New Mexico Political Journal

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New Mexico Political Journal Intelligent Political Discourse for the Thoughtful New Mexican. Fact-based, historically referenced, with electoral and demographic data.

The primary purpose of New Mexico Political Journal is to educate the people of New Mexico at large and the electorate in particular regarding the history, demography, and culture of New Mexico, as well as its electoral and political landscape. As our motto states, we desire to provide Intelligent Political Discourse—for the Thoughtful New Mexican. The principal objective in striving to achieve this goal is to bring about civic betterment and social improvements. NMPJ seeks to enlighten and inform the citizenry through an educational process that instructs the public on subjects beneficial to to the community, both as an electorate and as citizens in general. The method includes full and fair exposition of pertinent facts sufficient to permit an individual or the public to form an independent opinion or conclusion. We offer news and analysis of New Mexico government and politics, as well as national news. But we do so from a unique approach, not found in other media in our state, or most states—that is, we utilize critical and analytical thinking and logic to communicate the news of the day. While most modern journalism is based on the journalist himself or herself, we focus on the actual person or event that is being covered. Rather than preparing what we want to say in advance of a newsmaker's response, we actually listen to the newsmaker, or read his or her actual words and key off those, without preconceived notions of what our next question or statement will be. We are the listener and analyst. The political leader or newsmaker is the subject, not us. We believe the obviously simple—but continually overlooked—axiom that "words mean things." NMPJ's primary educational goal can be achieved through dispassionate analysis, grounded in a realistic, fact-based frame of reference that includes New Mexico history and demography, as well as legislative and electoral history.

UPDATE:  The Republican Party State Central Committee (SCC) failed to reach a quorum. With 537 members, a minimum of 358...
06/20/2026

UPDATE: The Republican Party State Central Committee (SCC) failed to reach a quorum. With 537 members, a minimum of 358 members in person or by proxy needed to be present. The secretary's report showed:
Members present: 79
Proxies carried: 84
This meant that only 163 members or proxies were present—195 short of the required number.

Despite not having a quorum, which would normally negate the consideration of any further business, Robert's Rules of Order § 40-7 permits organizations to set the date to reassemble. The SCC then voted to reassemble on Saturday, July 25th, at 9:00 AM, at the Isleta Hotel and Convention Center, 11000 Broadway Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM 87105.

THE END

Reporting From THE REPUBLICAN PARTY of NEW MEXICO STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING Republican Party of New Mexico at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Things don't look remarkably active at this juncture. But the State Central Committee meeting doesn't officially kick off for another hour and 15 minutes. Stay tuned to this channel for updates.

(Photos of the parking lot and the convention floor shown below.) NOTE: In all fairness, the photos were taken between about 11:00 AM and Noon, and many more people showed up.

New Mexico House Republicans New Mexico Senate Republicans The Republican Party of Bernalillo County Republican Party of Cibola County The Republican Party of Chaves County Republican Party of Lea County Republican Party of Grant County Republican Party of Los Alamos Republican Women of Otero County Federated Republican Women of Lincoln County New Mexico

NEW MEXICO REPUBLICANS IMITATE THE DOG THAT CAUGHT THE CAR—FORCING OUT THE CHAIRJust a couple of weeks ago, the anti-Amy...
06/09/2026

NEW MEXICO REPUBLICANS IMITATE THE DOG THAT CAUGHT THE CAR—FORCING OUT THE CHAIR

Just a couple of weeks ago, the anti-Amy Barela forces finally achieved their goal, culminating their year-long effort to drive the former chairwoman out of her position at the head of the Republican Party of New Mexico.

Now what? In many ways their triumph resembles the proverbial dog that finally caught the car after chasing it and barking at it for a solid mile.

We take no position on their efforts, always remaining scrupulously neutral. But we have to wonder if this project—which for many of its leaders and supporters has been nothing short of a crusade—has actually been worth the effort.

We shall now see—the party’s First Vice Chair has dutifully called the GOP State Central Committee to yet another meeting. It is to be held during the weekend of the 20th of June in Las Cruces, at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Museum.

And, who knows? Will the Republicans see some sort of political wizard show up — with amazing gifts of strategery and a vision for how the party will now be transformed, just in time to defeat Deb Haaland?

Will this meeting be the epitome of harmony, unity, and steadfast resolve to now go forward with some brilliant plan that will knock the socks off the Democrats? That would be a great outcome.

Or, will the meeting achieve a quorum? After all, that’s been a narrowly decided issue recently. We don’t know the answer to any of these questions. But then again, watching from a considerable distance, we’ve never known what the GOP plans to do.

