New Mexico
2024 Primary Election Guide: N.M. House of Representatives – Valencia County News-Bulletin
Tanya Mirabal Moya
Tanya Mirabal Moya (I)
Age: 49
Occupation: Physics teacher at Belen High School
Education: Bachelors of Science in health and wellness from Kaplan University (Purdue Global); Master of Science in sports management; athletic administration and coaching from Liberty University
Previous elected political offices: Current state representative for District 7
Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a felony or DWI in New Mexico or in another state? “No.”
- What in your experience, education, etc., makes you qualified for this position?
“It’s been too long for people who have never worked in a classroom to make decisions about how we educate our students. As a current teacher, I am that greatly needed voice in our state roundhouse for our students, educators, and our education system throughout the state of New Mexico.
- What do you hope to work on, or see passed, at the Legislature to address safety issues in our community?
“Going after criminals and not law-abiding citizens who are trying to protect themselves. By mandating tougher penalties for convicted felons who commit a crime with a gun, along with bail reform that would help keep violent criminals behind bars instead of on our streets.”
- Every municipality and county struggles with paying the high cost of infrastructure projects. How should the state address growing and costly infrastructure needs?
“The state should address the rising cost of infrastructure projects by making it easier to do business in New Mexico. This includes reducing or eliminating the state’s GRT (I have put forward a bill to do so for small businesses), as these costs are ultimately passed on to consumers.”
- What can the Legislature do to help address the teacher shortage in New Mexico?
“Create a licensure program that allows experienced individuals to teach higher level classes part-time, so they don’t have to leave their high paying jobs. Create a fourth tier in the teacher license that is for a master teacher, who manages several classrooms and teachers in their department.”
Brian G. Baca
Brian Baca (I)
Age: 53
Occupation: Educator
Education: BA, MA University of New Mexico
Previous elected political offices: N.M. House of Representatives
Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a felony or DWI in New Mexico or in another state? “No.”
- What in your experience, education, etc., makes you qualified for this position?
“I have served three sessions in the N.M. House of Representatives. I serve on the education committee, which sets policy for our pre-k through higher education institutions. I serve on the House appropriations committee which sets the budget and funding for the entire state of New Mexico.”
- What do you hope to work on, or see passed, at the Legislature to address safety issues in our community?
“We need to make tougher laws for violent and repeat offenders. We need to end the catch and release practice that puts criminals back on the streets. Finally, we need to adequately fund our first responders in our communities to recruit and retain personnel.”
- Every municipality and county struggles with paying the high cost of infrastructure projects. How should the state address growing and costly infrastructure needs?
“As a member of the House appropriations we have worked to address this serious need. We need to invest a larger portion of our budget surplus to infrastructure and needs of our community (roads, health care, police and fire departments). This investment will bring a higher return on our investment and impact the lives of all citizens.”
- What can the Legislature do to help address the teacher shortage in New Mexico?
“As an educator and a member of the education committee, I am on the front lines of funding our schools and improving education. As a member of the House appropriations committee, I advocated to put back the funding that had been cut to support the educator fellows and teacher residency programs that were created specifically to address our teacher shortage.”
Michelle Paulene Abeyta
Michelle Paulene Abeyta
Age: 40
Occupation: Lawyer
Education: B.A. in Native American Studies and Geography from University of New Mexico, J.D. with certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy from University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
Previous elected political offices: To’hajiilee Community School Board of Education
Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a felony or DWI in New Mexico or in another state? “No.”
- What in your experience, education, etc., makes you qualified for this position?
“As a lifelong resident of District 69, I know what it’s like to drive 100 miles for basic needs. My public service includes the To’hajiilee Community School Board of Education, National Native American Bar Association Board, and more I hold a J.D. with a certificate in Indigenous Peoples Law & Policy.”
- What do you hope to work on, or see passed, at the Legislature to address safety issues in our community?
“I want to see paid family and medical leave pass through the Legislature. I will support legislation that will provide critical improvements to District 69’s infrastructure, help with projects like uranium cleanup efforts, and bolster educational opportunities for children and adults alike.
- Every municipality and county struggles with paying the high cost of infrastructure projects. How should the state address growing and costly infrastructure needs?
“Children on school buses shouldn’t have to drive on roads with potholes so big I can sit in them. Community members have been advocating to fix these roads for years. District 69 needs a voice that will prioritize critical infrastructural improvements to positively and tangibly change our quality of life.”
