NEW MEXICO

Ballot measure could establish salaries for state lawmakers

SANTA FE — Members of New Mexico’s Legislature are the only state lawmakers in the country who aren’t paid a salary for their service, but voters might change that as a referendum on giving legislators a steady paycheck gains traction.

A Democratic-sponsored initiative to provide New Mexico legislators with regular salaries earned its first committee endorsement on Jan. 26, over the objections of Republicans in the legislative minority.

The proposed constitutional amendment would scrap a ban on legislative salaries and create an independent commission to set and adjust future pay for the state’s 112 legislators. Similar proposals have stalled in recent years.

Salary figures aren’t specified and would be determined later by a nine-member “citizens commission on legislative salaries.” Salaries would take effect as soon as July 2026.

Currently, New Mexico legislators do receive mileage reimbursements for travel and a daily stipend toward expenses like room and board during legislative sessions. Those who serve at least 10 years qualify for partial retirement benefits at a subsidized rate through a public employee pension fund.

Advocates for legislative salaries in New Mexico say they are looking for ways to instill greater professionalism and make elected office more accessible to people of limited economic means.

In New Mexico, a three-fifths vote of approval in both the House and Senate would send the proposed constitutional amendment to a statewide vote in November.

A separate referendum proposal would lengthen the Legislature’s short 30-day legislative session in even years to 60 days.

ARIZONA

GOP boss quits after leaked recording with Kari Lake

PHOENIX — Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jeff DeWit resigned on Jan. 24 after he could be heard in a leaked recording offering a job and asking U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake to name a price that would keep her out of politics.

DeWit’s departure shakes up the Republican Party in a battleground state that will feature prominently in the battle for control of the White House and the U.S. Senate in the November election.

“There are very powerful people that want to keep you out,” DeWit tells Lake in what he described as a “selectively edited” recording made last March. “But they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is in a big way.”

He did not say who asked him to approach Lake but said they were “back East.” He asks her repeatedly not to tell anyone about the conversation.

“Is there a number at which—” DeWit asks at one point, before Lake interjects: “I can be bought?”

In a statement announcing his resignation, DeWit said he had planned to fight to keep his job until Lake’s team gave him an ultimatum to resign or she would release another, more damaging recording.

DeWitt, who was employing Lake at his private company at the time of the recording, said he didn’t intend to bribe Lake but was offering candid advice for her to sit out the Senate race and run again for governor in 2026.

Lake’s senior advisers, Garrett Ventry and Caroline Wren, said in a statement that “no one from the Kari Lake campaign threatened or blackmailed DeWit.”

The recording, first published by the Daily Mail, was leaked days before former President Donald Trump was scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for the Arizona GOP, which is in desperate need of cash, and the party’s annual state committee meeting.

DeWit was chief operating officer for Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns and chief financial officer at NASA during the Trump presidency. He was seen as a trusted and experienced operative who could bridge the bitter divide between Trump loyalists and old guard Republicans in Arizona, many of whom were brought into the party by the late Sen. John McCain.

UTAH

Bill bans diversity programs in government, on campus

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s legislature on Jan. 26 became the latest in the U.S. to pass a bill prohibiting diversity training, hiring and inclusion programs at universities and in state government.

The bill cleared the state House and Senate by wide margins and heads to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican who has said he is likely to sign such a bill into law.

Headed into the final year of his first term as governor, Cox has shifted right on “diversity, equity and inclusion.” After vetoing a ban on transgender students playing in girls sports in 2022, Cox signed a bill in 2023 regulating discussion of race and religion in public schools to ban, for example, the teaching that anybody can be racist merely because of their race.

“I can assure you, after this legislative session, it will not be happening in the state of Utah, these diversity statements that you have to sign to get hired,” Cox said in a Dec. 20 news conference.

Such initiatives are “awful, bordering on evil,” he added.

Under the Utah bill, universities and government would not be allowed to have offices dedicated to promoting diversity. They also could not require employees to submit statements of commitment to DEI.

The chamber’s six Democrats voted against it. Among them was Sen. Luz Escamilla, who cited statistics showing much lower college enrollment rates for Native American, Hispanic and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students compared to white students.

“Our numbers don’t match our actual demographics,” Escamilla said. “If Utah’s enrollment is not even close to where we need to be, we’re failing and this is not the solution.”

SOUTH DAKOTA

House passes bill to make animal sedative a controlled substance

PIERRE — The South Dakota House passed a bill on Jan. 17 that would make xylazine, an animal sedative that is being mixed with fentanyl and then used by some people, a controlled substance.

The measure, which passed unanimously in the Republican-held House before heading to the Senate, would establish penalties of up to two years in prison and fines of up to $4,000 for possession and use of xylazine. There are exceptions for veterinary use, however.

Xylazine in humans can cause health problems including difficulty breathing, dangerously low blood pressure, a slowed heart rate, wounds that can become infected and even death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year the Office of National Drug Control Policy designated the combination of fentanyl and xylazine as an ” emerging threat.”

The South Dakota Health Department and Republican state Attorney General Marty Jackley brought the bill in South Dakota. Jackley said Congress has been slow to act even as xylazine has “become a national epidemic.”

Police are encountering xylazine in the state, mainly in Sioux Falls, he said.

KANSAS

Jackie Robinson statue stolen from Wichita park

WICHITA — A prized statue of Jackie Robinson was stolen from a public park in Kansas, spurring a police search on Jan. 26 and outrage across the city of Wichita.

The statue honors the first player to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947. Surveillance video was released of two people hauling the sculpture away in the dark.

The statue was cut at the ankles to be removed. All that remained of the statue on the morning of Jan. 26 were Robinson’s feet.

Wichita police Chief Joe Sullivan said even more troubling was the statue’s theft shortly before Black History Month.

Robinson played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, paving the way for generations of Black American ballplayers. He’s considered not only a sports legend but also a civil rights icon.

The Wichita Metro Crime Commission offered a reward Friday of up to $2,500 for tips leading to arrests and another $5,000 for tips that lead to the statue’s recovery.

Sullivan said he hopes area salvage yards will contact police if the statue is brought in for money.

Little League nonprofit League 42, named after Robinson’s number with the Dodgers, paid about $50,000 for the model of him, Executive Director Bob Lutz said. The sculpture was installed in 2021 in McAdams Park, where the roughly 600 children play in the youth baseball league.