On Wednesday, the left-wing Santa Fe Reporter wrote a fluff piece about a disgraced Northern New Mexico state House of Representatives candidate, Roger Montoya, who was elected last week to that position.
Montoya admitted to acting in multiple pornographic films under the stage names of “Joe Savage” and “Eric Martinez,” and claimed he did these graphic adult movies because he was a “struggling college student” in Los Angeles. Despite the revelation, uncovered exclusively by the Piñon Post, the Velarde Democrat refused to bow out of the race, and high-ranking Democrats, such as Speaker of the House Brian Egolf and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich encouraged him to hide his shady porn past.
Now, the New Mexico House of Representatives will have a porn star running around the Roundhouse making laws and marking a permanent stain on the reputation of the once-hallowed chamber.
In the Reporter’s ode to the porn star, author Julie Ann Grimm claimed that letting the public know about Montoya’s degenerate past was a “political maneuver” and a “smear” by a “right-wing blog.” However, all of Piñon Post’s reports on the revelations–that the liberal media failed to find–were done in an objective, straightforward way, without the slightest hint of political rhetoric lumped in.
Also during the campaign, the Piñon Post found out that Montoya lied on his Albuquerque Journal questionnaire and used his 501(c)(3) charity donor list to fundraise for his political campaign–a grave and illegal offense, which one of his former donors even reported in multiple complaints with the state Attorney General’s Office and the Internal Revenue Service.
Despite providing voters this critical information on a major party candidate running for the legislative position, the left-wing media appears enamored with the thought of Montoya making laws in the Legislature. So enamored that Grimm even claimed the self-admitted pornography acting by Montoya was just a “rumor.”
Unfortunately for the long history and reputation of the New Mexico House of Representatives, it appears that anything goes now. Since the Democrats have “made history” by electing the first porn star to the chamber, what’s next? That question no one yet has an answer to, but Democrats and their liberal sycophants in the media are sitting at the ready to churn out whatever propaganda is necessary to prop up their chosen candidates–no matter how damning their pasts.
Get ready: next cycle, who knows what kind of riff-raff Democrats will come up with as suitable candidates for elected office. God help our state.
For this entire election cycle, left-wingers have been hard at work denying the existence of voter fraud, although the indisputable facts point to the stark antithesis of that sentiment. Especially in New Mexico, fraud is not just common — it’s engrained into an electoral system so battered with corruption and graft that elections have been stolen for generations.
Everything from changing municipal elections to “ranked-choice voting” formats to “democracy dollars,” ballot harvesting, “finding” mysterious ballots, and everything in-between, there are massive gaping holes in our elections process. No matter how many times left-wing puppets demand that fraud is a non-existent conspiracy theory propagated by the left-wing, facts prove otherwise.
Anomalies that could never have occurred by chance popped up in 2018’s 2nd Congressional District race, where an actual audit was done finding that there were very clear signs of fraud.
The morning after the election, ballots were found that pushed Democrat Xochitl Torres Small into a tight win in counties where Small lost handily, such as in heavily-Republican Eddy County, only receiving 30% of the vote. But Torres Small’s absentee number was a much higher figure, 54.7%–close to double.
According to the report conducted after the election, “These anomalies are not simply organic. Reviewing the historical returns in the CD2 district, over the last five election cycles, the same degrees of variation between absentee votes and EV/ED votes do not exist in CD2 in any cycle to the degree found in the 2018 race.”
Other major anomalies occurred, but the most malevolent of them is the 25% of absentee voters who requested ballots in Doña Ana County and never returned them — a number that rarely reaches 5%. According to the report:
“it is probably the strongest purely statistical red flag present in this whole election — of the possibility that someone was submitting absentee ballot applications for Democrats. There is also a significantly high number of duplicate applications — where one voter supposedly submitted more than one absentee ballot application or submitted an absentee application after the absentee ballot had been received, or the voter had voted in person. In many of these cases the signature on the duplicate applications do not match each other.”
Just this year, Lyon Seeds and Dyon Herrera were convicted of felony voter fraud in a municipal race, using absentee ballots to fraudulently forge names to help Seeds’ husband, Robert, win an election in Rio Arriba County.
