On October 10, the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee visited Las Cruces for a brief discussion with community leaders regarding the increase in crime, drug abuse and mental health we are currently plagued by throughout the state.
The CC&J is comprised of members of the New Mexico State Senate and House of Representatives and is a key committee that holds a tremendous amount of power in Santa Fe. Critically important bills, much like the competency, felon-in-possession and other bills intended to fight the criminals taking over our communities, are either born or die within this committee.
As such, the members of this committee played a key role in the abrupt adjournment of the special legislative session in July that many hoped would alleviate some of the issues business owners and residents in Las Cruces are faced with every day, including a revolving criminal justice system, repeat offenders, violent felons, crushing drug abuse issues and endless, expensive vandalism.
Every seat held by a member of the CC&J committee is up for election on November 5. In fact, the same is true of every seat in the state Senate and House. I hope that voters will recall that the governor, regardless of whether you love or loathe her, presented comprehensive and common-sense bills to alleviate some of the obvious issues within our state, and the special legislative session adjourned without considering any of those bills, after only a few hours and, of course, the necessary “feed bill” to get them paid for their “service.”
Of course, some elected members of both houses are running unopposed, free to continue their trend of inaction at our physical and financial expense. New Mexico must do better about identifying and raising up candidates that might breathe new life into our archaic system, a system that has seen New Mexico remain steadfast in last place of every meaningful metric. And in the meantime, voters this year must show the incumbents in Santa Fe that they work for us and we are tired of last place. New Mexico deserves it. And so do we all.