State Senator Cliff Pirtle (R-Roswell) recently made his planned retirement decision public, announcing last Friday that he will not seek re-election for District 32 next year.

Even prior to Pirtle's announcement, we had already heard a lot of noise about State Representative Candy Spence Ezzell's plans to run for the seat. "She's telling everyone she's running," at least a half dozen people told us over the past two weeks. So, naturally, we looked at the new map for Senate Districdt 33, and voila! — she doesn't live in the district. She lives in Senator Bill Burt's District 33.

Comes now former Senator Tim Jennings, the newly elected Mayor of Roswell, telling Santa Fe New Mexican Democrat columnist Milan Simonich (known affectionately as Slobodan Milosevich by Republicans who've read dozens of his biased and often-ridiculous columns):

I'm looking at running again. The Senate was a big part of my life, and I still miss it."

Well, that's fine, but guess what? He doesn't live in the district. He lives in Senator Stuart Ingle's district.

Of course Jennings has already made one fake move—he didn't live in Roswell either when he decided to run for mayor. So he up an bought a property on North Pennsylvania, a good long ways north of Senator Pirtle's northern boundary. But hey, what's another house purchase?

After all, if Ezzell decides to run she'll have to jump through the same hoops.

Why doesn't anyone ever check these things?

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New Mexico Political Journal Received the following News Release from the Office of State Senator Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell:

Senator Cliff Pirtle Makes Retirement Plan Public

ROSWELL — Senator Cliff Pirtle made it official today that he will not seek another term in the state senate. He has released the following statement:

“Over the past year I have told a number of people, including close friends and family, that 2020 was my last campaign and that this would be my last term. I am now making that decision public. 

“Redistricting had a very big impact on Senate District 32, dropping Otero County, and greatly increasing the role of Chaves County, with a smaller portion remaining in north Eddy County. The district is now much more oriented on the City of Roswell, reaching as far north as Country Club Road.  

“Only one legislator lives in the new district, State Representative Jimmy Mason of Artesia. However, with most of the district being in Chaves County I know there are many others—both private citizens as well as elected officials—who will want to study and evaluate the new map. I want to ensure that they have time to do that. (Representative Nibert lives in District 27 and Representative Ezzell lives in District 33.) 

“Candidates for the 2024 election begin gathering petition signatures just five months from now, and I want to let everyoneknow—well in advance—of my decision to leave office at the end of this term. It’s in the best interest of our communities that everyone who might be interested in representing us can have as much time as possible to consider doing so.

“Over the past eleven years I have done my best to provide a voice—and vote—for the kind of common-sense conservatism that reflects the political philosophy of southeastern New Mexico. 

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to have served the people and the interests of our communities, and I have very much appreciated the prayers and support that have sustained me throughout my time in public office.”

###

Email us at: editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com — with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.

Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

On March 3, the New Mexico House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 47-20, a bill the Democrats named the “New Mexico Human Rights Act.” (Titles are frequently used to completely and utterly misrepresent the content of a bill. In this case, the Democrats are saying that men in women's locker rooms and men competing against women are both "human rights." No actual scholar would support either assertion.)

House Bill 207 is another step in bringing the full-blown Woke Agenda to New Mexico. It allows biological boys/young men to compete against girls/women in middle school, high school, and college sports. And of course it provides for biological males to be present in all bathroom/locker room settings with biological females.

Most voters—regardless of party—disagree with this idea. And, significantly for elected officials, it is one of the defining contrasts between the Republican Party/conservatives on the one hand and the modern Democratic Party/American Left on the other.

All across the country, Democrats are pushing for and enacting laws and policies that force women and young girls to share locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and similar private facilities with grown men and teenage boys.

Republicans believe that these policies violate the privacy and dignity of women and girls and that they are especially harmful to girls and women who have experienced sexual abuse and who may experience trauma when forced to be present with a member of the opposite sex in this setting.

