During the 2023 Legislative Session, few proposals to tackle the state’s crime epidemic reached the governor’s desk. A handful of bills focusing on retail crime, catalytic converter thefts, and cyber security ultimately passed, but nothing specifically tackling carjackings or other violent crimes.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau’s (NICB) report shows New Mexico has the fourth-highest rate of car thefts in the nation, with Albuquerque leading the state in rates of carjackings.
H.B. 491, a bill to tackle car theft, sponsored by Reps. Cynthia Borrego (D-Albuquerque), Joseph Sanchez (D-Alcalde), and Art De La Cruz (D-Albuquerque) died in its first committee, with four leftist Democrats rejecting the measure.
The bill would increase penalties for the unlawful taking of a vehicle, embezzlement of a vehicle, or fraudulently taking a vehicle.
According to the bill’s fiscal impact report, “Under the revised penalties, anyone convicted for these crimes could be guilty of a fourth-degree felony for a first offense; a third-degree felony for a second offense, regardless of which provision was the first offense; and a second-degree felony for a third or subsequent offense, regardless of which provision was the first or second offense.”
Borrego explained was necessary due to the increased number of car thefts, including a family member of hers who owns a car lot and fell victim to thieves stealing a vehicle then later trashing it miles away.
Despite carjackers seeming to become increasingly emboldened to steal vehicles in New Mexico, the four Democrats on the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, Reps. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces), Angelica Rubio (D-Las Cruces), Liz Thomson (D-Albuquerque), and Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) quickly tabled the bill. Reps. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) and John Block (R-Alamogordo) both voted against tabling the bill.
Block wrote on Twitter following the vote, “The NM House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee just tabled a commonsense bill that would enhance penalties for repeat offending carjackers. NM is top in the nation for car thefts, but the bill died on a party-line 4-2 vote despite it being sponsored by 3 Dems. What a clown show.”
Other bills that died on arrival in the committee included legislation from Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Albuquerque) to curb fentanyl dealing, increase sentences for illegal gun possession, and make it easier to keep suspects behind bars pending trial.
Without meaningful crime bills getting across the finish line, it is unlikely crime in the state will let up, as weak-on-crime legislators have prevailed in killing proposals from both Democrats and Republicans to fix the scourge of violence and lawlessness in New Mexico.
On Saturday, all but one New Mexico House Democrat voted to give themselves salaries on the backs of the state’s taxpayers. The proposal, H.J.R. 8 by Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-Doña Ana), passed the House chamber on a 40-24 vote, with Rep. Ambrose Castellano (D-Ribera) joining all Republicans in rejecting the measure.
The chamber debated the resolution for three hours, with Republicans offering an amendment to cap the salary at the median household income of an average New Mexican, which is approximately $54,000 annually.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo), was rejected on a party-line vote after a lengthy debate. Democrats advocated for a commission to set the salary without any parameters by the Legislature on how the amount should be set.
Currently, legislators in New Mexico do get paid a per diem, which is $176 a day for a House member and $181 a day for senators. For House members during the 60-day session, they receive $10,560, and senators receive $10,860. They also receive per diem for interim committees that meet throughout the year and, after ten years of service, receive a generous pension.
Despite the compensation legislators receive, Democrats erroneously claimed New Mexico is the only state in the country that doesn’t pay its lawmakers. However, New Mexico’s system is quite generous versus states like New Hampshire, which pay their legislators only $100 without per diem, or Utah, which pays $285 per legislative day. Currently, New Mexico lawmakers make around $22 per hour based on eight hours of work for the per diem rate.
During the debate, Rep. Alan Martinez (R-Bernalillo) said he is “uncomfortable” voting for legislator pay, saying it incentivizes politicians “to stay here and become entrenched in the system.”
The resolution now heads over to the state Senate for consideration. However, it is unclear if it will pass the chamber with only around 13 days left in the legislative session. If it does pass the Senate, it will go on the 2024 general election ballot for voters to approve or reject the measure.
On Saturday, a bill by Reps. Christine Trujillo (D-Bernalillo) and Christina Ortez (D-Taos), H.B. 217, would make 16 and 17-year-olds “qualified electors” will be heard in New Mexico House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee.
