There is much to celebrate, particularly voter passage of the constitutional amendment last November to draw funds from the Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood education. The Governor was caught weak-kneed during her first two years on that one but with the defeat of arch-conservative Democrats in the 2020 state Senate primaries, her backbone stiffened and she helped bring it home.
But what about the dysfunctional Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)? A check of the legislative web site shows 83 separate pieces of legislation aimed at reforming the department or that would impact the long-troubled agency.
That is way too many to develop a coherent, comprehensive reform plan and some good bills will get lost in the shuffle. Chief among them is the bipartisan measure (SB 373) to employ an ombudsman (aka child advocate) with CYFD who would keep track of severe cases of child abuse and how they are being handled, among other things.
The Governor has rejected that as an overreach on executive power. At the same time her proposed reforms of CYFD are toothless and rely on bringing new administrators into an old and broken culture, even as most other states have signed off on a child advocate for their youth departments.
What's needed is her leadership or a leadership voice in the Legislature to bring forth an omnibus bill that would finally get at what ails CYFD. It's too late this session but when the dust clears and the inefficiency of what Santa Fe is doing is fully revealed, it will be time to revisit why we are failing.
Legislative progressives did a solid job on the childhood conny amendment and are at the top of their game when it comes to crafting an omnibus voting rights package. So how about an early childhood/CYFD package? That doesn't seem to excite them, perhaps because unlike voting rights and environmental bills, it does not attract consulting or campaign bucks from nonprofits, billionaires and other special interests that so often determine what the legislature will address.
Maybe to celebrate early childhood day today they should read out loud all 83 CYFD bills. That ought to drive the point home.
LEANING DEM
No longer a toss-up seat? So says Larry Sabato and his Crystal Ball out of the University of Virginia about New Mexico's southern congressional district. Dem Gabe Vasquez beat Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell there in a cliffhanger last year but Sabato thinks her chances of taking back the seat in '24 have dropped:
In the respective Leans columns, we gave the benefit of the doubt to a handful of incumbents, including Reps. Don Bacon (R, NE-2) and Tom Kean Jr. (R, NJ-7) on the GOP side and Reps. Yadira Caraveo (D, CO-8) and Gabe Vasquez (D, NM-2) on the Democratic. The former pair will likely have to create some distance between themselves and the GOP presidential nominee in their blue-trending districts.
Vasquez, his consultants and Sabato seem to be fully digesting the landslide win Vasquez had in the ABQ section of the new district. Do that again and show expected Dem muscle in populous Las Cruces and an incumbent like Vasquez is quickly in the "lean Dem" column.
Of course, Yvette, who is expected to run again, will beg to disagree.
SESSION VENT
Joe, our rocket scientists in the legislature are at it again. They want front license plates on cars to curb retail theft, even though most cars used in theft cases have no stolen plates or any plates at all. So how does this law help? in fact, many cars in NM have no plates and are still on the road!
Some legislators want the day after the Super Bowl to be a holiday. Why? To recover from hangovers? And some want Chili to become the state smell. I love the smell but I don’t need the state to tell me how good it is.
No wonder our children are not learning in school, more time is wasted on these folly’s than our kids. This kind of pendejada (crap) is what we pay legislators a daily stipend for and these same legislators want a salary to replace the stipend. This state will never move out of last place with these rocket scientists running the state.
Yeah, now you're blogging, John.
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(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023
(c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2023