Before the 2020 election, a former election fraudster came forth to theNew York Postto reveal how he had helped countless Democrat campaigns fraud their way to victory, sharing his methods, which included paying off homeless people to vote for certain candidates, harvest mail-in ballots from senior citizens, steal ballots, and other such tactics.
Jut this past election, a U.S. Postal Service worker in Buffalo, New York was charged with delaying or destroying mail as he tried to cross into Canada with hundreds of absentee ballots for the upcoming election.
Vote counting machines in Michigan “glitched,” resulting in 6,000 votes being given to Democrats, where the voters cast their ballots for Republicans. Forty-seven counties in Michigan used this software, according to reports.
In New Mexico, a tight district attorney’s race in Sandoval County is yet to be called after an extreme delay in counting provisional ballots, which could mean the election, where Republican, Joshua Joe Jimenez, leads by 91 votes.
But those on the Left, such as Andrea Serrano, executive director of “Organizers in the Land of Enchantment,” or “OLÉ,” a George Soros-funded group that has lobbied hard against democratic elections, with their support of publicly funded elections with what they call “Democracy Dollars,” claims voter fraud is a “false narrative,” “not a real thing,” and “misinformation.” The evidence proves voter fraud is real.
OLÉ, which claims to be a social justice organization, does not regard the statistics, which even liberal NBC News reports, that absentee ballots and all-mail-in voting is a racist process that discriminates against ethnic minorities.
According to research from Daniel A. Smith of the University of Flordia:
Hispanic and Black voters were more than twice as likely to have their ballot rejected as white voters in Florida’s 2018 general election. In May, he co-published a review of Georgia’s 2018 midterm election datathat found a similar pattern of rejection for voters of color.
When it comes to mail voting, names and addresses can suggest race and create opportunities for implicit bias or added scrutiny. In Georgia, Democratic officials said that election officials can access a voter’s race when they’re checking for a signature match. The state party successfully sued to require multiple poll workers to sign off on a signature mismatch, which they hope will reduce bias.
“Smith’s research — which is ongoing — has found that people of color, younger voters and those who have never voted by mail are significantly more likely to have their ballots rejected, and that the inconsistent rejection rates within states suggest institutional issues are to blame, not voter error,” says Smith’s research.
In 2017, Democrat Judge (now Justice) David K. Thomson implemented undemocratic “ranked-choice voting” in Santa Fe municipal elections, which was a proposal championed by Teresa Leger Fernandez, a left-wing lawyer who is now the Democrat Congresswoman-elect in the Third District. The “ranked-choice” process resulted in far-left Democrat Mayor Alan Webber’s subsequent election.
As reported this election cycle by the Piñon Post, one of the Democrat Party of New Mexico’s caucus chairs, Pamelya Herndon, said on a private fundraising call for U.S. Senate candidate Ben Ray Luján and congressional candidate Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, that the Democrat Party is actively organizing members to visit elderly family members and drop off their ballots at polling locations. She said that the law allows people to deliver “at least one absentee ballot to a polling location” from a person who is not themselves.
She said, “Go by and talk to your senior citizens. See if those ballots have been put in the mail, and if not, pick it up and take it to a polling location… you can take at least one absentee ballot for a member of your family to a polling location. We want every ballot counted, Congressman [Ben Ray Luján] because we want to see that you and Xochitl Torres Small and everybody on that ballot for the Democratic Party gets elected.”
A recent report shows that currently, New Mexico has 1,681 dead people on its voter rolls, 1,519 individuals registered to vote are 100 years of age or older (implausible), and 3,168 voters have been flagged for duplicate concerns. However, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver refuses to clean out the voter rolls.
Fraud is rampant in New Mexico. If OLÉ’s Andrea Serrano and other left-wingers can’t see it, they’re blind to reality.
Today is November 3rd, Election Day, and polls will open at 7:00 a.m. for New Mexicans in all 33 counties to cast their votes. In particular, this election is important because other than being a presidential year, with incumbent Republican President Donald J. Trump running for re-election, it is also a Census year. That means that the legislators New Mexicans elect today will oversee the redrawing of legislative and congressional districts.
If Democrats get a supermajority in the Legislature, Republicans will have a 100% chance of losing House and Senate seats, and possibly even having New Mexico’s more conservative Second Congressional District redrawn to tilt Democrat.
