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.
Candidates for three hotly contested seats on New Mexico’s powerful and troubled five-member Public Regulation Commission (PRC) will be selected in today’s primaries.
The PRC regulates the state’s electrical, natural gas, and water utilities, insurance industry, and administers the state Fire Marshal’s office. The Commission has been beset by numerous recent legal, ethics and regulatory scandals and controversies.
No incumbent is running for any of the three contested seats.
PRC elections are staggered to provide some continuity of Commission membership over time. Of the current commissioners, only PRC District 1 (Albuquerque) Commissioner Jason Marks and District 3 Jerome Block, Jr., who represents northern and northeastern New Mexico, do not face an election.
Find out which district you’re in using this interactive map.
District 4: Replacing Carol Sloan
Four Democrats seek incumbent Carol Sloan’s PRC District 4 seat, which covers parts of Santa Fe County and much of northwestern New Mexico.
Hank Hughes, Director of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homeless, has said he would ally himself with Marks to improve PRC ethics and transparency, and would use the seat to promote the development of renewable energy sources.
He is running against former Gallup mayor, state legislator, McKinley County treasurer, magistrate judge and art broker George Galanis, who says he’s been reelected to every office he’s held for over 20 years.
Candidate Theresa Becenti-Aguilar of Albuquerque has been a PRC tribal liaison, executive assistant at the Attorney General’s office and tribal relations liaison for Rep. Tom Udall.
Andrew Leo Lopez, a Albuquerque accountant with an MBA from Stanford University ran unsuccessfully for the Bernalillo County Commission and PRC, in 2006.
Sloan, the only woman on the PRC, cannot run again because of her recent criminal convictions for aggravated battery and burglary. She was sentenced to five years of supervised probation for the crimes, which stemmed from Sloan’s attack on a woman she believed to have been having an affair with her husband.
Attorney General Gary King has asked the state Supreme Court to remove Sloan, a Democrat, from her PRC seat ahead of the November elections.
Governor Bill Richardson would appoint an interim replacement for Sloan.
District 2: Replacing Chair David King
Democrat Stephanie DuBois is running unopposed.
On the Republican side, Land Commissioner Pat Lyons is running against former state legislator and retired magistrate judge Robert Corn to be the party’s candidate for PRC Chairman David King’s District 2. District 2 covers southeastern New Mexico.
District 5: Replacing Sandy Jones
Democrat Bill McCamley is running unopposed, while the Republican primary has four contenders: Doña Ana County Commissioner D. Kent Evans, former Ruidoso state legislator Ben Hall, businessman Jamie Estrada and businessman Robert Maez.
