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End of Biden drama gives state’s Democrats a second wind

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

Before U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez joined Sen. Martin Heinrich in asking President Joe Biden to give up his run for a second term, Vasquez had distanced himself from Biden.

Last August, Vasquez was conspicuously absent from a Biden rally in New Mexico featuring a constellation of Democrats. Vasquez said he needed to spend time with his father, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He might as well have said he needed to wash his hair. It was clear he was already thinking ahead to this year’s race and didn’t want to give Republicans any ammunition, such as a photograph with Biden.

We now know that Biden’s popularity has been cooling for the past year over concerns about his age. Biden bowed to party pressure and stepped down on July 21.

In this political drama, New Mexico was a canary in the coal mine. Biden won New Mexico by double digits in 2020, but when Democratic governors met with Biden early this month, our governor warned him that he could lose the state, according to the Journal.

“What I said in that July 3 meeting (was) New Mexico is a bellwether state,” she said. “We’re very predictive, and our Hispanic voters are very predictive.”She told the White House before the debate that she was worried – a leaked poll put New Mexico in play – but if he was determined to stay in the race, she would support him.

Of the four Democrats running for Congress, Vasquez has the most at stake. The other two representatives have relatively safe bluish districts, and Heinrich is an incumbent. However, Congressional District 2 is a toss-up, despite a Dem-led redistricting that tilted the district a bit in their favor. So Vasquez, a first-term congressman, and his opponent, Republican Yvette Herrell, are running hard.

During better days in 2022, Biden graced a rally in Albuquerque’s South Valley, newly added to CD2. It might have helped Vasquez defeat Herrell, the incumbent, by less than a percentage point in 2022.

Since the debate, pressure was on Biden to step down and on members of Congress to step up and nudge him out of the race. As Republicans needled Vasquez to speak up, NBC asked Democratic candidates in swing districts, including Vasquez, about turmoil at the top of the ticket, Vasquez was one of several Democrats who said he was focused on his own campaign and that was “to stop MAGA Republicans like Donald Trump and Yvette Herrell who support extreme policies.”

“Regardless of who’s on the top of the ticket, I’m going to continue to bring home results and deliver for the people in New Mexico.”

The Biden campaign blew their man’s chance to talk to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. During a Zoom call on July 12, the campaign allowed only two members to pose questions, according to the nonpartisan online news source NOTUS. When the president offered to take more questions, Vasquez and another member tried to use the raised-hand feature; organizers lowered the hands.

A week later Heinrich, New Mexico’s senior senator, urged Biden to step aside. Vasquez followed a few hours later, saying Biden should step aside to give Democrats the “best opportunity to win in November.”

Heinrich, reflecting the party’s respect and fondness for the president, called Biden “one of the most accomplished presidents in modern history” and said he led the country through unprecedented challenges.

“However, this moment in our nation’s history calls for a focus that is bigger than any one person,” Heinrich said. “The return of Donald Trump to the White House poses an existential danger to our democracy. We must defeat him in November, and we need a candidate who can do that.”

A Republican strategist previously warned his people that it’s not over ‘til it’s over. Democrats just got a second wind.

Priest miscalculates in removing “Apache Christ”

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

The Catholic Church stumbled badly.

In the dark of night, Father Peter Chudy Sixtus Simeon-Aguinam and his accomplices removed beloved paintings from St. Joseph Apache Mission on the Mescalero Apache Reservation and spirited them away. When parish staff and volunteers opened the church on June 27, they were shocked to find the sanctuary stripped of the eight-foot “Apache Christ,” by Franciscan Friar Robert Lentz, a famed iconographer.

Created in consultation with Apaches, the painting depicts Jesus as a Mescalero medicine man. It has hung behind the altar since 1990. The other painting, by the late Apache artist Gervase Peso, is of Apache spirit dancers.

On the mission’s website, volunteer youth minister AnneMarie Brillante posted that those responsible were the pastor, members of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces. Brilliante, a Mescalero, is a lifelong member of the mission.

The diocese didn’t offer a reason, and Father Chudy couldn’t be reached for comment, reported OSV News, a wire service that covers Catholic issues. The priest also replaced the parish’s sacred vessels – Pueblo pottery and Apache baskets – with brass.

“He did not like anything to do with our Native culture,” said a parishioner.