Suppose Republicans are elected to flip state House and Senate seats. In that case, it will be a bulwark against Democrats’ partisan gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts, and that will help keep elections competitive and fair in the Land of Enchantment.
If Republicans can grab a majority, or even close to a majority in either chamber of the Legislature, that will be a stone wall standing against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Speaker Brian Egolf, and other far-left Democrats in the state Legislature looking to ban guns, legalize abortion up-to-birth and infanticide, make New Mexico a sanctuary state, legalize recreational pot, kill our Oil and Gas jobs, and raise taxes on working families and small businesses.
These proposals can be stopped by voting for Republican candidates. You can find your Republican legislative candidates here.
As New Mexicans have also seen, the New Mexico Supreme Court has become highly politicized with a far-left wing bent. Activist judges who have been appointed to the Court, such as Justice David K. Thomson appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, was the district judge who implemented undemocratic “ranked-choice voting” in Santa Fe municipal elections, which was a proposal championed by Teresa Leger Fernandez, a left-wing lawyer who is now the Democrat nominee for Congress in the Third District.
Electing Republican candidates to the state Supreme Court will bring balance back to the court and help take out these unelected partisan judges, such as Justice Thomson and Justice C. Shannon Bacon, two appointments by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
You can see the Republican candidates for Supreme Court by clicking here.
New Mexicans also are up against the decision on whether to vote for or against two constitutional amendments, both of which would give unchecked power to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The first would give Lujan Grisham and all governors coming after her the opportunity to appoint members of the Public Regulation Commission, the regulator of all utilities in New Mexico. There is vast bipartisan opposition to the Governor’s attempted power grab with Constitutional Amendment 1, and if it does go through, Lujan Grisham will have that much more unchecked power.
Constitutional Amendment 2 would give more power to the legislature to dictate new term limits for any state, county, or district office, other than statewide, in New Mexico, essentially giving the Legislature power to elongate or shorten terms of any office, making it unfair to voters who elected people for a term of X years, and now the will of the people will be changed by legislative fiat simply because they feel like it.
For Congress, if voters want to put balance back into Congress and take away Nancy Pelosi’s radical leadership as Speaker of the House, it is a no-brainer for New Mexicans to vote for Michelle Garcia Holmes (CD-1), Yvette Herrell (CD-2), and Alexis Martinez-Johnson (CD-3). As for the U.S. Senate, if New Mexicans want to send a do-nothing failure of a congressman who has not even been able to pass a single bill into law, they have the choice of giving Rep. Ben Ray Luján a promotion. If New Mexicans want someone who has been committed to them throughout his career and is not a career politician, the choice is clear in selecting Republican Mark Ronchetti for U.S. Senate.
Most importantly, President Donald J. Trump goes up against former Vice President Joe Biden for president, and Trump has visited New Mexico on four separate occasions for rallies in 2016 and this election cycle, whereas Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton before him failed to step foot in New Mexico while running for President. President Donald Trump has proven he cares about us and our issues.
Trump has passed critical funding to help New Mexico during COVID-19, although Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham squandered it. He helped keep our state safe by employing Operation Legend to find and arrest violent criminals who have killed New Mexicans. Trump has built hundreds of miles of border wall right here in New Mexico, helping secure our state and country from violent criminal aliens. He has stood up for our shared values of faith, family, and freedom, working hard to strengthen Religious Freedom, protect innocent human life, be that in the womb or at the end of one’s life, and elevate the voices of patriotic Americans from all walks of life.
Trump is the only president in recent history not to get America into costly foreign wars, he decimated ISIS, cut prescription drug prices, protected gay and lesbian individuals from the persecution of Radical Islamic Terrorists, defunded millions from Planned Parenthood and other abortion mills, brought manufacturing back to America, and put New Mexico on the map as somewhere he wants to succeed and grow.
Today, New Mexicans have two clear choices: radical Democrats who will destroy the very fabric of our nation brick by brick, or Republicans who will respect New Mexicans and put power back into the hands of the people, not unelected bureaucrats. New Mexico has been failing for a very long time under Democrat leadership, and it is high time New Mexicans say “enough is enough.” This election, vote Republican like it’s the last thing you do — it may just be if Democrats are elected today.
