On this week’s podcast conversation Paul is joined by Alexis Martinez Johnson. Alexis is running for congress in New Mexico’s 3rd congressional district. The District, currently occupied by “freshman” Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez used to be a “safe” Democrat seat, but with redistricting it is now a much more competitive seat. Paul talks to Alexis about her background, why she decided to run for office, and some of the important issues she is running on in this newly-competitive district.

Recently Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing sat down with Republican challenger Alexis Martinez Johnson to discuss the race in New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional district. You can find that interview here. We have extended the same offer to Leger Fernandez and would love to talk to her.

However, in searching on her website, we noted that (as of this post on June 23, 2022), the most recent posts on the economy or energy (two of THE most critical issues facing the United States and New Mexico at this time) have not been updated since November of 2021. She’s apparently done nothing on those issues in more than 6 months!

Leger Fernandez touts the Biden Administration’s failed big-spending “Build Back Better” legislation, but it’s been crickets since then as can be seen in the screenshots from her official website (below).

Interestingly, CD 3 is arguably the GOP’s best chance to grab a majority of New Mexico’s congressional seats. As the following analysis from Nate Silver shows, CD 3 is now considered “highly competitive” with a +5 Democrat lean as opposed to a +4 for Herrell and a +11 for Stansbury.

Numerous news reports indicate that President Biden will suspend the federal gas tax for three months. The tax is 18.4 cents per gallon and (if suspended) would likely result in a similar drop in gas prices nationwide.

This is fine. In other words, we won’t complain about a temporary reduction in the gas tax even as the federal government is $30 trillion in debt. But, the gas tax has been at this rate for many years and it (like Biden’s allegations of sudden greed of oil companies) isn’t the cause of today’s high prices. A Yahoo News story cites four problems with a temporary suspension of the tax (including the fact that numerous Democrats, including Speaker Pelosi, are unlikely to support it).

Rather, the problem of high gas prices arose from the Biden Administration’s anti-energy rhetoric and policies. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland who controls millions of acres of energy rich federal lands has continued to restrict drilling on those lands while also raising taxes on production.

The following from our friends at Power the Future further highlights the issue:

Today, President Biden will call on Congress to suspend the federal gasoline fuel tax. The reason for the current record-high prices has little to do with the 18-cent federal tax. It has everything to do with Biden’s failed energy policies. pic.twitter.com/Zo53561R2P

— Power The Future (@powerthefuture) June 22, 2022

Albuquerque Mayor Keller has announced that he’ll increase the police presence downtown and introduce more proactive policing practices which are long overdue. All for the good, right? Not so fast.

What’s the problem? The Mayor is asking business and property owners to pay even more (above and beyond their taxes) for what SHOULD be a basic government service. And the city has more than enough money to fund this program.

According to KOAT Channel 7, “The city has roughly $90,000 to fund the program, $15,000 of which came from PNM. The rest was through donations through the One Albuquerque Fund.

That money is enough to fund the program through the summer. They hope business owners get behind it and help bankroll it.”

Ironically, the City of Albuquerque’s latest budget represents a 20% increase. And, of course part of that budget was a $250,000 “no strings attached” donation to Planned Parenthood which would more than pay for this program if the City allocated funds to actual needs rather than funding favored political organizations and other wasteful programs.

It would be one thing to ask businesses to step up if the City were in a budget crisis, but the City is ALSO paying $3 million this year for “free” buses. Clearly, policing downtown (or anywhere else) is not a high priority.

The first polling on New Mexico’s Gov. race is out. No matter who you believe, the race is very close.

Paul was recently in Southeast New Mexico for several events. He also sat down with the Current-Argus to discuss the SE NM economy which is booming. While New Mexico’s economy is strong and plenty of jobs are available, the May state unemployment rates are out and for the 6^th month in a row New Mexico has the highest rate. New Mexico’s unemployment rate is down to 5.1%.

