Arnold-Jones: Government is ‘a public trust’

Republican gubernatorial candidate says she has ‘a view of how to solve a whole bunch of smaller issues that will make it much easier to solve the bigger ones’

Many conservatives like to say government should be run like a business. Republican gubernatorial candidate Janice Arnold-Jones, however, says that’s not right at all.

“Government is not like any business that I know,” she said in a recent interview in Las Cruces. “Government is a public trust. It’s very different.”

Though business principles should be applied in government, Arnold-Jones said, the difference in government is that the interests of the public must always be first.

Arnold-Jones, a state representative from Albuquerque, is probably best known outside her legislative district for forcing webcasting on her colleagues earlier this year – an effort that earned her statewide media attention.

Increasing government transparency – through webcasting and other means – is one of several aspects of Arnold-Jones’ campaign platform that she said all fall under the umbrella of “connectivity.” Those aspects include:

• Communication – Improving Internet and telephone access and emergency response capabilities throughout the state.

• Transmission – New Mexico is energy rich, but has to figure out a better way to efficiently get that power to market.

• Participation – This is where webcasting comes in. Arnold-Jones wants to focus on ways to help New Mexicans more easily access and participate in their government in Santa Fe.

Arnold-Jones has arguably had a lot of success with the last as a state lawmaker. She carried a laptop and webcam to her committee meetings and broadcast them on the Internet earlier this year, daring the powers-that-be to stop her. That sparked a debate that ultimately led to official webcasting from the House and Senate floors.

Despite that success, Arnold-Jones said she’s run up against the limitations of being a lawmaker.

“Part of the frustration of being a legislator is you know the right things to do but you don’t have the venue the governor does. It takes a long time to do what’s oftentimes the obvious,” she said. “I believe we’re supposed to leave the state better. … I think I know how to take us there.”

The competition

Arnold-Jones is facing stiff competition in the GOP primary. The others who have entered the race are Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez, public relations professional Doug Turner and former state GOP Chairman Allen Weh. Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson still says she’s considering running.

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish is the only Democrat who has entered the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Analysts have said it’s difficult to gauge the others’ chances in the GOP primary until the heavyweight, Wilson, makes a decision.

Arnold-Jones said when she considered running for Congress in 2007, she set a fundraising goal and focused almost entirely on that. When she didn’t reach it, she decided against running. In the process, she said, she “forgot about the most important reason to run” — the platform it gives her to discuss ideas on how to improve the state.

“I am raising money. Is it enough? No idea,” she said. “… But I am in this to stay. Throw me in the arena. That’s exactly where I want to be.”

The first campaign finance reports are due next week.

The issues

In addition to issues related to connectivity, Arnold-Jones is talking a lot about education. She wants to set a goal of moving into the top five in math, science and engineering education by 2012. She acknowledges that’s a high bar to set, but she said the current system is not working and must change.

One of Arnold-Jones’ ideas is revamping the way the state teaches teachers. She wants more subject-matter experts in the schools.

But she said the biggest problem with education is cultural. For example, Arnold-Jones said parents in New Mexico often won’t encourage their children to take certain courses because they don’t know how to help their children in those courses. The state needs to connect parents with resources they can use to help their children.

“We have to talk about all the things that are unseen,” she said. “It’s not a single-bullet type of resolution, but we have got to decide over the whole of the state that we can do this.”

Arnold-Jones is also talking about taxes and business regulations. Fewer people in New Mexico are paying more taxes than when she first joined the Legislature in 2003. She said there are several tax credits in New Mexico that don’t make sense, including the credit for the film industry.

She’s not suggesting eliminating any tax credits now, saying at this point doing so would “mean that opportunities will go away,” but she doesn’t believe many of them should have been implemented in the first place. Now that they’re here, she wants to ensure they are sustainable — that they’ll keep businesses in the state, not just attract them here in the short-term.

Increasing transparency and accessibility

Arnold-Jones said that complex view of addressing government problems is one of her strengths. While she isn’t tossing around flashy solutions to many of the state’s larger problems, she said she has “a view of how to solve a whole bunch of smaller issues that will make it much easier to solve the bigger ones.”

“Modern-day campaigns say you have to talk about three things only. I’m here to tell you it’s more complex than that,” she said.

With Arnold-Jones, many conversations come back to creating an ethical and transparent government that can better focus on solving the state’s problems. While she’s big on transparency issues, she’s not as excited about other ethics proposals such as the creation of an ethics commission.

Creating an ethics commission, she said, would construct “yet another bureaucracy” with “its own internal issues with ethics.”

She hasn’t totally closed the door on the idea of an ethics commission. But she noted that there are already other checks on ethical conduct in New Mexico, such as the attorney general and state auditor. Then she noted that those agencies are limited by budget constraints.

So Arnold-Jones is not sure what the solution is. But she is certain of one thing: Voters have the power to hold her and other elected officials accountable for what they do. And the best way government can help them do that is through increasing transparency and accessibility.

To that end, Arnold-Jones cited another example of a change that would help – the inclusion of Doña Ana County in the Albuquerque media market. It’s currently the only county in the state whose residents don’t get Albuquerque television, and that contributes to a disconnect between them and state government.

The Clovis area is in the Albuquerque and Amarillo media markets. Arnold-Jones sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year asking for a similar dual media market – El Paso and Albuquerque – in Doña Ana County.

“You are cut off from your government,” she said. “That needs to change.”