Politics

Woke Las Cruces mayor: ‘Climate change,’ policing are city’s top concerns

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

On Wednesday, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima gave his first “State of the City” address in over two years, where he promoted multiple woke left-wing policies and claimed the biggest problems the city faces are “climate change” and “policing.”

The Las Cruces Sun-News reported, “The mayor mentioned the threat of climate change on the city and the human species and celebrated the council’s actions to combat it, including a resolution to convert the city’s fleet to electric vehicles, a commitment to transition off natural gas, a policy to require carbon-neutral energy for new buildings owned or subsidized by the city and upcoming building code revisions to make all new buildings ‘electric-ready.’”

Miyagishima also spewed anti-police rhetoric, claiming not all policing needs a “badge and a gun.”

“Our hope is that personnel trained in social intervention will soon be taking lead on calls to assist people suffering from mental illness, addiction and homelessness, and to respond for child welfare checks and threats to commit suicide,” he said.

He also alluded to Critical Race Theory and diversity hiring in the police force, saying, “In a city like Las Cruces, our police force isn’t an occupying force – our officers live among us as neighbors and friends.” Miyagishima added, “The path to optimal policing lies along the path we’ve just been talking about – considering our different backgrounds, fears, and expectations, and how life is experienced by all those involved.”

The speech comes as Democrats nationwide have attempted to ram through extreme enviro-Marxist proposals, such as in New Mexico with the Energy Transition Act, also known as New Mexico’s “mini” Green New Deal. Other cities such as Albuquerque have clamped down on police activity, instead, delegating certain 911 calls to social workers. Miyagishima appears to want to follow in these footsteps in Albuquerque.

Hiding something? AG, SOS deploy panicked ‘voter risk advisory’ amid Otero audit

6 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Wednesday, far-left New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas and Secretary of State sent out a panicked “voter risk advisory,” apparently trying to fear monger Otero County residents into not participating in the county’s 2020 election audit where canvassers are going door-to-door asking if voters cast ballots in the 2020 General Election.

But Toulouse Oliver and Balderas are making it sound like canvassers from the “New Mexico Audit Force” conducting the audit are somehow attempting to demand personal information, which is not happening during the audit process sanctioned by the County.

The fear-mongering advisory reads: 

The Otero County Commission recently authorized a controversial “audit” of the 2020 election to be conducted by a third-party organization called New Mexico Audit Force. Part of the New Mexico Audit Force’s activities involve deploying canvassers to go door-to-door throughout Otero County interrogating voters about their personal information and their participation in the 2020 General Election.

This activity has caught many Otero County residents off guard as they are being approached at their doorsteps by New Mexico Audit Force canvassers who are not employed by Otero County, yet who are claiming to be representatives of the county. According to the Otero County Attorney, these canvassers have not been subjected to any background checks and according to Erin Clements, director of the New Mexico Audit force, when speaking to the Otero County Commission, “We would introduce ourselves as ‘New Mexico Audit Force’ and not mention the county at all.” There are estimated to be about 60 canvassers currently in Otero County.

It further states multiple inaccurate statements, bullet-pointed below:

  • Who you vote for on your ballot is secret. No one, not even election administrators, can tell what your ballot choices were in any election.
  • Through publicly-available voter data, it is possible to tell your party affiliation (or lack thereof) and if you voted in a particular election. But, again, your specific ballot choices are always secret.
  • You are not required (nor can you be compelled) to provide information about who you voted for, why you voted, any personal information, or what your voting experience was like to anyone.
  • You are not required to participate in this so-called “audit” or provide any information unless you choose to do so.
  • New Mexico’s county clerks and Secretary of State already has mandatory vote count verification and election audit procedures in place after every election to ensure the accuracy of election results. New Mexico also uses 100% paper ballots in every election and voting machines are never connected to the internet.

Voting machines in New Mexico ARE, INDEED, CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET contrary to the claims made by the two politicians and the “audit” process conducted after the election by the Secretary of State’s office is in no way equivalent to a forensic audit, like the one being done in Otero County.

Following the panicked press release, Erin Clements, who is leading the New Mexico Audit Force, wrote the following on Telegram:

[T]he press release today was because the SOS is losing her grip and is stooping to use her office to repeat a story started by a doxing, blue-haired low-life.  

Only guilty people act like that. 

It blows my mind how extremely scared these people are of a little door-to-door verification of a little database and a little recounting a few paper ballots in a little red county where no one is even expecting any elections to be overturned.

Read more from Erin Clements on the press release via Telegram here.

The apparent attempt at delegitimizing the Otero County audit must make New Mexicans ask the question, “What are Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Attorney General Hector Balderas hiding?”

