On Saturday, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) secretary, Dr. Kurt Steinhaus, announced his departure from the governor’s administration. He was first appointed to the post in 2021.
“The state of public education in New Mexico is in a better place than ever because of Kurt’s dedication, and I wish him a very happy and well-deserved retirement,” claimed Lujan Grisham, whose PED ranks as the worst of every other state and the District of Columbia.
“I am deeply proud to have given my best to this job, but at this time I have a critical need to focus on my family and health,” Steinhaus said in a statement, as reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican. “I am grateful to the governor for giving me the opportunity to finish my career working on behalf of the state of New Mexico, and I know that she will continue to work to deliver the best possible public education system for New Mexico students, educators, and families.”
Steinhaus began his education career working for Alamogordo Public Schools, then at Santa Fe Community College, the University of New Mexico, and the Los Alamos Public Schools.
Steinhaus’ departure comes just one day following the announcement that New Mexico Human Services Department Secretary David Scrase, M.D., was also quitting.
Lujan Grisham’s General Services Department secretary, John Garcia, is also leaving on February 4, 2023.
On Friday, it was announced that Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Human Services Secretary, David Scrase, M.D., was stepping down from his post, one of the few cabinet members who has lasted throughout the governor’s reign beginning in 2019.
In a statement, Scrase said, “It has been an incredible honor to work for the Governor for the past four years.”
“I am proud of all that we have accomplished together,” he wrote, touting his response to COVID-19. He added, “I feel extremely privileged and cherish the four years working with the outstanding leaders and employees at HSD. Likewise, the several years that I spent with the Department of Health and their amazing leaders and staff was another high point in my life.”
“In addition to the support and encouragement that I have received from both departments, I have received continual and strong support from members of the Legislature as well, and for that I am very grateful. I have made many lifelong friends and will take wonderful memories into my retirement — And, of course, I could not possibly have endured the challenges of the past four years without the support of my wife Chantel and my family. I am deeply grateful for everyone with whom I have crossed paths during this time.”
During the pandemic, Scrase refused to lift lockdown orders and insisted New Mexicans must take the coronavirus vaccine. He also worked to keep the state’s indoor mask mandates in place.
In 2021, Scrase said restrictive mask mandates and lockdowns could last for years into the future.
On Tuesday, the New Mexico Legislature met for the first session of the 56th Legislature, which is meeting for 60 days this year. 17 new members were sworn in, and Democrats elected Rep. Javier Martínez (D-Bernalillo) as the next state House speaker, succeeding former Speaker Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe).
Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham also gave her annual “State of the State” address, where she made clear her priority to ram through $10 million in funding for a new Las Cruces abortion facility and codify abortion up to birth into law.
She also announced she wants socialized “universal health care” in New Mexico, taxpayer-funded paid family leave, expanded “free” college programs, as well as millions more to fund the state’s already failing schools that rank behind all other states and the District of Columbia. She also called for a new state department, the “New Mexico Health Care Authority” to help enact her universal healthcare dreams, as well as universal gun bans in the state.
But the most surprising takeaway from the meeting of the 56th Legislature on opening day was the removal of more moderate Rep. Patricia Lundstrom (D-Gallup) from the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Speaker Martinez put progressive Rep. Nathan Small in the spot instead, garnering confusion about the leadership mixup.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Lundstrom said following the news, “This is unbelievable.” She told the AlbuquerqueJournal, “I’m incredibly disappointed, and I’m absolutely shocked.” She said Martínez “said I don’t meet his vision.”
“The speaker has the responsibility and the prerogative to organize the House committees as he feels best meets the current needs of New Mexico,” House Democratic spokeswoman Camille Ward told the Journal. “With new leadership on both sides of the aisle and on many of our committees in this session, Speaker Martínez is beginning a new chapter to move New Mexico forward.”
Another member making a large move is Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), who was moved from the chairwoman of House Taxation and Revenue to the powerful House Judiciary Committee, succeeding Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo), who was recently elected Democrat House floor leader.
Initiatives Democrats seek to pass during the legislature include many of Lujan Grisham’s proposals, as well as “modernizing” the state legislature from a “citizen legislature” to a “professional legislature” where members of the House and Senate are paid, while they each are granted funds for district offices in their respective areas of the state.
Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made a surprise proclamation honoring School Choice Week, which commemorates school choice and the betterment of educational opportunities for students.