THE CURRENT LAW is ON THE REPUBLICANS' SIDE

Federal law under Title IX specifically allows schools to "provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex." In addition, when Title IX was being debated by Congress, the sponsor explicitly rejected the idea that it would allow men into women’s dorms and locker rooms—a conclusion similarly reached by every court in the land, except very recently, when encountering some relatively recent appointees of Obama or Biden.

Furthermore, no school has ever lost funding on this basis in the nearly 51 years since Title IX became law. It is clear that Title IX does not require schools to open up locker rooms, showers, and restrooms to members of the opposite sex.

PUZZLING REACTION of FOUR REPUBLICAN STATE REPRESENTATIVES

All across the nation young women—and their parents, grandparents, and loved ones—are fighting to allow their young daughters compete with other girls and young women in both high school and collegiate sports. Some swimmers and track and field athletes are taking courageous stands making the point that there are biological differences between the sexes.

From the conservatives' point of view, this is a matter of hard science. It is real. A man cannot become a woman. It does not matter what kind of surgery is performed. Men cannot have babies. No matter what kind of surgery is performed.

Yet four New Mexico State Representatives—who are all registered Republicans and who ran as Republicans—voted FOR this bill.

We reached out over and over again to all four of these Republicans: former Minority Whip Jason Harper of Rio Rancho, Joshua Hernandez, also of Rio Rancho, Gail Armstrong of Magdalena, and Tanya Mirabal Moya of Los Lunas. None of them would respond to our simple inquiry—which was nothing more than a polite request for the "rationale" for their vote.

Since we could not get any answer from these legislators, we asked around for opinions or guesses. The word we got back was that "Harper is focused solely on his tax plans, and has no explanation"; Hernandez "wants desperately to be liked by everyone"; Gail Armstrong "didn't understand the bill"; and Mirabal Moya made statements about being "a teacher in a school where all of these [Woke] ideas are already policy..." and "her district has changed."

None of these responses—provided they are the actual positions of these officials—makes any sense at all.

Harper should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time—meaning it doesn't really matter if he has other bills, he can respond to each issue that comes up.

Hernandez is not going to make Democrats "like him more," regardless of his throwaway votes here and there.

Armstrong, after six years in office, has no real excuse for "not understanding the bill."

And Mirabal Moya does not have a "Democrat district--both she and Mark Ronchetti carried the district by about 15 points. (If the district were actually "Woke" that would not happen.) We have not reached out to the school districts in question, so we cannot speak to the notion that the Los Lunas or Belen school districts are already "Woke." We are, however, dubious.

REPUBLICAN VOTERS HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO ADDRESS THESE MATTERS

We are not advocating any approach to these representatives relationship with their constituents. That is up to their constituents. However, we would not be surprised to see one or more conservative Republicans decide that their constituency (all four districts are strongly conservative) is not being properly represented. That could mean a Republican primary challenge, with filing taking place only a year from now.

Should that happen, a challenger could make the case that while the hard-Left Woke Democrats are hanging together and pushing their agenda, Republicans should be just as bold in rejecting the non-scientific, aggressively anti-female policies that many average Americans regard as not only ridiculous, but truly harmful to society.

Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.

Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

Republicans Should be Poised to Capture the New Mexico State House

With so many indicators of the public mood working against the Democrats and in favor of Republicans, the Republican Party of New Mexico should be on the verge of recapturing the state House of Representatives for the first time since 2014.

While Democrats worked hard last December to redistrict all three US House seats in such a way as to favor the Democrats (although we believe Yvette Herrell will retain her seat) they did leave 12 Democrat-held state house seats vulnerable to Republican takeover. Unfortunately, the RPNM failed to recruit anyone in House District 4, currently held by Democrat Anthony Allison. However, they did find candidates in the other 11 districts.

