Congressional District 3 Candidate Forum Video Posted
Last week, the Rio Grande Foundation hosted a candidate forum between District 3 (the norther district) Congressional candidates Tom Mullins and Adam Kokesh. Incumbent Ben Ray Lujan was invited, but did not attend.
The video is split into two parts. Part one can be found here:
Part two can be found here:
Sign Petition to Support Albuquerque Businesses!
The Rio Grande Foundation, in response to the unfair attacks upon them by the Los Angeles-based Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, is urging supporters to actively visit businesses that have been targeted by the Union, to report which businesses are being targeted (for posting at ErrorsofEnchantment.com) and to sign this petition which will be released to the local media in early April and mailed to the union in Los Angeles (all contact information will be stripped from the petition before it is sent).
So, sign the petition and send the names of locations of businesses that have been targeted and thus deserve support. An initial list can be found here:
La-Z-Boy on San Mateo & McLeod
Healthsouth hospital on Jefferson and Ellison
Lovelace Women’s Hospital on Montgomery
Il Vicino at Alameda and Corrales
Hotel Andaluz (downtown)
Hotel Albuquerque on Rio Grande
Support Unfairly Targeted Businesses!
I’m calling for a “buycott.” Not a “boycott,” but a “buycott.” If you read the Business section of today’s Albuquerque Journal, you may have an idea what I’m talking about. You have probably seen the “shame on” banners around town in front of certain businesses. It turns out that an out-of-town union, the Los Angeles-based Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters is behind the “shame on” banners, but they wouldn’t even tell the Journal’s Rivkela Brodsky why exactly they are attempting to give these businesses a black eye.
So, I hope you’ll join me in this “buycott” by actively helping these businesses whenever possible. Patronize them and when you do, tell their employees or a manger if you can find them that you are actively counteracting the union thuggery. An active “buycott” will show these union thugs that they are not welcome in Albuquerque, but we need your help. The unions are not picketing 24/7 and they only picket once in a while — after all, they are hiring minimum wage, non-union workers to do their dirty work.
So, I hope you’ll help me compile a list of businesses that have been targeted by this out-of-state carpenter’s union. If you see these “shame on” banners around town, send us an email at: info@riograndefoundation.org and we’ll post a list of targeted businesses on our websites errorsofenchantment.com and newmexicoliberty.com. Thanks for your help!
Self-Serving Special Interests
I just loved Rusty Schmit’s article on the Environmental Improvement Board’s supposed “need” to cap carbon emissions. According to Schmitt, who happens to run a solar company based in Albuquerque, reducing carbon emissions to 25% before 1990 levels would have an undeniably positive impact on New Mexico’s economy. He cites a study from the liberal “Center for American Progress” to back up his claims.
I read through the CAP study and found nothing convincing to back up Schmit’s claim. Basically, it was a rehashing of optimistic national job growth estimates, most of which have been put together by supporters of wind and solar. What I’d like to know is this: “If the EIB cap of 25% below 1990 levels will be so good for the economy, then why the heck are we stopping at 25% below 1990 levels?” Why not really boost job growth by eliminating carbon usage entirely?
The fact is that carbon-based energy sources, coal, oil, and natural gas, to name just a few, are far more cost-efficient and, because they are cheaper and more reliable, they will raise our living standards far more effectively than a radical shift to “renewables.” There is simply no way for the special interests to refute the fact that doing something for 50% of the cost — and that is being generous to the renewable folks who will have to reach into far less optimal solar and wind sources to build necessary capacity — is worse for the economy than doubling costs.
Of course, when your business depends on government subsidies and intervention in the economy, you can do amazing tricks of logic.
Albuquerque Tea Party Meet and Greet Tonight
Join me tonight at the Albuquerque Convention Center (details below) for a candidate “Meet and Greet” sponsored by the Albuquerque TEA Party. Meet many of our local, state and national candidates personally. Ask them questions. Find out their positions on issues of limited government here in New Mexico and America.
The Rio Grande Foundation will have a table and I’ll be there to meet attendees. Stop by and pick up a “Free Markets” bumper sticker or tee shirt.
There will be tea (of course) and snacks with a cash bar for those who prefer stronger beverages than tea.