Lujan Grisham declared January 22-28, 2023 as School Choice Week in the state, writing in the proclamation that “educational variety not only helps to diversify our economy, but also enhances the vibrancy of our community.”
She recognized that New Mexico has “many high-quality teaching professionals in all types of school settings who are committed to educating our children.”
Governors play a key role in raising awareness about school choice in their state and with this proclamation, we're closer to helping New Mexico families access educational opportunity! pic.twitter.com/1RuBrEOvwK
Now, as the 2023 Legislative Session rolls around on Tuesday, she will have the opportunity to push for and sign legislation that will enshrine school choice in New Mexico.
State Sen. Craig Brandt (R-Sandoval) is sponsoring a school choice bill enacting “Education Freedom Accounts, which can be used to pay for private school tuition, tutoring services, textbooks, and instructional materials, nationally standardized assessments, and other educational charges” approved by the Public Education Department.
“It outlines the application process and procedures for parents and education service providers, as well as the rules and responsibilities of the parents and students,” and “creates an Education Freedom Review Commission to assist the department in determining what expenditures are qualifying educational expenses,” according to Brandt.
A similar bill being sponsored by state Rep.-elect John Block (R-Otero), will enable open enrollment for students to attend other schools in their district or outside of their district if their zoned educational resources are failing. Block believes no child should have to be stuck in a failing school just because of where they live in New Mexico.
Enacting school choice, which is a non-partisan issue, has shown to be an incredible step forward in creating quality education in other states. If New Mexico enacts such changes, it could lift the state from being 51st in education and propel it on the path to educational betterment.
Editor’s note: Block is the founder and editor of the Piñon Post, New Mexico’s #1 conservative online news publication.
Far-left pro-abortion legislators are chomping at the bit to ram through even more pro-abortion legislation, although New Mexico has effectively already legalized abortion up to birth and infanticide with no protections whatsoever for women, babies, or medical professionals.
Despite the extremist anti-life agenda seeping through New Mexico via repeals of health protections for pregnant women and killing the terminally ill via cocktails of lethal unproven drugs, the far-left Democrats want even more of the life-ending policies.
Rep. Linda Serrato (D-Santa Fe) and Sen. Linda Lopez (D-Bernalillo) are planning on “codifying” abortion up to birth and infanticide into state law after Democrats in 2021 stripped protections, effectively legalizing just that.
The Democrats claim that women should have unadulterated access to killing children in the womb “without a fear of retribution or shame or jail,” according to Serrato.
The bill, which is not listed as pre-filed on the New Mexico Legislature website, is reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican to mimic Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive order that decreed “abortion is an essential part of reproductive health care and must remain legal, safe and accessible.” Abortion is neither health care, since it ends a life instead of protecting one, and is not reproductive since it stops the reproductive process.
Lujan Grisham also is attempting to pass $10 million in funding to open a new abortion facility in Las Cruces to end the lives of the babies of Texas women traveling to the Land of Enchantment seeking the death-inducing procedure.
The New Mexican claims the radical anti-life bill “is likely to pass and end up on Lujan Grisham’s desk for her signature” due to the heavily Democrat makeup of the Legislature. Despite the political makeup, many Democrats in New Mexico are pro-life, with recent polls by the Albuquerque Journal and others showing New Mexicans of all political affiliations overwhelmingly support limits on abortion.
Pro-life legislators are also sponsoring life-affirming bills that will protect life in the womb.
On Tuesday, far-left Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham released her executive budget that she will demand the legislature pass in the upcoming 2023 Legislative Session starting next Tuesday, January 17, 2022.
The massive $9.4 billion budget would be a 10.58 percent increase from last fiscal year’s $8.5 billion budget. This proposed budget would include a four percent increase in salaries for state workers, a four percent increase for all school staff, along with a $750 rebate, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
In the budget are sweeping social programs, including $107 million for housing and homelessness initiatives, $200 million infusion for health care programs, and $30 million for “free” school lunches in all schools.
Despite the massive spending on education and educator salaries, New Mexico’s schools rank below all other states and the District of Columbia.
Weak-on-crime politics have led to a deadly past few years in New Mexico, especially in the state’s most populous city, Albuquerque, which shattered its homicide rate again in 2022, the second straight year in a row.
Last year’s budget included $75 million in recurring funds for socialist “free” college for citizens and illegal aliens, millions for an anti-gun office of “gun violence prevention,” millions to carry out 2019’s Energy Transition Act (Green New Deal), among other waste that was spent on socialist-style handout programs in the state.