I love New Mexico, and I know you do too. Please vote Republican to save our state that we all love so much. I predict a massive red (Republican) wave.
Election sites open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m. If you are in line before 7:00 p.m., you are allowed to vote even if you have to wait in line past 7:00 p.m. The Republican Party of New Mexico is offering free rides to the polls. Please call them at 505-298-2662 to set up your ride.
On Monday, the Republican Party of New Mexico (RPNM) and four county clerks filed a lawsuit with the New Mexico Supreme Court after it was revealed that Republican poll challengers were denied access to observe absentee ballot processing.
The Party’s press release on the violations reads as follows:
Under Senate Bill 4, which was passed during the June Special Session, County Clerks are required to verify that each and every received mailed ballot has the correct voter identification – a voter’s signature and the last four digits of their social security number.
More than a quarter of a million absentee ballots have already been returned by New Mexico voters, providing County Clerks with a near-impossible task of reviewing each ballot.
One of the rights guaranteed by law to poll challengers is the ability to act as a check and balance to a County Clerk’s determination of whether to accept or reject a ballot. Multiple counties have denied Republican poll challengers the right to perform their duties, taking absentee ballots behind closed doors and out of sight of the very people who elect them.
“To have the Republican Party declare that duly elected County Clerks are purposefully deceiving the public is a worrying tactic ahead of a highly-charged election that has already seen far too many instances of intimidation and misinformation,” said Secretary of State’s Office spokesman Alex Curtas, who was involved in the dissemination of election news during the 2018 midterm elections, where irregularities were found.
The Party and two county clerks also filed another suit in the First Judicial District Court over absentee ballot drop-off box violations, where irregularities have already been observed. The RPNM asked for an “injunction to make sure these counties and all others comply with state law regarding the drop box security measures.
But on Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected the Party’s suit regarding absentee ballot counting and poll challengers, without an explanation from the Court on why it rejected RPNM’s request.
The Republican Party of New Mexico claimed the move not to take up the case was politically motivated, writing in a press release that the Court’s decision “is not only a slap in the face to the minority party but suggests that the Court has turned a blind eye to justice and the integrity of the voting process. For the sake of New Mexico voters, it’s flabbergasting that Justices wouldn’t want to examine ballot-processing infractions with so much at stake on November 3.”
“We need transparency in our elections and the law to be followed. County workers in the shadows, out of sight, handling absentee ballots is not legal, open or transparent. It’s shameful the Court didn’t see these violations as something to address,” the release continued.
“We’re thankful the New Mexico Supreme Court quickly denied this petition today so the state’s election administrators can get back to focusing on the vital work of running the 2020 General Election,” the Secretary of State’s Office said in a statement, adding, “Voters in New Mexico should have confidence that their vote will count no matter if they are voting in person or by mail ballot.”
According to the Secretary of State’s data as of October 27, 265,739 absentee ballots had already been mailed back to county clerks across the state, 166,655 being from Democrats, 56,747 from Republicans, and the rest from minor parties and voters who decline to state a party affiliation.
The Democrat Party of New Mexico has already begun its ballot harvesting initiatives, according to Pameyla Herndon, a caucus chair for the party, who urged supporters during a closed fundraising call to harvest votes from senior citizens to favor Democrat candidates.
As of October 27, Republicans outnumber Democrats with in-person early voting, while Democrats outnumber Republicans dramatically with absentee. During the 2018 race in New Mexico’s Second Congressional District, thousands of irregularities were found in Doña Ana County, where Republican Yvette Herrell won the race on Election Day. However, once absentee ballots were “counted” later, the race was swung in Democrat Xochitl Torres Small’s favor. An audit revealed multiple signs of election fraud.
Just this year, two individuals have been convicted of voter fraud using absentee ballots, following New Mexico’s long track record of fraudulent election activity, which can be read more about here.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, even more absentee ballots are being cast for the November 2020 election, and the more absentee ballots without oversight from poll challengers are ripe for fraud.
Over the weekend, state Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D-Albuquerque), known for his far-left extremism, took to Twitter to bully citizens peacefully protesting Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health orders in Santa Fe, as well as others on a variety of issues.