The bill also notes that 17-year-olds would be allowed to vote in state primaries if they are 18 by the time the primary election is over. “For the purposes of a political primary, 17-year-olds may also currently vote if they will turn 18 on or before the general election immediately succeeding that primary election,” reads the fiscal impact report (FIR) for the bill, which implies that even in federal elections the minor could vote.
The FIR further notes that this move could likely increase Democrat voter turnout, according to Tufts University.
It reads, “[I]t should be noted Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life find that 63 percent of voters aged 18 to 29 nationally voted for democratic candidates in the House of Representative elections, so it is possible that allowing 16-year-olds to vote as provided for in HB217 could result in a disproportionate increase in turnout for democratic candidates. However, it is unclear whether this is because 16-year-old Democrats are more likely to turn out to vote or that 16-year-olds are more likely to be Democratic-leaning. Further, data does not indicate whether the turnout from youth voters (ages 18 to 29) effectively changed the results of prior elections.”
The committee will consider the bill on Saturday, February 11, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. in Room 317 of the state Capitol. To join the meeting via Zoom, the instructions are below:
Ranking Member: Martin R. Zamora (R). District 63 (Curry, DeBaca, Guadalupe, Roosevelt & San Miguel). Room 203EN, 986-4211. Email: martin.zamora@nmlegis.gov
On Friday, two New Mexico House committees will consider extreme Democrat-sponsored proposals that would make major changes to state government.
Elections
The House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee will hear H.B. 4, which is a major measure sponsored by Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Bernalillo), House Majority Floor Leader Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo), among other Democrats from both chambers.
The bill would create an automatic absentee voter registry and automatic registration at the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) without customers’ consent, felon voting, among other measures that would be ripe for fraud.
The committee will hear the bill at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Room 305 at the Capitol in Santa Fe. Attend the meeting via Zoom and testify on the bill with the below information:
The House Health and Human Services Committee will meet Friday to discuss H.B. 7, which would “prohibit public bodies from discriminating against persons based on their use or non-use of reproductive or gender-affirming care,” meaning it could push teachers and any other public workers to support body mutilation for all ages, including children, as well as abortion, according to the bill’s fiscal impact report.
So-called “gender-affirming care” means “psychological, behavioral, surgical, medication, and other medical services to support a person’s gender identity,” while “public bodies” are defined as “state and local governments, commissions, or boards established by the state and any branches of state government, such as school districts and universities, that receive state funding.”
The committee will hear the bill at 8:30 a.m. Friday in Room 307 at the Capitol in Santa Fe. Attend the meeting via Zoom and testify on the bill with the below information: Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84266137922 Or One tap mobile : US: +16699009128, 84266137922# or +17193594580, 84266137922# Webinar ID: 842 6613 7922 International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbtl0LBS50
Democrat state Rep. Liz Thomson (D-Bernalillo) just dropped a bill she will be carrying in the 2023 Legislative Session, H.B. 42, to create a new “public health and climate resiliency fund” to “assist local communities in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies related to climate change and extreme weather.”
The bill would enact a myriad of enviro-Marxist responsibilities of the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH), such as to “facilitate meaningful community engagement within communities most harmed, or determined by climate science as most likely to be harmed, by extreme weather events.”
It would also give the department the ability to give “grants” of up to $250,000 to “a political subdivision of the state or an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo for the purposes of preparing for and responding to public health emergencies related to extreme weather and other climate impacts.”
The grants would emphasize seizing as much private land as possible to make it government-owned, which mimics Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s “30 by 30” program to force at least 30 percent of public land into public “conservation” by the year 2030.
The bill reads that the priority will be “emphasize planning, projects and activities that are also eligible for grant funds from federal programs or help New Mexico become eligible for federal funds,” along with “climate adaptation plans,” among other requirements.
The appropriation attached to the bill would be $1.1 million from the General Fund to NMDOH throughout 2024 and $5 million throughout 2028. It would cost taxpayers a grand total of at least $6.1 million to enact this enviro-Marxist program that likely has nothing to do with health care nor would do anything to stop so-called “extreme weather.”
