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.
Republicans across the country are savoring their coming opportunity to literally “remake the political map” with anticipated electoral gains that will put them in the driver’s seat during the legislative redistricting process, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The 2010 elections will determine which party controls legislative redistricting in light of data from the 2010 census. Governors play a central role in redistricting, the AP reports — and more than half of the 37 governorships up for election this year are open seats. Democrats are defending 19 of those seats, during hard economic times and mid-term elections, which traditionally disfavor the party in power.
“We are now tasked with remaking the political map,” the Republican Governors Association website recently declared. The RGA plans to spend an estimated $65 million on this year’s election races, according to the AP, compared to $50 million in planned spending by Democrats.
The party that controls a state’s governorship and congressional delegation controls the redrawing of congressional and legislative district boundaries. Those boundaries almost always favor the party in power, serving to improve that party’s hold on power for the coming decade.
The AP report identified New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming as states in which “Democrats could have a hard time holding open governorships.” Republican candidates are also mounting strong challenges to their Democratic rivals in governorship races in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Pennsylvania, the AP reported.