He branded the peaceful group of folks as “rioters,” and claimed the event was a “super spreader,” despite his participation in a Black Lives Matter/Antifa “protest” in June, where he live-streamed himself without a mask and not following the CDC’s health guidelines of staying six feet apart. This was also in violation of Gov. Lujan Grisham’s health orders at the time barring large gatherings, and recommending masks/social distancing. By his own definition, he also participated in a “super spreader” event.
The protest devolved into a lawless mob of violence, where small businesses in Downtown Albuquerque suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. At the time, Candelaria offered free legal services to the rioters. Months later, business owners are still trying to reconcile Candelaria’s damage cause by potential clients.
Candelaria has targeted Law Enforcers on multiple occasions, including supporting a proposal to “demilitarize” the Police and bullying local sheriffs who declined to enforce Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s strict lockdown policies during the coronavirus pandemic.
He claimed Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales, “is part of the problem” and that he “refuses to embrace basic reforms and embraces #MAGA.”
During the weekend, he also targeted a constituent and pro-life priest with sexually suggestive GIFs and bullied a Republican state representative who is running for the New Mexico Senate. The priest, who tweeted his support for the dignity of human life and no sex outside of marriage, got this reply from Candelaria: “I LOVE BEING GAY. That’s a fact,” along with a GIF of a man taking off his shirt.
Later on Sunday, Candelaria got hate mail from a clearly unhinged individual who left voicemails including homophobic slurs and the line “we’re going to get you out one way or another, motherf***er.” Candelaria responded on Twitter, claiming the Police were not responding fast enough and saying he was going to “flee” Albuquerque with his husband for his own safety.
He tagged Gov. Lujan Grisham and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller on multiple melodramatic Twitter threads, pleading with them for “a public call for some sort of protection until this investigation can be done and completed.” He demanded protection due to him being a state legislator and claimed he had no response from city or state police, other than officers coming to his house. According to one report by the Albuquerque Journal, “he grew frustrated when officers suggested the voice messages were not necessarily a threat.” He claimed the Governor’s office said there was no “budget” to protect him.
He wrote, “I understand you are busy with the transition @GovMLG, but I believe when credible threats of violence are made against any member of #nmleg, it should not take hours and dozens of calls to get anyone to take the threat seriously.”
After months of railing against Law Enforcers, including the Bernalillo County Sheriff, the state senator’s calls for special protection from the very entities he has targeted have fallen flat in what appears to be a ploy to gain attention ahead of the November 3 election. Candelaria now claims he will use guns to protect himself, even though he has been a staunch anti-gun advocate.
So much has changed for all of us in the last six months. It is time to take a look at the raw numbers of the restaurant industry.
To be sure, restaurants are taking the virus seriously. They are cleaning, sanitizing, social distancing, following the CSP’s, and wearing masks. The safety of restaurant employees and customers has been and always will be our top priority in restaurants.
Unfortunately, the economics are not in our favor. According to the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s quarterly summary, the accommodation and food service industries have lost $574 million since January. This is a 31% decrease from 2019.
The leisure and hospitality industries continue to report the most massive employment losses in the State, with a drop of 25,200 jobs—a 24 percent decrease from last year. It’s heartbreaking. Our employees are like our family. Layoffs may be the hardest thing we have had to do throughout this disaster. These layoffs don’t just affect our workers. They include their families that rely on their income for support.
A national survey of restaurant owners shows that we stand to lose one-third of our restaurants by the end of the year. That’s 1,155 New Mexico Restaurants. It’s heartbreaking to see life-long restaurateurs like Edna and Rudy Ortega of Ortega’s in Albuquerque walk away from their business of 30 years through no fault of their own. This virus takes no prisoners. There are far too many stories like the Ortega’s even to begin to share them here.
Despite meeting many of the (ever moving) gating criteria, NM continues to have some of the most economically restrictive policies during this pandemic. New Mexico is surrounded by states with indoor dining capacities, much more generous than NM.
At this time, NM only has a COVID policy with an intermittent economic policy. As a small business, you can’t succeed and grow, much less survive, without an economic plan. We need to know what is going to happen next, and it has to happen fast. Financial assistance and safeguards need to be a part of our State’s plan if our industry will ever be able to “come back.”
