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…
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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.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been interviewing folks who are running for governor, segments that are airing on New Mexico in Focus on KNME.
Today I sat down with Doug Turner, an Albuquerque Republican who worked on the campaigns of former Gov. Gary Johnson. You’ll see the interview when it airs Friday night (7 p.m. on channel 5. Set your DVRs now!), but I wanted to share two interesting tidbits. First: Turner told me in the interview that he supports comprehensive sex-ed. Second: He would sell DW Turner, his 24-person public relations firm, if he’s elected governor.
The first tidbit is really interesting. Comprehensive sex-ed means talking to kids about condoms and the pill. Comprehensive programs of course encourage kids to wait to have sex, but they are the polar opposite of abstinence-only programs, beloved by some Congresisonal Republicans who fought to have money for those programs included in the health care reform bill.
It’s interesting because it’s one of the ways that Turner, who grew up in Albuquerque and is at least 10 years younger than all of the other candidates, is a little more liberal than others in his party.
Turner says he’s very conservative—especially on fiscal matters—but his views on this issue put him at odds with one group he’s worked hard to align himself with: the tea party.
As several recent national polls have shown, tea partiers tend to share several things in common, including strong conservatism on social issues such as abortion. And sex-ed is in that family of issues.
Do New Mexico tea partiers’ views match those we’ve seen in national polls? We don’t know. Will tea party supporters make up a significant portion of GOP primary voters? It’s hard to say, but our informal poll showed that folks who went to the tea party rallies this year leaned Republican.
Turner said he would sell his business in response to a question submitted via Twitter. The questioner wanted to know if Turner would put his business in a “blind trust” if he were elected. Turner didn’t hesitate to say he’d sell the firm if he were elected.
It’s a firm he started in his apartment, just over a decade ago, so that’s not an easy thing to say. Then again, Turner said he hadn’t been to work in 10 months and there’s no way he’d have any time to deal with the business as governor, so it makes sense.
For more details watch the show on Friday night. I’ll also post the clips here.
