Sen. Ivey-Soto’s “dubious” thinking on “Right to Work”

In the Albuquerque Journal on Tuesday, there was a candidate profile done for New Mexico Senate district 15 and the race between incumbent Democrat Daniel Ivey-Soto and Republican challenger Eric Burton. On the question of “right to work,” the Journal noted that Ivey-Soto was “dubious.” Ivey-Soto has voted against “right to work” twice: once in 2015 on whether to have a vote of the full Senate and once in the Senate Public Affairs committee in 2016.

Ivey-Soto clearly opposes “right to work.” But, quickly looking up the exact definition of “dubious,” I found: two definitions:
1. hesitating or doubting.
2. not to be relied upon; suspect.

It would be safe to say that the latter definition applies in this case especially since the Journal has a more detailed response online: There, Ivey-Soto replied: “Before we consider making New Mexico right-to-work, we first need to address the significant deficiencies that keep companies from relocating to New Mexico. These include lack of broadband, low graduation rates, high crime, an out-of-date and dysfunctional tax system and a dearth of skilled workers. Otherwise, nothing will change.”

It sounds more like Ivey-Soto doesn’t want things to change. After all, the issues he cites have been around New Mexico for literally decades of Democrat control. What have they done about them (aside from spending more money)?

The reality is that he’s avoiding the issue at hand. “Right to work” could also have some pretty significant, positive impacts as seen in the following charts from the Illinois Policy Institute.