We are not in tune with the rest of the country. Before moving our indoor dining capacity to 25%, only two other states were closed. New Jersey and California have a much more robust economy to begin with and a better chance for recovery. As it stands now, only one other State is at a 25% capacity for indoor dining. If you look at the remaining 48 states, ALL are open to at least 50% capacity, with half of those being open at full capacity.
According to a recent survey of New Mexico restaurants, 54% reported sales being down from 20 to 70%. 16% of restaurants noted sales down over 70%.
Most restaurants reported that they could only accommodate 30% of the previous year’s customers due to social distancing and restrictions.
In a recent survey done by the New Mexico Restaurant Association, one-third of restaurants only have three months until they will have to close permanently, and another 30 percent would have to close permanently in six months.
Where does that leave us? Winter is coming. Survival on 25% capacity is near impossible. Increased costs as a result of the pandemic have hit all of us hard. We have asked, through channels, that the Governor open restaurants at 50%. We are doing our part by offering that with this increase, restaurants will close at 10:00 pm and we will support that all restaurants will need to get the NM Safe Certified Training as a prerequisite to open at 50%.
What can YOU do?
Follow the CSPs. Wear your mask. Contact the Governor to let her know you and your family are ready and willing to get back to our dining rooms.
Support the restaurants in your area NOW at this reduced capacity so that they can survive long enough to have hope that our state leaders will increase capacity to 50% sooner rather than later.
Carol Wight is the Executive Director of the New Mexico Restaurant Association.
In recent weeks, Democrats and the left-wing media have attempted to cast doubt on the safety of voting in-person, with story headlines reading things like “Voting fears in New Mexico amplified amid 2020 tensions.”
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has been fear-mongering about safety concerns regarding in-person voting, uring “every voter in New Mexico to request an absentee ballot and vote safely by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, June’s primary election went forth without any health concerns or voting locations closed down due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
Despite the Governor attempting to stigmatize in-person voting, it is the safest way to cast one’s ballot–both in terms of one’s health and one’s security that their vote will be counted. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the words of Democrats across the state who affirm how safe voting is:
Democrat Bernalillo County Clerk Linda Stover, who oversees the most populous county in New Mexico, said in-person voting is “probably one of the safest places to be in town.”
Democrat Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver acknowledged the safety of in-person voting. She said, “in-person voting is safe and we’ll be safe here” in all 33 counties of the state. Toulouse previously fought hard at the New Mexico Supreme Court, although unsuccessfully, to hold an all-mail-in election. Democrats claimed it was an “assault on Democracy” not to eliminate in-person voting.
Although absentee voting is an option, it is not guaranteed, as voting in-person is, that one’s ballot will not be thrown out or discarded. According to a report by NBC News, there is a higher chance that absentee ballots made by people of color will have their mail-in ballots thrown away or disqualified.
University of Florida professor Daniel A. Smith said:
Hispanic and Black voters were more than twice as likely to have their ballot rejected as white voters in Florida’s 2018 general election. In May, he co-published a review of Georgia’s 2018 midterm election data that found a similar pattern of rejection for voters of color.
When it comes to mail voting, names and addresses can suggest race and create opportunities for implicit bias or added scrutiny. In Georgia, Democratic officials said that election officials can access a voter’s race when they’re checking for a signature match. The state party successfully sued to require multiple poll workers to sign off on a signature mismatch, which they hope will reduce bias.
NBC News writes:
The most common reason ballots are rejected is that they arrive late. Mail service is less reliable in lower-income communities, and many Native American reservations do not have home delivery addresses used for mail voting. The pandemic has stressed mail service across the board, and amid the fiscal crisis, the U.S. Postal Service has ordered recent changes that are expected to slow the mail service.
Based on the available evidence, voting in-person is not only the safest way for voters to cast their votes, it is the preferred method to ensure every voter’s ballot is counted. It is recommended that if a voter wishes to order an absentee ballot, they return their ballot to the County Clerk’s office by mail at least two full weeks before the November 3 election, otherwise, they should hand-deliver their ballot to the County Clerk’s office in their respective counties.
New Mexico’s highest-ranking election chief Maggie Toulouse Oliver herself acknowledges the safety of in-person voting, and so should voters across New Mexico. Vote in-person if possible. More voting information can be found at NMForAll.com.