At this point, only one thing is certain: the dog has caught the car.

Republican Party of Lea County
New Mexico House Republicans
New Mexico Senate Republicans
Republican Party of Cibola County
Republican Party of Los Alamos
The Republican Party of Bernalillo County
Republican Women of Otero County
The Republican Party of Chaves County
The Republican Party of Doña Ana County

GRAHAM PLATNER — MISSPLAYED SITUATION If we were running the Maine Republican Party, we would not be trying to push Grah...
06/05/2026

GRAHAM PLATNER — MISSPLAYED SITUATION

If we were running the Maine Republican Party, we would not be trying to push Graham Platner out of the race. We would have held on to the information for another month or so or until it was too late for him to be replaced.

Then, publish everything—spend big at that moment.

Having seen Platner outed now, the Maine Democratic Party may figure out a way to replace him with a cleaner candidate—and one that can then beat Republican incumbent U.S. Senator Susan Collins.

The New Jersey Republican Party made this same mistake a number of years ago when they made such a big scene about the corrupt Democrat Senator Robert Torricelli that the New Jersey Democratic State Committee forced him out.

Torricelli was way behind in the polls at the time.

What happened then?

Well, the Democrats brought former Senator Frank Lautenberg out of retirement, put him on the ballot in place of Torricelli, and — Voila! — Lautenberg immediately jumped ahead of the Republican nominee and went on to win in a landslide.

Missed opportunity for the Republicans.

It appears the same thing may be happening in Maine this year.

It’s similar to the blunder Trump made by endorsing California GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, thus destroying a real opportunity to have two Republicans finish at the top in the jungle primary.

Republicans cannot afford unforced errors—especially in a year in which we are likely to see a huge Democrat wave.

HOW TRUMP BLEW THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR RACEWe cringed about 6 weeks ago when we suddenly heard that Donald J. Trump had ...
06/02/2026

HOW TRUMP BLEW THE CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR RACE

We cringed about 6 weeks ago when we suddenly heard that Donald J. Trump had suddenly—and, well, rather dumbly—endorsed Steve Hilton for governor of California.

We believed immediately that the Republicans had just lost whatever chance they had. Here’s why:

1) California has a “jungle primary,” meaning everyone votes for all candidates, regardless of party affiliation.

2) The first and second place finishers—regardless of party—advance to the November general election.

3) There are 61 candidates on a two-page ballot.

4) Only two Republicans and six Democrats are serious contenders.

HERE’s the KEY POINT:

5) The two Republicans, Hilton and Bianco, were running first and second at the time of Trump’s blunder.

6) THAT scenario—with the Republicans finishing as the top two—leaving the November election between two Republicans—was the only chance the Republicans had.

(A Republican v. a Democrat in California is an
automatic win for the Democrat.)

7) As soon as Trump foolishly intervened, Hilton gained about 5 or 6 points, while Bianco fell to fourth, then fifth place. Meanwhile Democrats immediately moved into second and third place.

At that point the race was lost—because even if Hilton were to make it into the top two, he would face a Democrat in the fall. One on one. Bad situation.

In addition to knocking one of the Republicans out of one of the top two positions, Trump immediately made the Republicans’ campaigns about himself.

This, keep in mind, in a state where Trump is EXTREMELY unpopular. One really has to work extra hard to be this tone deaf.

Bottom Line: Trump lost the California governorship for no reason at all. But you can kiss it goodbye.

RIGHT HERE IN NEW MEXICO! YouTube CHANNEL EXPOSES SHOCKING MIGRANT CRIME Check out this shocking video from a new Bodyca...
05/29/2026

RIGHT HERE IN NEW MEXICO! YouTube CHANNEL EXPOSES SHOCKING MIGRANT CRIME

Check out this shocking video from a new Bodycam Channel about a 13-year-old girl being rescued from a Venezuelan migrant right here in New Mexico.

See the link in the comment below.

We encourage you to like and subscribe to this channel, as we understand that every week they will be posting more videos of the stories the media tries to hide, or bury!

GOP CHAIR REMOVED BY DEMOCRAT JUDGEA New Mexico judge on Wednesday ruled that Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy B...
05/27/2026

GOP CHAIR REMOVED BY DEMOCRAT JUDGE

A New Mexico judge on Wednesday ruled that Republican Party of New Mexico Chair Amy Barela must vacate her position, siding with Republican candidates who said she broke party rules by continuing to serve as chair while also running for office.

Thirteenth Judicial District Judge Cindy Mercer, (who, it must be noted, is an acolyte of former Democrat State Senate boss, Michael S. Sanchez) issued a preliminary injunction that prohibits Barela from continuing to serve as chair.