Paul also met with Pastor Mark Green to discuss the homeless situation. Paul and Pastor Green had an interesting conversation that can be watched here.

The rain may have put out most of New Mexico’s awful forest fires, but the scars literally and figuratively remain. Even liberals acknowledge that the far-off federal government is a poor manager of the land.

Joining NM Senator Martin Heinrich, Joe Biden is coming after your gas furnace.

In order to conserve natural gas Germany is ramping up coal-fired electricity production.

Paul recently appeared in KOAT TV channel 7 on two issues dealing with the City of Albuquerque. New fees and the Council’s no-strings-attached “grant” to Planned Parenthood. 

Finally, the Albuquerque Schools’ per person budget is $27,000 per student.

The Rio Grande Foundation is a steadfast supporter of free trade. And, arguably, the Biden Administration struck a blow in support of freer trade by eliminating tariffs on solar panels from China. Senator Martin Heinrich certainly was pleased with the decision when it was made.

Of course, “free” trade would also be backed up by a freer energy market without subsidies and other mandates in support of solar energy at the expense of taxpayers and rate payers. And, when it comes to China there are serious, credible allegations of force labor and genocide.

Robert Bryce, an energy expert writing in Newsweek, makes a compelling case that Biden’s decision is problematic: “In Pandering to the Green Left, Biden Is Underwriting China’s Genocide of Uyghurs.”

A US Treasury report cited by Bryce which was published by the Biden Administration in 2021 noted that China “dominates global solar supply chains and mounting evidence indicates that solar products and inputs at nearly every step of the production process, from raw silicon material mining to final solar module assembly, are linked to known or probably forced labor programs.”

As Bryce notes, Biden, Heinrich, and the environmental left are simply making the policy determination that “solar is so important that it requires us to ignore China’s genocide against the Uyghurs, along with the industry’s near-total reliance on Chinese suppliers for the critical commodities needed to produce solar panels.”

The US Supreme Court has ruled in Carson v. Makin that states that allow funding to flow to private non-religious schools cannot prohibit funds from also flowing to religious schools. This was a 6-3 decision with Kagan, Sotomayor, and Breyer dissenting.

The Court’s decision seems intuitive enough. Separation of church and state has never meant discriminating against religious institutions when they are in the same space (like education) with non-religious and public players.

As National Review columnist Dan Maclaughlin wrote in his column (linked above), “Allowing students to take state aid to a religious school on the same terms as a secular school does not establish a church, any more than allowing them to use Pell Grants at a religious college or, for that matter, allowing people to buy Bibles with their Social Security checks, establishes a state church.”

So, this is another baby-step towards broader legal acceptance of school choice. All we need in New Mexico is the political courage to actually enact such programs.

The Rio Grande Foundation has been tracking per-pupil spending at Albuquerque Public Schools for several years. We use the simple mathematical technique of dividing the total annual budget by the number of students in the district, a number which has declined dramatically in recent years.

Most APS budgets are here while the 2023 data comes from the following Albuquerque Journal article. There was no APS budget in FY 2021 so we attempted to calculate based on recent trends.

On a PER PUPIL basis, APS spends 64% MORE in FY 2023 than it did in FY 2019.

Recently at RGF we noted the long standing problems with the US federal government’s management of New Mexico lands. This, in light of the forest fires that continue to rage throughout our State.

We were surprised to find this article from the lefty journalism outfit Searchlight New Mexico which included several interviews with people throughout the fire-ravaged regions of our State. The article actually does a good job of bringing attention to the fact that the federal government undertook a massive land grab and has, over the years, removed more and more land from local uses and control.

Here is another choice quote from the article which is worth a read.

We have long argued that the federal government is captured by radical environmentalists and cannot change its approach and thus should devolve management of most Forest Service and BLM lands to New Mexico. We worked with then New Mexico legislator Yvette Herrell on the issue. Alas, getting the federal government to give up its grip on Western lands is a generational challenge. Many Northern New Mexicans clearly understand that Washington is a bad landlord.

