I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
It took the New Mexico Republican Party most of Thursday before it rose to the challenge of interpreting last weekend’s boat accident at Elephant Butte State Park, but what it lacked in urgency–Wonkette in Washington blogged on the story Thursday morning–the party more than made up in over-wrought rhetoric that showed an unsteady grasp of the facts.
The press release sent out by the party is, of course, meant to exploit the current unpleasantness buffeting the governor; mainly a host of media stories about the accident and why the governor’s party left the scene so soon after the incident.
Here’s an excerpt:
“This week news broke that Bill Richardson and his entourage fled the scene of a boating accident which reportedly caused more than $10,000 in damages. The negligence which caused the crash and the governor’s seemingly dismissive response, serve as a vivid metaphor for the way Bill Richardson has handled his responsibilities during the last six years as the state’s chief executive.”
“It is unfortunate that Governor Richardson and his companions decided to flee the scene of an accident rather than to stick around and take responsibility for their actions— this seems like a basic human reaction,” noted GOP State Party Chairman Harvey Yates Jr.
Here it may be appropriate to remind the reader that it was Richardson’s chief of staff, Brian Condit, and not the governor, who piloted the houseboat that sideswiped one houseboat and then smashed into another.
Yates goes on to wax poetically as he paints a picture of the ship of state stranded on the shoals due to six years of Richardson and his administration.
“The image of a boat running off course with members of the Richardson team behind the wheel is a perfect analogy for the economic and reputational damage that this administration has inflicted upon our state,” Yates said. “The Richardson-Denish team inherited a budget surplus of over $400 million and yet this administration’s legacy will be tainted by: fiscal ineptitude and runaway spending which resulted in a $400 million budget shortfall; a federal pay-to-play investigation; and national scrutiny of the administration’s investment practices where political insiders seemed to reap the benefits of state contracts.”
“New Mexicans aren’t interested in seeing more of the same failed and reckless policies championed by the Richardson-Denish administration; we’ll need to elect a new captain who can steer the state toward economic recovery,” Yates concluded.
