Politics

Scornful MLG mocks critics of her face mask mandate

8 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Sunday, a scornful Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took to Twitter to criticize New Mexicans questioning her strict face mask mandate.

Her tweet read:

“You: ‘Masks don’t do anything’

Medical and scientific experts and professionals:

‘If 80 percent of us adopt a simple homemade face mask, we could reduce #COVID19 deaths by 17-45 percent over two months.’

Wearing masks saves lives. #MaskUp”

Lujan Grisham’s face mask requirement began on May 15th, “requir[ing] everyone to cover their faces in public, with exceptions for eating, drinking and exercise.”

“If New Mexicans don’t help us as we ease restrictions, we’ll see cases rise, and as they rise, we’ll have to shut down again. That’s the only tool I have,’’ Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “If I can’t get New Mexicans to protect vulnerable populations, to protect our seniors and children and minority populations and homeless populations and essential workers and health care workers and first responders and so many more, I will do whatever it takes to protect them. But you can help me. And if we all do this together, we can keep easing restrictions in a safe manner and go on living in a COVID-19 world.”

Sunday’s tweet came after multiple leaders in New Mexico criticized her strict face mask mandate. Eddy County’s Sheriff Mark Cage said, “This is America. Make your own decisions, make your own informed decisions as an adult. If I am not wearing a mask and you feel that you could be comprised by being around me not wearing a mask, then you have the right to move away from me.” 

House Minority Leader Rep. Jim Townsend (R-Artesia), said Lujan Grisham could be overstepping her authority by mandating everyone wear face masks. “That’s troublesome. There’s a number of other entities that challenge whether it’s a proven method,” he said.

On Sunday, hundreds of New Mexicans gathered in Truth or Consequences at the New Hope Revival Church to openly defy the Governor’s previous cease and desist order given to the Church for holding services despite her order. The Church was previously deputized by Sierra County Sheriff Glenn Hamilton, but received the citation from the State Police regardless.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Sunday tweet appears to be her best attempt at strong-arming citizens into complying with her latest mask mandate. Many citizens from across the state are refusing to comply.

This is a developing story.

Torres Small triggered by proof of fraud in 2018 CD-2 race — claims it’s a ‘conspiracy theory’

3 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Thursday, Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, who is running again for the 2nd Congressional District, sent out a panicky-sounding fundraising email trying to disprove the blatant fraud uncovered in the 2018 race, which she “won” by the grace of absentee ballots showing up out of the blue in Doña Ana County.

The email, titled “NEW: Yvette’s latest conspiracy theory” appears to be in response to a video Herrell released three months ago regarding the massive signs of fraud found in the 2018 race. 

Torres Small’s email reads, “Yvette Herrell just released her 1 minute pitch to voters, and she’s taking her conspiracy theories to a new level, even going so far as to allege that there was ‘fraud’ in 2018.”

But despite Torres Small’s best attempts at masking the fraud that did, indeed happen in 2018, evidence proves that fraud was rampant.

On election night 2018,Republican Yvette Herrell was up in the vote count late in the evening. However, the Secretary of State’s office announced that ballots would cease to be counted until the next morning. From the time counting stopped to when it resumed in the morning, there would be ample time for the outcome to flip — be it organically or by the hands of those handling the votes.

That morning, 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.”

Torres Small claims that election fraud did not happen and that her supposed “win in 2018 was real.” But the anomalies, as proven by the independent report prove that such anomalies cannot possibly be coincidental. Her email fundraising gimmick appears to be just another way for her campaign to solicit donations based on a conspiracy theory of her own.

Dem NM House Commerce Committee chair jokes about raising taxes: a no-tax pledge is ‘so 2009’

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One of Gov. Michele Lujan Grisham’s most loyal allies on the far-left of the Democrat Party, Rep. Moe Maestas (D-Albuquerque), chairman of the New Mexico House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, took to Twitter to mock fellow legislator Rep. Jason Harper (R-Rio Rancho) and his reasonable pledge not to raise taxes on the hard-working people of New Mexico.

Rep. Harper’s response came after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham proposed a special legislative session to focus on a tax hike and tapping New Mexico’s permanent fund. 

Harper’s proposal to not raise taxes came out in an op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal, where he wrote, “Where in the world do [Democrats] think working families will get the money for tax hikes? Many New Mexicans have endured heartbreaking losses.”

But Maestas laughed off Harper’s concerns for working families being able to afford the economically crippling tax proposals, not to mention employers across New Mexico.

But Maestas wrote, “A ‘no tax’ pledge is so 2009 … and was the precipice of the lost decade.” 

It appears Democrats, including the chairman of the House Commerce Committee, believe that in order to enact their far-left policies in the timeline they want, they are willing to punish the little guy in the process. Democrats are always eager to tout their supposed “pro-worker” badges of honor, but their eagerness to raise taxes proves the opposite. 

Maestas is married to lobbyist Vanessa Alarid, who lobbies for the far-left, dark money, anti-gun Everytown for Gun Safety, founded and bankrolled by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

Torres Small thinks Biden should be disqualified from running for president

1 Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

In September 2018, the Democrat Party of New Mexico sent a letter demanding then-U.S. Senate candidate Mick Rich drop out of the race for dismissing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s unsubstantiated allegations of sexual assault in 1982 against then-nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

According to the letter co-signed by then-candidate Xochitl Torres Small, “The reality is that our culture of rejecting sexual assault claims will continue as long as people who are in positions of power use their perches to first blame survivors, cast aspersions on their credibility and character, and minimize the trauma they have experienced.”

