Eventful political year in New Mexico

Let’s take a look at some of the political and governmental happenings this year in New Mexico and where they might go in 2020.

This year started out with one of the most significant legislative sessions in years, thanks to a 2018 tsunami that flooded the state with a Democratic Party super-majority. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham rode a wave of support into the governor’s job, and state government took a hard left turn, leaving the Susana Martinez years in the rearview mirror.

In a 60-day session, lawmakers ran roughshod over the Martinez years. They passed tougher gun control measures that created a “Second Amendment Sanctuaries” backlash around the state, filled with sound and fury and ultimately signifying nothing.

Lawmakers also voted to increase the state minimum wage for the first time in years, from $7.50 to $9 per hour, but nothing has come of that either. At least not yet — the first increase takes effect on Jan. 1. By 2023, it goes to $12.

In public education, Lujan Grisham called for a “moonshot” and, in turn, got a hefty infusion of money for across-the-board raises for teachers and support staff, with a much-needed de-emphasis on administrative costs and a new emphasis on the classroom spending, and a whole new cabinet-level department to address early childhood “education and care.”

All this wouldn’t have been possible if not for the boom in oil and gas extraction mostly in the Permian Basin, but Lujan Grisham is looking down the road as she pushes to wean the state off such “dirty energy” money. In the 2019 legislative session, a “green new deal” for the state passed, calling for the state to be running on 50% renewables by 2030. In the coming year, watch for a boom in wind and solar farm construction, as well as the transmission lines to move and sell the electricity they generate.

Another shot in the arm for New Mexico’s economy came when hemp was legalized via the latest farm bill. Hemp production is coming into places like Puerto de Luna in Guadalupe County, where a multi-million-dollar operation to grow the nation’s latest cash crop and extract the CBD oils from it is moving full steam ahead.

In 2020, we’re likely to see the state legalize marijuana and its THC-laden products. The governor says she wants it done in the 30-day session, which starts Jan. 21.

What that will do to the burgeoning hemp industry I don’t know, but it’ll sure give another boost to the state economy and bring a lot of money to the surface that will contribute heavily to the state’s tax base.

And since the governor created a task force earlier this year to pave the way for legalization with pre-written rules for regulating the industry, I wouldn’t be surprised if the legal sale and distribution of marijuana takes effect July 1.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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