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McCamley ‘heavily considering’ running for PRC
Former Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley said tonight that he’s “heavily considering” running for the Public Regulation Commission District 5 seat next year.
“It’s a very important job, and there are some issues that are important to me that the PRC deals with,” McCamley said.
Among those issues the Democrat cited are “job creation through alternative energy,” ethics in government, and — depending on what happens at the federal level — health insurance reform.
“These are things that I have a good background in,” McCamley said. “The PRC provides me with an opportunity to work on them, and that interests me.”
McCamley said he plans to make a decision on whether to run by the weekend.
The PRC seat is currently held by Democrat Sandy Jones — the PRC’s chairman — but Jones confirmed tonight that he will run for state land commissioner next year instead of seeking re-election. McCamley is the first to publicly announce his interest in replacing Jones.
McCamley served one term on the county commission, leaving office in December. He opted against seeking re-election in 2008 and instead ran for Congress, but he lost in last year’s Democratic primary to Harry Teague, who went on to win the seat.
McCamley, who lives in Las Cruces, graduated from Mayfield High School and New Mexico State University before heading to Harvard to earn a master’s degree. During his tenure on the county commission, McCamley also worked for two years as director of a nonprofit that works on infrastructure and other issues in rural communities.
McCamley currently works for New Mexico State University as a development officer in the College of Arts and Sciences.
As I’ve disclosed in the past, I’m friends with McCamley. Click here to read more about that.
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Well if McCamley is tin-eared and full of himself, he would fit in quite well in DC along with the others we have there. Those seem to be required traits for federal elected officials. Is he super ambitous and super progressive as well? If so he is perfect for DC today, why is he wasting his time on a PRC post?
Has anyone else declared? McCamley has some faults–he is not a good listener, and is a bit full of himself. But he is basically sound and has time to mature.
Looking at the current crop of PRCers, we have reaped pretty poorley up to now. The problem we have with young, bright, energetic young folks is that we tend to forget the values we supposedly hold about wanting our next generations to surpass our accomplishments. Mr. McCamley may have some growth areas to improve upon, but what we know is the current crop of PRCers have not demonstrated acceptable performances. So, as the adage portends, “You Go Guy”.
Bill McCamley would only make a good PRC Commissioner if he would get the idea out of his head that he knows what is best for the people and listen to the people once in a while. As a PRC Commissioner, he would no more listen to the people in his district than he did when he was on the County Commission.
He thinks he is smarter than the people he would be lected to serve. He would be as bad as Sandy Jones and would serve no one but himself.
He had big ideas about trunning for the 2nd District of Congress and that should tell you where his aims lie. He is only interested in the salary, the prestige, the power and anything else that would possibly help him step up to the Congress or the Senate, or any other jobe he could get.
It would be so refreshing to have competence at the PRC! Hope this guy is for real.
I am excited to see someone young, with drive and an overall good attitude run for the position. There are too many people with interest conflicts involved in state government right now.
Good comments Dr. Swickard. I have heard McCamley described as anti-business, pro-government intervention in all things currently private, and very “progressive”. Any truth to that?
I have watched Bill McCamley over the last six years and been very impressed that while he has the brashness of youth, he is very much inside his head like an older person and has a long view of society. Even better, he can articulate exactly the philosophy that drives his decisions rather than just drift on the prevailing winds.
On my former radio talk show I interviewed him several dozen times and was quite impressed. For the record, I am impressed with him despite that we do not agree all that often as I am more conservative. But we had reasoned discussions based on our philosophy of government. Over the years he has not been wishy-washy but a great argument does stand a chance of changing his mind.
While I thought it a good thing for him to run for Congress – he gave Teague a real run for it – I believe he would be of more service to New Mexico within the borders. McCamley is not well-financed and does not come from a wealthy family so he will need all of the financial help he can get. He is one of a very few people running for office who might get me to bring out my checkbook.
This is a golden opportunity for Bill. He will be great contributor to the PRC. He has my vote!!!!!!!!!
You see, there are much better candidates than Harry. And McCamley is not a member of the old guard La Politica clique either.
Bill McCamley would be an excellent PRC Commissioner. Of course, the usual suspects will come out find some reason to object to Bill. I’ve worked with Bill. First and foremost, he is “honest”. Is he ambitious? Of course he is, but positive ambition is what we need. I’ve never met a successful person who was not ambitious in life. We need intelligence in this position and McCamley fits the profile of an ideal PRC Commissioner.
As Thomas Cole wrote recently when talking about the fact that we haven’t been electing our best and brightest, we reap what we sow with the PRC. In my humble opinion, Mr. McCamley is not an example of better sowing.