Editorial: Response to Mr. Baca's Attitude

I feel that he is wasting not only my time, but the state's time...

"Make no mistake about it. We need a tough, feisty Land Commissioner who will fight George W. Bush and his incompetent, corrupt cronies every second during their last two years in office..."

It doesn't come as a surprise that the left wants to avidly fight the right against policy, leadership and everything else. Rarely do either side agree, which is to be expected, but, what is it about this guy wanting to spend a majority of his time fighting the white house? It seems that for the office Mr. Baca is running, that his priorities are out of line...

Mr. Baca, please setup the next section for me...

"...What does the Land Commissioner do?..."

The responsibility of the Land Commissioner is to protect state land trusts. In detail and example, the land commissioner's office is responsible for permitting grazing on land trusts if the land is capable of supporting it. Also, the land office has power over public and private use of trusts. One of the biggest events for the land office was with Virgin Galactic and the spaceport. Either way you look at it, the Land Commissioner's office has an effect politically and economically.

In his running for office, Mr. Baca looks toward stopping President Bush and "his incompetent, corrupt cronies every second during their last two years in office"...

What does this mean for our state?

This means that energy prices regionally will continue to rise. In New Mexico there is an abundance of natural gas deposits. Will drilling for these deposits be stopped by Mr. Baca? Quite possibly.

If an effort is made by the White House to lower energy costs by either drilling for natural gas or mining for coal, it would be seen by Baca as a power play by the right to rape New Mexico of it's resources.

I have to ask, what good are those resources if we never use them?

Rising energy costs are one thing, but what about using land trusts for sectors of our government, such as the Department of Energy and Department of Defense?

By Mr. Baca's attitude toward the White House, it would seem that the DoD and DoE would have trouble expanding, which means lost jobs for New Mexicans!

Mr. Baca believes that he has a strong economical and environmental stand on the state's land trusts. In office, his goals are to bring money for our schools and to protect delicate state lands from President Bush and his evil policies.

"Remember, Bush ‘s vision for New Mexico’s public lands starts at the oil pump and ends at the gas pump."

This looks very familiar... Isn't this the left's argument over everything President Bush has done in his last and current terms? I've heard it all, "he's oil hungry", "the war in Iraq is over oil", "we're raping Iraq of thier oil", blah, blah, blah. It's all smack-talk without any facts and I'm hearing the same kind of talk from Mr. Baca.

Ugh. I press on...

All that was said in his speech on March 18 was all about him and how he was going to fight Bush and his band of cronies. Where is your policy Mr. Baca, why should the public vote for you? Why should the public vote for a liberal extreemist such as yourself that is hell-bent on sticking it to "the man"?

I've seen absolutely nothing come out of Mr. Baca that would move me to vote for him. In fact, I believe the current representation we have in the Land Commissioners office is doing a fine job. We are spending money to make money in the film industry. We scored huge with Virgin Galactic and earned leadership status in accommodating private space travel. And... Commissioner Lyons has cut office spending by an additional $26,000 dollars.

"Well, the present Land Commissioner doesn't do anything but spend taxpayer money talking about him self"

In psychology, they call this projection. Mr. Baca, this isn't what Lyons is doing, however, this is what you are doing, right now and what I expect you to very well do if ever you got into office again.

I've got plenty to say about Mr. Baca, Jim, and none of it is very pretty. I cannot stand power hungry politicians bent on fighting the White House! Where's the candidate who is making policy to work with the White House on battling rising gas prices, helping the local economy and protecting land trusts while balancing city growth?

I see none of it here with Jim Baca. What do you see?