This year’s proposal would include a $4.1 million slush fund of sorts to the Environment Department to “develop and implement actions related to climate change,” along with $5.9 million for enviro-Marxist policies.
New Mexico remains the most federally dependent state in the nation. This executive budget would continue that record of heavy dependence on the government.
After the budget was released, Power The Future’s Larry Behrens wrote, “Governor Lujan Grisham has proudly said we need to transition away from fossil fuels, but she sure can’t seem to transition away from spending the revenue,” adding, “Before taxpayers foot the bill for more of the Governor’s green pet projects, it’s past time for an examination on the Governor’s past initiatives to see if they’ve delivered on her over-hyped promises.”
In her latest snub to New Mexico healthcare professionals, Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, 63, is once again fleeing the state for Washington, D.C. to get her knee replaced. This comes after a previous September 2022 visit to the nation’s capital, where she had “a consultation on an ongoing knee injury with an orthopedic surgeon from whom she has previously received treatment, according to her office,” as reported at the time.
Now, the governor’s office has confirmed she will be going off to D.C. again. The Associated Press reported, “Lujan Grisham was scheduled to depart Tuesday and return next week after the replacement of her right knee with an artificial joint. She consulted with an orthopedic surgeon in September after aggravating a previous injury.”
The Albuquerque Journal noted that the governor is expected to return to New Mexico in time for the January 17 opening day festivities of the Legislature, where she will deliver her State of the State address.
“Lujan Grisham spokeswoman, Nora Meyers Sackett, said Tuesday the governor expects to deliver an in-person State of the State Address on the opening day of the 60-day legislative session. She has delivered the speech remotely during each of the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Journal noted.
It is unclear why the governor snubbed New Mexico doctors, who could have easily performed the routine knee replacement surgery in-state. It is also unclear who she may be meeting with while in Washington, D.C.
Previously, Lujan Grisham was angered over a debate with her former opponent, Republican Mark Ronchetti, who would not sit at a table to spar with the scandal-ridden governor. Instead, he stood at a podium, which is customary for debates.
Lujan Grisham has planned to attempt to ram through many far-left policy proposals in the upcoming 2023 Legislative Session, including trying to codify abortion up-to-birth and infanticide into state law, as well as enviro-Marxist proposals to enshrine her Green New Deal.
Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently announced she would be nominating outgoing Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen, 59, as her new cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) after Dr. David Scrase of the Human Services Department remained as acting director.
Scrase’s tenure came after the departure of Secretary Tracie C. Collins, who was only confirmed by the state Senate in 2021. Since the beginning of her regime, Lujan Grisham has constantly had personnel and cabinet members flee or be forced out after short tenures.
Allen, an appointee of unpopular lame-duck Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, is being forced out of a job in Oregon as incoming Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek pledged to oust the controversial cabinet chief who was making a hefty $253,308 a year. Kotek’s win prompted his resignation, writing that he was “sad to be leaving this work behind.”
Now, Lujan Grisham has scooped him up to head her NMDOH, writing that Allen “shares my vision of a New Mexico that fosters better health outcomes for every resident of our beautiful state.” It is unclear what his salary will be in his new gig.
Allen claimed he was “proud” of his COVID-19 response in Oregon, despite abysmal pandemic policies that resulted in child suicides, increased deaths, and economic catastrophe. He also said he moved toward “health equity” to coerce people of color (Latino, Black, African American, and African Immigrants) into getting jabbed against the virus.
Despite this, in his resignation letter, he wrote to Brown regarding her lockdowns, “You have made hard choices that enabled us to save thousands of people in Oregon and navigate the worst health crisis our nation has faced in more than a century. I appreciate the integrity of your leadership and all the support you’ve given me and the staff at OHA.”
Similar to Lujan Grisham, Allen also shamed residents of his soon-to-be former state of Oregon for not abiding by the extreme COVID lockdown measures enacted by Brown, as evidenced below:
In actuality, Allen has no experience in public health before Brown’s appointment, with a background on a local Sherwood planning commission. His degree in economics from Oregon State University, with no public health focus. He also is not an osteopath or medical doctor.
According to the Oregon Capital Chronicle, the Oregon Health Authority, under his leadership, “has failed to help people with mental health and addiction problems, critics say. They point out it has been slow to distribute more than $1 billion to create behavioral health programs and new facilities, as well as addiction treatment networks as part of the rollout of Measure 110, Oregon’s drug decriminalization measure that included a plan to step up treatment. In national studies, the state has repeatedly had the highest or close to the highest rate of people with mental health and addiction problems in national studies.”