2022 Municipal Election results for hotly contested races

1 Comment / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Tuesday, multiple municipalities in New Mexico held elections to determine the fate of many cities across the state that did not opt into the regular local election. Here are some results from closely watched municipal elections:

Rio Rancho

Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, a Republican, soundly defeated far-left challenger Barbara Ann Jordan, who has focused her campaign on race. Despite her endorsements from Sen. Martin Heinrich, Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, pro-abortion group EMILY’s List, Planned Parenthood, and others, Jordan fell short by around 38%, with Hull garnering 68% of the vote to Jordan’s 30%, according to unofficial election results. This will be Hull’s third term in the office.

“I am humbled by the overwhelming support we received tonight to keep Rio Rancho on a Roll!” wrote Hull.

A three-way contest for the District 3 City Council seat held by incumbent conservative Bob Tyler will go to a runoff. Tyler garnered 47% of the vote, with Joshua Antonio Jones getting 29%, and Clyde A. Ward getting 25%. It will likely be a race between Tyler and Jones.

City Councilor Klarissa Culbreath, a Democrat who was appointed to the seat in District 5, kept her seat with 56% over challenger William Edward Dunn’s 44%. 

Española

It appears, according to reports, that Republican Mayor Javier Sanchez was defeated by first-term Democrat City Councilor John Ramon Vigil. At 10:00 p.m. Tuesday, the Española City Clerk showed that Vigil led Sanchez 800-736. 

Roswell

According to the Secretary of State’s unofficial results, pro-mask, pro-abortion Democrat Tim Jennings, a former state senator from Roswell, defeated Republican incumbent Mayor Dennis Kintigh with 2,420 votes, or 44%. Kintigh got 2,363 votes or 43%. A Republican vote-splitter who took support from Kintigh, Guy Malone, garnered 10%, or 528 votes, while Eva Tellez got 4% with 203 votes. A possible recount is in order due to the slimmer than 1% margin of “victory.”

Artesia

Conservative Jon Henry triumphed over challengers in the Artesia mayoral race, garnering 45% of the vote, compared to his closest challenger in the crowded race who got 25%. 

To see the full results from the Tuesday election, those can be found on the Secretary of State website here.

MLG joined by union boss, masked kids to sign teacher pay hike bill

2 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

On Tuesday, scandal-ridden alleged serial groper Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham joined American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union boss Randi Weingarten at Francis Xavier Nava Elementary School in Santa Fe to sign S.B. 1, a bill to increase teacher salaries.

The embattled governor and Weingarten were joined by children wearing masks as Lujan Grisham signed the pay hike, which will increase pay in the state’s three-tier licensure system to $50,000, $60,000, and $70,000. 

Weingarten has long been a controversial figure, who still believes children should be masked while at school until the transmission of the virus is “low enough” it hits zero. Her pandemic track record is also horrific. According to The Federalist: 

Weingarten’s pandemic track record is nothing but an advertisement for anti-classroom learning. From the beginning, it was Weingarten’s AFT PAC that funneled more than $1.6 million to pro-lockdown Democrats and left-wing organizations. At the beginning of April, many of the same Democrats who benefit from the unions’ political donations jammed Biden’s $1.9 [pandemic] spending plan through Congress with the hope that the funds would push schools to reopen. Biden’s spending plan, which was criticized by Republicans, allotted more than $129 billion to elementary, middle, and high schools to use in their reopening efforts, despite the 100 million unspent dollars already designated for school expenses like “cleaning and disinfecting” in the CARES Act. A few weeks later, 52 percent of K-12 districts were still not offering fully in-person classes for all of their students.

Weingarten’s AFT was just one of the hypocritical teacher’s unions that tried to hold taxpayers hostage by demanding more funding in exchange for giving children basic education.

Weingarten, who herself bucked the CDC’s guidelines, denied the CDC’s science. In a March 19, 2021 statement, AFT New Mexico denied the CDC’s science as “lacking” in the “totality” of the “safety strategy,” whatever that means. The union also denied the efficacy of the inoculation, claiming it is “not a silver bullet.”

During the lockdown, Lujan Grisham, emboldened by Weingarten and the teachers’ unions, shuttered schools, leaving many children without instruction whatsoever for months on end.

Not satire: MLG to receive ‘hero’ award from Las Cruces film festival

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According to a report from the Las Cruces Sun-News, scandal-ridden alleged serial groper Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, will receive the “Hero” award from the Las Cruces International Film Festival (LCIFF) for “her support of the state’s film and television industry.”

“[T]he award is in recognition of the growth the industry has experienced throughout the state and particularly in southern New Mexico since Lujan Grisham stepped into office in 2019,” the report notes.