- What can the Legislature do to help address the teacher shortage in New Mexico?
“We need to provide top-notch benefits, competitive pay, safe working environments, and additional support in the classroom for teachers wherever needed. As a member of my local school board, I helped secure millions in funding to improve our community school. I’ll bring that same level of advocacy to the Legislature.”
Stanley E. Michael
Stanley E. Michael
Age: 55
Occupation: Coal miner
Education: High school graduate
Previous elected political offices: None
Have you ever been arrested or convicted of a felony or DWI in New Mexico or in another state? “No.”
- What in your experience, education, etc., makes you qualified for this position?
“I am a strong advocate of the community. I have served 10 years in corrections, three years as director of Adult Community Corrections program, one summer at CYFD, three summers at the state highway department, 11 years in 4-H, and 15 years coaching youth, middle school, and high school baseball, basketball and football.”
- What do you hope to work on, or see passed, at the Legislature to address safety issues in our community?
“Above all, a three strikes law to reduce crime, followed by a way to keep criminals off the streets as they await trial. We need to do better at screening immigrants to keep criminals out of New Mexico and we need to improve rehabilitation efforts.”
- Every municipality and county struggles with paying the high cost of infrastructure projects. How should the state address growing and costly infrastructure needs?
“Two federal laws have already passed to help with infrastructure. They are the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act, which support communities by entering contracts and agreements on projects that would help to support our communities. Since New Mexico has a surplus, we should be able to provide matching funds to get more done.”
- What can the Legislature do to help address the teacher shortage in New Mexico?
“Talk to and listen to our educators. Really listen. They will be the best experts on what can be done and what is needed in our classrooms. They should be able to provide ideas on how to attract and retain educators to our state.”
Editor’s note: Incumbents N.M. Reps. Gail Armstrong (R-District 49) and Harry Garcia (D-District 69) are both running for reelection but did not return their answers to the Valencia County News-Bulletin’s questionnaire.
VOTING INFORMATION
Absentee by mail
The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the June primary election is Tuesday, May 21. Absentee ballots can be requested by visiting nmvote.org
If they are not returned by mail, absentee ballots can be returned in person at the following locations by 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 4:
- Valencia County Clerk’s Office, 444 Luna Ave., Los Lunas
- Any of the early in-person or alternate early voting locations.
- Any of the 15 Voting Convenience Centers open on Election Day throughout the county.
- Any of the three secure absentee ballot drop boxes
- Belen Community Center, 305 Eagle Lane, Belen
- Bosque Farms Public Library, 1455 W. Bosque Loop, Bosque Farms
- Valencia County Administration Building, 444 Luna Ave., Los Lunas
Early, in-person voting
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Friday, May 17, Monday through Saturday
Valencia County Administration Building, 444 Luna Ave., Los Lunas
Alternate, early voting
10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, May 18, through Saturday, June 1, Monday through Saturday
- Belen Community Center, 305 Eagle Lane, Belen,
- Bosque Farms Public Library, 1455 W. Bosque Loop, Bosque Farms
- Pueblo of Isleta Veterans Center, 4001 N.M. 314, Isleta
- Valencia County Administration Building, 444 Luna Ave., Los Lunas
Voting Convenience Centers
7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 4
- Ann Parish Elementary, 112 Meadow Lake Road, Meadow Lake
- Belen Community Center, 305 Eagle Lane, Belen
- Belen Public Library, 333 Becker Ave. Belen
- Bosque Farms Public Library, 1455 W. Bosque Loop, Bosque Farms
- Century High School, 32 Sun Valley Road, Los Lunas
- Del Rio Senior Center, 351 Rio Communities Blvd., Rio Communities
- Don Jose Dolores Cordova Cultural Center, 426 Jarales Road Jarales
- El Cerro Mission Community Center, 309 El Cerro Mission Road, El Cerro
- Logsdon Hall, 19676 N.M. 314, Los Chavez
- Los Lunas Schools Administration, 119 Luna Ave., Los Lunas
- Meadow Lake Community Center, 100 Cuerro Lane, Meadow Lake
- Pueblo of lsleta Veterans Center, 4001 N.M. 314, Isleta
- Tomé Adelino Fire Department Valley Station, 2755 N.M. 47, Tomé
- Town of Peralta Town Hall , 90A Molina Road, Peralta
- UNM-Valencia Workforce Training Center, 1020 Huning Ranch, Los Lunas
The Valencia County News-Bulletin is a locally owned and operated community newspaper, dedicated to serving Valencia County since 1910 through the highest journalistic and professional business standards. The VCNB is published weekly on Thursdays, including holidays both in print and online.
