Treading Water: Martinez and Berry’s Failure to Govern Has Turned NM into the land of Disenchantment
January 28, 2013
New Mexico’s Governor Susana Martinez is stuck treading water. She has not yet learned how to govern. Martinez, relying upon Jay McCleskey for an approach to running the state, never transitioned from campaign mode to governance.
New Mexico is still mired in an economic vortex while much of the rest of the nation has shown steady improvement for quite some time. Martinez has yet to promote any economic development approaches that have the slightest chance to increase employment. Lowering the corporate income tax, her main economic issue for the current legislative session, benefits too few New Mexico companies to make a difference.
Businesses that tried to create well paying jobs here have waited so long for her administration to apply for federal funds that they literally could wait no longer. Those companies, including one ISPAC reported on, left for other states like Colorado taking those jobs with them.
Martinez also turned her back on any economic development projects begun by her predecessor Bill Richardson. It seems it was more important to McCleskey and Martinez to damage Richardson’s legacy than it was to create jobs.
New Mexico is losing jobs per capita at a very high rate. Only states with populations totaling several million more than New Mexico continue to have the same numbers of people applying for unemployment.
Disenchanted with their prospects, thousands of New Mexicans have left the state to find a better future. New Mexico truly has become the land of disenchantment.
Martinez is not alone in treading water. Richard Berry, Albuquerque’s mayor, also relied heavily on McCleskey to get elected and to set up his team. Berry chose John Garcia as his economic development director. Garcia, who did not do such a great job as economic director under Gary Johnson, has nothing to show for job creation.
Mesa Del Sol once thought of as Albuquerque’s version of StapletonDenver, the successful mixed-used redevelopment of the land that once housed Stapleton Airport, has for all intents and purposes ended with its developer Forrest City Covington trying to sell the land at fire sale prices with no prospective buyers waiting in the wings.
John Garcia was incidentally one of the three evaluators that McCleskey and Martinez brought in replacing the qualified evaluators initially selected by former state fair manager Tom Tinnin to assess the response to the RFPs submitted for the racino development.
Garcia had some state fair management experience and his scores he gave to both bidders were considerably lower than Chuck “I give the Downs a perfect score for operational expertise” Gara, Garcia still gave the Downs a better score despite the Downs having no funding lined up for the project, while Laguna had cash on hand to complete its project.
The Downs also submitted plans for a free standing casino rather than a racino, which appears to violate both state law and the tribal gaming pacts. Laguna submitted plans for a true racino as is required by law.
Garcia, though, apparently owed McCleskey for his high paying job in the Berry administration, gave the Downs the nod. It is doubtful that he could have done anything else seeing the extensive behind the scenes role played by McCleskey to ensure the Downs won the contract worth over a billion dollars.
Meanwhile, back to Martinez treading water as the ships pass by…
Yesterday’s lead story in many national news outlets covered that a bipartisan group of US senators has developed a plan for comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship. Several of the senators appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Instrumental in the deal was Marco Rubio, the GOP senator from Florida and likely presidential candidate for 2016. Rubio, unlike Martinez, understands that taking action beneficial to Hispanics and Latinos trumps being the “first Latina governor” when it comes to Hispanic outreach.
Martinez, who once told the Washington Post that she supported the harsh anti-immigrant laws enacted in Arizona, also attacked her GOP primary challenger Allen Weh for his supporting a path to citizenship. Since taking office, Martinez has fought unsuccessfully to take away drivers’ licenses from illegal immigrants.
She was forced to scrap the first part of her efforts when a court ruled that her summoning all immigrants with drivers’ licenses to Santa Fe was illegal. Martinez also refused any compromise submitted by the legislature on her demand that those drivers’ licenses be repealed.
McCleskey, who along with Martinez favorites Darren White and Pat Rogers, led the charge against the law allowing for drivers’ licenses back in 2007, launched an all out attack on Martinez’s behalf against legislators who sought compromise on the issue.
Martinez now finds herself far from the shore while others like Rubio motor past. Martinez is now talking about accepting a compromise on the drivers’ license issue. Treading water gets pretty tiring. Think of it as a life vest since those without help that tread water often sink--even those with popularity ratings above 50%.