“We have heard a litany of excuses from ‘it was so long ago,’ to ‘why didn’t she report it?’ and of course, outright dismissals that the incident ever took place,” the letter continued. 

Now, Democrat presidential candidate former Vice Presiden Joe Biden faces his own slew of allegations from former U.S. Senate staffer Tara Reade, claiming he penetrated her in 1993. Not only is Reade’s story more credible than Blasey Ford’s in terms of her recollection of the incident, but her claims of sexual assault are also well-documented over decades. 

However, Joe Biden is brushing off Reade’s claims, telling MSNBC’s Morning Joe, “No. It is not true. I’m saying unequivocally: It never, never happened. And it didn’t. It never happened.” 

Biden was pressed on his response, with host Mika Brzezinski asking, “You were unequivocal in 2018 during the Kavanaugh controversy and hearings that women should be believed. You said this: ‘For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights, the focus nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she is talking about is real. Whether or not she forgets the facts, whether or not it has been made worse or better over time.’ [Reade is] going to be going on national television on Sunday. Tara Reade is coming forward in the glaring lights, to use your words—should we not start off with the presumption that the essence of what she’s talking about is real? She says you sexually assaulted her.”

Biden responded, “Look, from the beginning, I’ve said believing a woman means taking the woman’s claim seriously when she steps forward. And then vet it. Look into it. That’s true in this case as well. Women have a right to be heard, and the press should investigate claims they make. I will always uphold that principle.  But in the end, in every case, the truth is what matters. In this case, the truth is: The claims are false.” 

With the claims that have now been unearthed, Biden’s stance has shifted from “believe all women,” to “don’t believe that woman.” 

The Piñon Post has reached out on two separate occasions to the Democrat Party of New Mexico and the Office of U.S. Representative Xochitl Torres Small. Neither have given so much as a response, much less a comment.

At the time, the Democrat Party of New Mexico asked “that in the future, he will support survivors rather than contributing to their silence,” concluding with, “We believe that anything short of this disqualifies Mick Rich from representing the people of New Mexico.”

Therefore, due to both parties’ lack of response on this issue, the only reasonable conclusion that can be made is that Torres Small and the Democrat Party of New Mexico stand by their previous letter, and believe Joe Biden should be disqualified from running for president. Biden using his position of power to silence Tara Reade goes against the exact logic used in the 2018 letter.

It is possible Rep. Torres Small does, indeed believe Biden should drop out due to her lack of a public endorsement of Joe Biden for the presidency, being the only member of New Mexico’s congressional delegation not to do so. Torres Small represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, which was won by President Trump in 2016 by a margin of 10.2%.

MLG retaliates against T or C church deputized by Sierra County Sheriff

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On Sunday, May 2nd, Sierra County Sheriff Glenn Hamilton deputized New Hope Revival Church in Truth or Consequences, allowing the congregation to have church services, despite Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s strict stay-at-home order.

But this past Sunday, Mother’s Day, the Governor sent her State Police to retaliate against the church and the chief Sierra County law enforcer, serving the church with a cease and desist order.

According to a Facebook post from Pastor Caleb Cooper, Gov. Lujan Grisham sending a state police officer to deliver the order is violating his constitutional rights.

“Here’s a notice that we need to get through, and it’s a cease and desist order,” said the officer serving the order. When Cooper asked why he was being served the order, the officer responded, “for violating the public health order,” citing the May 2nd church service held at the church. 

Cooper provided the officer with the document from Sierra County Sheriff Hamilton showing him where the church was deputized. 

“Our service — we’re live-streamed,” said Cooper. 

The officer responded saying, “If you’re going to meet, it has to be in a law enforcement facility,”

“The Constitution matters. Did you take an oath to uphold the Constitution” asked Cooper. The officer did not respond and repeated that he was just there to serve the Governor’s order.

VIDEO: Ronchetti lies again — breaks own campaign promise to not hit fellow Republicans

4 Comments / Opinion, Politics / By

New Mexico’s voters have come accustomed in the last few weeks to seeing new headlines about now-disgraced ex-television weatherman Mark Ronchetti, who has scorned the conservative Republican base. In 2019, just nine months before announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate, Ronchetti lambasted President Trump as the “Orange One,” and claimed led him to leave the Republican Party, as well as taking a “part of [his] soul” that he’s “not getting back.”  

Such harsh language from the embattled former local weatherman toward the President has led Republicans to flee from his campaign with as much speed and passion as humanly possible. Former supporters of all stripes now write messages on social media rebuking Ronchetti. One ex-supporter writes, “I’m so sorry I wasted my donation on you,” as another one writes, “A friend of mine told me that you were a ‘NeverTrumpster’ & I said, No way !! but now you have proven me wrong. So, I am deleting your emails that you are sending me to support you in your run for U.S. Senate for N.M.” 

As his crumbling base bleeds, and his campaign shills out hundreds of thousands of dollars on television ads that don’t so much as mention President Trump by name, Ronchetti has gotten desperate — and in doing so, betrayed his first campaign promise.

After yours truly uncovered damning evidence linking Ronchetti to NeverTrumpers, some who even donated $11,000 to radical leftist Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Ronchetti spoke at the Republican Party of Bernalillo County pre-primary convention. During his speech, he lost it — lashing out at Trump supporters asking him questions as “little Facebook trolls who are in their parents’ basement with their Cheeto-stained fingers.” 

The leftist jab was followed by a “positive campaign” pledge he demanded all other candidates sign in order to gag questioning of his record and connections to anti-Trump rogue “Republicans,” such as Jay McCleskey, his “slash and burn” general consultant. 

Ronchetti said, “In closing, I’d like to put my money where my mouth is on the ‘unity pledge,’ right? We all need to be on the same side, and I’ve taken as many arrows as anyone. I did not fire back at a fellow Republican, not once.” That turned to be blatantly false, as just second before, he bashed Republicans asking him questions as “little Facebook trolls.”

He then held up a piece of paper, saying, “This is a positive campaign pledge right here. I’m going to sign it right here. I will not take a shot at a fellow Republican. I hope my fellow Senate candidates will sign this as well.” Not a single Republican opponent signed the document.

But that supposed honorable “pledge,” which he promised through his word and a stroke of his pen, was just previously violated when his campaign sent out a hit job on his fellow candidate, Gavin Clarkson, who he attacked with inaccurate claims. He sent out a mailer attacking Clarkson on his work for the Trump Administration, his previous bankruptcy shortly after the financial crash of 2007-08, and a patently false claim that he attended a protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Note: Gavin Clarkson has not said a lie or untrue thing about Mark Ronchetti, yet, Ronchetti feels the need to throw out these untrue attacks on Clarkson.

The below-the-belt, desperate hits by Ronchetti’s flailing campaign not only undermined his campaign promise, they also violated the small remnants of credibility he may have had left. With the petty attack, Ronchetti proved without any doubt whatsoever, that he is both a liar and as credible as a high school bully — thinking he can get his way with a little pushing. 

Does Ronchetti want to mention that President Trump’s Interior Secretary (who Ronchetti claims fired Clarkson), hosted Clarkson and his wife Marina to the Trump Administration’s 2019 Interior Department Christmas Party, a clear disproval of Ronchetti’s conspiracy theory that Clarkson was forced out of the department?

Does Ronchetti want to bash President Trump once again by going after the President’s multiple bankruptcies out of the hundreds of businesses Trump has run? Would Ronchetti like to hit one more nail into his coffin of Trump-hating rhetoric for the fun of it?

Does Ronchetti want to explain to voters that the supposed “protest” Clarkson went to never happened and he actually went up to North Dakota to assist an old girlfriend, not “protest”? Ronchetti clearly sees his opponent as a real threat, and since this is the best attack he thinks he has, he’s using the final card in the deck — since the ones against me and other conservative Republicans flopped on their faces.

This is by no means the first attack Ronchetti’s campaign has made against Clarkson, previously sending out a statement calling him a “failing candidate,” despite Ronchetti’s voters running for the hills, not Clarkson’s.

The vengeful and cowardly tactics of Ronchetti’s campaign are more apparent now than they ever were before — and the weatherman’s lies aren’t fooling anyone. Mark Ronchetti is a NeverTrumper, always has been, always will be. Petty hits on the President such as calling him the “Orange One,” and mocking his hairstyle show just what kind of Senator he would be — no better than radical Democrats Elizabeth Warren or Cory Booker. If he’s looking for his “Spartacus” moment, he sure isn’t getting it with the negative campaign he’s running.

Candidate Interview: Alexis Martinez Johnson, New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District

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In April, the Piñon Post had a conversation with Republican congressional candidate for New Mexico’s 3rd District, Alexis Martinez Johnson to discuss her run for the U.S. House of Representatives. The full, unredacted interview is below:

Why did you decide to run for the Third Congressional District? 

I’m a native New Mexican, you know born and raised here. Typically somebody like me you wouldn’t really see in politics. So, I didn’t come from a wealthy family.

I didn’t come from the name of powerful recognition that we see here New Mexico. So I’m an everyday New Mexican as such, you know, I saw here in Santa Fe how there was such an assault on the New Mexican way of life — the values that we’ve held from our different cultures here. It’s such a diverse culture specifically in New Mexico. We have Indian Country, our Hispanic community, and all other races and everything like this. We all come to New Mexico, lived here, transplants here for the beauty of it, the beauty of the people and diversity. 

So, when I came into Santa Fe and I saw that there was an assault on our Second Amendment — that’s one of the reasons that really fueled me to run for this district. So, the defining moment … pretty much went back last year in around August in 2019. They were having this discussion there at Santa Fe New Mexican about doing away with gun ownership. They had several people go in. People in the community staying, you know, we don’t need guns, etc, etc. And there was no opposition to that. 

So, I walked in there and I said I opposed infringing upon that Second Amendment. And I said, ‘Are you preventing anybody from coming in here and speaking with an opposing view?’ They said, ‘No, you’re just the only one that’s come in.’ So, I laid that out and I put that on my campaign website. That was the first video that I did. And that was raw, candid, and very grassroots. But that is what this campaign is about. The very next day, I signed up to run for U.S. Congress because I saw that our rights are under attack. And if you don’t have the ability to defend your liberties, then you don’t have the ability to defend the rest of the Constitution or even make that document come into life. So, it’s just a document, and it’s up to us — the Constitution Bill of Rights, — it’s up to us as Americans to make that come alive and to follow that.