In September, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham testified in front of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, asking them to bail out New Mexico, citing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices.
During her testimony, she repeatedly claimed she would be “tightening” her “belt” in the coming months and years. However, she has spent billions of state dollars on her costly pet projects, including implementing a new state department offering free daycare and the “Energy Transition Act,” which will totally wipe out all oil and gas producers within a few short years. Currently, 39% of New Mexico’s budget is sustained by the oil and gas industry.
While President Trump’s team has been trying to work on a second round of COVID-19 relief for Americans, Democrats have refused to negotiate with the Administration’s proposals, the President offering up to $1.6 trillion in relief, whereas Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her caucus have refused to make concessions from their $2.4 trillion proposal.
On Tuesday, President Trump wrote on Twitter, “Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith. I am rejecting their request, and looking to the future of our Country. I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business. I have asked [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell not to delay, but to instead focus full time on approving my outstanding nominee to the United States Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. Our Economy is doing very well. The Stock Market is at record levels, JOBS and unemployment also coming back in record numbers. We are leading the World in Economic Recovery, and THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
Clearly rattled by the President’s statement, Lujan Grisham retweeted the President’s post, writing, “Thousands of New Mexicans need the federal government’s help right now. Not November, not whenever you get around to it. The pandemic is real, the economic crisis is real – whether you believe in them or not, Mr. President. Do your job.”
Thousands of New Mexicans need the federal government's help right now. Not November, not whenever you get around to it.
The pandemic is real, the economic crisis is real – whether you believe in them or not, Mr. President. Do your job. https://t.co/QeVT4L4d8L
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lujan Grisham refused to trim the fat off of her bloated 2020 $7.6 billion state budget, trimming it to only $7.22 billion, while cutting $318 critical federal COVID-19 relief for tribal communities and local governments.
Lujan Grisham has totally locked down New Mexico, which has killed most industries, including the tourism industry, which trickles down into many sectors of the economy. As of the latest jobs number report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, New Mexico’s unemployment rate was 34% higher than the unemployment rate nationwide and nearly double that of every neighboring state, including Colorado, which is also run by a Democrat governor. The neighboring states’ unemployment numbers are as follows: Arizona at 5.9%, Colorado at 6.7%, Texas at 6.8%, and Utah at 4.1%.
Lujan Grisham has refused to ease coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks, with the state’s small businesses and even larger businesses being forced into temporary or permanent closure. Just this week, the governor has gone after a trampoline park for reopening, while the state has seen more businesses shuttered.
On Monday, following the revelation that Roger Montoya, the Democrat nominee for the New Mexico House of Representatives, confirmed he acted in multiple hard-core pornographic films, first reported on by the Piñon Post, high-profile Democrats came to his defense.
The state Democrat Party went on full damage control mode, with Speaker Brian Egolf bemoaning the fact that the Santa Fe New Mexican was reporting on the news, despite Montoya bringing public attention to it by offering a comment.
Egolf said he was “disappointed tremendously” that the Santa Fe New Mexican saw the story as newsworthy and that “People should, and I believe do, make their decision on whom to support in an election based on who they are and what they can offer to their community.”
In Montoya’s statement, he blamed his youth and need to use the funds to pay his way through college for selling his body and having unprotected sexual intercourse in multiple pornographic films. He wrote, “As a 22-year-old struggling college student, I was a modern dancer and performer living in Los Angeles.” He continues, “I was auditioning for commercials and doing my best to succeed. Among those choices were two adult films I acted in as an adult, with other adults, in a very different environment and time.” It should be noted that most struggling college students do not turn to pornography to pay their bills, and most actors do not either. According to the Hollywood Reporter, many in the entertainment industry have taken jobs in the foodservice industry — not pornography.
Montoya also tried to erroneously blame the Republican Party for his past actions as a porn star, despite the Piñon Post uncovering this evidence, not the Republican Party. Democrat Party chair Marg Elliston doubled down, claiming it was a Republican attack, and trying to pass the buck on President Trump, although the President has never had sex for money or performed sexual acts in any pornographic films, as Montoya has.