Oddly enough, Mercer also ordered party officials not to publicly support any of the Republicans running for office during the ongoing primary—which was not something that was happening to start with.

That gratuitous additional order of course hints at a somewhat mischievous aggressiveness on the part of Mercer in what otherwise should have been a case for jurisprudential neutrality— as opposed to the kind of over-the-top enthusiasm for intervention that she displayed.

THE DUKE and BLAIR are OVERJOYED

The eight-page ruling sided with the three Republican plaintiffs — gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, lieutenant governor candidate Aubrey Blair Dunn and Otero County Commission candidate Jonathan Emery — who said that Barela and other officials were breaking party rules and contributing to an unfair primary.

It is unclear why Rodriguez and Blair have invested so much political capital in this case whilst simultaneously running vigorously contested campaigns. Recent polls indicate that Rodriguez has no chance whatsoever of catching either Hull or Turner in the GOP primary. Though the race between Dunn and David Gallegos of Eunice could be a tight one.

OTERO COUNTY COMMISSION RACE AT ISSUE

Barela is running for re-election as Otero County commissioner. And a man named Jonathan Emery challenged her. It is extremely rare that incumbent county commissioners in Republican counties are challenged in Republican primaries. So most observers concluded that Emery was encouraged to run for the express purpose of being able to invoke what the RPNM attorney called an “ambiguous rule.”

The plaintiffs argued that Republican Party rules bar party chairs from running for office. They also alleged the party was unfairly picking favored candidates through implicit endorsement on the party’s page.

Mercer agreed with the plaintiffs on all counts in her ruling Wednesday. In the ruling, she said that Barela serving as both a candidate and party chair constitutes a conflict of interest.

“Her position as party chair gives her a higher
profile and may lend her an aura of greater party
legitimacy than her challenger,” Mercer wrote.

Mercer determined that not only did the Barela and other party leaders break the rules, but the party also has insufficient processes for handling alleged rule violations. As a result, the court needed to intervene, she wrote.

RPNM ATTORNEY CLEARLY DISAGREED

RPNM attorney Carter Harrison conceded at the end of a court hearing last week that the rule regarding whether Barela can serve as both party chairwoman and candidate is “ambiguous,” but he said the party — not a court — should retain control over resolving the issue.

TEXAS SENATE PRIMARY TODAY—Republicans will keep the seat regardless of who wins the GOP primary. We explain why. We hav...
05/26/2026

TEXAS SENATE PRIMARY TODAY—Republicans will keep the seat regardless of who wins the GOP primary. We explain why.

We have to guess that the best inside polling shows that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is on a glidepath to the Republican nomination today. Otherwise, we doubt that President Trump would have made such a bold endorsement of Paxton a week ago. (Trump does like to run to the head of a parade and pretend he was the drum major all along the route.)

Either that, or Trump is reverting to his earlier approach during the 2018-2022 timeframe when he would endorse based only on personal loyalty to him or based purely on retribution. (And contrary to Fox News reports, Trump has had many many of his endorsees go down in flames—as well as causing the loss of two Georgia senate seats in one cycle.)

So, it was good news to Republicans when early in this 2026 cycle, he started to take a more measured approach, including the endorsement of critics like New Hampshire’s John Sununu, who has a reasonable chance of picking up an open senate seat. And Trump was all set to endorse Cornyn a little over two months ago. Then that intention was leaked to the media, and Trump got really steamed.

It was at that moment that Paxton threw a “Hail Mary” pass by announcing that he would drop out if Senate Republicans would pass the Save America Act. This, combined with Trump’s anger about the leak, caused Trump to reconsider. In a certain sense, who can blame him? The Save America Act is about common-sense, very basic elections integrity measures, like Voter ID.

BREAKING THE FILIBUSTER PROCESS

The problem is that to break the filibuster would require several weeks of continuous “stand and talk” debate on the question. (This is not the same as removing the filibuster rule. Instead, this is the process by which the actual filibuster itself is defeated on the Senate floor.)

The fact they are not pursuing it is not the Republican Leader’s fault. Senator John Thune would go forward were it not for the fact that there are four or five Republicans who absolutely will not be a part of the 51 senators who would have to be on or near the floor at all hours while the “stand and talk” process continues.

If, for example, the minority party (the Democrats) were to call a “quorum call” at 3:00 AM and the Republicans could not produce 51 bodies, the Senate would be forced to adjourn. Obviously, this would disrupt everything.

PAXTON v. TALARICO—who, in effect, called God Himself a Tr**ny!

We hold out hope that Cornyn will surprise everyone with what would now be considered an upset win, but it appears that Paxton will win.

