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.
New Mexico is one of only 16 states that still has a straight-party voting option on its ballots, and Green Party candidate Rick Lass says he will lobby to abolish it. A beheaded man was left hanging from an overpass in Ciudad Juarez Thursday, a gruesome calling card in the latest violence in the Mexican drug wars. A Las Cruces veteran is flying his American flag upside down to protest the election of Barack Obama.
Can the straight ticket be abolished?
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a movement is afoot to eliminate the straight-party voting option that critics say contributes to voter laziness in elections in New Mexico. But the paper adds that resistance is likely inevitable.
Green Party Public Regulation Commission candidate Rick Lass on Wednesday told The New Mexican he believes straight-ticket votes were the main factor in his defeat by scandal-scarred Democrat Jerome Block Jr. “I think probably more than half the people who voted for Block didn’t know they were voting for Block because they just voted straight-party,” said Lass, who said he plans to lobby to abolish the straight-ticket option.
Carol Miller, Independent candidate in the congressional race for the Third District, expressed similar sentiments to the New Mexico Independent as the tallies for straight party votes in San Juan County came in Tuesday night.
According to the San Juan County elections Web site, more than 21,000 voters pulled the straight-ticket lever for either Democrat or Republican, meaning they virtually ignored any candidate running outside of the two major parties. That’s almost half of the 46,014 total votes tallied in San Juan County, with 72 of 73 precincts reporting.
“I hope we eventually get rid of the straight party and I think that would really change things,” Miller told the Independent.
But as the New Mexican’s Steve Terrell points out, getting rid of the straight-ticket option has been tried several times in recent years.
State Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales, has introduced several such bills since 2001, all of which have died in committee without being heard on the Senate floor.
“Straight-party voting encourages people not to think, not to be informed,” Komadina said.
Democratic Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque agreed Thursday that Komadina’s defeat was aided by the straight-ticket option. “This is one issue where I agree with Sen. Komadina,” Ortiz y Pino said. “Straight-ticket voting doesn’t make much sense. Right now it cuts (Democrats’) way, but it could cut against us in the future.”
Read Terrell’s article for an overview of straight-voter abolition movements in other states.
Grisly violence escalates
A beheaded man was hung from an overpass in Cuidad Juárez Thursday in what was a gruesome display even for this northern border city that has long suffered drug-related violence, the Associated Press reports.
Shortly after the grisly sighting about 5 a.m., police found the victim’s head in a black bag in a nearby plaza, said state police spokesman Alejandro Pariente.
Pariente said the body was wearing black jeans, a red T-shirt and white sneakers, and was handcuffed. A banner apparently directed at rival drug-gang members was hung next to the corpse.
The victim’s father identified the 23-year-old man.
On Tuesday, a man wearing a pig mask was found hanged in a residence in Ciudad Juarez, the AP reported. Near the body was a message police believe was from drug gangs threatening to do the same to others.
Juarez, across the border from El Paso, has registered one of the highest murder rates in the country, with more than 1,000 people killed so far this year.
Veteran protests Democratic gains
Las Cruces veteran Lou Schrader is flying his American flag flying upside-down in his front yard to protest the election of Barack Obama, the Las Cruces Sun News reports. Schrader said he did the same both times Bill Clinton was elected.
“We have descended into a one-political-party nation,” he told the Sun News. “The Democrats have taken over everything. We’re going to be taxed out of existence.”
“It’s not that I’m a racist; I just don’t like this guy as an individual,” he added. “Some of the things Barack Obama said during his campaign has scared me to death, (such as) ‘let’s spread the wealth.’ Excuse me, that’s socialism.”
The Sun News added:
Las Cruces police showed up at Schrader’s home Wednesday to check whether the flag was a distress signal.
According to U.S. Code, … the flag shouldn’t be displayed upside-down “except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.”