Brilliante posted a recording of her call to Deacon John Eric Munson, chief operating officer of the diocese, who told her the paintings were “not stolen, just removed.” He said the pastor, the Knights of Columbus and the diocesan property risk manager acted on authority of Bishop Peter Baldacchino. Brilliante argued they stole the icon because it belonged to parishioners, but Munson insisted it belonged to the church.

In a statement, Brother Lentz made it clear he gave the icon to the people. That the priest led men from Alamogordo in its removal “only adds to the shame," he said.

The Knights of Columbus said the organization had no official role in the caper and that members were acting on their own.

Father Chudy, who arrived here in December, had signaled his displeasure with the paintings and his Apache parishioners, telling them during a weekday Mass: "God comes first. You cannot be both an Apache and a Catholic. You have to choose. You cannot be both... You have to leave those ways and that way of life behind."

For Mescaleros it was like a time warp throwing them back through the ages, as the priest repeated what they’d been told from the beginning of European contact. The words coming from a Black Nigerian, whose own people had been oppressed, were all the more disconcerting.

“He thought we were all pagans,” said Mary Serna, director of the mission’s years-long restoration. “He said it was a church and not a museum, but if you’ve traveled you know European churches are also museums.”

On June 30 parishioners, many in traditional dress, came to church and signed a letter seeking the paintings’ return, reported the Las Cruces Bulletin. They placed play money in the collection plate in protest.

Days later, Deacon Munson came to Mescalero with a U-Haul containing the two paintings. Both were damaged, said Mary Serna; the icon’s frame, created by New Mexico artist Roberto Lavadie, was in pieces. Everyone involved in the removal will be held accountable, she said. They found the missing baskets and pottery in the priest’s empty house; he departed without a word.

At this writing the diocese has still not issued a statement or responded to media calls, including mine. Church leaders are trying to meet with Bishop Baldacchino, who has never visited St. Joseph despite several invitations.

This sorry episode “opened up old, old wounds,” writes AnneMarie Brillante.

The Catholic Church has recently taken steps nationally to atone for years of mistreating Native Americans. It can add this epic cultural blunder to the list.

Age, the issue that won’t go away

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

When I was covering the Legislature and watching our elected officials at work, I would sometimes say a silent prayer: “Help me know when it’s time to step aside and do it before I make a fool of myself.”

Legislative sessions are grueling. While some lawmakers give in to age-related health issues or exhaustion, some – I won’t name names – stick around long past the time they can effectively serve their constituents.

Last year, we watched uncomfortably as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, 81, stared vacantly into the cameras. Sen. Dianne Feinstein displayed flashes of astute questioning but was more often given to verbal meandering. Feinstein, a towering figure among women in politics, died in office at age 90.

And yet…

AARP The Magazine every month features old people who are still involved, still productive, still making a difference.

And 80-year-old Mick Jagger and the geriatric Rolling Stones are touring again after releasing their first album in 18 years to enthusiastic reviews.

In the seesaw debate over aging, we’re trying to understand what happened to the president in his recent debate with the former president. We’ve now heard that he had a cold, that he didn’t feel well, that it’s just one event and anybody can have a bad debate.

There is even speculation online that “something happened” and that somebody, maybe the First Lady, should look into who had access to her husband in the hours before the debate. Conspiracy theorists point fingers at the president’s Secret Service entourage.

Older people will agree that we have good days and bad days – days when we’re still in the game and days when we’re in the bleachers.

With the two oldest presidential candidates in U.S. history, age has been a factor from the first stump speech of this campaign. Both sides have used film clips of the opposition rambling incoherently in a staged contest of who is closer to losing his marbles.

Last summer pollsters asked open-ended questions about what word pops in mind when they think of either candidate. For Joe Biden it was “old” and “confused.” For Donald Trump it was “corrupt” and “dishonest.” That was all on display during the debate.

Poll respondents of all political flavors said they wanted to see age limits on the presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court. That hasn’t happened, and neither has the proposal that all public officials over 65 take a cognitive health test.

The Associated Press, reporting on that poll, quoted an expert on aging, S.J. Olshansky of the University of Illinois, who said age was no more relevant than eye color. Preoccupation with circuits around the sun is ageist, he said, and it discounts wisdom and experience.

“If you don’t like what they say, it’s not because of how old they are. It’s because you don’t like what they say,” he said.

OlShansky called both candidates “super agers” who were “both functioning at a very high level” but predicted that Biden would probably live longer because he exercises and watches his weight. That was almost a year ago. The aging issue has not aged well. Young voters are unhappy, and, since the debate, voters in general are less philosophical about age. Dem leaders are mulling their options.

Biden wants to stay in the game, like Dianne Feinstein and others of their stature accustomed to the halls of power. They believe they still have a job to do and aren’t easily persuaded to leave. Sen. Mitt Romney suggested last year that Biden and Trump both step aside. Baby boomers, he said, are “not the right ones to be making the decisions for tomorrow.”

As a baby boomer, I recognize the wisdom of that statement even as I still crave a role in the decision making.

FEMA revamps New Mexico operations

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

As Ruidoso area residents return to their homes – or what’s left of their homes – we’ll be watching FEMA.

For the past two years, since the disastrous Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon fires, we’ve heard more about what FEMA hasn’t done than what it has done.

This year the agency began changing its New Mexico operation. Jay Mitchell, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new head of New Mexico operations, announced major changes. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell stood next to the governor at a recent news conference, promising, "We will be by your side throughout this recovery."

We’d all like to believe that. It would mean that the agency listened to criticism and responded.

Finally.

For months, fire victims, advocates and elected officials complained about Mitchell’s predecessor, Angela Gladwell, director of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Claims office. Gladwell became the face of dysfunctional government and failure to help people in desperate need after the fire in early 2022. The claims office didn’t write a check until April 2023 and by year end had expended just 7% of the $4 billion allocated by Congress. In April 2024 the payout had inched up to 13%.

Maybe Gladwell was the wrong person for the job, but I have to wonder if she was in an impossible situation.

Last year I wrote that “the agency that’s supposed to help victims with housing and reimbursement operates in slow motion, if it operates at all.” In New Mexico and every other state since Hurricane Katrina, FEMA “has done almost nothing, hogtied by its own regulations and bureaucratic inertia.”

From its creation in 1979 to 2003, FEMA was a small, agile, independent agency that responded quickly. After it became a division of the Department of Homeland Security, it became another bureaucratic cog. Decision making, spending and communications bogged down. Gladwell was a 25-year denizen of that culture when she came here in late 2022. I couldn’t find anything in her long and impressive resume to indicate she’d ever been on the ground for a real disaster.

When she stepped down in January, a FEMA news release gave the beleaguered director credit for building a compensation program “from the ground up” and hiring a team of New Mexicans. Because funding came directly from Congress through a bill, her office had to create a new compensation program, which suggests FEMA had no template for a basic function. Her office was still trying to get program rules approved even as fire victims were pleading for help.

With Gladwell’s departure, FEMA began consolidating New Mexico recovery operations and gave Jay Mitchell, the new director of the Joint Recovery Office, a new mission “to lead the on-the-ground long-term recovery efforts” as well as claims. Gladwell has been kicked upstairs.

Mitchell, who once led the state Department of Homeland Security, is a former Air Force colonel and global security consultant, but his most important credential may be that he’s a fifth-generation New Mexican. We need someone who understands us, say critics; don’t send us another FEMA bureaucrat.

In a recent op ed, Mitchell wrote: “I am committed to speeding up the recovery process from this horrific fire. As an experienced emergency management professional, I know recovery never happens fast enough, and that same sad fact is true of the recovery from this disaster. The process needs to go faster…

“I understand the frustration and anger people affected by the fire carry about their loss and slow recovery. Bureaucracy is the last thing people want to deal with after losing homes and livelihoods, and the process can, at times, seem complex and daunting.”

Mitchell is off to a fast start but with the Ruidoso fires, his responsibilities just doubled. If the agency empowers him to do what he needs to do, he could turn “FEMA bureaucrat” into a respectable term.

What’s next for Spaceport America?

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

It was glamour and glitz again as Virgin Galactic sent its last space tourists into the heavens this month. Now the company will fade away for two years to build the next generation ship – not here but in Mesa, Arizona.

What’s next for Spaceport America? Maybe it’s time to go back to Plan A. In case you’re wondering, Virgin Galactic was Plan B.

“Spaceport America began as New Mexico’s dream to integrate and promote its space industry to grow the state’s economy,” wrote space economist Thomas Matula in The Space Review. “Instead, it got lost in this detour into suborbital space tourism.”

