Being a US senator about much more than “pork”

Soon-to-be retired ultra-“progressive” legislator Gail Chasey did her best to compare left-wing Democrat US senator Martin Heinrich in Sunday’s Albuquerque Journal. The likelihood of RGF agreeing with ANY defense of Heinrich wasn’t great, but her defense really wasn’t about Heinrich’s political philosophy or his defense of New Mexico values or even specifying what he’s done to help victims of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fires.

Chasey’s column is hyper-focused on Heinrich’s ability to “bring home the bacon” (federal funds) like Domenici. Needless to say, we don’t see New Mexico’s outsized reliance on federal spending as a good thing. For decades New Mexico has relied disproportionately on federal dollars flowing to the State, but it remains among the most impoverished in the nation and all of those “pork” projects haven’t moved the needle.

The major difference between today and when Pete Domenici was in Washington is New Mexico’s massive oil and gas boom driven by fracking. New Mexico COULD be in the midst of a massive economic boom right now, but politicians like Michelle Lujan Grisham and Democrats who dominate the Legislature share Heinrich’s leftist ideology, resulting in little economic growth. Naturally, Heinrich and MLG support the same radical environmentalist agenda at different levels of government.

And that’s where Domenici (both Pete and his daughter Nella who is running for the US Senate) and Heinrich differ. Heinrich cares about the radical “green” agenda like ridding America of gas stoves and ramming unwanted power lines (needed to provide “renewable” energy through Native lands. Even when Heinrich’s predecessor Democrat Tom Udall stood up for clean burning natural gas produced here in New Mexico, Heinrich has been silent because Heinrich really represents the radical environmental movement, not New Mexicans.

It is widely rumored that Heinrich plans to run for Governor of New Mexico to succeed Lujan Grisham. While Heinrich’s radical agenda has been somewhat hidden as one of 100 senators in Washington, his influence is likely to grow if reelected as he MAY be chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee w/ Sen. Joe Manchin retiring. If elected Gov. of New Mexico his influence (at least on NM policy) would be even more profound and negative.