The Monkey Wrench for 2022

For the Republicans, the biggest question will be how New Mexico voters factor in the issue of abortion. The Democrats quite clearly see it as the decisive issue—even though New Mexico arguably has the most radical law in the world—currently, anyone can get an abortion at any time right up through the moment of child birth.

Trump is not the Focal Point by Which to Assess Competitiveness

The Democrats controlling the redistricting process tended to measure their new districts based on how Trump had done within their boundaries, and to some extent based on a rolling average over a period of the past 8 years.

However, in New Mexico—in both 2016 and 2020—Trump ran well behind the entire Republican ticket all the way up and down the ballots. In 2020, five state representative candidates carried their districts while Trump was losing them. (They were Bill Rehm, Rebecca Dow, Luis Terrazas, Jane Powdrell-Culbert, and Jason Harper.)

Democrats obviously tried to make a number of districts—including those five—more Democrat. However, they used data that were way too old, and they also used Trump as a measuring stick.

Trying to Find the Most Accurate Gauge

In our view, a better formula would have focused on deep-down-ballot races where voters had never heard of the candidates. We looked at two of those races: Court of Appeals Positions 1 and 3.

In 2020, the two unsuccessful Republican candidates were Barbara Johnson and Thomas Montoya (who are both running again this year). For every 10,000 votes cast, these two candidates each averaged 668 more votes than Trump received. 

More important, within the 12 districts which Democrats left vulnerable, they averaged 886 votes more than Trump, per 10,000 votes cast.

That is a huge margin.

This may or may not work as a predictive formula. This year presents a number of special problems/dilemmas for which no one knows the reaction.

In any case, in any district, whether for the legislature, for a judgeship, or for county commissioner, if candidates for Court of Appeals got as much as 47% of the vote in a given district—when no one knew who any of those candidates were—then local candidates within those districts, whether for the legislature, for judge, or for county office should be able to carry such a district.

Below are districts which show the candidates and the average 2020 votes for Court of Appeals, as well as the percentage for Trump. As you can see, in HD 4, for each 10,000 votes cast, the CofA candidates each got about 1,310 more votes than Trump received. 

Here are the 12* House Districts (HD) that should be captured Tuesday, November 8th 

(Of course this presumes that the Republican Party leadership has provided the necessary fundraising, administrative support, and consulting to develop the right messaging for each contest and that they have ensured that those messages have been competently communicated to the voters via mail, radio, social media, TV (where possible) and through personal contact. (*Only 11 were challenged by the GOP.)

*Retiring. Open Seat.

Republican Incumbents Targeted in Redistricting

While Democrats made an effort to weaken these five Republican incumbents, their efforts should prove unsuccessful. The GOP incumbents and nominees should be able to withstand the challenges, at least in 2022.

These are the 5 Republican Seats that were Aggressively Redistricted by the Democrat Legislature, in an effort to defeat them or make them highly vulnerable

Email us (at editor@newmexicopoliticaljournal.com) with your feedback, comments, questions, and ideas.

Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican

Email us (at nmpj@dfn.com) with your feedback, comments, questions and ideas.

With the pending retirement of Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Bosson, a nominating commission is set to meet this coming Monday to interview eight lawyers who have applied for the vacated position.

The Role of the Nominating Commission is Misrepresented to New Mexico Voters

Some headlines around the state feature the following wording:

"Nominating commission to narrow field of high court hopefuls " [Emphasis added by NMPJ]

And the following line appears in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

"The panel will then narrow the field of applicants and submit a list of finalists for consideration by Gov. Susana Martinez..." [Emphasis added by NMPJ]

But is that true? Is that the role of the commission? To "narrow" the field?

Well, no, not really. The law doesn't authorize them to do that. And it certainly doesn't require such an action.

Abuse of Authority

It is definitely true that nominating commissions through the years have arrogated powers to themselves to be the "deciders" of who gets to be on the court. In some instances they have so badly abused their role as to effectively rule that former members of the Supreme Court were not "qualified" to be appointed to the district court.