Despite her hot mess of failures, including the limiting of the film industry due to her strict pandemic lockdown orders that crushed small businesses and commerce in the state, the LCIFF is choosing to honor the scandalous Governor who paid out $150,000 to a sexual assault accuser. 

According to the report, Lujan Grisham is in good company with the so-called “Hero” award, with radical leftists like ex-U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small previously winning the award.

During Lujan Grisham’s tenure, at least 40% of small businesses have closed and the film industry hit a standstill.
“The number of productions shot in New Mexico dropped to zero from an average of 34 productions a month during the first three months of 2020, according to data from the New Mexico Film Office,” New Mexico News Port notes.

As Biden’s failures mount, Haaland intent on canceling ‘offensive’ words

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As global and national crises heat up, such as a war between Russia and Ukraine, inflation skyrocketing, illegal immigration hitting pandemic levels, sky-high gas prices, and others created by Joe Biden, his cabinet is focused on cancel culture.

Other than working toward ways to kill the United States energy industry, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is still intent on canceling words she deems “offensive” from federal public places, specifically the word “squaw.”

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports, “The U.S. Geological Survey has identified more than 660 geographical features on federal lands nationally — including 13 in New Mexico — that contain the term and is suggesting a choice of five replacement names for each one.”

“Some examples in New Mexico are Squaw Canyon in Chaves County; Squaw Peak in Sandoval County; Squaw Spring in San Juan County; and Squaw Tit Mountain in Sierra County,” the report notes. 

But apparently the cancellation of “squaw” is just the beginning, with reports saying a task force is directed to “look at a broader scope of demeaning place names, including those that disparage various races, sexual orientation, and religions.”

The far-left Las Cruces City Council has already attempted to follow Haaland’s radical orders, renaming places in the city with the word “squaw.” In Santa Fe, there is already a task force to rip down monuments and names that some deem “offensive,” effectively canceling many historic Hispanic landmarks and places.

Radical leftists, such as Corrine Sanchez of the extremist anti-Hispanic hate group “Tewa Women United,” who also sits on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s “racial justice advisory council” are praising Haaland as “powerful” for her cancel culture crusade.

“What the secretary is doing is powerful, and I think because she is an Indigenous woman, we’re finally kind of getting the leverage to do it,” Sanchez claimed.

No one knows what term will be next to be deemed “racist” by Haaland and her advisory council. But in New Mexico, cancel culture by far-leftists has already begun, notably with the toppling of the Soldiers’ Monument in the Santa Fe Plaza, which was dedicated to Union soldiers who fought the Confederacy.

GOP convention: Block, Sanchez, Thornton, Martinez Johnson win

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On Saturday, New Mexico Republican delegates met in Ruidoso at the MCM Elegante Lodge for the 2022 convention to advance candidates for the gubernatorial, lieutenant gubernatorial, congressional, and statewide races to get on the ballot on the June 7 primary.

GOP Congresswoman Yvette Herrell of the Second District fired up the crowd with a speech targeting the radical Democrats in Washington.

After the candidates gave their speeches, delegates voted via paper ballots after the electronic system previously announced to have been used malfunctioned. It is said this malfunction was regarding programming each individual delegate to their congressional district Therefore, the delegates gathered in lines outside three sets of doors in the convention center by congressional district to cast their votes, entering voting rooms two at a time.

Late on Saturday night, the Republican Party of New Mexico announced it would release the results from the vote on Sunday morning. The Party wrote, “The paper ballot voting went smoothly, and the results of the contests will be released once all ballots are properly and carefully counted.”

Delegates waited in lines for hours to cast their ballots with individual delegates voting first and then those who held proxies for those not in attendance voted afterward. Counting went late into the night, stopping in the 9:00 hour. The official results are below:

In the First Congressional District, Louie Sanchez garnered 66% with 181 votes, qualifying him for the primary ballot. Michelle Garcia Holmes garnered 28% of the vote (76 votes), meaning she will also qualify.

In the Third Congressional District race, Alexis Martinez Johnson qualified for the primary ballot with 185 votes or 87%.

Retired aerospace engineer Ant Thornton clinched a top spot on the ballot for lieutenant governor with 407 votes (59%) while no other candidates for the office made the ballot.

The official results show Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block got 199 votes, state Rep. Rebecca Dow got 192 votes, retired Brigadier General Greg Zanetti got 157 votes, ex-weatherman Mark Ronchetti got 110 votes, while former Cuba Mayor and executive director of the Right to Life Committee of New Mexico Ethel Maharg got 39.

According to Ronchetti’s campaign, it claims the failed U.S. Senate candidate did, indeed, make the ballot because of its “over 7,000” signatures gathered, which have not been confirmed to all be acceptable. The Republican Party of New Mexico confirmed this information that Ronchetti will be on the ballot due to his sufficient signatures.

