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Continuing the Momentum

So, what did this last election have to do with the previous election two years ago? At first, you might be tempted to say nothing. One swung wildly for the Democrats and the other swung wildly for the Republicans. But, you’d be wrong if you thought last Tuesday was not a continuation of what began two years prior. Both elections have sent a clear message that the citizens are unhappy with the status quo. The problem for the Democrats is that they misunderstood that to mean, America wanted to move in socialist direction. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Americans have had it with the greed, corruption and power grabbing of a political elite. Both elections boil down to the American public saying, “Enough is enough.” The backroom sweetheart deals between large corporations and their elected puppets need to come to an end. The selling of political favors to increase campaign accounts needs to stop. The raiding of public funds for personal whims will no longer be tolerated. The crippling debt approach to building larger and larger government programs with further and further reach into our lives is not what Americans want.

If Governor Richardson was the executive embodiment of all that was wrong in politics in our fair state, then Speaker Lujan is his body double in the state legislature. No matter which side of the political aisle you’re on, if you’ve got a shred of decency, there is nothing to like about the Speaker’s brand of politics. Let me elaborate.

Let’s start with my friends on the left – the far left. If you’ve positioned yourself as the champion of the huddled masses, you’re surely going to have a problem with a Speaker that pushes through a food tax at a time when ever growing number of everyday New Mexicans are struggling to feed their families. But, that is precisely what the Speaker did during the last legislative session.

If you’re someone who is sickened by the thought of a politician that would take campaign dollars cycle after cycle from a Bahrain owned company that makes its money by forcing unnecessary procedures on low-income children, chances are you’re not going to be a big fan of Speaker Lujan.

Maybe what gets your blood boiling is a politician who thinks nothing of taking on the role of a Godfather from a mob flick, and pressures others to do his bidding with little to no regard for federal or state law.

Maybe you’re a believer that the role of a deliberative body (read:state legislature) is to deliberate. Well, then you’re probably not going to be a big fan of Speaker Lujan.

Look, the list for reasons to remove Speaker Lujan goes on and on and on… Did I mention the housing scandal that went unpunished? Four years ago, some legislators tried to do the right thing and failed. This go around they need to give it another shot, and I think they’ll succeed.

Talk on the proverbial street has State Representative Joseph Cervantes  in the running. Now I might not agree with everything that Representative Cervantes would do, but I can tell you I really liked one thing he did. In 2009, he championed the bill which got conference committees opened. That’s a good thing and a definite departure from the status quo.  So, if the Democrats in the legislature won’t take the action to clean up their own house, I look forward to the Republicans helping them do it.