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Profile calls Nuñez ‘unlikely poster child for a rising right’
Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch
The Santa Fe Reporter says Rep. Andy Nuñez has become “the unlikely poster child for a rising right” in New Mexico politics.
That’s from a recent profile of the only registered independent in the House, the former Democrat from Hatch. You can read the profile here.
The core of the article is this:
“(House Speaker Ben) Luján’s coming retirement marks the declining dominance of northern Democrats in state politics; conservatives from agricultural, oil-and-gas-dominated southern New Mexico are positioning themselves for greater influence. As a former Democrat turned independent and the champion of an effort to repeal the state law allowing foreign nationals to obtain driver’s licenses, Nuñez has become the unlikely poster child for a rising right.
“But like Luján, he’s also a vestige of times past, when politics had more to do with internal compromise than with super PACs and robocalls. Through the combination of his stubborn individualism and conservative appeal, Nuñez embodies both the end of one political era and the beginning of another for New Mexico.”
Read the full article here.
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Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch is a turncoat. The sooner he leaves the house the better. And he has become a poster child for the rising right, he ought to know that.
“declining dominance of northern Democrats in state politics; conservatives from agricultural, oil-and-gas-dominated southern New Mexico are positioning themselves for greater influence.”
The above quote reminds me of the Aubry Dunn times in New Mexico politics. But who knows you may be right. We will see.
I beg to differ EW-aif, our Guv was doing the job she was elected to do, pushing the people’s agenda (as shown in polls) and the people don’t want NM to continue to be a banana republic, one of only two in the US, which allows illegal aliens to get the same rights and licenses as US citizens. But we all know the “compromise” would be a huge win for the left wing, as they were the ones pushing it since they know the system is corrupt and criminals are using it regularly (and everyone notices) and making our state even more off a laughing stock than it was already. They just wanted to do minor things that would make it look less corrupt while still being so in the most part, and yet still allow illegals to waltz in and get licenses and rights, with no evidence the law does any good at all for anything except the left wing pushing their agenda to their base. The Martinez you should be talking about is Kenny, he, Lujan, Cervantes, and Lopez and Sanchez in the Senate, carried the water for the left wing this session. They are the ones who practice bully tactics in Santa Fe, not our Guv.
I too support Andy Nunez, but I think the compromise the Senate came up with this last session should have been given some serious consideration in the House.
Actually, I think the whole drivers license issue should NOT have been brought up at all in the short session. But Martinez was trying to force the legislature to be her rubber stamp. We shall see how her bully tactics work in the the elections.
I think Mr. Nunez has great courage and insights about the state. He took on the left wing establishment like Lujan, Cervantes, and Sanchez (and their minions) in the Roundhouse and made them pay attention to things they would just normally sweep under the carpet in Santa Fe. He is a force for change, and he realized early on that the left wing of our party is helping to destroy it and keep it entrenched in corruption unless somebody does something.
Mr. Nunez is hardly a profile of courage in New Mexico. Rather than attack the defenseless undocumented immigrant, he and other politicians should be fighting for equitable treatment for illegal immigrants.
The driver’s license debate has been a distraction from the real issues that New Mexico faces in promoting public safety. New Mexico needs to create practical, workable solutions. Instead you have Mr Nunez grandstanding in a push to deny undocumented immigrants licenses is simply bad public policy. It increases insurance rates and the number of unlicensed drivers. It really undermines effective law enforcement.
As former Florida governor Jeb Bush stated in 2004, “[O]nce [undocumented immigrants are] here,
what do you do? Do you basically say that they’re lepers to society? That they don’t
exist? . . . A policy that ignores them is a policy of denial.” Mr. Nunez doesn’t get this idea at all.
I support Andy Nunez. As a liberal Dem that I am and knowing Andy is now an independent I will support him in whatever way I can for his general election. I will not support any other Dem in the primary and oer general. I will hope Andy gets his signatures and will return to Santa Fe where he can do the peoples work “by delivering the politics of hope, rather than the politics of fear”