Re: Convention Flashback

In Mr. Baca's world, the position of Land Commisioner is mostly about political bickering. Rather than focus on what he will do to help the state, Mr. Baca's message is that he will fight the President on abusing New Mexico public lands, whereas our current Land Commisioner will not. As it happens, I have not seen any of this abuse happen under Mr. Lyons, who Mr. Baca claims is an ally of Mr. Bush. But I'll ignore that.

The clearest message of what Mr. Baca would do is stop growth. He doesn't want population growth, or economic growth. He will limit Albuquerque's physical growth, thus making expansion an issue of density. He makes no mention of improving infastructure to suppot that, though. His plans to avoid drilling, thereby doing nothing to stem the price of gas. He will spend more, though, either in his own office (as recent posts have indicated) or elsewhere in the government (at this one does), thus stretching tax payers further still. But with any luck, he'll triumph. He will achieve his goals by crippling Albuquerque at its knees.