News New Mexico: 03/18/12

RNC Releases New Video: Obama's War on Women

The RNC released a new ad telling a very different tale about the "War on Women".

Rebuilding NM Cow Herd in Drought Areas

From therepublic.com - Rebuilding the state's cow herd in areas hit hardest by drought will present both opportunities and challenges for ranchers, said a cattle specialist with New Mexico State University. It's estimated that more than 100,000 beef cows will have to be replaced to return New Mexico's herds to 2010 levels. Manny Encinias, who also serves as the director of operations for the New Mexico Beef Cattle Performance Association, said the industry has experienced a reduction in herd inventories of more than 20 percent since 2010. Although nearly 90 percent of the state remains in some stage of drought, Encinias said cattle producers are looking forward to rebuilding herds with higher quality genetics from regionally adapted registered cowherds. "The two largest challenges the cow-calf producers will face when restocking will be finding the females that are adapted to our arid production environment and then being able to afford these replacements," he said. More News New Mexico

Bernalillo County Republicans File Federal Lawsuit

From ballot-access.org -Recently, the Republican Party of Bernalillo County filed a federal lawsuit against part of New Mexico’s law that provides public funding for candidates for some state offices. The lawsuit challenges the part of the public funding law that gives extra public funding to publicly-funded candidates who have well-financed opponents. There is virtually no chance this lawsuit can fail, because the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated extra public funding for this kind of candidate last year in the Arizona Free Enterprise Club decision.

NM Tourism Pulls Race From Ad Casting

From newswest9.com -New Mexico's tourism secretary says race descriptions will be pulled from a casting call for an upcoming state ad campaign after a casting notice called for Caucasian or "light-skinned" Hispanics to star in the spot. KOAT-TV reports that New Mexico Tourism Secretary Monique Jacobson said the department wants the race descriptions dropped following a firestorm resulting from reports about the casting call. She said the wording created a "distraction from the true intention" and that the department's goal was not to "be racist in any way, shape or form." She said the ad's description left out Asians, blacks and darker-skinned Hispanics - populations Jacobson said the state also wants to attract as tourists.

Holder 1995: We Must 'Brainwash' People on Guns

Breitbart.com has uncovered video from 1995 of then-U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announcing a public campaign to "really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way."Holder was addressing the Woman's National Democratic Club. In his remarks, broadcast by CSPAN 2, he explained that he intended to use anti-smoking campaigns as his model to "change the hearts and minds of people in Washington, DC" about guns. "What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that's not cool, that it's not acceptable, it's not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes."Holder added that he had asked advertising agencies in the nation's capital to assist by making anti-gun ads rather than commercials "that make me buy things that I don't really need." He had also approached local newspapers and television stations, he said, asking them to devote prime space and time, respectively, to his anti-gun campaign. More News New Mexico

Reckoning Day for the Dune Sagebrush Lizard

From currentargus.com -Perhaps the most controversial candidate in this election year is one that has never spoken a word and never will. The dunes sagebrush lizard, a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, is the central figure in a debate that the federal government must resolve this spring. Lee Fitzgerald, a biologist at Texas A&M, probably has studied this reptile as much as anyone. Apolitical and determined to remain so, Fitzgerald has not joined the partisan conflict in which conservation groups are pressing for the lizard's listing and Republican politicians are trying to defeat it. Fitzgerald searched for the lizard last year in 50 locations of the desert. Even after locating it in 28 places, he said, he could not estimate its population. "There are areas where the habitat is very optimal for the species," Fitzgerald said in an inter-view. "There also are areas of fragmentation of the species, where its habitat has been degraded." To live, the dunes sagebrush lizard needs a combination of wind, sand and the shrub shinnery oak. If the desert winds howl just right, they create blowouts in the sandy patches with shinnery oak. The lizard can survive in those conditions but no others. Fitzgerald said he saw evidence of herbicide spraying that had hurt one part of the lizard's habi-tat in West Texas. But he is neutral on whether such findings merit an endangered listing for the lizard. "Much of the Endangered Species Act is a political process more than basic biological informa-tion," he said. More News New Mexico

