MLG’s power grab comes back to bite—Now she’s begging for ‘moderates’

Far-left Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is taking aim at lawmakers in her own party as her agenda on crime and education struggles to gain traction in the first quarter of the legislative session. Expressing frustration, she criticized legislators for failing to take decisive action on key issues and accused them of being too risk-averse to address the state’s problems.

Lujan Grisham singled out public safety as an area where she believes lawmakers have fallen short. She argued that violent crime is a statewide issue, not just an Albuquerque problem, pointing to rising crime rates in cities like Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Alamogordo, and Raton. The governor pushed for mandatory sentencing for certain crimes and blamed some judges for failing to keep criminals off the streets under discretionary sentencing. Despite calling a special session on crime last year, most of her proposals went nowhere, leaving her frustrated with the Legislature’s inaction. She insisted that lawmakers need to be more aggressive in tackling crime rather than remaining politically cautious.

Some legislators have pushed back against the idea that increasing penalties will reduce crime. Senator Joseph Cervantes, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently stated that enforcement and accountability, rather than new laws, are what’s missing. Pretrial detention has remained a controversial issue since New Mexico moved away from a money-based bail system in 2016. While the governor has pointed to repeat offenders being released and committing new crimes, studies from the University of New Mexico indicate that most individuals released pretrial do not reoffend. Still, Lujan Grisham defended her push for stricter measures, arguing that longer jail sentences prevent criminals from engaging in more wrongdoing.

In addition to crime policy, Lujan Grisham expressed frustration with how public education funding is handled. She claimed there is a lack of transparency in how more than $4 billion in state funds are spent and that her administration has little power over school districts. 

She also took a direct swipe at the House and Senate education committees, which are both led by current or retired teachers, saying they have stalled meaningful reform efforts. “You’ve got a lot of former educators and superintendents who aren’t interested in changing anything,” she said.

She described it as “unethical and a huge conflict of interest” for educators to be making decisions on education policy and funding while serving in the Legislature.

Representative G. Andrés Romero, chairman of the House Education Committee, rejected the governor’s criticism, arguing that having teachers in the Legislature provides valuable firsthand experience. He defended his role, saying his time in the classroom informs his legislative decisions, and expressed disappointment that the governor views it as a conflict.

As the legislative session continues, tensions between Lujan Grisham and lawmakers appear to be escalating. She blamed progressive members for being too entrenched in their positions, arguing that New Mexico needs more moderate leadership. 

“Maybe we need more pragmatic, moderate people (in elected office), because you can’t govern on the fringes or the extremes, which is how New Mexico got into a lot of these problems,” said Lujan Grisham. 

Ironically, the governor worked overtime to primary challenge more moderate members of her party because they did not fall in lockstep with her radical agenda on banning guns, having abortions up to the date of birth, and reckless spending. She helped take out the moderate former Senate President Pro-Tem, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the chairman of the Legislative Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, and rank-and-file representatives and senators from across the state. In another turn of irony, these same moderate legislators would have helped pass her crime agenda, but now they are replaced by radical progressives.