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What’s Carl Trujillo hiding?
It’s nice that Carl Trujillo wants to listen, but what we need is someone who has the guts and the spine to act.
I’m a voter in House District 46. Our district spans northern Santa Fe County, including parts of the city and into Nambé, Pojoaque, Tesuque, and as far north as Santa Cruz. We’re as diverse as it comes in New Mexico. We share feast days with our neighbors, tend to the acequias in the mornings, and go to church on Sundays. We value our families, education, loyalty and friendship. We’re proud Democrats up here. And we vote.
I read the article that Deborah Busemeyer wrote (Gov’t experience an issue in Coss-Trujillo race, May 11, 2012), about the contest between candidates Carl Trujillo and David Coss to follow of our Speaker Ben Luján and serve HD 46 in the New Mexico State Legislature. First, let me say, these are big and important shoes to fill. The speaker has been a fighter for our communities. He knows the issues, knows how to solve problems, and has served our district honorably for decades. The person who succeeds him will need to be ready to go and ready to address the important issues facing families here.
I believe wholeheartedly the person best suited to represent the district next is David Coss.
David knows the issues we face. He’s been working as mayor for six years, and the issues that face the city also face the county. David has a track record of success, from fighting for and winning the living wage for the city (of which a lot of northern Santa Fe County residents benefit from), to creating jobs and keeping unemployment rates down.
He knows how to work with people to get things done. And, most importantly he shares our values. Congressman Luján said it best: we know where David stands on human rights, on civil rights, on all the issues that are important to our area and our families. We trust David because we know where he stands and we know he has the experience to do the work.
Where does Trujillo stand?
There are a couple of issues I want to address from Ms. Busemeyer’s article.
Number one: It’s nice that Trujillo wants to listen, but what we need is someone who has the guts and the spine to act. Listening is the easiest job you’ll have as an elected official. But then you’ll have to make decisions and actually do for the people. Trujillo won’t tell us where he stands on issues, he won’t debate the mayor on issues, and, quite frankly, he seems to be avoiding the issues.
First he says he won’t come to a Democratic Party forum because he thinks the Democratic Party is a machine, then he changed his mind and said, actually, debates are “gladiator politics” and now he’s saying he won’t talk about the issues because he just wants to listen. Makes me worried that he has something to hide.
Where does he stand on issues that matter to Democrats? Will he uphold the party platform or will he side with Republicans? This isn’t just a first date. We should know where he stands on all the issues, and how he’d lead, before electing him for two years.
Voting for Coss because of his experience
Second: In Ms. Busemeyer’s article, Trujillo criticizes Coss for “trying to do two jobs” – continuing to serve as mayor of Santa Fe and serving in the Legislature. I’ll tell you this, I’m voting for David because he has that kind of experience and knowledge, not in spite of it. Let me fill in a few gaps that were missing from the article.
There are numerous state legislators, past and present, that have served in dual elected roles with distinction. Former Representative José Campos represented DeBaca, Curry, Guadalupe and Roosevelt counties. When he was elected in 2003, he had already been the mayor of Santa Rosa since 1998. He is currently serving in his third term as mayor.
Down south, Representative Andy Nuñez is also the mayor pro-tem of Hatch. And retiring State Senator Cynthia Nava served as superintendent of the Gadsden School District while also serving as a five-term senator.
These legislators, and many more like them throughout New Mexico’s history, have served in dual roles with honor, earning re-election multiple times from the very voters that Trujillo claims are upset by the mere notion of one person being elected to two positions.
Too important to leave to chance
Ultimately, Trujillo’s missing the point. By his logic, Trujillo, if elected, should not vote on any matters impacting Los Alamos National Laboratories, where he works. For that matter, he also should refrain from voting on any issues related to the homebuilding industry because he works as a home-builder too.
Trujillo himself says New Mexico has a citizen legislature – “a person who is part of a community, who works with the community and cares.” That definition fits Campos and Nava, it fits our Speaker Ben Luján, and it fits David Coss. Truth is, particularly in New Mexico’s smaller communities with smaller populations, having a dual-elected leader makes good sense and may even be a necessity.