They did this by carefully voting to leave a former Supreme Court justice off a list sent to the governor of qualified applicants for district judge. After all, this is New Mexico, so ignoring the law, especially by judges, can be more or less routine.

The New Mexico Constitution

The nominating commission is authorized by Article VI, Section 35 of the state constitution. That section contains more than 600 words, but the key phrase reads:

"...the commission shall meet...and...submit to the governor the names of persons qualified for the judicial office and recommended for appointment to that office by a majority of the commission." [emphasis added by NMPJ]

The only actual authorization granted to the commission is to determine if each of the eight applicants is "qualified."

Commission is not "Non-Partisan" — As Described in Newspaper Coverage

Another line in a story in the Santa Fe New Mexican says:

"The nonpartisan commission is chaired by University of New Mexico School of Law Dean Alfred Mathewson, who serves as a nonvoting member except in the case of a tie." [Emphasis added by NMPJ]

This is simply not accurate. There is nothing "nonpartisan" about New Mexico judicial nominating commissions. In fact, the state constitution specifically requires that Democrats and Republicans be identified on the commission, and that one party may not have more members than the other: 

"...each of the two largest major political parties, as defined by the Election Code, shall be equally represented on the commission."

This doesn't mean there will be 8 Democrats and 8 Republicans on a commission, or 6 and 6, but that whatever number one party has, the other must have the same—at least nominally*.

(*"Nominally," because the task of ensuring both major parties are equally represented is left to the "state bar and judges on the committee." In practice, the state bar has relatively few Republicans; the same goes for judges. In years past, this has often meant that those selecting additional "Republicans" to fill out the commissions have ended up selecting extremely "obscure" members of the GOP, whose names have been entirely unknown or unheard of in Republican circles. Those "fill-out" members, selected by the bar association, have—not unpredictably—ended up voting with the Democrats on their commissions. There is some indication that the bar may have become more sensitive to charges of impropriety in recent years, and its "Republican" appointees may have more legitimacy than in the past.)

The history of New Mexico judicial nominating commissions—which were adopted by the voters in November 1988—far from being free of partisanship, or based strictly on "merit," is one of overt partisan wrangling and manipulation.

"Rules" Adopted

We notice on the UNM School of Law website that someone has adopted "Rules Governing Judicial Nominating Commissions."  

We don't know where the rules come from, or when they were adopted. There is no reference number for the rules, and they don't appear in the New Mexico Administrative Code. We certainly are not saying that saying they were not properly adopted, it's just at this point we haven't been able to determine their source or authority. "Rules" are not mentioned in the constitutional amendment adopted by the voters November 8, 1988.

Here are some of the provisions of the "Rules" which differ from the constitutional amendment itself:

Solicitation, Recruitment of Applicants

Constitution:  "The commission shall actively solicit, accept and evaluate applications..." 

NOTE:  This is fairly routine and standard language meaning that the vacancy in question needs to be made public and applications invited.

"Rules":  "The chair and the commissioners to actively solicit applicants for the position in the following ways:  Notify the Bar Commissioners who represent lawyers in the Judicial District, asking them to suggest candidates and encouraging them to personally contact qualified attorneys to ask them to apply...and place telephone calls to encourage them to apply."

Added to these "Rules" are these seemingly improbable disclaimers:

"When actively seeking qualified applicants, commissioners shall inform the prospective applicant that being approached by a commissioner does not guarantee a nomination. Each applicant, whether actively recruited or independently seeking a nomination, will be subject to the same investigative and interview procedures. It is important for recruited applicants to realize that they will not be given special consideration simply because the commission is inviting their applications." 

Closed Session

Constitution:  The Constitution has no provision for a closed session, or any secret proceeding.

"Rules":  "...the commission may go into closed session to discuss the applicants' qualifications and to evaluate them..." 

Secrecy of Proceedings

Constitution:  The Constitution has no provision for proceedings that produce no record of deliberations, debate or votes preserved for the public.