At this time, the following candidates have confirmed their presence tonight:
Allen Weh/Governor
Janice Arnold-Jones/Governor
Susana Martinez/Governor
Kent Cravens/Lt. Governor
Jon Barela/Congress – Dist. 1
Adam Kokesh/Congress – Dist. 3
Tom Mullins/Congress – Dist. 3
Spiro Vassilopoulos/Commissioner of Public Lands
Bob Cornelius/Commissioner of Public Lands
Jim Jackson/Commissioner of Public Lands
Wayne Johnson/Bernilillo Co. Commission – Dist. 5
Pat Morlen/Sandoval Co. Commission – Dist. 1
William Kurth/Bernalillo Co. Sheriff
Errol Chavez/State Auditor
Justin Horwitz/State Rep. – District 15
Clyde Wheeler/State Rep. – District 12
Tom Molitor/State Rep. – District 23
Conrad Jame/State Rep. – District 24
Tonia Harris/State Rep. – District 60
KIVA 1550 AM plans to attend and will interview supporters and candidates. The interviews will be broadcast through the following week.
I look forward to seeing you tonight!
$20.00 per person (can be paid at the door)
7:00, Doors open at 6:00
Albuquerque Convention Center
Ballroom “C,” West Building
401 2nd Street NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Does Size Matter?
Our arch-nemesis, Carter Bundy of AFSCME dismisses our work on New Mexico’s government over-employment problem by saying that large, sparsely populated states naturally have bigger government bureaucracies (as does New Mexico). Our study can be found here and the relevant chart is on page 3. I heard Carter say this on the radio today, so he’s not letting it drop.
First and foremost, Bundy, in his article above, uses incorrect data. His top ten list is from 1970, the left hand column (again, on page 3), not the right hand column which is 2008 data. Utah is not in the top 10 in government employment, nor is Idaho, South Dakota, or Montana. In fact, Carter’s argument that big (in square miles) and small in population states — aside from Alaska which is totally unique because of its massive oil revenues — doesn’t hold water. It may have in 1970, but that is a long time ago. For a full list of states by population density, check this page out.
Now among the top ten in state and local employment are West Virginia, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Sure, these are decent-sized states, but not the largest, nor the least densely populated. Anyway, New Mexico has a problem — the second-largest government workforce by population size in the entire nation.
Tell Mayor Berry What You think of a Taxpayer-Financed Convention Center Expansion
You may have read a few weeks ago in the Albuquerque Journal that Mayor Berry is again considering the construction of a taxpayer-financed “events center”/convention center expansion downtown. While I have made the case against this project repeatedly in the past — the target has certainly shifted — I’ll give the Mayor credit for listening to what average citizens have to say.
Go to this link and take a few moments to submit your comments pro or con. I certainly don’t think this should be a top priority for Albuquerque taxpayers, particularly in light of the long-term decline of the convention business and the $50 million deficit facing the City. So, take a few minutes to make your thoughts known.
A Costly Ride on the Rail Runner
Like the train has money to burn. How about blowing the annual salary of a teaching assistant on an overnighter to Raton, just to show off? Latest report
on the Great New Mexico Train Robbery at New Mexico Watchdog.org
Use States as Health Reform Labs
Haven’t talked much health care around here recently. That’s in part because things in Washington have slowed down dramatically recently. It’s also because the debate has devolved from one based on ideas to being nothing more than a power struggle with Obama and the Democrats attempting to push something, anything through Congress — even if they have to resort to “Republican” ideas.
Unfortunately, as long as the Republicans and Democrats keep trying to “solve” health care in Washington, they’ll continue to fail. After all, the Republicans have not exactly achieved a stellar track record on health care reform in recent years. The focus, as this recent article from The Politico notes, needs to be on those laboratories of democracy, the states.
Certainly, there are federal issues like Medicare and Medicaid and the tax treatment of care that need to be addressed, but true solutions to our health care problems are not “one-size-fits-all” and they won’t come from Washington. This is one idea that could and should be bi-partisan and would actually improve American health care.
Truth in Government!
Yesterday, I was at the Willie Ortiz Building in Santa Fe to deliver my comments to the Environmental Improvement Board. While meeting in the lobby with our investigative journalist, Jim Scarantino, we both simultaneously noticed this sign:
Rarely are government bureaucrats so honest! Unfortunately, as the Rio Grande Foundation has repeatedly pointed out, government truly is the “Career of First Choice” for all too many New Mexicans. Instead of addressing this over-employment problem during the current, special legislative session, it looks more and more likely that tax hikes are on the way. Only angry New Mexicans can inform their “representatives” in Santa Fe that the private sector, not government, should be the “career of first choice” for New Mexicans.