At the end of the day, the seat is too important to leave to chance. We need to usher in a strong leader who we know has a vision and is not afraid to propose solutions to New Mexico’s most critical problems. I think that person is David Coss.
Dean is the Democratic Party ward chair representing 46A.
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Exactly new and Ramirez. This letter to the editor just shows how the big party machine works and tries to keep any new, creative, and fresh ideas and voices out of the party. I also agree with you Michael (can’t believe it), many of my friends are Sikhs and other non-christian people. This also shows how biased and non-inclusive the big party machine is up here. The biggest laugher in this letter is the plea for experience, right, experience in all the wrong, old guard way of doing politics and oppressing the constituents for professional politicians own selfish needs, just what we need.
Wow…talk about a Hail Mary desperation tactic from the Coss camp…too little, too late…the voters in this district are fed up with being bullied by the Lujan machine….Carl’s gonna win.
While I am uncomfortable with Mr. Trujillo’s reluctance to hold forth in public on any of the myriad complex issues of the day – how else are voters to decide how to vote? By good looks? – I find Mayor Coss’s – and Ms. Dean’s – casual dismissal of the problems inherent in holding two jobs with conflicting loyalties equally problematic. Ms. Dean’s easy endorsement of the Mayor – going so far as to declare conflicts of interest a necessary prerequisite for the job – goes a long way toward proving Mr. Trujillo’s “machine” accusation. If the Democratic Party was so concerned about the quality of its candidates and office holders, explain the unfortunate candidacy and tenure of Jerome Block, Jr.
It’s an open secret that Speaker Lujan was insulted that he had an opponent in the last election, and apoplectic that he very nearly lost to this young upstart – a development that was equally shocking to the media, who assumed Mr. Lujan’s political invulnerability (apparently voters in the district were less enthralled by the Speaker’s personal power than party apparatchik Ms. Dean). It’s also a fair guess that Mr. Lujan and the Democratic machine would choose someone to run against Mr. Trujillo to punish him for having the temerity to run against the Speaker. That Mayor Coss is that choice seems credible, given Congressman Lujan’s pre-primary endorsement.
Still, Mr. Trujillo should not assume that all of his constituents – nor even Ms. Dean – will take the time to read his web site. If he is going to listen to the people, he should do so in public, and then demonstrate how he would balance the conflicting views of the different groups who he will represent. He can’t just take polls. He will have to choose sides and make decisions. His constituents deserve to know how he will do that. Or they are likely to default to the better known, better endorsed name on the ticket.
I have news for you – the Democratic Party of Northern New Mexico is a machine. This is why people like you; entrenched political operatives (you are a ward chair…) seem to believe that your party represents “everyone.” Well, believe it or not, there are some people in District 46 that are either not Democrats or even have the far left ideologies of Mayor Coss. I completely understand that the district is a 67% Democrat stronghold – but that is no reason for someone to steam roll their principals on all their constituents. This is where the listening comes in. I may not agree with everything Speaker Lujan or his son stand for, but the bottom line is, they took the time to listen to what the people of the Pojoaque Valley have to say. I personally am not concerned about the city of Santa Fe – they already have three other representatives and two senators working for them; I am concerned about the representation of the people. Carl Trujillo is the best out of the two for those people.
I will a dress the “machine” issue. Despite what I said about Lujan squared, there is a flip side to their power in the area. Yes, they would listen, but they have a vindictive streak – hence Jr.’s endorsement of Coss.
The state rarely votes for issues on Los Alamos National Laboratory – that is a federal entity. Perhaps other Democrats in this state should take a page from Trujillo’s book and recuse themselves from conflicting votes – but that is an entirely different story.
What’s this “we” stuff, Christian person?
We share feast days with our neighbors, tend to the acequias in the mornings, and go to church on Sundays
Isn’t there a large Sikh community up there? Not to put too fine a point on it, but as a non-Christian I tend to get seriously irked when someone just blithely assumes that we all go to church on Sundays. We don’t. Many of us. And I don’t care what you do among yourselves, but I really don’t appreciate your pushing your Christian agenda in the faces of the rest of us.