"Rules":  "The discussion during closed session shall be confidential. The extent of confidentiality shall be determined by the commission, but, in any event, shall extend to prohibit express or implied attribution of comments or opinions to individual commissioners. As part of the discussion of the applicants, straw votes, non-binding and by secret ballot, shall be taken to determine support for particular applicants."

Duties of Commission

Constitution:  The Constitution specifies that the commission is to submit to the governor the names of persons qualified for the judicial office and recommended for appointment..."

"Rules":  "In recognition of the fact that the New Mexico Constitution vests the Governor with the authority to appoint judges and that the commission does not select the judges, the commission should strive to recommend a list of two or more names for each position to the Governor.

Judicial Nomination Commissions More Partisan than Straightforward Appointments

Just as with the national government, it is probably more democratic to allow the elected executive to appoint judges according to his or her own criteria. President Obama does not have to wend his way through a "nominating commission."

Instead his "commission" is his own administration and White House advisors and researchers, sifting through records of jurists around the country, trying to match those who support his form of activism. Like it or not, he was elected, and that is one of the consequences, or rewards, that accrues as a result of an election.

Allowing governors, whether Bill Richardson or Susana Martinez, the same prerogative, is probably the best polity. In any case, it is certainly better than using the so-called nominating commissions.

New Mexico's 27 year-old system is generally classified under the rubric of the "Missouri Plan," so named for the state which first instituted a similar proceeding for appointing judges. 

But history has shown, unfortunately, that there is absolutely no more merit in this approach than in straightforward, open government appointments.

Visible Consequences

Rule by Elites—Lawyers Selecting Lawyer Buddies

Under New Mexico's current law, the power to select judges is placed in a small, unelected, unaccountable commission, comprised of elites, either from the legal community, or activist politicians, or both. In fact, the main force empowered in New Mexico—effectively given decisive control in fact—is the New Mexico Bar Association. 

Consequences for the Law Itself

So it's no wonder the Supreme Court, and courts in general over the past 30 years, have openly done the bidding of the Trial Lawyers Association, the plaintiffs' bar.  In so doing they have expanded almost beyond credulity the extent to which matters may be opened up to lawsuit, stretched the limits of the concept of liability, and the largess of the tort system.  

They have done damage to the definition of recovery and the entire civil system, increasing costs in every facet of New Mexico —whether people realize it or not—and have made the courts ever most costly and therefore less accessible to the average person than ever before.

The Imposition of Secrecy—the Closing of Government

As we have pointed out, these judges and their bar association colleagues operate in secret with no public accountability.

What has happened, historically (it may be better now) in New Mexico, is that a commission usually ends up with about 5 or 6 known or identifiable Republicans, about 7 or 8 known or identifiable Democrats and between 2 and 4 obscure members, usually nominally Republican or "independent" but who are well-known to some members of the Democratic lawyer group.

This has resulted in a deeply politicized process. With a built-in majority focused on outcomes, not process or merit, the result has been backroom-dealing, hidden from public view, that has ended up stocking the state courts with garden variety trial lawyers, biased in favor of "results-oriented" judging rather than actual legal proceedings. 

As a result, there aren't that many judges in the state who instinctively ask the question; "What does the law say?"

Email us with your feedback, comments, questions and ideas.

Democrat newcomer Melanie Stansbury, a symbol of the new out-of-state Anglo dominance of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, swept to an easy victory in yesterday's special election in Congressional District 1. We expected her to win, after all the Democrats have a big edge in the district, she had an enormous fundraising advantage and much more dark money as well.

What was somewhat unexpected was the margin. Just seven months ago, Congresswoman Deb Haaland had defeated Republican Michelle Garcia Holmes 58-42. A couple of factors led us to expect a somewhat closer margin in the special election.