Democrat U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (NM-1) went on Twitter echoing much of the same rhetoric, writing, “The #NMGOP is quick to act high and mighty but their presidential candidate has assaulted women, lied over 20,000 times, and failed to protect Americans from COVID. @montoya_for has lifted up New Mexicans, and I have his back.”
The #NMGOP is quick to act high and mighty but their presidential candidate has assaulted women, lied over 20,000 times, and failed to protect Americans from COVID. @montoya_for has lifted up New Mexicans, and I have his back. You can too. Donate today https://t.co/b4DThLziwo
New Mexico state Rep. Joy Garratt commented on a post by a Dr. Brittany Fallon trying to normalize Montoya’s actions, writing, “It’s up to the voters, and Dr. Brittany, thanks for the insertion of common sense humor.”
It's up to the voters, and Dr. Brittany, thanks for the insertion of common sense humor.
— Representative Joy Garratt, NM HD29 (@joyousgarratt) October 6, 2020
In the Democrat Party of New Mexico statement, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich wrote that he encouraged Montoya to run, adding, “If I were a 19 year old kid struggling with addiction or exploitation, Roger is exactly who I would want as a mentor.”
The Republican Party of New Mexico urged Montoya to drop out of the race, writing in a statement, “It’s clear that Montoya’s values are not in line with the conservative values of the people of Northern New Mexico.” New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce wrote, “This irresponsible and reckless behavior of starring in gay porno films, whether it takes place now or years ago, is unbecoming of any candidate or elected official.”
Montoya’s Republican opponent Justin Salazar-Torrez said that the “voters would have to decide” if Montoya is the right choice for New Mexico’s 40th District.
The Democrats’ response to Montya’s announcement now appears to show their overwhelming support for their candidates to have acted in pornographic films where the individuals had unprotected sexual intercourse. By this standard, if a Republican or Independent candidate were found out to have acted in explicit material like this, they should also get a free pass, per the Democrats’ own standard, although that scenario is not likely to come up.
Montoya is a favorite of many top-level Democrat politicians in New Mexico. He has the endorsements of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, and has received over $2,500 from “MLG PAC,” Lujan Grisham’s political action committee. He has received campaign funds and endorsements from the pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico and the environmental group the Sierra Club. In 2019, Gov. Lujan Grisham appointed Montoya to the Human Rights Commission at the Department of Workforce Solutions following the CNN award. Gov. Lujan Grisham has not commented on Montoya’s confirmation of his sex work.
On Monday, Rep. Ben Ray Luján, member of Congress for New Mexico’s Third District and 2020 Democrat U.S. Senate nominee, tweeted a bizarre rant against his Republican opponent, Mark Ronchetti, for getting outside help from political action committees (PACs).
Luján wrote, “Out-of-state super PACs backing @MarkRonchettiNM have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a week attacking my campaign. They know my loyalties lie with New Mexicans — and my votes will never be for sale. #nmpol”
Out-of-state super PACs backing @MarkRonchettiNM have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a week attacking my campaign.
They know my loyalties lie with New Mexicans — and my votes will never be for sale. #nmpol
However, Luján fails to point out how much help he has gotten from out-of-state donors and political action committees, taking $996,019 so far from PACs, according to data compiled from OpenSecrets.org. Ronchetti has taken $0 from PACs.
As well, a bulk of Luján’s donations come from out-of-state, taking 74.48% from out-of-state donors amounting to over $3,616,944 compared to the 25.52% or $1,239,421 in donations from inside New Mexico.
In previous election years, such as in 2018, Ben Ray Luján took 59.66% of his contributions from out-of-state, with 66.85% of those being from outside of his district. In 2018, he took $1,341,810 from PACs, or 68.81% of his total funds raised.
In May 2019, Luján announced that his “campaign for the U.S. Senate [would] not accept corporate PAC (political action committee) money.” He took millions from these “corporate” PACs in his previous runs for Congress. However, He will still take funds from issue-based PACs, such as ideological “one-issue” groups like Planned Parenthood, labor unions, gun-grabbing groups, and a slew of others, just not anything from a “corporation.”
Piñon Post rates Luján’s statement regarding Ronchetti misleading because Ronchetti has taken $0 from PACs, while Luján has taken nearly $1 million from political action committees for years while in Congress.