We are an experiment — this great American experiment — in one of the newest countries in this world. And we have to maintain that. And as a mother of four children, I also saw such an assault on the lives of the babies. And I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but I had babies born between 30-31 weeks of life. They’re twins. And they came into this world looking for their mom and they’re healthy now and everything. But I didn’t know what the truth was in New Mexico. I didn’t know ‘should I trust me or the government? Whose trying to treat them in regard to the lives of babies.

So what I did was I called the abortion clinic there in Albuquerque. I think it’s Southwestern Women’s Options. I just searched and that was the one that came up. Then I called them. I talked to the receptionist and I said, ‘If I have a friend that wants to come in, when is the last time she can come in?’ She said, ‘You can come in after 32 weeks.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ and I was really… I was like,  ‘Wow that’s amazing.’ And then I asked, ‘So, the mother and child have to have an emergency?’ And then she said ‘No.’

And after those two responses, I was flabbergasted, and that further fueled this campaign and that’s why I’m running. I’m running for the rights of New Mexicans, the unborn, and also our American Freedom. So, those are the main reasons. And other than that, there’s lots of other reasons. Especially here in Bernalillo and other parts of New Mexico — in the sanctuary city here in Santa Fe. I believe in securing our borders with a physical barrier, especially as evidenced by this pandemic, you can see it’s necessary. Creating jobs — that’s going to be number one coming out of this. And of course, supporting our Military and veterans. 

Here in Santa Fe, the headstones are laid down in one certain particular area of the cemetery here for veterans, and that was done by House bill. And the reasoning for that, from what I understand from what the veterans say, is that the homeowners here in Santa Fe, they didn’t want to look at the headstone from their property. So they had a horizontal placard. It’s wasn’t laid down, but it was just the way it is. It’s just on the ground. And then I thought it was just so disrespectful that they would rather disrespect the people that have lost their lives protecting our freedoms. They would rather not look at that, you know, and all of those things put together, are why I’m running.

What experience do you bring to the race that you feel can help the 3rd Congressional District?

The experience that I bring is quite different than that of the other Republican candidates within my same race. And that is I bring the expertise of a problem-solving background with strong negotiating skills. I worked in the oil and gas industry — Permian Basin, and that is my forte. And that brings in — that did bring in almost 39% of our state budget. A lot went to education and, as you know, we’re ranked last in education. And education has been for me, coming from humble beginnings, has been something that has allowed me to reach for the stars, to achieve in my life. And that has always been the very strong foundation in my household growing up being raised by my grandparents. So, I bring problem-solving expertise. I bring the know-how, the technical and economic experience to make very commonsense decisions for the betterment of New Mexicans. And that is something that the other candidates have no experience in.

My background was dealing with federal agencies, dealing with small and large private companies, as well as your citizens all coming together — and as well as environmentalists — all coming together to compromise and see how can we keep people employed while also being respectful for our beautiful New Mexico. 

What legislation would be your top priority if you were elected to congress?

Right now, we’re having a bill that you can see online — It’s 5717. And this bill is being proposed right now regarding, they say ‘ending the epidemic of gun violence’ and ‘creating safer neighborhoods by restricting the gun rights.’ So, my main objective will be to uphold that Second Amendment in any way possible. There has been such an assault locally here in New Mexico, here in Santa Fe where they passed SB-5, and then also here with the closure of the gun storefronts here in this crisis. And then we’re seeing this bill here in the U.S. Congress. So, that would be this bill, in particular. If I was there right now, I would totally opposed any type of infringing upon that Second Amendment. So, that is a bill I would oppose. 

Other than the Second Amendment, the life issue, and oil and gas, are there any other issues that are at the top of your agenda? I heard you talk about education a little bit. What would be your plan there?

When you’re in Congress, you’re making decisions based on taxation and whatnot. But, as far as schools are concerned and education, that is, for me personally should be left to the hands of the states and also, more importantly, our teachers that are doing such a wonderful job. And I think that I would always promote in any candidate down-ballot, those candidates that would be for promoting the initiatives of teachers because they know the children and less restrictions for them would allow them to teach instead of being bogged down by constantly doing assessments, constantly going online and filling out all of these different regulations. That really can set them back, and it’s not a plus for our students. So, that’s going to have to go back to the states and the locales. 

I know some folks may make the argument that the state under the last Administration, they actually kind of expanded more government into the states or into the local schools, such as with the new testing standards and Common Core. What are your thoughts on those sorts of initiatives in the schools?

Whenever you have a lot of government involvement into the affairs of teaching students, you have a lot of different elements that are taught that are almost regressive. You always do these different things online where the parent is there trying to help their kid do a basic addition problem. And the parent doesn’t even know what’s going on because there’s all these strange ways of coming up with basic addition. I think that this goes to the core of more government involvement. You have just a bungled job of teaching the basics, which really should be your math and your reading and your writing And then everything else from there any kind of influence of far-left leanings that we’re seeing in the school should really be done away with.