Another bill, H.B. 45, by state Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Santa Fe) would create a fund to pay for the “acquisitions of land, conservation and agricultural easements and other interests in land and by funding land restoration to protect the land and water available for forests and watersheds, natural areas, wildlife and wildlife habitat, agricultural production on working farms and ranches, outdoor recreation and trails and land and habitat restoration and management.”
The 2023 Legislative Session starts at noon on January 17, 2023.
In a strange turn of events in Albuquerque, multiple metro-area lawmakers and local officials’ homes and places of business were shot up in drive-by shootings. The shootings mysteriously didn’t hit a single person, which has raised questions.
The politicians who were apparently targeted included outgoing Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley, Commissioner Adriann Barboa, and two legislators. Sen. Linda Lopez and newly appointed Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas were apparently targeted, although gunshots were heard near Maestas’ office, not his home.
The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) is still investigating the cause of the shots, but APD Chief Harold Medina said, “The evidence will lead us. … The investigation hopefully will determine what’s related and what’s not related,” Medina said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. “But we want to assure everybody that we are taking this seriously,” according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The first shooting happened on December 4, 2022, at Barboa’s residence around 4:41 p.m., which is strange because it was still light outside when it happened. On December 11, someone fired at O’Malley’s home, while Lopez’s home was shot at around midnight on Tuesday.
O’Malley said that her home is not easily accessible, and that is why she believes she was targeted. “Somebody wanted to hit this house,” she commented.
The Journal noted that on Thursday, “city ShotSpotter technology detected three shots fired in the vicinity of a Downtown building where Maestas has an office. Police said they found no damage to the building. Maestas did not respond to a Journal message Thursday afternoon seeking comment.”
One connection all the lawmakers have is that they all were involved in one way or another in the appointment of Maestas to the state Senate in November, while his former seat in the state House garnered controversy from many on the left regarding who should fill it. It ultimately led to educator Marsella Duarte holding the seat until the end of the year. Another person will have to be appointed to fill the vacancy for the new term beginning January 17, 2022.
Despite even mainstream news organizations shining a light on the harmful ramifications of the newly increased $12 per hour minimum wage, Democrats in the state legislature are doubling down on their attempts to raise the wage even higher.
State Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), who chairs the New Mexico House Taxation and Revenue Committee, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that she is “introducing a bill to raise the minimum wage to $16 per hour by January 2024, which would be the highest statewide minimum wage in the country.”
The outlet further reported, “Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, also plans to introduce minimum or ‘living wage’ legislation raising it above $15 per hour.”
“Fifteen dollars might not be enough for a living wage,” she said. “Right now I’m leaning toward something higher than $15.”
Currently, the highest minimum wage in the country is in California at $15 per hour.
Mainstream TV station KOAT 7admitted the extreme dangers of minimum wage increases this week in a report, writing that such policies will result in employers forced to “cut hours, automate tasks and demand more.”
The station interviewed an associate professor of finance at the University of New Mexico, Reilly White, who said, “As rates increase, that does help a lot of people employed at the minimum wage.” He added, “But, on the other side of it, it does interesting things, particularly to businesses.”
“White says it could also come at a cost to workers. He says some employers might reduce hours, demand more work out of their employees and automate some jobs like grocery store registers,” KOAT reported.
“It affects the types of people hired,” White said. “Another example is employers usually forgo hiring inexperienced workers like teenagers in favor of older, more experienced workers, making it harder for younger people to get a start in the market. So, it’s an interesting dynamic that affects a lot of different things across the workforce.”
“If we would have been $15 [in 2019] and indexing all along, we would be in the neighborhood of $16 now,” Chandler said. “It reflects the reality on the ground. It’s what workers need to earn a living wage. The past bill was a good bill, but it was a compromise that didn’t go far enough.”
The extreme increases in the minimum wage will certainly harm businesses and workers, but the Democrats are intent on pushing these wage hikes at the cost of the business owner and the taxpayer.
On Friday, the Washington Post published an article claiming New Mexico is “a model” for Democrats to win elections, pointing to the Hispanic Democrats elected statewide and in the composition of the state Legislature.