According to the Chronicle, “Allen had a ‘serious’ fall on Jan. 23 and was hospitalized, according to a news release from the agency two days later. He was evaluated for heart issues and returned to his home in Sherwood within three days. The health authority said he did not have COVID-19.”
Critics have suggested Allen’s fall could have been due to alcoholism, namely “binge drinking,” which resulted in a large dent left in his forehead. Others have criticized him due to his lack of apparent personal health fitness and wondered if he has the stamina for the job.
On Sunday, far-left Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was sworn in for her second term as New Mexico governor at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center, promising more abortion up-to-birth policies, enviro-Marxism, and expanded social programs focused on “poverty” during a roughly 20-minute speech.
After attending an inaugural Mass held by Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Lujan Grisham’s inaugural festivities commenced. Wester was photographed welcoming the pro-abortion governor to the Mass. He previously refused to deny her the sacrament of the Eucharist, despite her anti-life views and policies.
Lujan Grisham pledged during her inaugural speech to push for codifying abortion up-to-birth in state law, claiming, “Never again for all of time will a woman in the state of New Mexico have anything less than full bodily autonomy and freedom of choice” (code for unrestricted abortion).
She previously signed a bill legalizing abortion up-to-birth and infanticide in 2021 by stripping all protections for women, children, and medical professionals, the latter being forced to perform and refer for ending the lives of children in the womb via abortions. She also signed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicides via lethal drug cocktails in the state.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported, “Lujan Grisham said she also plans to continue work started during her first term on early childhood education and care, economic growth and environmental stewardship (enviro-Marxism). She also promised to fight poverty and homelessness by expanding access to affordable housing and free child care.”
She said, “The work is not done, but we have made a good start, and I will not rest until this is a state where the conditions that create generational poverty are a dusty relic of the distant past.”
The scandal-ridden governor, who was narrowly reelected by a mere 52 percent of the vote, charged $1,000 per person to attend her inaugural ball that featured the Lightning Boy Hoop Dancers, Compania Chuscales Flamenco, Mariachi Azteca de Santa Fe, musician Theo Kutsco, and the NM Peace Choir.
Ex-state Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Bernalillo) and failed congressional candidate Victor Reyes both served as co-chairs for the Democrat’s inaugural festivities.
“With a heavy heart,” the City of Farmington has decided to abandon its plans to salvage hundreds of jobs connected to the San Juan Generating Station (SJGS) by retrofitting the plant with carbon capture technology.
The Albuquerque Journal reported, “The city announced its decision late Tuesday to end all efforts to acquire the plant from Public Service Company of New Mexico and other co-owners after an arbitration panel for transfer negotiations refused to block PNM and the other utilities from moving forward on decommissioning and demolition preparations. The city said the arbitration panel’s position struck a ‘catastrophic blow’ to the plant conversion effort, which Farmington has pursued for more than four years with private development partner Enchant Energy Corp.”
“Given PNM’s and the other co-owners’ actions to quickly dismantle SJGS, and the (arbitration) panel’s recent decision to allow them to do so, we have arrived at a point where those actions directly undermine the viability of successful implementation of the carbon capture project,” Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett wrote in a statement.
Farmington owns a five percent stake in SJGS, which closed on September 30, 2022.
According to PNM, the Generating Station will begin to be demolished in the spring of 2023, expected to last two to three years.
With the closure of the San Juan Generating Station, it has purged countless jobs, with only around 80 employees able to retire. “For the rest of the employees, though, they’re going to have to go find some other form of employment,” said plant manager Omni Warner.
The AP reports, “El Paso Electric, a utility that serves customers in southern New Mexico, also is expecting a capacity gap next summer. Like PNM, El Paso Electric will have to buy power from other producers to ensure adequate capacity when customers crank up their air conditioners during the hottest of days.”
With the critical energy plant shuddered, utilities are being forced to raise their rates, such as PNM, which is requesting to raise rates due to the enviro-Marxist “Energy Transition Act,” the state’s version of the Green New Deal signed by Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2019.
After the news of the San Juan Generating Station’s imminent demolition, radical environmentalists rejoiced.
Mike Eisenfeld, the “energy and climate program manager” with the eco-left San Juan Citizens Alliance, said, “The city needs to reevaluate its perspective on energy development and focus on renewable energy to create jobs and improve the environment.”