Rio Grande Foundation president Paul Gessing recently sat down with KOAT Channel 7 to discuss the recent “no-strings-attached” made by Albuquerque’s City Council to Planned Parenthood.” Whatever one’s views on abortion, it is hugely problematic that City Council has “donated” $250,000 to an activist political organization that actively involves itself in political campaigns.

Story linked above or click on photo below:

Dealing with the homeless situation is challenging. It is a problem in Albuquerque as well as numerous other major American cities. Paul recently sat down with Pastor Mark Green who runs a homeless relief ministry in Roswell. He has a worked with the homeless for years and has some interesting ideas on how to help them and keep them out of public spaces and from taking grocery carts. Even the Department of Corrections could play a role.

Check out this short conversation:

You never know what you’ll find on social media. The following is a Facebook post from New Mexico Senator Siah Correa Hemphill, a Democrat. Interestingly, she is touting an award she received for “supporting the Gov.’s initiatives.”

MLG has never been much for separation of powers considering her ongoing use of New Mexico’s “emergency” laws which have been renewed time and again without legislative participation. Now, the New Mexico Environment Department (under the Gov.’s control) is apparently giving awards to friendly legislators who carry the Gov.’s water on various environmental issues.

Ronchetti wins. Paul & Wally discuss that outcome and other races; Paul recently traveled to Florida for an event with anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist. He discusses the national scene;

Common Cause supports New Mexico’s awful judicial election process. Paul and Wally discuss their issues with it.

ABQ City Council embraces “safe spaces.” Progressive former mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli is spot-on regarding local parks: 

Inflation hits 8.6%, highest in four decades.  The average US gas price hits $5/gallon. 

A new study finds high gas prices hit rural, poor the most (duh). Speaking of inflation, Paul recently spoke to KOAT channel 7 about trash, water, and power fees going up in Albuquerque.

Biden visited New Mexico to offer aid to forest fire victims. A lefty news site actually goes behind the headlines and talks to Northern New Mexicans frustrated by Forest Service mismanagement.

In a seeming conflict of interest, NM Environment Department (headed by MLG) gives out awards to friendly legislators.

Does New Mexico have an education secretary? It is hard to say.

We all know prices are skyrocketing as inflation takes hold of the United States economy. We also know that the State of New Mexico and City of Albuquerque have massively increased spending in their latest budgets (well beyond the rate of inflation).

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that government, especially the City, is interested in keeping overall costs and fees down for those paying the bills. RGF’s Paul Gessing spoke to KOAT Channel 7 to discuss the increased costs on your water, trash, and power bills.

After a lengthy and contentious meeting of Albuquerque’s City Council on Monday night a bare majority of 5 councilors embraced “Safe Outdoor Spaces” for the homeless. These are meant to be semi-permanent but secure and functional on-site restrooms and shower facilities.

The impact of this idea has been implemented in Las Cruces and Denver (see detailed information and video here) to name just two places. We all HOPE that these sanctioned encampments will improve the situation, but they could just as easily provide even more of a magnet for so-called “homeless” from other areas.

Pete Dinelli, a strongly liberal former candidate for mayor had an excellent piece questioning why Mayor Keller doesn’t force these campers out of parks. We’d only add that the need to be pushed out of public rights-of-way. Generally speaking, Albuquerque should NOT be a welcoming place for those who are unwilling or unable to accept housing that has been made available.

MORE facilities for the so-called “homeless” won’t solve the problem absent more enforcement. We’ll see if Mayor Keller is willing to do that.

New Mexico’s primaries are in the books. Do you remember voting for the judges?  Do you recognize the names on the ballot and know what they stand for? Were there any contested races? You probably answered “no” to most of those questions. That is not good.

Leave it up to the left-wingers at Common Cause to be perhaps the only people in our State who believe our State’s approach to judicial elections is working. Of course, their justification is that the elections are “clean” insofar as the funding for those campaigns comes from the taxpayers.

