Has NM FOG gone liberal?

We at the Rio Grande Foundation have a lot in common with the Foundation for Open Government and have often worked arm-in-arm with the organization in order to improve government openness and transparency. Combined, our greatest achievement would undoubtedly be the Sunshine Portal (of course, kudos go to Sen. Sander Rue, former Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones and all of the other legislative champions of transparency over the years).

However, that was then and this is now. A few years ago Sarah Welsh left the Foundation. We maintained a working relationship with Gwyneth Doland who is undoubtedly liberal, but is also a credible journalist with a long track record as such in the state.

However, Doland recently left FOG and, to say the least, the organization didn’t exactly move to the right with the hire of ardent left-wing activist Terry Schleder. Look here, here, and at his Twitter feed here for details. His most recent activity, a re-tweet: “”We have a retirement crisis and I cannot afford even a penny of my future benefits cut.” pic.twitter.com/r8zFxFqP1C”

Now, Schleder has every right to be liberal and FOG has every right to hire someone from the far-left. One only wonders how the liberals would react if the organization hired me or someone who used to work for RGF. I can’t imagine it’d be pretty. The situation reminds me of Jonah Goldberg’s point that liberals succeed in part by convincing the public and the media that they are non-ideological and that anyone who presents a contrary view (conservatives and libertarians) is inherently “ideological.”

Will FOG take up the pitchforks against conservatives? I hope not, but “you are who you hire” and this hiring decision leaves me with the uneasy feeling that FOG is going to get real political real soon.