Matula has history in New Mexico’s spaceport. Beginning with his MBA and PhD in business administration from NMSU, Matula became an expert on spaceports. He’s a professor of business administration at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.

As a Ph.D. candidate he worked on the initial feasibility study for a spaceport. “That study envisioned a very different spaceport from the one operating today,” he wrote. “Instead of a facility built around an anchor client, Virgin Galactic, whose business is based on the transport of tourists into suborbital space, back in 1991 (the proposed spaceport) was supposed to be the flagship of New Mexico’s space industry.”

It all started in 1930 with Dr. Robert Goddard’s research near Roswell. That led to White Sands Missile Range, where the army during World War II tested German V-2 rockets. To support those tests, NMSU created the Physical Science Laboratory in 1946. “PSL’s ground-breaking research has shaped the nation’s space and rocket programs for more than three quarters of a century,” Matula wrote.

In this period Los Alamos National Laboratory spun off Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force Research Laboratory, which soon expanded their work to include rockets and space technology. With New Mexico’s research universities – UNM, New Mexico Tech and NMSU – New Mexico had “substantial capability for space research and development.” Matula wonders how the founders’ vision pivoted to space tourists.

I know because I was covering it. (My first story about the proposed spaceport was in 1995.) As the idea was taking off, Gov. Bill Richardson, his economic development people and Branson found each other. The charismatic Branson had grand plans. State officials followed a shiny object. Besides, space tourism was easier to explain (and sell) to legislators than space research and development. And the state had money that year.

Branson didn’t deceive anybody, but his flights took far longer than anyone expected, which “put another kink in the economic development New Mexico once planned for the spaceport, a dream of revenue that would rescue this depressed pocket of the Chihuahua Desert,” Matula wrote. And now Sir Richard has waved goodbye for two more years.

Spaceport America has four other tenants, but they “bear little evidence of any strategic integration with New Mexico’s space industry,” Matula wrote. Maybe so, but they have invested substantially in their facilities here, they’ve notched successes, and together they could be the foundation of the spaceport’s next chapter.

Spaceport spokesman Charlie Hurley said “Spaceport America takes a proactive approach to identifying and communicating with aerospace and space companies” and the conversations are “frequent and ongoing in nature.”

This month a consultant is expected to deliver a master plan to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority that examines growth opportunities for the state’s aerospace industry and identifies strengths and challenges for the facility.

“I am not holding my breath that it will be any better than studies in the past,” wrote Matula. He sees a return to the original vision as the best way forward.

If the consultants are thorough they will look at the industry history here and not be distracted by shiny objects.

Keeping affordable housing affordable

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

I’m haunted by an online post I saw recently. A young woman said she’d been homeless for months and living in her car. She had lost her apartment because she couldn’t afford it. “Yes, I’m working,” she informed readers. A Good Samaritan had given her a camper shell, and she found a place to park it but needed help with the move.

In the furor over homelessness, let’s remember that this category includes regular people who simply can’t afford any rentals that might be available. In the parallel furor over affordable housing, consider the bigger picture.

Rentals are now an industry. Forget your friendly local landlords. In recent years out-of-state companies have bought up properties of all kinds and raised rents – 20% in 2022. Whether the renters could afford that hike is of no concern to them because somebody will pay the price. I saw this in action with a family member who shared a run-down house near UNM with fellow students.

It’s a national trend. With the consolidation of housing stock ownership came automation of property management, wrote an investigative reporter in Harper’s Magazine. Now faceless management companies rent the units, collect money, and may or may not maintain the property. Renters who fall behind hear from an attorney who specializes in evictions; investors and property managers don’t have to be involved in the messy part of the business.

This industry model thrives in an unbalanced market – too many renters, too few rental units. What else thrives? Homeless camps.

New Mexico legislators have passed some creative bills to stimulate construction of affordable housing, but this doesn’t help somebody who needs a place to live now. We should also note that lawmakers killed a rent-control bill, knowing that it discourages new building.

There’s more that government can do to help balance the market. Create tax incentives for homeowners who convert space to rental units or to property owners who convert derelict buildings. Streamline regulatory approvals for builders of affordable housing. Require owners to maintain their properties. And offer mediation between owners and tenants to avoid eviction.

Here’s a development we’re likely to see more.