First of all, the Democrats control the White House—that usually militates in favor of the party out of power. Second, the turnout was, as is always the case in a special election, very low—another factor that works in favor of the GOP. Third, New Mexico isn't doing that well economically, as the policies of both Biden and Governor Grisham continue to adversely impact New Mexicans' lives.

While it is true that last Friday's absentee and early voting totals showed a huge advantage for the Democrats, 42,325 to 19,869 (with 8,776 independents and others), that kind of advantage is not that unusual, and was similar to 2020.

All things considered, we were expecting something closer to a 55-45 result. We certainly weren't expecting the outcome to be worse than 2020. But it was. This morning's totals show Stansbury with 60.33% and Republican Mark Moores with 35.66%.

That's a winning margin of 24.67%, just over 50% higher than Haaland's 16.38% margin just seven months ago.

What Happened?

The Republicans nominated their best candidate. Moores was easily the best choice available, but he was vastly outspent, and dark money from the usual national Leftist actors flooded the state.

But the complaint we heard most loudly from Republicans, both last night and in the days leading up to election day, was "Where is the state party?" "What exactly is Steve Pearce doing?"

As the results poured in last night the complaints got even more vociferous.

Last month we reported the news (first given to us by a Republican state senator) that Pearce is calling around the state to drum up support for his own run for governor next year—it would be his fourth try for statewide office.

Last evening, a former Republican state lawmaker told us that:

"Pearce isn't interested in helping anyone other than Steve Pearce. The only money he's interested in raising for the state party is whatever he can direct to his own race."

We've heard many similar comments.

The consensus bottom line from New Mexico Repubicans appears to be that Mark Moores was a competent, articulate candidate who was left hung out to dry by the Republican Party of New Mexico—a party that is controlled by Steve Pearce and his sycophants, and that is interested only in the personal goals of Steve Pearce.

This is, perhaps, not an opinion held by every single Republican, and certainly not by those who are still disciples of Pearce, but it certainly reflects the predominant opinion held by Republicans.

One former Republican officer who has moved out of state told us last night:

"How many losses will NM Republican insiders stomach before they demand a change in party leadership? There is no bottom for this group of knuckleheads. And it's only going to get worse with redistricting on the horizon."

He was of course referring to the Pearce insiders who became extremely jealous of the electoral success of former Governor Susana Martinez and who broke ranks with her after she had led the charge — by raising and spending some $3 million — to capture the state House of Representatives in 2014.

The dissident group, which, as we have reported before, included Pearce, John Billingsley, Harvey Yates, Mark Murphy, Anissa Galassini Ford Tinnin and others, quickly made a shambles of Martinez's monumental achievements, losing the House back immediately and compounding their blunders by driving the numbers down. They lost 14 seats in just two cycles. The former operative went on:

"It is amazing to see what the anti-Susana group has done. They ruined it all for petty shit. They have truly burned it to the ground. And they'll never pay a price for it."

That is true. The culprits will not pay the price. Instead, it is New Mexicans who are suffering as they are forced to watch, helplessly, as the "progressive" policies are forced on them. No, Pearce and the gang will not pay the price. But their victims will pay the price for years to come. 

Results Table

Unofficial results, thus far, are shown below. As you can see, Moores ran behind the 2020 Republican pace in all five counties. As an example, he should have carried Torrance County 2 to 1, but won by only a 54-33 margin. Similar results are visible everywhere else. In 2020, the GOP carried the Valencia County portion with 53% of the vote—yesterday, Moores did manage to win the county, but with less than a majority.

About two weeks ago, one former high-ranking Republican official expressed his fairly severe annoyance with Aubrey Dunn's constant party-switching and publicity-hound shenanigans, telling us:

"I certainly hope Dunn does very poorly, and I doubt he'll get even five percent of the vote."

We actually believed the gentleman would be wrong and that Dunn would get about 5%. But the Republican was correct—Dunn got only 2.68% of the vote. Apparently, most New Mexicans are tired of Dunn's shenanigans as well. Dog tired.