The New Mexico supreme court late on Thursday ruled against several local ordinances in the state that aim to restrict distribution of the abortion pill.
In a unanimous opinion, the court said the ordinances invaded the legislature’s authority to regulate reproductive care.
“Our legislature granted to counties and municipalities all powers and duties not inconsistent with the laws of New Mexico. The ordinances violate this core precept and invade the legislature’s authority to regulate access to and provision of reproductive healthcare,” the court wrote in its opinion by the justice Shannon Bacon.
It declined to address whether the ordinances violated the state’s constitutional protections.
Abortion is legal in New Mexico, which has become a destination for women seeking abortions from Texas, especially, and other states that have banned the procedure following the US supreme court ruling in 2022 ending a woman’s constitutional right to abortion and handing powers over the issue to individual states.
Following that ruling, leaders of New Mexico’s Roosevelt and Lea counties and the towns of Clovis and Hobbs, all on the Texas border, passed ordinances seeking to stop abortion clinics from receiving or sending mifepristone, a pill taken with another drug to perform a medication abortion, and other abortion-related materials in the mail. Medication abortions account for more than half of all US abortions. Last June the supreme court upheld access to the drugs.
The ordinances invoked the federal Comstock Act, a 19th-century “anti-vice” law against mailing abortifacients, which are drugs that induce abortion, and said that clinics must comply with the law.
Under Roosevelt county’s ordinance, any person other than a government employee could bring a civil lawsuit and seek damages of at least $100,000 for each violation of the Comstock Act.
The New Mexico supreme court admonished this, saying that creating a private right of action and damages award was “clearly intended to punish protected conduct”.
The state attorney general, Raúl Torrez, praised the court’s ruling on Thursday, saying that the core of the argument was that state laws pre-empted any action by local governments to engage in activities that would infringe on the constitutional rights of citizens.
“The bottom line is simply this: abortion access is safe and secure in New Mexico,” he said. “It’s enshrined in law by the recent ruling by the New Mexico supreme court and thanks to the work of the New Mexico legislature.”
The New Mexico house speaker, Javier Martínez, called access to healthcare a basic fundamental right in New Mexico.
“It doesn’t take a genius to understand the statutory framework that we have. Local governments don’t regulate healthcare in New Mexico. It is up to the state,” the Albuquerque Democrat said.
Opposition to abortion runs deep in New Mexico communities along the border with Texas, however, which has one of the most restrictive bans in the US.
But Democrats, who control every statewide elected office in New Mexico and hold majorities in the state house and senate, have moved to shore up access to the service.
In 2021, the New Mexico legislature repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies, ensuring access to abortion even after the Roe v Wade reversal.
And in 2023, the Democratic New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, signed a bill that overrides local ordinances aimed at limiting abortion access and enacted a shield law that protects abortion providers from investigations by other states.
In September, construction began on a state-funded reproductive health and abortion clinic in southern New Mexico that will cater to local residents and people who travel from neighboring states.
The new clinic should open in 2026 to provide services ranging from medical and procedural abortions to contraception, cervical cancer screenings and education about adoptions.
It was not immediately clear whether the ruling can be appealed in federal court. The New Mexico supreme court opinion explicitly declined to address conflicts with federal law, basing its decision solely on state provisions.
The Texas-based attorney Jonathan Mitchell, a former Texas solicitor general and architect of that state’s strict abortion ban, said he looked forward “to litigating these issues in other states and bringing the meaning of the federal Comstock Act to the supreme court of the United States”.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting
Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ case dismissed by judge over ‘suppressed’ evidence
Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charge was abruptly dismissed with prejudice. He cannot be retried for involuntary manslaughter.
Alec Baldwin, whose involuntary manslaughter case was dismissed last summer over suppressed evidence, is taking the fatal 2021 “Rust” set shooting back to the court room.