Last week tenants sued owners of the troubled La Vista Del Rio Apartments in Española to “stop illegal rent increases and evictions, and enforce the affordable housing requirements at the property, including making necessary repairs to keep the housing safe and habitable,” according to a news release from the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, which is representing tenants along with the National Housing Law Project.

In their federal lawsuit, tenants said the out-of-state owner collected millions in rent and federal subsidies but denied requests for maintenance and security. Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed the apartments to leave a federal loan program that provides affordable housing in rural areas. The owner then sold the complex to investors and evicted 121 tenants.

The same company is the target of another tenant lawsuit for failing to maintain the Santa Clara Apartments, Española’s only other affordable housing complex, which led the city to condemn the building. When apartments like these close, however dilapidated they’ve become, tenants have no place to go. Española isn’t unique. Housing is a troubling issue across the state.

Which raises a question. New affordable housing will enter the market in the future. How do we assure that it stays affordable? How do we see that owners care for the property? After all, tenants of La Vista Del Rio and the Santa Clara and probably even the owner hailed the original agreements as a win for everyone. What happened?

Lawsuits always complicate open discussions, but these two might teach us a useful lesson.

Tax Foundation calls New Mexico tax ranking respectable

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

Let’s start with the good news: New Mexico is number one on an important ranking. We have the nation’s lowest property taxes, and they’ve been the lowest for a long time.

The reason goes back in history to the 1800s, when New Mexicans lost land to tax sales because they didn’t understand American taxation imposed on them, and the territory was infested with unscrupulous lawyers. Today property tax rates reflect the reality that in New Mexico many people are land rich and cash poor.

Other components in the Tax Foundation’s 2024 State Business Tax Climate Index are mixed.

When this year’s numbers came out, we hardly noticed because nobody could make political hay from it. Our overall ranking was 23rd. Not great but not horrible. The Tax Foundation called it “a respectable ranking.”

It hurts a bit because neighboring states did better: Utah, 8th; Texas, 13th; Arizona, 14th; and Oklahoma, 19th. However, Colorado was 27th.

The top five states in the overall ranking were Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, Florida and Montana. The worst (50th) was New Jersey, followed by New York, California, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The foundation ranks tax systems as of July 1, 2023.

If we pry our ranking apart, we also learn that we rank 11th for unemployment insurance taxes and 13th for corporate taxes.

On the down side, New Mexico ranks 35th in sales taxes and 36thin individual taxes. Those two factors pull us down in overall rankings.

New Mexico’s gross receipts tax hits both goods and services, so it directly affects the cost of doing business. Businesses here have complained forever, and, except for a few half-hearted stabs at reform, it’s still with us and still climbing. Surprisingly, there are states where sales taxes are worse, like Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. If you’re driving across the state line to shop in these states, you’re hurting yourself and New Mexico.

Individual income taxes weigh heavily in the foundation’s measures, so states like Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and Florida, which have no individual income taxes, smell like roses. The foundation argues that individual tax codes can discourage people from becoming self-employed, and individual income taxes can also raise the cost of labor.

Arizona is 9th in this category after moving from a two-bracket, graduated rate system to a flat tax rate of 2.5%, joining 10 other states with a flat rate. Colorado reduced its flat rate to 4.4%. New Mexico plunged from 26thin 2021 to 36th in 2022, and there it remains.

What does that mean? The Tax Foundation likes the numbers in Wyoming and South Dakota, but do you really want to live there?

Last year, bloggers at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy compared top-ranked Wyoming with bottom-ranked New Jersey. “On nearly every economic measure, from number of Fortune 500 companies to overall economic output to entrepreneurship, New Jersey outperforms Wyoming – and by a long shot,” they wrote. “That’s because New Jersey has top-notch public schools, robust transportation infrastructure and other public goods – all made possible by the revenues raised by the very taxes that land it in the bottom spot of the Tax Foundation’s Index.”

The same number crunchers faulted the Tax Foundation’s tilt toward lower or no taxation, “even though state and local taxes make up a vanishingly small fraction of total business costs, and the services paid for with those tax dollars are crucial to the success of every business.”

Still, we can’t ignore the Tax Foundation. Site Selection Group considers the annual report a valuable tool in judging states. But it’s one many considerations, which include workforce, infrastructure, education, business friendliness and cost of doing business.

This election cycle, candidates may rail about New Mexico’s taxes. Yes, it’s important, but it’s not the only factor in growing the state’s economy.

