This year marks the inauguration of SFR’s Patrón Awards (named, of course, for New Mexico’s loved and hated patron system—the good ol’ boy network that has shaped state politics for a century). The awards, first announced on Dec. 17 in the Weekly Word podcast (listen at SFReporter.com), range from seriously honorable to utterly facetious. Read on.

After elections come more elections. On Saturday—just over a month after the Nov. 6 election—the Republican Party of New Mexico selected its new figurehead: a tall, deep-voiced Lincoln County party chairman who candidly urged his fellow partisans to do some “soul searching.”

After a long and varied career in state government, another of Gov. Susana Martinez’ cabinet officials has resigned.

Staff changes are shaking up Gov. Susana Martinez’ administration.

It was a tough, dirty fight, and former Las Cruces District Attorney Amy Orlando knows exactly who was on her side. It’s right there on the mailers accusing her opponent of siding with sex offenders over innocent children: “Paid for by Safer NM PAC.”

On a recent evening, US Rep. Martin Heinrich’s campaign staff barred Rob Nikolewski, the editor of the politics website Capitol Report New Mexico, from a press availability with US Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who appeared at a Heinrich fundraiser in Santa Fe.

With just under two weeks until the Nov. 6 election, Gary Johnson—former governor of New Mexico, extreme athlete, marijuana advocate and Libertarian candidate for president—is talking about his campaign in the past tense.

Here, SFR offers a few voting tips from the county clerk and the New Mexico Secretary of State, who oversees voting statewide.

It was December 2007, and Kirtland Air Force Base needed money. The base wanted to build training facilities for paratroopers and combat rescue officers. In total, the project would cost more than $14 million—funded mostly by appropriations from Congress. US Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, was instrumental in helping Kirtland secure the funding, earmarking $3.7 million for the new facilities.

To Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, the recent federal approval of a uranium de-conversion plant near Hobbs only contributes to southeastern New Mexico’s identity as a “wasteplex.”