Morning Word
There are basically two domestic political stories right now -- what the Supreme Court is doing or will do and who Mitt Romney will pick to be his running mate.
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Both have tangential connections to New Mexico through our governor. Gov. Susana Martinez is pushing harsher policies against illegal immigrants (though nothing close to what Arizona tried to make into law and was
largely struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday
) and Martinez is also a fringe possibility as Romney's VP pick.
Thursday, the Supreme Court will announce its decision on the constitutionality of health care reform. My only thoughts on what will happen is that I have about as good idea as anyone else -- Justice Anthony Kennedy will be the swing vote and it will probably be a 5-4 decision either way. Some say that Chief Justice John Roberts may side with backers of the law, but I'll believe that when I see it.
But enjoy all the speculation in the next few days over that.
On to the Word:
Martinez said she never supported the Arizona immigration law but hedged her bets and went with the Republican line on blaming it all on the lack of immigration reform.
More on this from Milan Simonich: “In New Mexico, we have tackled public-safety issues relating to border security in responsible ways, such as ending the sanctuary state policy that prevented state police from checking the immigration status of those arrested for crimes, and seeking to repeal the law that gives driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” Martinez said. NM Telegram did not receive this statement from Martinez that other news organizations did.
In the Department of Bad Timing, an editorial from the Alamogordo Daily News calling on the state legislature to pass a bill banning illegal immigrants from getting drivers licenses said:
We have among the most lenient laws in the country when it comes to dealing with illegal immigrants, while Arizona's tough immigration law was the model for what has become a crackdown in several states.
The Albuquerque Journal says the Supreme Court hearing will likely result in little change in New Mexico.
The ACLU says it will continue to fight against anti-immigrant laws and announced a nearly $9 million fund to do so.
A piece of writing on that health care reform law in the Albuquerque Journal, where Winthrop Quigley writes an Up Front column about some of the helpful provisions of the health care reform law to
The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government is criticizing the State Investment Council for hiding a $250,000 settlement.
A draft of the proposed policy says the council "strongly disfavors" settlements with confidentiality provisions. However, the foundation wants tougher language to make it clear there can be no restrictions on public disclosure of settlements.
The tribes and Martinez's administration are battling over Medicaid changes. The tribes have considerable sway in New Mexico politics and feel that the state did not confer with them enough on the proposed Medicaid redesign.
And Martinez wants to tighten the state's prostitution law because she says the law is outdated.
Former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice, who served under George W. Bush, is helping a Super PAC raise money for female Republican candidates -- which includes former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson (who is running for Senate). The PAC is called ShePAC and is one of many Super PACs and other outside groups expected to get involved in the race for U.S. Senate in New Mexico.
Wilson's opponent, U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, will be the recipient of money from a fundraiser by State Auditor Hector Balderas. This is noteworthy because Heinrich defeated Balderas in the Democratic primary earlier this month. Wilson's opponent, Greg Sowards, has not endorsed Wilson and still has all of his attacks on Wilson on his website.
Speaking of editorials, here is part of the Albuquerque Journal editorial on Susana Martinez's latest executive order which directs state employees to use state emails for state business. Government watchdog groups have long contended that preliminary documents or communications are subject to the Inspection of Public Records Act and reject the argument that a public record is narrowly defined only as one that must be archived. The definition under IPRA is much broader and is based on the policy that citizens should have as much information as possible on the workings of their government. I think both the right and left can agree that the more that the public knows about what is going on with state government, the better.
One last editorial piece, this one from the Las Cruces Sun-News saying the new policy of grading schools on an A-F scale is flawed. The system has to be sophisticated enough to include a number of various factors beyond the raw test scores to provide an accurate account of how a school is doing and where it needs improvement. But, it can't be so sophisticated that school administrators don't understand it, are caught by surprise when the grades are announced, and don't know what they need to do to improve. This is another key initiative of Martinez's first couple of years as governor -- and this is her hometown paper taking her to task for it.
The city of Santa Fe renewed its contract with its current security firm -- even though their bid was significantly higher than other firms.
Unemployment dropped in Albuquerque... but so did the total amount of jobs. Most of those job losses came from the government sector, which shed 3,500 jobs over the period. The private sector added 1,900 jobs, for a 0.8 percent growth rate. While those advocateing cutting government spending as a way to jumpstart the economy are getting their wishes on the cutting of government jobs, those losses aren't translating into an equal amount of hiring in the private sector.
The Communication Workers of American Local 7076 wants Department of Health Secretary Catherine Torres to resign.
A USA Today/Gallup poll found a majority of Hispanics support government involvement to solve the country's problems. NM Telegram wrote about similar results in a Pew Hispanic Center poll in April.
Next time you get green chile in the supermarket, you should know if it is authentic New Mexican green chile. Oh, and for red chile too. But its all about green chile, right?
