Southwest
New Mexico Ground Report — How is new Governor Susana Martinez doing so far?
Dear HillBuzz,
Things are looking up in New Mexico after Governor Susana Martinez’s first week in office. After 8 years of living under the tyrant Bill “Arby’s Manager” Richardson, this change is welcomed by Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Governor Martinez is one of the “mama grizzles” endorsed by Governor Palin in the crowded field of candidates in the New Mexico Republican gubernatorial primary.
In her first week in office she fired all the members of the Environmental Improvement Board (EIB), a non elected group of political Richardson appointees, who had imposed a state cap-and-trade on New Mexico. The EIB moved forward on imposing greenhouse gas regulations after state lawmakers rejected a similar proposal during the legislative process. This move was picked up and praised by Rush Limbaugh on Thursday.
And she halted the environmental rules that affect the energy and dairy industries that were making it impossible to do business. They were also making it very to recruit and retain manufacturing facilities and emissions coming across the border from Mexico were being held against New Mexico companies.
On the night of her swearing, midnight Jan. 1, she signed an executive order for state agencies to identify the red tap making it difficult for businesses to operate and called for a new level of government transparency and openness.
Governor Martinez has been appointing Cabinet secretaries that actually have the experience in the departments they are leading, unlike her predecessor who named his political hacks to lead important agencies. For instance she named Hanna Skandera, an educator, who worked under Gov. Jeb Bush to help reform Florida’s failings schools where in just 10 years Hispanic students now outperform the average students in 30 other states. And Florida was able to do so by spending less per student than what New Mexico spends per student.
And just named as the Energy and Natural Resources secretary, former senator and astronaut Jack Schmidt, who eared his doctorate from Harvard in geology and one of the last people to walk on the moon, is causing the left in the state to shrill because he understands the reality of global warming and doesn’t buy Al Gore’s junk science.
She laid off the two chefs hired by Bill Richardson, who earned a combined $154,000 a year (to keep his 24-hour curly fries buffet bottomless, no doubt) . And cut the pays of Cabinet secretaries by at least 10 percent.
And that is just the first week. Next on her agenda is rescinding drivers license given to illegal immigrants by the past admin, in addition to balancing the budget without raising any taxes.
It is a new era of change in New Mexico and Governor Martinez is a solid conservative who will not back down.
—Buffy, the Lefty Slayer
Texas Ground Report
Dear HillBuzz,
Recap on meeting with Rep. Eissler on Texas House Speaker race |
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We truly appreciate Rep. Eissler’s meeting with us this morning for a discussion about the Speaker race. The room was filled with conservative activists from many area groups. The clear message to Rep. Eissler was not to vote for Joe Straus as Speaker of the House. The clear message from Rep. Eissler is that he intends to continue his support for Straus. Because so many of you wrote in today asking about our discussion, we have included the minutes from this meeting below. Despite the recent election of a supermajority of Republicans to the Texas House as a result of conservative activism, our representatives’ first actions show they think it’s still business as usual. It’s not. Minutes from the townhall with Rep. EisslerRep. Eissler began by discussing what he considered to be misinformation about the last session’s Speaker, Joe Straus. He stated that Texas is traditionally different from the United States Congress in that one party does not attempt to shut the other party out but assigns committee chairmanships to reflect the numerical makeup of the House. He also disputed the assertion that Straus was elected Speaker in 2008 by Democrats and 11 Republicans and claimed that the former Republican Speaker did not have a chance to win the position. The makeup of the 2011 Texas House is 101 Republicans and 49 Democrats. He asserted that no matter who is elected Speaker, any legislation that the Republicans want to pass in the House will be passed. He stated that the Calendar Chair controls the calendar, not the Speaker. He noted that they will not need any Democrats in order to meet a quorum. He alleged that the only problem that conservative legislation will face will be in the Senate, not in the House. Julie Turner asked that, in light of his arguments, did it matter at all who the Speaker was, and Rep. Eissler responded that it probably didn’t matter. He claimed that the identity of the Speaker matters to him only because he believes that he will retain his position as Chairman of the Public Education Committee if Joe Straus is elected Speaker, and he probably won’t if someone else is elected.He asserted that his being chair helped him better represent us. He was questioned by several attendees about his being able to contribute even without being a chair, and he stated that the committee chairs are provided with a staff to help them write legislation, while other committee members are not. The comments and questions of attendees reflected the overwhelming desire of all or nearly all for Rep. Eissler not to support Joe Straus for Speaker of the 2011 House. Rep. Eissler opined that Straus has the time to serve as Speaker, while he believes that it would be a financial hardship for the more conservative Ken Paxton, whom we strongly preferred. Maria Martinez, who is very active in support of voter photo i.d. requirements, border and immigration control, and all immigration related issues, respectfully described how Joe Straus and the committee chairs appointed by him disregarded the input of the people. The bulk of the immigration related bills were kept from the floor. Ms. Martinez said the she was told that Straus made a deal with the Democrats that no immigration bills would make it out of committee. She emphasized that she did not know if what she was told was true. In response to the attendees’ overwhelming opposition to Joe Straus, Rep. Eissler admitted that Straus was not the most conservative candidate for the Speakership, but he opined that he was the best. Suzanne Guggenheim stated that Straus facilitated the Democrats’ control of the House even though the Republican Party was the true majority. He gave the Democrats control of the calendar and allowed them to block immigration and voter i.d. legislation, among other bills. Another attendee noted that the Democrats support Straus, which is evidence of his refusal to adequately represent Republicans. Many attendees stressed to Rep. Eissler that most, if not all, of us want him to vote for a more conservative Speaker than Straus regardless of the status of his chairmanship position. Julie Turner thanked Rep. Eissler for coming and told him that we will support politicians that support our core values and that we will be watchful and support alternative candidates to run against representatives that do not adhere to those values of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, less spending and adherence to the Constitution. |
FOCUS GROUP: What political conversations came up at Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner this weekend?
While it’s still fresh in your minds, please chime in below with any political conversations that came up during Christmas Eve or Christmas Day celebrations with your friends and family this weekend.
* Did anyone say anything about Obama?
* What was said about Governor Palin?
* What was the mood towards Democrats?
* What are people’s expectations of the new Congress?
* Did anyone say anything interesting that made you think about the 2012 races?
* Were people talking about Obamacare and Romneycare?
You might not at first realize it, but the conversations you had with people this weekend were great focus group material. If you share them in this thread (or email them to us at HillBuzz@gmail.com), we can collect all these tidbits here and, together, in total, they’ll paint an interesting picture of the mood of the country right now politically.
It’s valuable stuff.
What were people talking about at your gatherings?