Farm bill advocates to Congress: Get a move on

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

The House Agriculture Committee recently delivered a draft farm bill. It was eight months after the old farm bill, about to expire, had to be extended. This $1.5 trillion, 942-page tome has a lot to like, but it’s missing some key provisions important to New Mexico. And it’s hung up in partisan scrapping.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and House Dems chided the committee for cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by $30 billion over 10 years. The program (formerly food stamps) helps more than 40 million low-income families nationally and upwards of 530,000 in New Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, complained about “House Republicans’ partisan approach to the Farm Bill that would exacerbate food insecurity in New Mexico’s second congressional district, where one in four children are food insecure.”

SNAP benefits in the state would decline by $340 million, he said.

Another sticking point is that the bill is missing a provision that keeps acequias eligible for insurance, which is important in a time of drought-caused lower crop yields. The New Mexico congressional delegation is going to the mat on this one.

Vilsack also opposes a restriction that he says would tie the hands of the Commodity Credit Corporation in responding to natural disasters affecting farmers and instead shift the responsibility for disaster assistance to Congress, Source New Mexico reported.

“There’s no assurance that such bills get passed,” Vilsack said. “And secondly, oftentimes Congress underfunds those bills, as was the case so recently with the 2023 situation disasters.”

House Ag Chairman GT Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, said in a statement that the bill makes “historic investments” in agriculture. Regarding natural disasters, he said, “The Committee is reasserting Congress’ authority over the Commodity Credit Corporation, which will bring reckless administrative spending under control and provides funding for key bipartisan priorities in the farm bill.”

The Senate, even slower than the House, recently released summaries of key provisions of its farm bill but not the full text of a bill or its estimated cost. It would boost SNAP eligibility. Thanks to Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, acequias would be eligible for the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which insures farmers who aren’t eligible for other kinds of federal crop insurance.

Each party accuses the other of trying to slow or derail the bill.

Thompson believes, from the large number of favorable statements from advocacy groups, that the House bill has broad support. But in reading through the statements, I find they’re less a full throated endorsement of the House bill and more of a comment on what they like along with a nudge to finish.

Between the lines what I saw was great frustration with the time this bill has consumed and great care to not offend either party.

For example, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association likes the focus on voluntary conservation programs and animal health provisions.

But many groups want to see a sense of urgency in Congress. “It’s too important to wait,” said the American Farm Bureau Federation. Both the National Cotton Council and the U.S. Peanut Federation pleaded with Congress “to move forward in a bipartisan manner.”

Larry Reagan, president of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, wrote in a recent op ed about how his own participation in farm bill programs, to the betterment of his business and his land.

Stepping lightly to avoid treading on partisan arguments, he begins by saying, “I can’t stress enough how vital it is that Congress swiftly pass a farm bill this year.” He ends by asking readers to contact their elected officials and “urge them to pass a farm bill now.”

In other words, stop arguing and do something.

Step into the future with produced water

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

When the legislative session ended in 2019, House Speaker Brian Egolf said, “The produced water bill, I think, is going to go down as one of the greatest environmental accomplishments to come out of the state Legislature of New Mexico. Just the quantity of fresh, potable water that’s going to be saved for agricultural and municipal use is breathtaking.”

Five years later, we see the law’s first proposed rule.

The oil industry does pull a breathtaking amount of water out of the ground, along with the desired oil – five to seven barrels of water for every barrel of oil. In 2021 that was more than 60 billion gallons, which the industry could treat and reuse for its own activities or inject into disposal wells. Most is injected, but what if, in this dry state, it could be treated and used for other needs?

House Bill 546 in 2019 took a big step in that direction. First, it expanded oversight by making the Water Quality Control Commission regulator of produced water. Second, it assigned enforcement to the state Environment Department. Third, it gave owners or operators of oil or gas wells the right to recycle or treat and sell or dispose produced water.

The bill was intended to resolve confusion and legal obstacles to the reuse and recycling of produced water. And it opened the door to using treated water for, say, certain agricultural applications or golf courses.

The governor, the oil and gas industry and business groups supported the bill.

Reactions from environmental groups were mixed. Some liked the idea that the Environment Department rather than the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department would be the enforcer and that the Oil Conservation Division could levy fines for violations. Others didn’t trust the state to regulate produced water and were skeptical that the wastewater could be effectively cleaned. They worried that chemical contaminants could seep into fresh water.

