Back to the Land and Paychecks for Lawmakers

As we told you last week in this space, you’re going to see a parade of candidates on New Mexico in Focus between now and Election Day on Nov. 3. We’ve got a couple of them for you plus a few other flavors for this week’s show — more on those in due course.

The state commissioner of public lands may not be the ballot line that catches your eye first, but it’s a key position in New Mexico, given the 22 million acres it oversees. Before all you nerds out there point out the distinction, I’ll do it for you: That’s 9 million surface acres and another 13 million subsurface, or mineral, acres. (We love nerds around here, by the way, given that we are, ourselves, nerds.)

Republican Michael Perry spent years as a game warden and took a turn as assistant land commissioner. He’s facing off against Juan De Jesus Sanchez III — a former ranger at Cochiti Lake for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, vice chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico and political director for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.

Our trusty politics correspondent, Gwyneth Doland, is on hand to interrogate Perry’s and Sanchez’s cases to lead the Land Office.

As is always the case with general election ballots, you’re asked to decide on more than a bunch of head-to-head contests for various offices. The powers that be have proposed four changes to the New Mexico Constitution this time around. One of them concerns a question that’s been around for decades: Should a chunk of your tax dollars go toward making New Mexico the last state in the nation to pay legislators a salary for their work in Santa Fe?

Serious cash has poured in via political action committees to convince you to darken the bubble on your ballot on both sides of the debate. To lay out the pros and cons, I brought in Oriana Sandoval, CEO of the Center for Civic Policy — who wants you to vote “yes” on Constitutional Amendment 4 — and Republican former state Sen. Mark Boitano, who would prefer you didn’t.

Ah, respectful disagreement — an NMiF staple.

We close this week by giving you a break from the dark, concrete jungle that is our studio. Freelance journalist and NMiF Correspondent Elizabeth Miller takes us to La Joya, about an hour south of Albuquerque, to check in on the progress of a 15-year biocontrol project that pits beetles against the invasive, thirsty tamarisk plant — also known as salt cedar — in an effort to give native species a better chance to thrive.

Full disclosure: We hadn’t necessarily planned to feature Elizabeth’s piece in the same show as the two land commissioner candidates when we began the reporting process with her months back, but sign us up for happy accidents in 2026.

Next week, we’ve got both candidates in the race many New Mexicans and, indeed, many Americans will be watching with the keenest interest: Congressional District 2. Don’t skip this week’s show, though — it’s a good one.

– Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer