Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On almost every issue, from crime to gun control to public education, Republican state legislators said the governor’s State of the State address sidestepped many of the realities New Mexicans live in.
“Did you hear anything about border security?” Rep. Jim Townsend, R-Aztec, said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon shortly after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s speech. “Did you hear anything about fentanyl? Not a single word.”
Senate Minority Leader Greg Baca, R-Belen, said despite the optimistic tone of the governor’s “rosy” portrait of the state, “we remain at the top of every bad list and at the bottom of every good list” in the nation on most issues.
Baca criticized the governor’s call for an assault weapons ban.
“We have not addressed crime,” he said. “She has been here six years. ... Her solution instead is to punish the average citizen by taking away their Second Amendment rights.
“This is a gun grab,” he added.
House Minority Leader Ryan Lane, R-Aztec, echoed that thought. Based on the governor’s speech, he said, “you would think new Mexico is first in every important metric. In fact, we’re 50th.”
Baca called her speech “a facade” and said most New Mexicans “know that things on the street are a little bit different” than the governor suggested.
“Why haven’t we improved our education system?” Baca said. “Why do criminals run along the streets, terrorizing us, through a revolving door, basically going into jail, coming back out? Our judges continually let them out because they don’t have a platform to meaningfully hold them behind bars.”
Baca said he wants to support the governor in some areas and will do so with crime legislation that “keeps the bad guys behind bars,” such as with her call for tougher pretrial detention laws to hold more suspected violent criminals in jail until they go to trial. Advocates for such a move say it would keep dangerous people off the streets, while critics say it could violate their rights as suspects are presumed innocent until found guilty. In the past, some Democrats have opposed and worked to block changes to the law.
Both Baca and Lane said Republicans are willing to work with Lujan Grisham and state Democrats on some initiatives both sides agree on, but they said they could not support any ban or limit on firearms that, they say, would violate New Mexicans’ constitutional rights.
Baca, Lane and Townsend all said it was unfortunate the governor did not mention in her speech the contributions the oil and gas industry makes to the state. New Mexico’s oil production jumped to 658 million barrels in fiscal year 2023 from 531 million barrels the year before, but the industry’s growth is expected to slow in another year or so. That oil and gas money makes up almost half of the state’s revenue.