I’ve spoken to all the other candidates. I spoke with Harry Montoya and Karen Bedonie. And I asked them the same question. So what’s the biggest misconception about you that you’d like to clear up that people may think differently about you that is not a fact, pretty much? 

Well, one big misconception that is coming about just recently is there’s a person named Joaquin Roybal who everyone thinks is my campaign manager. And I just want to clear this up for a lot of inquiring minds, a lot of phone calls that I’ve received. Joaquin Roybal — this gentleman was a buddy of mine there at New Mexico Tech. He was the student body president when I went to school there. He has a master’s in engineering. And we’re buddies. And initially, you know, I talked to him like a buddy. ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ Because I’m very grassroots.

And we went into the New Mexico GOP office, and I brought him with me and I said, ‘This my campaign manager Joaquin Roybal.’ Fresh off the scene, right? I’ve never been in politics, I’m just getting into the fray. And since I didn’t come from wealth, I didn’t come from power. And then he and I, we had a parting of ways quite before the pre-primary convention. In fact, I hired another wonderful gal by the name of Dierdre Cornish, and she, in fact, is my campaign co-chair. So, that is one misconception that is at the forefront right now. And the reason this is at the forefront is because this gentleman voices his opinion, his First Amendment quite broadly. Then everybody associates everything from a supporter as coming from my mouth. So, that, in fact, is not true. 

You know, he definitely is a supporter of mine. We left on good terms, but he has no role in this campaign as a formal employee or a paid staff member of any sort. I just want to clear that main misconception. That’s something that came up this last week and whatnot. So, who’s running the Alexis Martinez Johnson campaign? And basically, it revolves around me as a candidate. There’s no puppeteers behind me that have said, ‘Okay, this candidate fits A, B, and C in the box and we’re going to have her face out there for our mission.’ There’s no there’s not a group of five men or women around the table making the decisions here of New Mexico. There is me,  home-grown native New Mexican trying to bring the collective voice of the forgotten New Mexican into policy to fight for the rights of us.

CD-3 is a Democrat +8 on the partisan index. How do you plan on winning those Democrats that you need to carry the district in November?

Well, one thing about my candidacy — and I’m not sure if you know this — is that I definitely have not run this campaign purely on identity politics. I don’t bust out of the door saying, ‘I am Hispanic and that’s why you have to vote for me. I have Native American ancestry and that’s why you have to vote for me.’ When I go into a job interview as a Conservative Republican, I’ve never said that. And this is a job application for me for each voter. And I plan to earn each voter in District 3. So, this is how I do it: Instead of staying, ‘Oh, I’m such a smart person,’ I just go out there and I do it. Instead of saying, ‘Oh I’m Hispanic, I have Native American ancestry, I go into the home and I spread the message of our state, our family, our freedom, and our new Mexican pride. And when I walk into that door, I say ‘Buenos Dias. Me llamo Alexis Martinez Johnson. Mucho gusto.’ And let me tell you how far that goes changing the hearts and minds of moderate Democrats and Independents. They respect my expertise. They know that I have a specific skill set to offer and I’m the only candidate that has it. 

In Indian Country, I’m very comfortable walking in there and assisting them with major issues that are going on. Whether they don’t even have running water, there’s very specific skills that I can contribute to these communities to better their lives: Solar panels out there, drilling water wells, getting these communities into the American Dream instead of a third-world country. And giving a helping hand, but not holding the hand all the way throughout life as the far-left tries to push the victimhood mentality onto New Mexicans.

More information can be found about Alexis Martinez Johnson at her website AlexisJohnsonNM.com. 

Interviews with the two other Republican CD-3 candidates, Karen Bedonie and Harry Montoya, will be released by alphabetical order. 

Candidate Interview: Karen Bedonie, New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District

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In April, the Piñon Post had a conversation with Republican congressional candidate for New Mexico’s open 3rd District, Karen Bedonie to discuss her run for the U.S. House of Representatives. The seat is being vacated by Rep. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat seeking a U.S. Senate seat. The full, unredacted interview with Karen Bedonie is below:

Why are you running for New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District?

The reason why I’m running is because we need peer representation for CD-3. It seems like all the rural families and people: the hard-working individuals — the business owners, the wood haulers, the water haulers, all of us are not getting what we need to be done and our voices are not heard. We are gun-carrying, family-oriented people and it’s really important for us to finally stand up — especially at a time like with a silent war happening out there. And we need our voices heard and we need to be able to make those decisions and have that effect where it ripples back across the district and lets us know that, you know, we are important and we can make the difference in our country, and also our state. So, I’m running because we need peer representation to happen from the grassroots. I’m tired of the, you know, the politician representing me, the lawyer representing me, you know, the people that have no idea what I’m really going through representing me. I’m very exhausted. So I’m running to give a voice to all those people who feel forgotten and that’s why I’m running.

Tell me about your experience and how that will translate if elected to Congress.

Being a business owner you start to see what America really does. Small businesses are the biggest employers of the country, and we make everything go round from your truck driving to, you know, plumbing services, to everything that we do. And so when you start out your business, you start to understand what you’re doing it for. It’s hard work. It’s also risky and takes a lot of courage to do it, and when you venture into business ownership, you take your family with you and you work so hard because you want something to be successful so that you can have something to hand down to your children. 

