ABQ Journal: “cannot afford four more years of the same”

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New Mexico’s largest newspaper, The Albuquerque Journal, backed GOP challenger Mark Ronchetti for governor in one of the most scathing ed-board endorsements written about an incumbent politician you will ever read.

A few highlights:

“Violent crime is harming, traumatizing and quite literally killing too many New Mexicans. Property crime, paired with the national economic downturn and pandemic closures, continues to hurt residents and business owners financially. Not enough of the record billion-dollar revenues from oil and gas has been invested in lasting infrastructure that will improve lives for decades to come. And four years into her administration, our governor’s promised “education moonshot” has yet to launch as our children, especially our minority and low-income children, fall further and further behind.

We simply cannot afford four more years of the same.
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Under this gubernatorial administration, homicides, suicides, retail theft and homelessness have skyrocketed. There has been an increase in crime nationwide, but New Mexico’s outstrips most other states. Efforts to address these issues have not been comprehensive and have been late in coming — a few State Police officers to help, an offer to buy Coronado Park, an 11th-hour invitation to the FBI to come help us.
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Lujan Grisham has been an absentee landlord on our border with Mexico, saying in 2019 “I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the Southern border.” She has yet to address the streaming scourge of fentanyl, and only as Election Day approaches has she embraced working with federal agents on crime.
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Lujan Grisham has contributed to the toxicity of our politics by name-calling those who have disagreed with her policies. In four State of the State speeches, she has never mentioned the contributions of the oil and gas industry or acknowledged its 42,000 direct and 134,000 indirect workers in New Mexico.”