Doug Turner

Republican Party of New Mexico officials are notorious for taking sides in primary elections, damaging the strength and credibility of the party in the process. Unfortunately, this year is no exception.

On Sunday, GOP Chairman Harvey Yates took sides in a TV ad fight between two of my opponents in this race. His involvement breaks our rules, shows a bias and betrayed the neutrality Republican Party officials are supposed to respect.

Party officials simply must trust the wisdom of GOP voters to do what’s right and not intervene in a way that supports one candidate over another.

By taking sides in a primary, party officials lose the credibility they need to unite the party behind the single candidate selected by GOP voters on June 1. These are the same kind of practices that fractured our party and sowed disaffection among voters during the last decade.

By opening this window for the rise of the tax-and-spend Democratic Party, Republican infighting aided the loss of every congressional seat in New Mexico by 2008. It’s time we put an end to this kind of politics and regain the high ground once and for all.

Candidates should defend themselves

Politics can be brutal. In an election like this one, the only way we can see how a candidate will run in the general election or govern once elected is by evaluating the quality of the campaign and the ability to remain strong in the face of adversity.

By acting as a referee in the mudslinging, Chairman Yates has done a disservice not only to the party but also to the candidates by denying them the opportunity to defend themselves by themselves. If the factual content of a negative ad is false, it must be up to the candidate in a primary election to set the record straight.

For instance, when an anonymous opponent launched a false recorded telephone “push poll” against me, I came to my own defense.

If the mudslinging among the two GOP candidates looks bad now, imagine what it will look like when the big-government, status-quo Democrats begin taking shots in the general election. When that happens, no chairman will have the ability to play referee or to coddle our candidate.

Yates’ decision could have encouraging consequences

Throughout this state there are people working within the party who are dedicated and loyal, and who fulfill their duties with the proper primary neutrality to properly serve the party. I applaud them for their service and urge them to push forward.

Ironically, the decision of some party officials to publicly abandon their duty to remain neutral could nonetheless have encouraging consequences.

Motivated primary voters are an especially wise bunch and will show their dissatisfaction for insider politics at the ballot box by voting for a candidate who is outside the entrenched political system and who is willing to do what is right, rather than manipulate the process.

The opportunity for Republicans to take back the governor’s office means we must look at June 1 with an eye to Nov. 2. We must support a candidate who can campaign effectively against entrenched Democratic opponents without the personal baggage or a reputation for mudslinging.

As Republicans, it’s time we had a candidate who stood solely and proudly on the principles we believe in. If ever the stage were set for Republicans to vote for a candidate who is outside the political machine, it is right now.

Turner is a Republican candidate for governor.

Turner at a protest of the health care bill Saturday in Albuquerque. (Courtesy photo)

Sunday’s vote won’t end our health-care debates – it will only start new ones. With a reconciliation vote in the Senate coming shortly (as of the time of this article being published), and more disputes in the House likely to follow, I encourage concerned lawmakers to use any and all legislative tactics on hand to stop the reconciliation bill from passing the Senate’s next vote and to fix the legislation passed by the Houses of Congress.

HR3590 is unconstitutional, burdensome to business and is harmful to patients and families. Let me explain.

This 10-year, $940 billion plan is the biggest expansion of the social safety net since the 1960s, when Medicare and Medicaid were created. This sweeping legislation will also touch every New Mexican, but in a negative way: Insurance premiums and government spending will increase; there will be doctor shortages and loss of specialists in rural communities; the quality of care will drop and some will even be turned away from expensive procedures by our government.

Lovelace, Blue Cross, Aetna and all the others will become national public utilities, governed by Congress and the Health and Human Services Department. This will surely cause our health care choices to suffer.

My brother is a medical doctor, as was my grandfather. I’ve heard health care discussed at the dinner table as long as I can remember. Now, with two young children of my own, I fear what they will face. This bill will cost New Mexico jobs because it encumbers New Mexican companies.