Chavez Will Take on Sanchez

David Chavez

Capitol Report New Mexico - The most surprising news from the Republican pre-primary convention Saturday (March 17) came as outgoing state Rep. David Chavez (R-Los Lunas) announced he’s running against Democrat and state Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez of Belen in District 29.
Sen. Sanchez is one of the most powerful figures in the Roundhouse and has become a thorn in the side of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, blocking a number of pieces of legislation Martinez has advocated, including ending the practice of “social promotion” for New Mexico students who cannot read at a minimal level by the third grade.
The decision by Chavez caught people by surprise because just one week ago, he announced he was resigning from his state rep seat in House District 7 to devote more time to his law practice. Why the turnabout?
“I didn’t seek out this seat,” Rep. Chavez told Capitol Report New Mexico. “It came to me. I had great support from my clients, my family, my friends, neighbors, constituents, colleagues and statewide support and encouragement to reconsider because we’ve got an opportunity to make some significant changes.”
This will be try No. 2 for Chavez against Sanchez. In 2000, Chavez lost to Sanchez, who has held the seat in District 29 since 1993 and has been the majority leader in in the Senate for the last eight years. Read full story here: News New Mexico

The Fundraising Paradox

Janice Arnold-Jones

The political “fund raising” abilities of candidates are always a hot topic. Those who can raise tons of money are treated as if somehow they are better candidates. In recent months we were told by self-described experts that U.S. Congressional District #1 candidate Janice Arnold-Jones was not taken seriously by GOP party insiders. Many media experts pointed to her tepid fund raising totals as the reason. When Arnold-Jones predicted she would garner more than 50% of statewide GOP delegate votes in the pre-primary convention last month some suggested she was merely making a wild boast. This weekend GOP delegates all over the state cast their votes. And it turned out Arnold-Jones had actually under-promised and then over-delivered on her “insider” (delegate) count.

There is a great paradox in New Mexico political fund-raising. Most Democrats find it much easier to raise money than Republicans. In congressional elections radical environmentalists from all over the nation can be counted on to pour money into Democratic candidate coffers. Unions do the same in a big way.

While GOP incumbents have no trouble raising money, they do so only AFTER they are elected. Steve Pearce is the only member of the New Mexico delegation who fits that description though veteran Heather Wilson can also raise money. We are reminded that Susana Martinez was woefully underfunded before her primary victory in 2010. Funny thing. She turned out to be a pretty good candidate anyway. Things haven't changed. Even an eminently qualified candidate like Janice Arnold-Jones must overcome an extreme funding disadvantage. Why is this the norm instead of the exception?

There is a certain irony associated with the entrepreneur community. Entrepreneurs tend to hold attitudes of fierce independence. Self-reliance is perhaps the most necessary mindset of the successful entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs don’t believe they have the time to be politically active. And they are usually uncomfortable with the mentality of collectivism that is associated with financing campaigns. “You take care of your responsibilities and I’ll take care of mine is the attitude.” Still, most entrepreneurs know that most of the time Republicans will place a much higher value on their efforts. And yet most entrepreneurs will not donate money to the campaigns of GOP political candidates.

Entrepreneurs are busy delivering products and services. They believe if they do their jobs properly customers will patronize them. Most entrepreneurs don’t hope Republicans will help their businesses. They just want the GOP to see to it that government doesn’t impede their efforts.

Here is a news flash for the entrepreneur community. Government isn’t going to leave you alone. Entrepreneurs should take note of the trends. They are subjected to an ever increasing laundry list of mandated waste. And unless they are in some sort of business that radical environmentalists or unions want subsidized, they will be under constant pressure from anti-business policies promoted by well-financed progressive Democrats.

On Monday morning the politically inactive business community will head off to work once again overwhelmed by the demands of survival mode. This is the great paradox of political fundraising. The independent and self-reliant mindset of entrepreneurs causes them to be reluctant to embrace the “collective” mentality necessary to make campaign contributions to pro-entrepreneur candidates. And their collective inattention to this critical detail has led to more and more elected officials financed by radical environmentalists and unions being in a position to destroy the economic foundations necessary for entrepreneurial success.

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