Bingaman's Wildfire Assistance Bill Signed

Jeff Bingaman

Washington DC - President Obama today signed legislation U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman cosponsored to make it possible for the Forest Service to add more air tankers to their wildfire suppression fleet.  The bill was sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). While the U.S. Forest Service has made decisions regarding contracts for seven next-generation air tankers, those contracts cannot be awarded until after a 30 day waiting period. The new law expedites the contracts by waiving the waiting period and getting the planes into service as soon as possible. “In New Mexico, firefighters are continuing to battle several ongoing wildfires,” Bingaman said.  “I am pleased Congress and the President were able to act in short order to get this bill passed and signed so the Forest Service can move more quickly to secure much-needed air tankers,” Bingaman said. The Forest Service notified Congress on May 25 that it intended to award four contracts for seven planes to partially fulfill the government’s need for large air tankers. The Forest Service also requested that Congress waive the 30 waiting period. That was a week before two accidents involving Forest Service air tankers left one plane totaled and another likely out for the season with landing gear damage. Read More News New Mexico

Bingaman's Wildfire Assistance Bill Signed

President Obama holds lead over Romney in New Mexico

Barack Obama

KOB - President Barack Obama continues to hold a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney among New Mexico voters in the race for president, but a solid lead for the president means New Mexico could be out of the spotlight on the stage of national politics. New Mexico has been a critical toss-up state in recent presidential elections, the center of attention for both political parties, but now it looks like the state may be moving back to the dim shadows of the back row. It was not that way four years ago. With New Mexico's five electoral votes up for grabs, Democrat Barack Obama was here a half dozen times.
Ditto for Republican John McCain and sometimes with his crowd-pleasing running-mate, Sarah Palin. In fact, New Mexico was pretty much a toss-up in the last five presidential races, but not this year. "It's not clear that we're going to be one of the top states in terms of toss-up in 2012," said University of New Mexico Political Science professor, Lonna Atkeson. "That might really impact us in terms of the kind of attention that we usually are getting, and we may not be getting it this time." "We've gone from tossup to maybe battleground, where they'll still fight for it," said politics blogger Joe Monahan of joemonahan.com. 

Mitt Romney

"It'll be up to the Republicans to turn the trend around. If they can't, the president will not engage here as much as he would have." The latest Rasmussen Reports poll provides ample evidence of the trend Monahan talks about.  The poll of 500 likely voters across New Mexico shows Obama with a solid 16 point lead over Romney, 52 percent to 36 percent, with 9 percent favoring other candidates and 3 percent undecided. "The state is not solidly Obama in this case, but it's leaning more to Obama than typically it would as a battleground," Atkeson said. "He can spend that money in other states, where it really is close," said Monahan. "Right now, it is not really close. Can the Republicans make it that way? We still have time." Indeed we do - 209 days until Election Day, November 6, 2012. Read More News New Mexico

President Obama holds lead over Romney in New Mexico