First-term Sen. Ben Ray Luján, who was elected on the coattails of his father, former state representative and Speaker of the New Mexico House Ben Luján, claimed Democrats “showed up in places that Republicans usually don’t have to worry about showing up.” He claimed, “It’s how I was raised. It’s how dad did it. It was part of our strategy when we were successful before — you need to go talk to folks.”
The senator, who was previously the assistant House speaker, never showed up in New Mexico during most of his congressional tenure. Instead, in election years such as 2018, he wasn’t even spotted on Election Day in the state, opting to be in Washington, D.C., with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
In the article, Democrats tried to paint New Mexico as the model for other states to elect Democrats, with state Rep. Javier Martínez (D-Bernalillo) claiming the recent tenure of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez from 2011 to 2019 was a fluke. He said Martinez was able to “break through the ranks and able to appeal to a wider range of voters.” He said now that Republicans’ “nominees have been candidates that do not relate to large enough numbers of voters.”
Luján hinted in the article at his own ambitions to run for Senate leadership, taking after former Sen. Dennis Chavez.
The Washington Post article noted, “The first Hispanic senator, Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, a Republican, was elected in 1928. The second was Dennis Chavez, a Democrat, who Luján said he tries to emulate, a sign that his goal is moving into Democratic leadership. Chavez was the fourth ranking Democrat when he died in office in 1962.”
Others claim Republicans running in New Mexico are “extremists,” and that is how they have not been able to win in recent years, despite recent nominees, such as Mark Ronchetti for governor, being moderate.
Despite a massive corruption trial looming over Democrats’ ex-New Mexico House Majority Floor Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton (D-Bernalillo), she is “not in custody,” according to the Albuquerque Journal.
The Journalnoted that Second Judicial District Judge Lucy Soliman “estimated that a trial will be scheduled some 400 days out. Stapleton, who is not in custody, did not appear at the Zoom hearing Thursday.”
Stapleton’s house was raided last July after it was revealed she had been allegedly embezzling around $1 million from New Mexico’s taxpayers — specifically New Mexico’s Children through the Albuquerque Public Schools, where she used to work. She was fired from the cushy $ 79,000-per-year gig.
The Piñon Post’s exclusive report uncovering her ties to other high-profile New Mexico Democrats has revealed Stapleton’s alleged graft has been going on for around 30 years, in tandem with Joseph Johnson, a shady former New Mexico secretary of health who also has previously been hit with bribery and fraud charges.
Stapleton was indicted on 26 counts, including ten counts of improper statutory citations ranging from second to fourth-degree felonies, two counts of violating the ethical principles of public service, both misdemeanors, nine counts of engaging in official acts for personal gain, all of them being fourth-degree felonies, at least one count of tax evasion (a fourth-degree felony), among others.
In 2011, Larry Barker of KRQE 13 Newsfound that Stapleton “pocketed more than $100,000 — money she didn’t earn — from APS over the years while serving in the legislature. But instead of being punished or forced to pay it back, Superintendent Winston Brooks changed the rules for Stapleton.” Brooks dismissed Stapleton’s $167,000 worth of unauthorized leave from APS, saying, “What I did was I changed the employee handbook so that anyone can be a legislator in Santa Fe and be paid for it.”
In 2018, former Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission executive director Kimberly Greene and former employees Cheryl Yazzie and Charles Countee pleaded guilty to fraud and embezzlement charges by creating phony state vouchers to heist over $67,700 from the Commission. According to Greene, she claims she “was coerced by [then]-House Minority Whip Sheryl Williams Stapleton, D-Albuquerque, to enter into a no-bid contract with eRead, an outside contractor for ACT/SAT program,” according to the New Mexico Political Report. However, Stapleton claimed, “I was never involved, never spoke to anybody about a no-bid contract.”
Most New Mexicans live in one of the cities along the Rio Grande, while the rest are scattered across rural New Mexico. In my travels across the state, neither “city folks” nor the “country folks” trust or understand each other. The newspapers and media contribute to that divide, which is most apparent during the election season.
A newspaper editor wrote that it was hard to choose between the two candidates for the NM CD-2 race because she was a political moderate. I smiled; just because the editor is just right of her fellow liberal writers does not make her moderate, only slightly less liberal. An average person does not label themselves as moderate. Their actions do. The same can be said of the newspapers.