The claim with little justification that the system is a “success.” But, anyone who cares about crime would have to be concerned that our judges don’t do a great job of keeping dangerous criminals off the streets.

New Mexico’s judiciary is also considered anti-business. While that MAY reflect the broader political status of the State, it would be nice to have judicial candidates able to run actual campaigns on their positions. This kind of issue-based campaigning is limited in New Mexico. 

Finally, while voters tend to be moderately informed based on a combination of advertising and partisan identification, that is not always available to judicial candidates in New Mexico. So, around election day each year we at the Rio Grande Foundation often received questions regarding the merits of “non-partisan” judicial candidates about whom little is known.

What’s the solution? It would seem that more political advertising and enhancing rather than limiting the ability of judicial candidates to campaign on “tough on crime” or some broad policy reforms would be the best approach, but we  are open to any ideas that would increase openness and result in a better-informed electorate.

As the votes come in on Tuesday night for Republicans  in the race for Gov. and other big races throughout New Mexico, the media has called the race for Mark Ronchetti in what appears to be an overwhelming victory. As of 8:25 in the evening he has 60% of the vote in a five person race.

The primary was hard-fought and more divisive than it had to be. In the view of RGF’s Paul Gessing, all of the candidates were firmly in the “center-right” of the GOP both here in New Mexico and nationwide. Unfortunately, especially in light of the final results, the race got much nastier than it needed to when the goal (shared almost universally by GOP voters as well as many independents and moderate Democrats) is to rid New Mexico of Michelle Lujan Grisham.

So, will the vanquished GOP primary rally around Ronchetti? Will voters? It is hard to say. New Mexico’s GOP is a fractious and fractured bunch, but a lot of New Mexicans believe that failure to defeat an unpopular left-wing governor with an unpopular president in the White House will threaten their ability to EVER win statewide races in New Mexico. We shall see.

Nary a day goes by that doesn’t include some kind of anti-energy outrage from either the Biden Administration or New Mexico’s Democrats. Recently, New Mexico’s Democrat-controlled Legislature killed a bill that would have mandated more ethanol in gas tanks while increasing gas prices at the pump.

Now, the Biden Administration has taken it upon themselves to increase the amount of ethanol in gas tanks nationwide. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers said “unachievable mandates will increase fuel production costs and keep consumer prices high.” This is yet  another anti-energy Biden Administration policy.

Something new to the author of this post contained in the ABC News piece is that ethanol consumes more than 40% of the nation’s corn supply.

The following is a lengthy post on the numerous problems with ethanol from a crop scientist.

The folks at Yahoo Finance recently took a closer look at Virgin Galactic’s finances. Virgin Galactic is the main tenant at Spaceport America. Here are some conclusions about Virgin Galactic’s business that can be gleaned from the report linked above.

1.) Virgin Galactic won’t break even at Spaceport America before FY 2031;

2.) Virgin Galactic will not meet the User Fee Structure required in the Spaceport America Facilities Lease;

3.) Virgin Galactic will use more than $2 bil to develop reliable passenger service at Spaceport America before FY 2031;

4.) Virgin Galactic will not sell enough tickets to show a profit before 2031;

5.) Virgin Galactic stock is not worth more than six dollars ($6.00) per share.

The liberal New York Times has been one of the primary supporters (and enforcers) of the conventional wisdom on COVID 19. But, at last there is an admission among some at the paper that mask mandates failed. New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham, herself an avid supporter of the establishment narrative on COVID had a statewide indoor mask mandate in place for the better part of the two years from March 10, 2020 through Feb 17, 2022 when she finally lifted the mandate.

