One Woman's Viewpoint
Merritt Hamilton Allen, whose work is published previously in the Edgewood Independent, will also provide her columns to the Grant County Beat.
Gerrymandering may be constitutional, but it’s bad for voters.
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 13 October 2023 13 October 2023
The New Mexico Republican Party was dealt a surprise blow in their lawsuit over the state Legislature’s redrawing of the 2nd Congressional District. Republican Judge Fred Van Soelen, presiding in a courtroom in Lovington, ruled on Oct. 6 that while it was clear that Democratic lawmakers intended to dilute Republican votes in the redrawn district, the new map did not violate the state Constitution.
In other words, the new district is totally gerrymandered. It just doesn’t “rise to the level of an egregious gerrymander,” as Van Soelen ruled, citing the specific criteria set in a previous ruling by the state Supreme Court.
Speaking of chaos
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 06 October 2023 06 October 2023
Tuesday's vote to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House has been in the making since his painful election to the post in January. After 15 rounds of voting, McCarthy agreed to a new rule allowing a single member of the House, for any reason, at any time, to call for a vote for his removal. And that's what happened when he put the country ahead of his job on September 30 and brokered a compromise with Democrats to push through a stopgap funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.
The hardliner Republicans who brought about his removal, led by alleged sex trafficker Matt Gaetz of Florida, say they voted to remove him because they wanted a more orderly and fiscally conservative budget process and an end to continuing resolutions (CRs). This is truly needed.
CYFD: "in a state of chaos"
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 29 September 2023 29 September 2023
Despite the beginning of a limited dialogue with lawmakers and advocates, a letter issued on September 18 by the Kevin S lawsuit monitors shows that the state's troubled Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) has not only failed to improve from its sorry state but has actually gotten worse.
The monitors – called "co-neutrals" per the terms of the 2020 settlement of the 2018 lawsuit filed by 14 foster youth – describe a sort of stasis within CYFD that is grinding down the already overburdened staff. The most shocking revelation from their letter is that CYFD paused hiring of supervisors and frontline workers in May. Two rapid hiring events held since that pause did not include hiring of supervisors and senior workers.
Declaring an emergency in New Mexico is too easy
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 15 September 2023 15 September 2023
Twenty years ago, two key pieces of legislation were enacted in New Mexico. First was the Concealed Handgun Carry Act, which was introduced in the Senate by a Democrat, and passed both chambers with a strong majority. Second was the Public Health Emergency Response Act, also introduced by a Democrat, and which passed with only two dissenting votes.
Last week, Governor Lujan Grisham used the latter to overturn the former without ever convening the Legislature. On Sept. 8, the governor issued an executive order declaring that gun violence has created a public health emergency. Effective immediately, anyone carrying a firearm in public in Bernalillo County shall be subject to a civil penalty punishable by a fine of up to $5,000.
Why are we enabling an ethically challenged senator?
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 25 August 2023 25 August 2023
What would you think if a sitting state senator was also a lobbyist? And that senator drafted legislation that would ensure he no longer had to register as a lobbyist? Or that his lobbying clients are county officials, so his fees are coming from public funds? How about that he has employed a convicted child sex offender since 2005? Or has been the subject of a sexual harassment investigation that found more than one of the numerous allegations to be substantiated?
Only in the New Mexico legislature.
Santa Fe attorney David Yohalem filed a complaint against State Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-15) last week with the State Ethics Commission, alleging the senator violated Financial Disclosure Act, the Lobbyist Regulation Act, and the Governmental Conduct Act. This week, he filed an addendum with allegations of violations of the State Procurement Code.
New Mexico's redistricting lawsuit – still a lot at stake
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 18 August 2023 18 August 2023
It's August 2023 and we still don't know what our congressional districts will look like for the 2024 election. We can thank the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature for crossing the line and gerrymandering the 2nd Congressional District beyond recognition.
This week, an amicus brief was filed by a consortium including election reform groups, redistricting experts and a retired chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. The brief, supporting no political party, provided detailed research and data regarding the CD2 map as adopted by the Legislature and the fairness test ordered by the State Supreme Court.
Is it climate change? Is it inflation reduction? Neither.
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 11 August 2023 11 August 2023
President Biden came to New Mexico this week on a quick three-state junket to try to make voters care about the Inflation Reduction Act which is really about climate change. 70% of us know next to nothing about the IRA, according to The Economist. The President might be better off if things stayed that way.
The IRA is a trimmed-down compromise salvaged out of the Build Back Better behemoth which would have been our eleventy-seventh ginormous pandemic stimulus. Because Congressional Republicans and Joe Manchin bravely took a stand against wasteful government spending, it's merely a $391 billion boondoggle to nowhere.
But Merritt, I hear your cry. The IRA not only pays for itself, it reduces the deficit by over $300 billion over the next decade!
Why the indictments matter
- Category: One Woman's Viewpoint One Woman's Viewpoint
- Published: 04 August 2023 04 August 2023
This week special counsel Jack Smith issued the most serious indictment yet against former President Donald Trump: four charges relating to attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has responded predictably: "Massive Fraud," "NEW ELECTION," "Witch Hunt," etc., etc. The GOP, although with less enthusiasm, continues its codependent response for fear of losing the lunatic fringe it calls "the base."
The August 1 indictment essentially consists of four counts charging a former president for conspiring to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. This is a grave accusation that will have historical consequences for centuries to come. The proceedings have been made even more fraught by the relentless narrative slamming the Department of Justice as a purely political outfit, eagerly pounced upon by House Republicans, GOP primary candidates, and alt-right media.