Witness the recent Caterpillar Inc. announcement that due to a stray provision about the tax treatment of retiree benefits, this bill will increase Caterpillar’s health care costs by $100 million in the first year alone. Such harmful surprises lay ahead for many businesses in the state.

House Minority Leader John Boehner indicates that the “revised” health care bill is worse than the original legislation. He has promised that the “American people are going to hear about every payoff, every kickback and every sweetheart deal that comes out.”

There is no doubt that Americans deserve access to affordable health care, but we must find ways to improve services and reduce costs that do not create deficit spending, hidden taxes, inferior health care services and expensive new federal bureaucracies.

As New Mexico’s next governor, I will join with Virginia, Idaho and other states and file lawsuit after lawsuit against this bill. We can do better. We must do better.

Turner is a Republican candidate for governor.

Doug Turner

Amid the latest revelations about political cronies taking the taxpayer for a very expensive ride, I want to remind New Mexicans that they really don’t need to settle for an ‘everybody does it’ state, or state of mind. Really, one does not need to look that far back for a time when ‘everybody’ did not do it.

For eight years, Gary Johnson reformed state government, vetoed special interest ‘pork’ that was costly to the New Mexican taxpayer, appointed cabinet secretaries who focused on serving us rather than themselves and stood up to a state Legislature with bad spending habits. This was eight years ago, but wanting this for New Mexico again does not have to be an exercise in nostalgia.

The election is right around the corner. Most of us want an honest government that makes national headlines for its good management rather than corruption and budget deficits. New Mexicans must understand that fixing our government is not impossible and really isn’t asking too much.

But it will take much more than talk. There are a few simple things that can be done to reduce corruption and improve the service we get for our hard-earned tax dollars.

Who we elect

In government, corruption typically starts at the top and works its way down. But we sometimes forget that we have a say in who is at the top of our government. This means that dealing with the ‘rot in the Roundhouse’ starts not on the inside, but on the outside — with the voter.

I have talked to New Mexicans – Republicans, Democrats and independents — from every corner of our state who are disheartened by what is going on in Santa Fe. Yet they know, just like I do, that not everyone who serves in public office is there to take advantage of the taxpayer. They know there are still responsible individuals who view public service as a privilege.

Voters must exercise their right for a better government and find candidates who are ready to serve our state, not themselves.

Appointments and state employment

We want to elect a governor who will apply the principal that ‘public service is a privilege’ to those they appoint. Good government must be run by individuals who are highly qualified and prepared to work hard for the public good — not by buddies, relatives and business partners. The spoils of political patronage and cronyism have been plain for all to see, but we don’t have to live with them, if we chose not to.

Size of government

Sometimes, when government organizations grow to a certain size and level of bureaucracy, a harmful dynamic sets in. They start to operate not for their originally intended purpose, but merely to sustain their own size and budget. New Mexico’s government has grown as big as its budget deficit. It’s time that New Mexicans see the correlation and say no to both.

Ethics commission

We need a governor who is willing to submit state government to an outside check such as an ethics commission. If properly constructed, an ethics commission could be a deterrent to corruption without adding a cent to the cost of government.

Inspection of Public Records Act

New Mexico needs to elect a governor who will strengthen our Inspection of Public Records Act. The current version lacks the teeth of serious enforcement when a bureaucrat or politician defies it. Willfully withholding public documents from the public, media or other inquiring stakeholders should be a fourth-degree felony, and we need a governor who will fight for such consequences.

State procurement and contracts

Our next governor must also rein in sole-source practices and procurement exemptions to lessen the possibility of corruption, increase competition and reduce the cost of state government. State contracts should be competitive and awarded based on ability to perform the contracted service at the lowest possible price, not on which political appointee is doling out favors that day.

Just imagine how much progress our state will make if we start the next decade with a return to honest, open and accountable government. These are commonsense solutions, but they will not happen without the right leadership. I hope New Mexicans understand what they will gain if they trust their desire for lean, honest government and believe we can achieve it.

Turner is a Republican candidate for governor.