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.
The hotly contested Democratic primary for Public Regulation Commission (PRC) District 4 Commissioner Carol Sloan’s seat was won convincingly by the only woman and Native American in the race, Theresa Becenti-Aguilar.
With 35.8 percent of the Democratic primary vote, according to unofficial Secretary of State returns as of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Becenti-Aguilar beat Hank Hughes (20.9 percent), former Gallup mayor and magistrate judge George Galanis (22.6 percent), and Andrew Leo Lopez (20.7 percent), an Albuquerque accountant with an MBA from Stanford University.
District 4 includes western and southern Santa Fe County, but skirts the city. District 4 also includes most of Northwest New Mexico.
Becenti-Aguilar of Albuquerque, a Navajo, has been a PRC tribal liaison, executive assistant at the Attorney General’s office and tribal relations liaison for Rep. Tom Udall. She will face uncontested Republican candidate Gary J. Montoya in November.
The PRC regulates the state’s electrical, natural gas, and water utilities, insurance industry, licenses ambulances and taxi cabs, and administers the state Fire Marshal’s office.
The Commission has been beset by numerous recent legal, ethics and regulatory scandals and controversies, including Sloan’s conviction April 8 on felony charges of aggravated burglery and assualt. Sloan assaulted a woman she believed to be having an affair with Sloan’s husband.
As a convicted felon, Sloan, the Commission’s only woman, cannot run for re-election, and Attorney General Gary King has asked the state Supreme Court to remove her from the Commission, because state law prohibits a convicted felon from holding office.
Governor Bill Richardson would appoint an interim replacement for Sloan until the winner of the November election takes office.
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 Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr., who represents northern and northeastern New Mexico, do not face an election.
Tularosa businesswoman Stephanie DuBois ran unopposed as Democratic candidate for PRC District 2, which covers eastern and southeastern NM. DuBois ran in 2006, but lost to outgoing PRC Chairman David King.
PRC District 5′s Democratic candidate and former Dona Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley ran unopposed.
