption

1 Comment / Editorial, New Mexico, News, Politics / By John Block

We’ve all heard the rhetoric from legislators whining about not getting paid enough as legislators (despite it being part-time, they make per diem and receive a pension after ten years of service). The Legislature being part-time has given legislators a gaping wide loophole for corruption, with “ethics” lawyers and parliamentarians claiming because the Legislature is part-time, corruption is A-Ok!

We saw this just recently with millionaire Speaker of the House Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) getting off scot-free for sponsoring a bill, H.B. 4, which would line his pockets as a civil rights attorney due to the elimination of qualified immunity — incentivizing civil rights lawsuits that will cripple local governments, and thus flush loads of cash into his law firm’s bank account.

But a supposed “ethics” judge says that kind of shameless public corruption is perfectly fine in response to a former judge’s ethics complaint alleging his bill is a conflict of interest because he would personally benefit from it. James Starzynski, a retired judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Mexico, said the very valid ethics complaint failed to state the necessary facts to “support a claim upon which relief can be granted.”

So, once again, public corruption has been rubber-stamped by the State of New Mexico. And Egolf can make millions by bankrupting local governments and putting targets on law enforcers’ backs since H.B. 4 is now state law.

Let’s also talk about another legislator who will make out like a bandit after the 2021 Legislative (special) Session following the passage of H.B. 2 co-sponsored by state Sen. Katy Duhigg (D-Bernalillo).

After her bill’s passage legalizing recreational marijuana in New Mexico, Duhigg announced she is opening up a marijuana-focused law firm, which she will now make loads of money off of following her bill’s passage.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican:

“People are rightly asking, ‘Why wasn’t this disclosed?’ ” Duhigg said in a telephone interview Monday.
“Had this been something I was planning on doing, I should have and would have made that disclosure,” she said. “But it didn’t exist then and, honestly, it didn’t even occur to me.”

You really believe that? She had no plans of making money off of her bill whatsoever? Yeah, right!

Now, what about state Rep. Angelica Rubio? She worked for the illegal immigration group “NM CAFé,” which harbors criminal aliens through churches across New Mexico. At the same time that she served as the group’s executive director, she sponsored bills in the Legislature to make illegal aliens’ lives easier by eroding immigration provisions on the state level.

As I reported in 2019:

Rep. Rubio, who is currently serving her second term in the House, is the Executive Director of a pro-illegal immigration group called NM COMUNIDADES EN ACCIÓN Y DE FÉ (CAFé), joining the group in May of 2018 according to her LinkedIn profile and CAFé’s website.
CAFé has actively fought for HB-195 in the New Mexico House of Representatives, which her group would benefit from, designating the state of New Mexico a “Sanctuary State.” As well, Rubio herself is sponsoring HB-287, which would restrict the federal government from using New Mexico land to construct a border wall or fence. CAFé organized a march just last week, with Rubio rallying to the crowd to urge other legislators to vote for the measures.
Rubio, whose group would directly benefit from the passage of HB-195 and HB-287 must recuse herself because the conflict of interest could not be clearer, especially since she is the head of the organization. Furthermore, she must withdraw HB-267 from further consideration. Otherwise, it would be a violation of the Legislative Ethics Guide.

But an ethics complaint filed at the time by me got a response from Rep. Daymon Ely (D-Bernalillo), Chair of the House Rules and Order of Business Committee, where Ely referred to a similar case from 1994, where it stated the following:

We understand that some parties have read the pertinent constitutional and statutory provisions to mean that a legislator’s work in the private sector creates an inherent conflict of interest with his legislative position and therefore his entity should be disqualified from contracting with the State. This viewpoint appears to rely on an unnecessarily narrow and wooden interpretation of the relevant laws. New Mexico, like many states, has a citizen legislature and most of its members earn a living through private sector employment. “For the most part the lawmakers have real lives as farmers, teachers, bankers, business owners and lawyers…The fact that lawmakers have real lives as citizens in their communities is a tremendous asset to the legislative process.” [citation omitted] A wooden interpretation runs counter to this reality and prohibits a wide number of entities from bidding on state contracts and in turn prohibits a large number of legislators from working in the private sector. This could not possibly be the drafters’ intent of these laws when New Mexico is so dependent on private sector entities to provide required and valuable services for the citizenry.

Another legislator, state Rep. Micaela Cadena (D-Doña Ana) had similar conflicts. As reported in 2019:

Rep. Cadena, who is serving her first term in the New Mexico House, works as Research Director for Young Women United (YWU), an abortion-up-to-birth social justice advocacy group which actively lobbies in favor of late-term abortion rights. One particular bill, HB-51 is targeted by the group, which has partnered with Planned Parenthood and other abortion proponents to form Respect New Mexico Women.
On Respect New Mexico Women’s “about” page, a photograph of Rep. Cadena and pro-abortion supporters clearly show Cadena’s involvement with the organization, and her group is a listed sponsor. On Young Women United’s staff page, Cadena’s campaign site, and her Facebook page, she is listed as a current member of the YWU team.
Because of YWU’s political position to gain something from HB-51’s passage, there is a direct conflict of interest between Cadena and HB-51, if she does not recuse herself.

These blatant conflicts of interest are now normalized by this broken system of government, which is entitled, corrupt, and still whines about “not getting paid” or not getting paid “enough,” despite being able to work wherever the heck they want and being virtually untouchable in the eyes of the law.

No legislator or any public official for that matter should be financially benefitting off of the bills, resolutions, ordinances, or laws they pass. Back in the old days, we used to call that “corruption.”

The recent ruling by former Judge Starzynski on the Egolf case and the countless others prove time and time again that the system supposedly meant to work for the people only works for itself. We must change that with ETHICAL leaders in the New Mexico House of Representatives in 2022 and in both chambers in 2024 and beyond.

NM’s acceptance of conflicts of interest in the Legislature breeds corruption Read More »

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