Pros and cons surfaced again recently, as the Water Quality Control Commission held hearings on the proposed rule. At this writing we don’t know the results, but the two sides clashed before hearings began.

Mariel Nanasi, executive director of New Energy Economy, argued that the proposed rule “fails to include scientific standards.” In an op ed, she accuses the governor and the Environment Department of fast tracking “their strategic water supply scheme to spend $500 million of public money to help the oil and gas industry solve their waste problem.”

This refers to the governor’s proposal to buy treated produced water in order to create a market and encourage private enterprise to build treatment facilities.

Nanasi warned, “Every New Mexican should be outraged by this brazen attempt to offload the oil and gas industry’s toxic waste into our lands, waters and our bodies.”

The Environment Department’s deputy secretary, Sydney Lienemann, shot back, “Let me be very clear: This rule does not allow produced water, treated or otherwise, to be released into our rivers, lakes or groundwater.” He chided unnamed groups for “misinformation and fear mongering.”

Lienemann explained that the draft rules include “safeguards to test and develop new treatments for produced water” and “encourage closed-loop use of treated, produced water for purposes such as solar manufacturing or renewable hydrogen generation, as long as not a drop of that produced water is released to the ground.”

Contrary to Nanasi’s claims, there’s plenty of science in the proposed rules.John Rhoderick, director of the state Water Protection Division, told the Albuquerque Journal that technology exists to treat this water. “The issue becomes socializing the concepts so that it becomes acceptable to humans.” He means: Joe and Jane Consumer, let me take you for a spin in my horseless carriage.

We can refuse the ride, or we can trust technology and roll into the future.

Apodaca wants to help moderates

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

Democrats’ notion of their party as the big tent is suffering as hard line progressives target moderates in the primary.

It’s been widely reported that progressives have primaried every state representative who voted against the family and medical leave bill. They’ve reportedly raised millions to help their candidates.

Jeff Apodaca, son of late Gov. Jerry Apodaca, wants to help moderates, a worthy goal.

A businessman, he’s behind The New Mexico Project, a new anti-progressive effort that’s raising money to support moderates in the June 4 primary. But as he did five years ago, Apodaca takes a decent idea and adds baggage.

In 2018, when he ran unsuccessfully for governor, Apodaca promised to create 225,000 new jobs, an astonishing number; normal job growth then was around 11,000 jobs a year. To accomplish this he proposed taking a chunk of state permanent funds, which would have reduced money flowing to the state’s general fund. The idea didn’t catch on.

The New Mexico Project says in its advertising: “Our political landscape in New Mexico has been increasingly divided by the far-left progressives and the ultra-right pulling us in opposing directions.”

No argument there.

The ad continues: “But there's a powerful force waiting to be unleashed – the moderate Latino voter. We are the majority.” The project asks Hispanic moderates of both parties and independents to come together to support candidates.

Why not open the movement to everyone? New Mexico has lots of moderates who aren’t Hispanic but who find their ballot a choice between extremes. Apodaca said the top issues for Hispanic voters are the doctor shortage, crime, jobs and education. Lots of people feel that way.

“Progressives have been attacking Latinos and electing candidates in the last three elections that do not reflect our communities,” he told political blogger Joe Monahan. “They are attacking our Latino candidacies, culture and legacy.”

I haven’t seen any such attacks.

Apodaca is missing an opportunity to enlist many more voters. His current approach, says the Santa Fe New Mexican, is divisive.

Candidates listed on the project website include incumbents Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-Gallup; Rep. Marian Matthews, D-Albuquerque; Rep. Harry Garcia, D-Grants; Rep. Ambrose Castellano, D-Las Vegas; Willie Madrid, D-Doña Ana; Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup; Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas; Sen. Bill O’Neill, D-Albuquerque; Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque; and Sen. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque.

Rep. Jared Hembree, of Roswell, and Nicole Tobiassen, an Albuquerque newcomer, are the only Republicans so far.

A candidate tailor made for the project is former Sen. Clemente Sanchez of Grants. A banker and businessman, Sanchez took a moderate line in his district, which straddles Cibola, Valencia, McKinley and Socorro counties.

Sanchez distinguished himself by forging a compromise on the minimum wage bill, which passed. Progressives outsmarted themselves in 2020 when they ran an opponent against Sanchez in the primary, who won only to lose in the general election to a Republican. They’re trying to do the same thing this year.