The actor on Thursday filed a civil lawsuit in Santa Fe County District Court alleging prosecutors violated his civil rights and defamed him. The defendants named in the filing included special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, personnel within the district attorney’s office for New Mexico’s First Judicial District and members of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
The complaint detailed Baldwin’s claims that prosecutors and investigators “conspired to procure a groundless indictment against Baldwin” by not following the proper criminal process and also intentionally kept exculpatory evidence from the defense.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Morrissey said, “In October 2023 the prosecution team became aware that Mr. Baldwin intended to file a retaliatory civil lawsuit. We look forward to our day in court.”
USA TODAY has reached out to lawyers for Baldwin as well as the DA’s office for comment. The sheriff’s office declined to comment.
Last summer, Baldwin’s lawyer Alex Spiro forewarned the sheriff’s office and prosecutor in letters sent to the parties on July 12 to preserve evidence for “potential for future litigation,” according to copies obtained at the time by USA TODAY.
The actor and producer’s attorney advised Morrissey and Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza to preserve all “devices, hard drives, emails, text messages, and other electronic communications” in addition to “documents, records, electronically stored information (‘ESI’), and other materials and data existing in any form whatsoever, that are actually or potentially relevant or relate in any way to the investigation(s) and/or prosecution(s) conducted by the State in connection with the death of Halyna Hutchins.”
The filing comes nearly six months after First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer abruptly dismissed the criminal case against Baldwin on the grounds that prosecutors and law enforcement withheld evidence that might be favorable to the actor’s defense. In October, she upheld her dismissal; though prosecutors appealed the judge’s decision in November, they withdrew the notice of appeal the following month.
Baldwin’s criminal charge stemmed from an Oct. 21, 2021, incident in which Baldwin’s prop gun, which he said he’d been told did not contain live ammunition, discharged during a rehearsal for the movie, killing 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
‘No verdict’ can ‘undo the trauma’ of criminal case against Alec Baldwin, lawsuit says
Baldwin’s legal complaint accused New Mexico investigators and prosecutors of being ” blinded by their desire to convict Alec Baldwin for all the wrong reasons, and at any cost, for the October 2021 accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins.”
“Defendants sought at every turn to scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law,” the filing continued.
Baldwin seeks a jury trial and an award of financial compensation for his “injuries suffered” as well as punitive damages against the defendants.
“Defendants must now be held accountable for their malicious and unlawful pursuit of Baldwin,” the lawsuit states. “Although no verdict in this civil case can undo the trauma the State’s threat of conviction and incarceration has inflicted, Alec Baldwin has filed this action to hold Defendants responsible for their appalling violations of the laws that governed their work.”
Why was Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case dismissed?
The conclusion of Baldwin’s case with the state of New Mexico arrived more than two years after the on-set tragedy. Sommer dismissed the charge with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile the same claim.
Baldwin’s lawyers alleged in their filing that Santa Fe sheriffs and state prosecutors “concealed” evidence that could be linked to the source of the bullet that killed Hutchins. Prosecutors and sheriffs argued the evidence had no relevance or value to Baldwin’s case.
The judge reprimanded Morrissey and her team as “they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant.”
“The state’s willful withholding of this information was intentional and deliberate,” Sommer said. “If this conduct does not rise to the level of bad faith, it certainly comes so near to bad faith as to show signs of scorching.”
Testimony revealed withheld evidence in ‘Rust’ case
On July 12, Baldwin’s lawyers said the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office was in possession of live rounds they argued might be connected to the one that killed Hutchins but failed to list them as evidence in the “Rust” investigation file or disclose their existence to defense lawyers.
On July 11, testimony revealed Troy Teske, a friend of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s stepfather, had delivered Colt .45 live rounds to the sheriff’s office on March 6. Baldwin’s team claimed this was evidence that could have established a connection to Seth Kenney, the prop supplier for “Rust.”
Baldwin’s attorneys alleged the rounds were evidence that the bullet that killed Hutchins came from Kenney. Kenney has denied supplying live ammunition to the production and has not been charged in the case.
Baldwin’s team has blamed Gutierrez-Reed, who is serving 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, and first assistant director Dave Halls for negligence that led to Hutchins’ death. Meanwhile, prosecutors argued Baldwin handled the gun irresponsibly, exhibited “bullyish behavior on set” and changed his story to cast blame on others.
Contributing: Andrew Hay, Reuters
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