The Times isn’t completely giving up on the IDEA of masks, just the mandates (full article linked above). Here are a few choice quotes:

After a brief discussion of the “effectiveness” of masks in a laboratory setting on dummies, the article notes:

Finally, after two years (and sometimes more) of mask mandates, the Times concludes with a shockingly (considering its track record) libertarian approach involving individual choice:

As we move beyond a contentious series of primaries in both parties and look to the fall election, it worth highlighting one of the big issues on the fall ballot: the plan to “tap” New Mexico’s permanent fund to provide universal preschool.

As written, voters will decide whether to: “allocate 1.25% of the five-year average of year-end market values of the money in the Land Grant Permanent Fund (LGPF) to early childhood education…” The Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) estimated that the additional allocation would be about $245.7 million in fiscal year 2023. Of that total, $126.9 million would be allocated for early childhood education, $84.6 million to public education, and $34.2 million for the LGPF’s other beneficiaries.

The advocates’ plan is to provide “free,” “universal” pre-K to all New Mexico 3 and 4 year olds.

But, while advocates and supporters tout all kinds of supposed benefits of government-funded pre-K, the best available study of the issue (involving a randomized control) of a similar program that has been in place for years in Tennessee found pre-K actually had NEGATIVE impacts on children.

According to the study, “Children who attended Tennessee’s state-funded voluntary pre-K program during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years were doing worse than their peers by the end of sixth grade in academic achievement, discipline issues and special education referrals. The trend emerged by the end of third grade and was even more pronounced three years later.” The following quotes from one of the study authors:

“[We] have let ourselves get into the idea that what these children need is a lot more academic instruction.” Farran said. “And I would say, no, it’s just the opposite. What you would like to give poor children is a feeling of being cared for and being successful.”

While other pre-K studies often seem to show positive results from massive government “investment” in pre-K programs, few of those studies feature a control group. Studies supporting pre-K in New Mexico and elsewhere simply compare voluntarily participating and non-participating students, not those chosen randomly.

As the Rio Grande Foundation has noted in recent  years (and the chart below highlights), Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) has continued to see its budget grow while its student population has shrunk.

Recently, the Albuquerque Journal reported that the APS School board had “balked” at adopting a $1.936 billion budget that would be spent to educate approximately 71,000 students. In FY 2022, the District spent $1,658,589,579 to educate just 72,500 students. That came to $22,877.10. If it had been adopted for FY 2023 along the lines of the numbers above, the District would amount to an incredible $27,267 per student.

The budget is not finalized yet. However, the APS board has limited authority over all the money that is flowing their way. That is largely set in Santa Fe. Either way, the Legislative Finance Committee has clearly stated that the District needs to reform how it does business. The question is whether the Legislature and Governor will push the District to reform itself or simply keep sending money.

On this week’s conversation Paul talks to Clif Horace owner of Horace Motors, a car dealer in Farmington. They discuss the Clean Car Standard that was recently imposed by Gov. Lujan Grisham’s hand picked Environmental Improvement Board.

The Board has imposed rules that will force New Mexico car dealerships to dramatically increase the number of electric vehicles sold in the State. But, California is considering imposing far more aggressive rules that could result in the elimination of internal combustion engines in cars sold in New Mexico.

Listen to this important conversation to find out more about this outrageous situation.

The following letter and books were received by a teacher at Albuquerque Public Schools for their “summer reading.” The books, sent to social studies teachers from NM PED, are of course meant to filter into the classroom in indoctrinating New Mexico students into PED’s new “CRT-laden” social studies standards.

Ibram X. Kendi is a well-known and controversial exponent of CRT. The other book is a history of Native Americans with a nod to the title of Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the United States,” a radically-negative/leftist take on much of American history. Are these books worth reading? Perhaps. But, our biggest problem with New Mexico’s new CRT-laden social studies standards is not that they teach about America’s warts (slavery/race relations and destruction of Native Americans), but that they emphasize those to the exclusion of other history.

The new standards (and these books) ONLY focus on these things to the exclusion of numerous, more positive aspects of American history of which there are many. May we recommend Larry Schweikart’s “A Patriot’s History of the United States.”