Therefore the gubernatorial candidates who made the ballot other than Ronchetti include Block, Dow, and Zanetti.

The unopposed statewide candidates’ vote totals are below:

Secretary of State: Audrey Trujillo                 100%    681 votes
Attorney General: Jeremy Gay                         100%    678  votes
State Treasurer: Harry Montoya                      100%    679  votes
Commissioner of Public Lands: Jeff Byrd    100%    670  votes

New Mexicans welcome trucker convoy rolling through state

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On Friday, New Mexicans gathered on the I-40 pedestrian bridges at Jerry Cline Park and Sedillo Hill in Albuquerque to welcome the “People’s Convoy” of truckers rolling through New Mexico on their way to Washington, D.C. 

New Mexicans rallied with American flags and patriotic signs that said things like, “Thank You, Truckers!” and “New Mexicans for Freedom,” as well as flags reading, “Let’s Go Brandon.”

Here are some perspectives from the Sedillo Hill gathering: 

​​https://twitter.com/shaverbud/status/1497278251399401474?s=21

Here are some other photos from the day from Jerry Cline Park:

On their way to Washington, D.C., truckers from across the nation are headed to the Capitol for a similar protest against tyrannical mandates like the one in Canada, which shut down Ottowa to the ire of leftist elites. 

Here are some more photos from the event, courtesy of Katrina Griego:

Fellow jailbird Dem running for Louis’ seat

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On Friday, it was reported by Daniel Chacón of the Santa Fe New Mexican that a Democrat will run in disgraced state Rep. Georgene Louis (D-Bernalillo)’s stead following her aggravated DWI arrest during the 2022 Legislative Session.

Chacón wrote, “Meanwhile, a former state representative is setting her sights on the House district seat Rep. Georgene Louis is vacating. Eleanor Chavez, who served two terms in the House, confirmed Friday she will seek the Democratic nomination for House District 26.”

Chavez was previously the representative for House District 13 from 2009 to 2013, where she left the chamber after she lost a Democrat primary for New Mexico Senate District 14, losing to Sen. Michal Padilla (D-Bernalillo). She also served on the New Mexico Public Education Commission.

Chavez herself is a jailbird, with an arrest in 2018 for protesting violently against federal immigration policies. According to the Albuquerque Journal, Chavez was “charged with trespass, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and ‘interference with public officials or general public.'”

Louis has held the Albuquerque-area District 26 seat since 2013. She unsuccessfully ran for Congress in the First District’s special election, losing to now-U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury.

UPDATE: According to the New Mexican, Louis will not seek reelection, saying in a statement, “It has been an honor to serve the constituents of House District 26 for the past ten years.” She added, “I send my sincerest thank you to everyone who has supported me over my tenure as State Representative.”

Soros dark money groups demand investigation into Sen. Ivey-Soto

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After Democrats failed to epic proportions in their attempt at ramming through their pro-voter fraud measures, S.B. 8 and S.B. 144 during the 2022 Legislative Session, dark money George Soros-funded groups dredged up a seven-year-old allegation against state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, who they claim helped kill their attempt to steal future New Mexico elections through fraud.

The usual suspects whined and moaned on Twitter and across the internet, manufacturing outrage to a left-wing lobbyist’s accusation that the senator grabbed her buttocks. The activist who came forward with the accusation just so happened to previously dredge up a false allegation about other politicians, including Democrat Jeff Apodaca who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018. 

The accuser, Marianna Anaya, is a former staffer of then-U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM-01). Anaya hired the same lawyer, Levi Monagle, who participated in the slander of former state Rep. Carl Trujillo (D-Santa Fe), which led to Trujillo losing his seat in 2018. Trujillo’s case happened in tandem with Planned Parenthood lobbyist Juliana Koob, whose dark money organization she represents spread the false accusations against Trujillo.

The allegations from Anaya reek of “political hit-job,” where there could be a potential for this to harm Ivey-Soto in 2024 or annoy him so much that he decides not to run for reelection — both wins for the far-left.

The groups that manufactured outrage include George Soros-funded dark money Equality New Mexico, Common Cause New Mexico, the Center for Civic Policy, Progress Now New Mexico, Olé, Girls Inc., and Animal Protection New Mexico. 

“When one person is denied an investigation, all survivors are denied an investigation,” the dark money groups whined in a statement calling for an inquisition. 

But these same groups not only ignored Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham paying off a sexual accuser over $150,000 for claims she groped his crotch, but they actively encourage to this very day Lujan Grisham’s activities as governor, despite the disgraced leader’s hush money settlements to alleged victims.

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