Apodaca claims he’s raised nearly $1 million from New Mexico, but The New Mexico Project is a 501(c)4, so it doesn’t have to report to the government. He estimates that since 2018 progressives have raised more than $6 million through four 501(c)(4) organizations, with 83% of these funds coming from cities like San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C.

Most of the progressive funding reportedly comes through Amanda Cooper, daughter of former U.S. Sen. Tom Udall and a political consultant. Cooper managed campaigns for her dad and was an aide and fundraiser for former Gov. Bill Richardson. In 2015 Ballotpedia called her a top influencer.

I hope Apodaca widens his focus and that The New Mexico Project is successful. The erosion of moderates in government leaves us at the mercy of extremes and their all too familiar standoffs and gridlock.

Historians look at Oñate

By Sherry Robinson

All She Wrote

In history we find things that make us feel uncomfortable, said Jon Ghahate, a Laguna and Zuni pueblo educator. “Sometimes it’s very challenging. For New Mexico it’s embedded in everything we do.”

Ghahate spoke on a panel about Don Juan de Oñate, the Colonizer of New Mexico. In 1598, Oñate led soldiers and settlers up the Rio Grande, opening the Spanish presence in the region.

The panel was the brainchild of Carol Sullivan, vice president of the Historical Society of New Mexico. In planning the society’s annual conference, which just concluded, Carol was determined to stage an informative and civil discussion. Her first two speaker prospects turned her down, afraid of more violence around a subject that’s sparked two shootings. (Disclosure: I’m on the HSNM board.)

Ghahate disputes calling Oñate controversial. “We wouldn’t call Hitler controversial because we know what he did,” he told a packed room. Because the Spanish faithfully recorded everything, we know about their treatment of the Pueblos – the brutality, slave taking, and demands for food and shelter that would now be considered war crimes.

Jemez Pueblo’s Marlon Magdalena, who is instructional coordinator for the state Jemez Historical Site, explained: “Our religion is our way of life; it’s who we are. Everything around us is part of our religion.”

The Spanish interrupted daily life, Magdalena said. Pueblos could no longer practice their religion and were forced to accept the Catholic Church. Because they now had to feed unwanted guests, they could no longer trade with Utes and Navajos. Those tribes still needed the previously traded goods and began raiding. Now the Pueblos depended on the Spanish for protection. Disease and starvation became more prevalent.

“Oñate – this man represents a lot,” Magdalena said. “He represents colonialism.”

Sullivan studied Oñate and found that his soldiers and settlers didn’t like him. He was neither an admirable nor a moral leader. Ultimately, he was recalled to Mexico and tried.

Moises Gonzales, an associate professor at UNM, took us to the Hispanic side of the issue and more recent developments.

In the 1920s Santa Fe, with no railroad and no industry, decided to focus on tourism. Driven by Anglo businessmen, the town began to create an image, complete with architectural style and cultural movements. John Gaw Meem’s arrival in New Mexico delivered Pueblo Revival architecture, along with new architectural restrictions in Santa Fe.

“They created the tricultural myth,” Gonzales said. “They created the Santa Fe Fiestas” and the annual De Vargas pageant and invited Hispanic and Pueblo communities to participate. “They were fascinated with Don Diego de Vargas. Oñate came later.” (De Vargas reconquered New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt.) The pageant entertained tourists and locals for decades before erupting in controversy.

In 1928 Anglos created the Spanish Colonial Arts Society, which began holding markets.

What Gonzales calls “the tension of narratives” began in the 1990s, about the same time as the statues. In Rio Arriba County, political heavyweight Emiliano Naranjo got money from the state for Oñate Center.

“It was Naranjo’s project, and he shoved it down everyone’s throat,” said Gonzales. Next Albuquerque put up an Oñate statue. “Then El Paso needs a bigger statue.” All three have provoked conflict. Hispanic identity, he indicated, is more than a pageant and some statues.

Magdalena and Ghahate asked us to respect their history and remember what they suffered, but Magdalena allows there’s more to the story. The Spanish introduced useful agricultural practices and new foods, for example.

“It’s good to put it all together.”

It was a lively, civil discussion. Most members of this learned crowd knew about the Pueblos’ experience, as well as Oñate’s complicated impact, but we all learned a few things. That’s the key – to maintain an open mind and keep learning.

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