_______________________________________________________________
January 28, 2013
New Mexico’s Governor Susana Martinez is stuck treading water. She has not yet learned how to govern. Martinez, relying upon Jay McCleskey for an approach to running the state, never transitioned from campaign mode to governance.
New Mexico is still mired in an economic vortex while much of the rest of the nation has shown steady improvement for quite some time. Martinez has yet to promote any economic development approaches that have the slightest chance to increase employment. Lowering the corporate income tax, her main economic issue for the current legislative session, benefits too few New Mexico companies to make a difference.
Businesses that tried to create well paying jobs here have waited so long for her administration to apply for federal funds that they literally could wait no longer. Those companies, including one ISPAC reported on, left for other states like Colorado taking those jobs with them.
Martinez also turned her back on any economic development projects begun by her predecessor Bill Richardson. It seems it was more important to McCleskey and Martinez to damage Richardson’s legacy than it was to create jobs.
New Mexico is losing jobs per capita at a very high rate. Only states with populations totaling several million more than New Mexico continue to have the same numbers of people applying for unemployment.
Disenchanted with their prospects, thousands of New Mexicans have left the state to find a better future. New Mexico truly has become the land of disenchantment.
Martinez is not alone in treading water. Richard Berry, Albuquerque’s mayor, also relied heavily on McCleskey to get elected and to set up his team. Berry chose John Garcia as his economic development director. Garcia, who did not do such a great job as economic director under Gary Johnson, has nothing to show for job creation.
Mesa Del Sol once thought of as Albuquerque’s version of StapletonDenver, the successful mixed-used redevelopment of the land that once housed Stapleton Airport, has for all intents and purposes ended with its developer Forrest City Covington trying to sell the land at fire sale prices with no prospective buyers waiting in the wings.
John Garcia was incidentally one of the three evaluators that McCleskey and Martinez brought in replacing the qualified evaluators initially selected by former state fair manager Tom Tinnin to assess the response to the RFPs submitted for the racino development.
Garcia had some state fair management experience and his scores he gave to both bidders were considerably lower than Chuck “I give the Downs a perfect score for operational expertise” Gara, Garcia still gave the Downs a better score despite the Downs having no funding lined up for the project, while Laguna had cash on hand to complete its project.
The Downs also submitted plans for a free standing casino rather than a racino, which appears to violate both state law and the tribal gaming pacts. Laguna submitted plans for a true racino as is required by law.
Garcia, though, apparently owed McCleskey for his high paying job in the Berry administration, gave the Downs the nod. It is doubtful that he could have done anything else seeing the extensive behind the scenes role played by McCleskey to ensure the Downs won the contract worth over a billion dollars.
Meanwhile, back to Martinez treading water as the ships pass by…
Yesterday’s lead story in many national news outlets covered that a bipartisan group of US senators has developed a plan for comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship. Several of the senators appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Instrumental in the deal was Marco Rubio, the GOP senator from Florida and likely presidential candidate for 2016. Rubio, unlike Martinez, understands that taking action beneficial to Hispanics and Latinos trumps being the “first Latina governor” when it comes to Hispanic outreach.
Martinez, who once told the Washington Post that she supported the harsh anti-immigrant laws enacted in Arizona, also attacked her GOP primary challenger Allen Weh for his supporting a path to citizenship. Since taking office, Martinez has fought unsuccessfully to take away drivers’ licenses from illegal immigrants.
She was forced to scrap the first part of her efforts when a court ruled that her summoning all immigrants with drivers’ licenses to Santa Fe was illegal. Martinez also refused any compromise submitted by the legislature on her demand that those drivers’ licenses be repealed.
McCleskey, who along with Martinez favorites Darren White and Pat Rogers, led the charge against the law allowing for drivers’ licenses back in 2007, launched an all out attack on Martinez’s behalf against legislators who sought compromise on the issue.
Martinez now finds herself far from the shore while others like Rubio motor past. Martinez is now talking about accepting a compromise on the drivers’ license issue. Treading water gets pretty tiring. Think of it as a life vest since those without help that tread water often sink--even those with popularity ratings above 50%.
_______________________________________________________________