So it becomes very important about legacy and it basically harnesses the American Spirit and the American dream. And when you lay it upon what our country was built upon: the Constitution and the rights that we have, the liberties and freedoms, it all tends to make sense. And you realize, ‘Wow, I need America to be the best America she can be so that we all can strive the best that we can.’ 

And the way of direction that our country is going right now is going to kill small businesses and we’re going to turn into a socialist society if we’re not careful. So, this business ownership has given me the groundwork of never forgetting, also not being able to be bought. If you get a lot of these politicians that take money from these big companies and corporations that are owned by him, other businesses. And you start to track it and you realize it’s a huge mess and they’re not family-oriented any longer. They’ve crossed over into a whole different realm of corruption, and it’s starting to impact us. 

And so when you think about business ownership and the person who you are, that’s the person you need to put into office because you end up fighting the fight that needs to be fought. That’s why Trump is so good at what he does because he is the purest form of business. You know, he thought. People make fun of him because he went bankrupt, but I see that as success. Every time you fail, you get back up and keep going at success. It just screams it — that you’re just not going to be beaten. So, that in itself is a quality. And being family-oriented — the conservatism that reverberates through there. Trying to save your children or babies, vaccinations. They all become issues heavy in the heart. So you tend to legislate. Be better than the next guy who has none of these experiences that you bring to the table. So the struggle is what I stand upon and I’m still coming. So that’s what I bring to the table.

CD-3 is a Democrat +8 district. How do you plan on winning over Democrats in November? There are many Democrats in Santa Fe and going up all the way to Taos.

Right, that corridor is interesting, right? Because they celebrate Native American everything. And every decoration you can possibly find. You’d think I would belong on those walls, but I’m not very well received there at all. None of the delegates would actually meet with me. I don’t know what was told to them or what is going on there. I’m not being received from that corridor. 

So when I went on my campaign run to build my foundation from the grassroots level, I started in the East and Clovis, went up to Tucumcari and Portales, all the way up to Clayton. All the little, bitty towns — San Miguel — all the way through there. And I realize those people are just like me. We might not look the same, but they struggle just as hard as I do. Business ownership is big. Socialism is not wanted anywhere. So when you start to see how it plays out, you start to begin to see that we are all one people. 

So then, when you come across to my side of the mountain — on the West Side, you look on the map. That’s the bluest part of the state. I mean, it is almost navy blue. That’s McKinley County. That’s the Navajo Nation, and that’s my tribe. And so, my work is cut out for me because I have to re-educate. Now, that blueness is there not because they are loyal to it. It’s because that’s what we’re told to do. Once they understand that conservatism is actually in our cultural aspects and our prayers, and the way we do things is actually conservative, I’d be able to build a following.  

And right now, I believe that Trump Victory has actually identified that there are over 100,000 unregistered Native American Navajos on our reservation. So, when you’re looking at the numbers, I think that we can completely smash Santa Fe if they don’t want to listen. I’m going to be sweet and understanding and still keep trying, but you can only lead a horse to water so many times before they drink. But I’m going to keep going on the outside because our population is big on the outside. 

What legislation would be your top priority in your first months in Congress, if elected?

I want to do an energy bill where we actually start to boost the economy through our energy. New Mexico needs to have that first and foremost. If our wonderful president wants to have America first, then we need New Mexico first. And I want him to know New Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico — and I want to beat New Mexico into every plan that he has and the first legislation would beat them back what he’s doing. I believe in the energy that we have. I believe that we still have 75% of our coal resources in the ground and we still have tons of oil and gas across the state. And I’m looking to the Future in energies. I also understand there are different energies that have not been released. I want to legislate to be at the forefront of energy. That’s the first one.

The second one would be to buy local. I want labeling of beef and also other animal products to be hyperlocal because they’re mislabeling it. I know China is starting to purchase our animals from here, ship them, slaughter them in another country, and then ship them back.

So, it makes no sense. So what I want to do is to cool the country of origin labeling system, but I need it more detailed because I want to know exactly what I’m feeding my family, and antibiotics and things that went into that piece of meat. Because in order for them to preserve it, they have to pump it full of chemicals. So I think buying local is a big, big thing for me.

What is the biggest misconception about you that you’d like to clear up?

The gossip is going around about me that I’m for abortion, which is wrong because my cultural aspect is, you know, that’s against our culture — you don’t do it. But when you legislate across the country as a blanket effect, you have to be aware of the different laws that are already in place. So what can be done about Roe v. Wade?

And we’d have to present it to the Supreme Court and I’m severely hoping that we get enough conservative judges in place so that we can either be able to pull that back up again because New Mexico is the abortion capital of the United States, and it’s horrible. At the same time, there’s a lady named Janet Porter, who I’ve been following for many years, and she wrote the ‘Heartbeat Bill,’ and it’s something that I can stand with her.

 And it’s the first thing that can begin to impact before Roe v. Wade comes back and it smashes into pieces. So, when you start to legislate you have to make sure you can take it up the line as far as you can so that Roe v. Wade doesn’t completely stop it. So the Heartbeat Bill is one where you identify when the heartbeat starts. And from my understanding, as a Native American, that’s when your soul, your spirit — you’re sent into the body from God himself. So, that’s how we believe it to be. So the Heartbeat Bill is something I can stand with. 