The Rio Grande Newspapers published Jon Hill’s letter to the editor seeking volunteers for their bipartisan organization. A scan of the letter indicated it was a partisan organization, and a more straightforward search uncovered it was a Super-PAC supporting the NM CD-2 Democrat candidate. When I notified the newspaper’s editors of their error of judgment, it was met with silence.
The combined image from NM Democrat Party Flyer Image on the right is from NM Republican Flyer.
The image on the left is from Herrell Campaign. The image on the right is a doctored image.
The Rio Grande Newspapers published in-depth articles on the republican flyer of the barber with dark hands, including lengthy interviews with Democrats. The Rio Grande Newspapers were silent on the democratic flyer of the candidate with a bleached face and did not interview the Herrell campaign organizations.
The Rio Grande Newspapers were silent when the Democratic NM CD-3 whitewashed the Republican candidate’s last name by omitting Martinez. Again, silent when New Mexico Democrats run television advertising with Republican candidates with stark white skin in black and white photographs while their candidates are in color videos with warm skin tones.
Observation Platform near Animas, NM. Puerto Rican National Guard personnel are in the GSA Pickup. Photograph by Mick Rich.
The Rio Grande Newspapers wrote about Florida Governor DeSantis sending illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. In contrast, silent when Florida Governor DeSantis sent Florida National Guard troops to New Mexico’s Southern Border to help secure our border. Meanwhile, NM Governor keeps NM NG in their barracks.
The Rio Grande Newspapers are silent about Puerto Rico’s National Guard now on New Mexico’s Southern border. Silent that Puerto Rico’s Air National Guard has aircraft while New Mexico’s Air National Guard has none. They are silent while the US Air Force considers downsizing their fleet by thousand aircraft and what impact that will have on Holloman AFB.
The Rio Grande Newspapers endorsed Democrats for NM CD-1,2,3. Already New Mexico delegation has little clout in Washington despite having a Democrat President, a Democrat majority in the US Senate & House, Democrat Governor and Democrat Legislature, and a Democrat Congressional Delegation (less Rep. Herrell). If New Mexico has an all-Democrat delegation and Republicans control the Senate and House, New Mexico will have no clout in Washington.
The Rio Grande Newspapers endorse the Bernalillo District Attorney even though he and his fellow Soros DAs created a violent crime epidemic in their communities. In his appearance on “To the Point with Mick Rich,” Gerald Madrid stated that he observed an Assistant DA play video games in the courtroom while the defense attorney prepared. Once they stood before the judge, the Assistant DA agreed with the defense attorney. As a result, another violent criminal was released back into Bernalillo’s streets.
One Rio Grande Newspaper asked a republican state house candidate if they supported their liberal democrat sister running for state house. Her response was, did you ask my sister that question? The reporter’s response was no. Not surprising.
Rio Grande Newspapers did not endorse any Republican candidate that supported the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. No Democrat was asked if they believed George W Bush in 2000 or Donald Trump in 2016 stole the election. They needed to identify what constituted a stolen election. Does Stolen Election mean: counting illegal ballots, not counting legal ballots, hindering legal voters from voting, allowing non-legal voters to vote, censoring candidates and candidate’s supporters, government interference in campaigns, and illegal activity of government agencies in campaigns?
Journalism Departments should require their students to study classical physics and the life of Galileo. Today’s journalists view the universe from where they are standing, while physicists view where they are standing from the universe. Galileo died after eight years of house arrest, un-swayed in his proof that the earth rotated around the sun. As then, today’s Conventional Thinkers are trying to banish the Free Thinkers.
I have many individuals commenting that they like my unique perspective on what is happening in our community, state, and nation. I also have others commenting on my inability to write. Both comments stem from the same root. I have an engineering degree, two years of required math and sciences, one year of engineering needed sciences, and one required writing class. Please share a free subscription with others if you like what you read.
Host, “To the Point with Mick Rich.” 2018 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate (NM). Founder & CEO, Mick Rich Contractors. Husband, father, grandfather. Read more from Mick rich at MickRich.substack.com.