Does that mean Republicans will lose the seat?

No.

The Democrat nominee, James Talarico, has not exactly said that the God of the Universe is a “tranny,” but he did say that He was “non-binary.” Which is close enough for government work.

He’s also piled up a long and creepy series of comments about transgender kids, and he’s steadfastly insisted that biological boys and men be able to compete in athletic events against girls and women.

Our Texas correspondents have said the following:

“There are still enough real Texans to maintain the
seat, even if Paxton wins the nomination. Paxton
will win the election against Talarico by close to 10
points.

“For Paxton, all the smoking guns are now old
news. The smoke has blown away. He’s a crook—
no doubt about it. But Texans have already
decided he’s certainly no more “tainted” than
Trump, and he’s most definitely not as bad as
Talarico.

“When you’re staring at a Kamala Harris, a Biden,
or a Hillary, Republicans don’t really care about
Trump’s sins—and when you’re staring at a
Talarico, you don’t really care about Paxton’s.”

So, there it is. Paxton is likely to prevail tonight. But Talarico is already there as the Democrat nominee. Being creepy. Way too creepy to prevail in the general election in November.

SAM BREGMAN RESORTS TO LIES—AGAIN—He is no Stranger to Deceptive Behavior. Sam Bregman has, in our opinion, a remarkable...
05/19/2026

SAM BREGMAN RESORTS TO LIES—AGAIN—He is no Stranger to Deceptive Behavior.

Sam Bregman has, in our opinion, a remarkable history of deception and what—in any other setting—would be seen as criminal conduct. This includes the harboring as an "assistant" a child p**nographer, as well as involving himself in the theft of emails of political opponents. He has also, quite obviously in our opinion, openly lied to the FBI and other law enforcement about all of the above.

Back in 2011-2012 he barely escaped prosecution (along with at least one Republican co-conspirator) while his assistant was sentenced to federal prison for child p**n, and another co-conspirator served a year in federal prison for stealing emails.

Yeah, Sam met with both of them—many times—helping to coordinate the leaks of Governor Martinez’s personal emails to the media.

The federal court appeared to be fairly openly skeptical that charges were not brought against Bregman and one other of his co-conspirators. This of course raises questions about integrity within the legal circles Bregman runs in.

In any case, now Bregman has been caught lying over and over again about his opponent in the Democratic Primary for governor—claiming that Deborah Haaland flew on the famous Epstein airplane.

We are no fans of Haaland, and it’s very possible she may lack competence in many respects. But so does Bregman—in spades. AND—and this is an important distinction: to our knowledge, Haaland is not a big fat liar. Which Bregman is.

To our knowledge, Haaland has not gotten herself involved in conspiracies to steal emails from political opponents and leak them to the press. Bregman has.

We are amused by the current campaign perennial candidate Sam Bregman is running—holding himself out to be a cowboy, a westerner, a solid citizen, an honest man, and an intelligent, hardworking, law-abiding citizen.

He is none of those things. Okay, maybe he’s a citizen. He moved to New Mexico from Washington, DC where he was born and raised. Then he started running for office.

He first ran for Commissioner of Public Lands in a Democratic primary against Ray Powell. Bregman got 25% of the vote. Then he ran for mayor of Albuquerque. He finished fourth. Then he ran for the Democratic nomination for Congress in CD1. He got beat again. Finally, a couple of years ago, he got Governor Grisham to appoint him to an office—District Attorney for Bernalillo County. (Bad idea.)

In that office, he’s done nothing to stop the rampant crime in Bernalillo County, which leads the nation in car theft and is in the top 10 in almost every area of violent crime. In fact, arguably, things have gotten worse.

Bregman started his campaign trying to act as though he is a “moderate,” which is something he’s never been—probably because he was motivated to be able to secure $500,000 in contributions from misguided oil and gas interests and possibly other Republicans.

Then, he realized he had screwed up. Advisors warned him that, as his posturing became known, his deception wouldn’t really gain him many votes in the predominantly Woke Democratic primary.

So, he quickly jumped back to his more true nature—he then started running about $1 million dollars worth of ads bragging to everyone about how he would "arrest ICE agents," and not cooperate at all with law enforcement when it comes to illegal migrants.

In other words, he made it known that he is just as Woke as Haaland and the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

All he accomplished was to reinforce his entire political profile—which is that of a deceiver, a thief, and a liar.

No, we are not enthusiastic about Deb Haaland. Not by any stretch. But she’s no Sam Bregman. And Sam Bregman is no New Mexican. He deserves to be buried in a landslide. We hope that happens.

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Roswell, NM
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