But for me, that’s why legislating across the board — and it’s frustrating because if you research the abortion sits — they cannot handle the Heartbeat Bill because the baby is still so small that they cannot profit off of it because every time you run a business, you have to have a product. So, the product is unusable at the heartbeat. So, basically will completely extinguished abortion. So, it’s the beginning of it. It’s a fight, and It’s going to be probably the fight of the world that we have to push it and push it.

Once we get past that, then we can push it further. And I’m all about pushing that line all the way to one hundred percent. But logically, we can’t just sit here and say ‘Oh, I’m one hundred percent.’ But then when you have a little girl who’s 11 years old who’s been raped, and now she’s pregnant because she had an early menstrual cycle because of all the hormones in the different foods that we eat. And it is happening, and these are real people I’m talking about. I’m not making these things up. So, when you think about it, would you want that child to endure a pregnancy and then go through birth? 

Because I died in childbirth in 2014, and luckily I came back. So, I know what it is to go through that. I have eight children, and so to bring them all into the world took a lot of labor pain. So, to put a child through that — through a second traumatic experience and her not understand[ing] what’s happening to her and why she’s a mom, and for people to treat her from rape. So, the 100% can’t be unless you’re going to make that child go through that. And I think those kinds of decisions need to be left up to the parents. And because as a parent, I don’t know if I could leave a decision like that into the hands of a politician. It’s crazy. So that’s where I’m at, but for me personally and for my daughters, I had every one of my children. And I also demand and tell my girls that ‘if you make that mistake or something happens to you or you do it out of your choice and you become impregnated, then you will have your child.’ 

So abortion is something that I can’t even fathom. I can’t even look at the pictures. It freaks me out. But at the same time, there’s a whole America you’re talking about and if we want to reach across the aisle, the Heartbeat Bill is the only thing that both sides can agree on. There’s a compromise. If you say 100%, you will not even touch across the aisle to the Democrat Party. They won’t even look at you. So, you end dead-locked again. So that’s what I want to go with it. And I want to push it and I want to find that open door. 

Once they get through there, then we can push the line further. So that was the gossiping. So, it’s very difficult and it’s a very big thing, but it goes to spirituality, physical being, mental and emotional. And unless we have many hours to discuss it and debate it, then then no one can really understand what I’m talking about. 

On the issue of the sanctity of life, does that also extend to euthanasia and end-of-life?

I don’t believe in that. Euthanasia, no. Life is life. As a spiritual being in understanding the journey and the gift of life, that doesn’t carry over at all, no. 

What is your stance on the Second Amendment? 

My Second Amendment stance runs deep. It goes back to when my people were conquered for me — understanding the oral history from my family that went on the long walk. And the understanding of what the United States government did. The first thing you do to conquer a people is you have to disarm them and it happened in Germany when the Nazi’s take over. They disarmed everybody and as you start to see in other countries right now, a lot of them are disarmed and are not allowed to carry. So, there’s an actual engineered pass that happens to socialism and then eventually turns into communism, but the first step is disarming the people. 

And so when you carry your Second Amendment, that is the biggest right you have and that’s amazing that they thought of it ealy on when they were creating the Constitution —  how it shall not be infringed upon — it doesn’t matter what’s going to happen yesterday, today, or tomorrow. That right should always be there for us. It’s against the government that would come in to control us and take over. So, my Second Amendment right matters because if we can’t keep our citizens, empowered then everything else falls to the wayside again. Because if we’re controlled like, you know, you can’t do anything after that. 

Every time these ‘red flag’ deals go through, it’s a chipping away at it, and it’s hard to get those back once you lose your right. It weakens it and we lose it. It’s hard to get it back. So, that’s where I stand. The Second Amendment is near and dear to my heart and I don’t believe it should even be touched. They need to leave it alone and let us have what we feel we need and they shouldn’t restrict it because they’re afraid of guns.

What is the one thing that separates you from all of your opponents? And why should people vote for you above someone else?

I think peer representation is is the one. Also the fact that I am not a politician. I am a mom of eight. I’m a business owner. All the boxes get checked when you’re looking at a politician to run for this seat. All the boxes are checked. But the thing with me is that I am not a politician.  I’ve had to work for everything that I have even to turn on the light switch has been something to get the light poles in for the ground. Even for heat, I have to go in to get wood and haul wood and even purchase wood from other wood haulers because it’s so difficult. Because the hardship that we’re going through, we can’t lose. 

I’m basically the biggest weapon that the Republican Party… you know, if they could dream it up, I would be it. Because everything that they’ve hit our President with for being a ‘misogynist’ a ‘sexist,’ a ‘racist,’ ‘hes a Nazi.’ All of these things  that they apply to him — when you have me standing there with him advocating for him and protecting him, then you realize that he’s not any of those things. So, that’s what kind of differentiate. I can stop some of this liberal labeling that happens. The mainstream media tries to take down our President. 

So, the Republican party needs me and the people need me. We need to take our country back. So, that’s why I’m doing this and I think that’s fine. I’m the only time they can actually do this. But I’m not a politician, when I listen to the other two talk, I am uninspired. That’s why I am still in this race because they cannot lead me. I haven’t been really campaigning right now out of respect for my culture. We don’t do anything like this, like politics and any asking for money during anything that has to do with death and illness. That goes back to our our creation stories. So, out of respect for who I am, I really backed off of campaigning during this time. But we start seeing America come out of it and when that light shows through the clouds, then I’m going to come back full-blown. We will start with social media and start to move from there. 

