Opinion: Governor's order has soured her term

Seldom is a governor’s second term as bright as their first term; the gubernatorial luster loses its shine for one reason or another.

With the late, great Bill Richardson, it was “pay to play.” With Susana Martinez, it was “pizzagate.” And now, with Michelle Lujan Grisham, it’s an overreaching public health order.

Don’t get me wrong, Gov. Lujan Grisham is no lame duck. She still has three years left as governor of a state controlled by Democrats, so she still wields considerable power. But her order to temporarily ban concealed- and open-carry gun rights in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County is dividing the Democrats, uniting the Republicans and reinforcing gun rights advocates’ notion that “they” really do want to “take our guns away.”

This will be a rallying cry for 2024, giving New Mexico Republicans their best chance in a while to retake the state House and/or Senate. Still a longshot at best, since the Democrats are close to supermajority status in both legislative chambers, but this is the kind of issue that can swing elections. For 2024, the Democrats have abortion rights to rile up the masses; now the Republicans have gun rights. It’s been a rallying cry for decades, but now there’s a real-world example of government overreach.

Of course, this is a developing story. As I write this, a federal court judge has put a hold on the governor’s order and the governor herself has modified the order, restricting the open- and concealed-carry gun bans to public parks and playgrounds only. Pro-gun organizations are lining up to challenge the order in court, while some lawmakers are even threatening to file articles of impeachment against the governor in an attempt to remove her from office.

Maybe such a drastic move will gain traction if the governor sticks to her guns, so to speak, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. If the court order blocking its implementation doesn’t kill the governor’s order, 30 days will, since that’s how long the order was to be effective in the first place.

If you’ve had a chance to watch Lujan Grisham defend her order, you’ve gotten a glimpse of the emotion behind it all. She talks about an 11-year-old boy, Froylan Villegas, who was shot in an Albuquerque road-rage incident, as the impetus for her decision to unilaterally issue the public health order.

The boy’s death should turn the stomach of gun owners and pacifists alike. But the governor’s gun restrictions won’t stop such horrific violence, so it’s not going to have any real-world impact.

It’s like a Hail Mary pass at the end of a football game. It’s a longshot at best, but it sure gets everyone’s attention.

And attention she’s certainly received — statewide, nationally and internationally. She’s being vilified on the right, abandoned on the left and almost universally criticized for her “unconstitutional” order.

In the years before Lujan Grisham’s ascension to statewide power, then-Gov. Richardson alienated supporters with an underhanded approach to political dealmaking, and his popularity dropped. “Pay to play” helped New Mexico elect a Republican governor in 2010.

Next came then-Gov. Martinez, telling state police to back away from a loud pizza (with booze) party she was having in a downtown Santa Fe hotel, an abuse of her authority that the public didn’t appreciate. A Democrat, Lujan Grisham, was soundly elected in her wake.

So, will our next governor be a Republican? There’s still a lot of time left in Lujan Grisham’s second term, but given the outrage she stirred up with her public health order, I’d say her best days as governor are past her now.

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

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