More information can be found about Karen Bedonie at her website Bedonie2020.com. 

Interviews with the two other Republican CD-3 candidates, Alexis Martinez Johnson and Harry Montoya will be released shortly. Karen Bedonie’s interview has been released as it appears first in the list of candidates by alphabetical order. 

MLG’s strict face mask requirement discriminates against low-income workers, people of color

4 Comments / News, Opinion, Politics / By

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who claims to be a supporter of the poor and downtrodden, commanded in her latest edict that “essential workers” must wear masks or face coverings.

According to her edict, “All employees must wear their face coverings in the workplace at all times when in the presence of others.” She made sure to add a condescending statement belittling New Mexicans, many are people of color, saying, “If New Mexicans don’t behave safely, we won’t be able to reopen more than we have. Every single one of us has to do their part.”

The requirement adopted by her and many Democrat governors may disproportionately affect people of color and the poor, who cannot afford face masks. Business owners, many of them owning small businesses, cannot afford to buy face masks, which have become a hot commodity amid the pandemic. It’s difficult to find any at reasonable prices, with some being sold for as much as $20 apiece. 

So, who will provide these face masks required by Lujan Grisham’s edict? Small business owners and workers, that’s who. But price gouging is causing low-income individuals to not be able to afford masks. One report states the gouging has caused such a difficult market, allowing “only the more affluent can afford masks.” According to the latest statistics, people working in the restaurant industry were the most common group of low-income workers, 7.76% of the workforce, a group specifically singled out in the Governor’s edict., Also, over half of all jobs (49,249, or 53.0 percent) were held by ethnic minorities.

But regarding a different issue, Voter ID laws that secure American elections, Lujan Grisham claimed that having an ID to vote is “burdensome.” She also said such laws “disproportionately impact poor, elderly, disabled & Americans of color.”

The same tired argument can be made for requiring face masks, and we actually have a case, since a face mask can only be bought from select vendors, they are in low supply, and a burden to obtain. Getting an ID, which is required for everything from checking into a hotel to cashing a check, is not an undue burden.

Lujan Grisham’s discriminatory face mask order not only undermines her credibility as a leader, it hurts small businesses and working families who will have to go out of their ways to obtain face masks. The only people who will be hurt by Lujan Grisham’s requirement are the poor, who she seems to not give two thoughts about. 

NM GOP Chairman Pearce to MLG: ‘You’re driving a stake into the heart’ of our state

5 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Wednesday morning, Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman and former Congressman Steve Pearce joined Steve Ducey on Fox News to speak about Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s response to the coronavirus, which is hitting small business owners and working families hard.

During the interview, Ducey asked Pearce to explain Lujan Grisham’s logic behind the closure of small mom and pop businesses while corporate big box stores such as Walmart are allowed to stay open. Pearce responded, “I can’t explain her logic. It’s totally unfair, it’s discriminatory.”

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Pearce then laid out the situation in the state, saying, “New Mexico is big and rural. We have a couple of population centers, but everything else is sparsely populated. Mom and pops drive the state, and so the initial order weeks ago, the Governor said the big box stores can open, no restrictions on them. The small mom and pops had to shut down. Many of them are just going to be forced into bankruptcy and will not be open.”

“In the meantime, counties [that] do not even have one case — the residents of those places — no big box stores are there. They’re having to drive into Albuquerque or Santa Fe or Las Cruces in order to hit a big box store. That puts them closer to people who might have the virus, and it just has never made any sense. But mostly it’s just the patented unfairness that drives our money into the big box stores. They ship it out of New Mexico at the close of the business day. They don’t use local banks, so we’re robbing the state for capital into the future.” 

“We’ve been saying, ‘wait, it’s got to be an even playing field. There has to be competition from both sides. There have to be choices. Local businesses, mom, and pop should have the same rights as the out-of-state giant corporations.’”

When asked about a Grants pawnshop facing a $60,000 fine from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Pearce said, “Your average business may make ten percent. That means you have to have $600,000 worth of products in order to get to $60,000. They’re just going to be thrust into bankruptcy. The veteran is disabled. His wife is going to have to close the business, and the Governor is coming in and making an example of them. Five or six uniformed state police officers circled around the building, slapped the notice on the building. 

Pearce continued, “The fine is just devastating to that small community because it’s made up totally of small businesses. Even the local sheriffs and police officers are having to drive into Albuquerque to get ammunition that [the local pawn shop] sold there.”

Steve Ducey wrapped up the segment asking what message Chairman Pearce had for Gov. Lujan Grisham. Pearce answered, “The small business owners throughout New Mexico — they’re the heart and soul of our state, and I would just say to the Governor, “you’re driving a stake into the heart and the spirit and the soul of our state. The small communities depend on local business owner…. They’re the ones who support the basketball team and the football team. They’re the ones who are there for the Rotary Clubs and the Kiwanis Clubs. Give them a fair chance.”

On Wednesday, Pearce sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr requesting his help in stopping Gov. Lujan Grisham’s unconstitutional orders barring citizens from work and crippling New Mexico’s state economy.

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