Politics: Special Favors For Special People

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When I ask this question, it is usually after I am forced to witness yet again, public servants and citizens contorting themselves into “Pork Whores”. Of course, one man’s pork is another man’s blessing or necessity. It’s always about perspective, but “special favors for special people” is hardly an honorable value.

My question has more to do with a serious soul searching about what kind of a political party or country do we want to be? What kind of citizens are we?  It is we citizens who by direct action or inaction, get the leadership and policies we have or deserve. If the leadership and policies of our country are bad, we have only ourselves to blame.  After the conviction of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, we must recognize this uncomfortable truth.

These issues seem to roll around in my consciousness of late. Recently, a community member endorsed the Republican candidate for a state legislative seat, over our Democratic candidate, Matthew McQueen, while espousing support for our current State Auditor, Hector Balderas.  From my point of view, this is just wrong.  It isn’t wrong from the perspective of party.

It is wrong, because the Republican candidate for State Legislative office, Ms. Perea, represents commitments to support everything that is contrary to those of our State Auditor, Hector Balderas. It’s also wrong because her opposition in the Democratic Party, Matthew McQueen is more qualified to replace the late Stephen Easley. Our state auditor has diligently investigated countless issues of corruption and fraud throughout out state and in particular our county. While conducting himself in his elected position, he has been deeply disrespected and bypassed by our Republican Governor Martinez, in one of the most egregious cases of ‘Cronyism’ the state has ever witnessed; the Behavioral Health Services Scandal.

This scandal is particularly bad when you consider that this governor claimed that she was going to end cronyism and turn around a struggling economy for the sake of working families everywhere. This scandal is very painful when you consider that in a rural state like New Mexico, behavioral health services are hard to find, if not at a premium. So much for campaign promises.

The scandal represents a complete contradiction to her campaign promises when you consider that she improperly bypassed the elected State Auditor and shut down all of the service providers in the Behavioral Health world, only to give prepaid contracts to behavioral health organizations from Arizona. What makes this scandal so ugly is that these organizations were also campaign contributors to her first bid for governor. The shame of this scandal only underlines the disrespect to our State Auditor.

He is routing corruption regarding the current Torrance County manager, her co-conspirator, with 10 counts each of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. He found enough evidence that our Attorney General and Gubernatorial Candidate, Gary King’s staff had to prosecute. State Auditor Balderas is also investigating the Estancia Valley Solid Waste Authority and their alleged financial abuses towards Torrance County residents. In the case of the Behavioral Health issue, our elected state auditor had to file suit in order to review the audits done by out-of-state auditors, selected by Governor Martinez. Again, this is more money paid to out-of-state companies that don’t benefit the struggling economy of New Mexico, or our jobs report.

What Ms. Perea represents is a pledge to support Governor Martinez in all things. When you consider the Behavioral Health Scandal, the disrespect to State Auditor Balderas and unjustified tax cuts for the wealthiest in our state with the highest exodus of jobs our state has ever seen, our children and elderly ranking 50th for hunger and poverty, I honestly cannot see the validity of another four years of Governor Martinez, not to mention, state legislators that vow to support her and her agenda. To espouse support for Ms. Perea and Governor Martinez, is to espouse the continuation of more job losses, human suffering, corruption and lousy ethical standards.

If you’re voting Republican, you are supporting an agenda of cruelty, or at the very least, indifference for our old, vulnerable, children, women, veterans, people of color and the generally poor. This agenda is straight out of the Paul Ryan Plan. It’s a plan that promises$100,000+ in tax cuts to people making $1 Million or more.

Here is the report that the GOP suppressed during the 2012 election cycle with more than 60 years of statistical data that proves ‘tax cuts’ do not create jobs. People with jobs spend and create demand for products and jobs. The report is called, Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945 by Thomas L. Hungerford, Specialist in Public Finance, September 14, 2012, Congressional Research Service, 7-5700 R42729 and here is the link for the PDF.

Governor Martinez, like the rest of the Republican Governors in our nation and the legislators on their side of the aisle agree with Paul Ryan’s national agenda. This is why you see such an allegiance to privatizing public services, such as behavioral health, corrections, charter schools and useless tax cuts to the rich. This is how national agendas translate at the state and local levels.  If in fact you truly care about the vulnerable amongst us, please reconsider your intention. So I ask you, are you a person that values integrity and accountability in public service, or are you one of the shameless, seeking ‘special favors for special people’?

About Post Author

Margarita Mercure Hibbs

Former First Lady of Estancia, New Mexico and daughter of a former USDA Under-Secretary, currently works and lives in Estancia, New Mexico. She works within and outside the political party system as an elected Chair for the Torrance County Democratic Party and as a small business artist and designer on Main Street. A native of New Mexico, she brings a long record of service to rural communities and social development. In addition to her community activism, local civic engagement, she knows that the potential of America is in the people, who prove every day that extraordinary things happen from simple acts of hard work, compassion for one another and the desire to strive for simple goodness.
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9 years ago

Joe : “It takes huge money to get elected”….Bill : “put their cronies in power”….Rachael : “Politics are just as dirty”….

You quite sure you guys aren’t really in Britain?

Margarita : This may be America but, trust me, it’s close to home for me too! I may not identify with the people and places but politics is politics where ever you go eh? Excellent article!

Margarita Mercure Hibbs
Reply to  Norman Rampart
9 years ago

Thank you so much Norman! I appreciate the solidarity in your view. Please share and let’s get a conversation going about renewing our political world for the greater good. Yesh, I’m a hopeless idealist. 🙂

Joe Hagstrom
9 years ago

It takes huge money to get elected. The only way to raise it is to tell potential donors whatever shit they want to hear and after election give the big donors what they want.

And the reality is you need some cronyism, patronage, whatever you want to call it. To hire people who are not your allies is plain stupid politics. Not arguing that they don’t need to be capable of doing whatever job they are hired for and the job is necessary. And I perfectly understand where you are coming from. But people need to remember to the victor goes the spoils. You want privatization, layoffs and big donor companies rewarded, vote republican.

Bill Formby
Reply to  Joe Hagstrom
9 years ago

That’s true Joe. Once you go Republican, especially at the state level, you are screwed forever. The first thing they do is to is put their cronies in places of power so they can control just about anything and dupe the public. The really sad part is that most of the common folk do not understand what is happening will they are voting against their own self interest.

Margarita Mercure Hibbs
Reply to  Bill Formby
9 years ago

Joe and Bil, you are both correct. I wish it were not true….the following statement you made Joe, “You want privatization, layoffs and big donor companies rewarded, vote republican.”

Bill, your statement is absolute truth, “Once you go Republican, especially at the state level, you are screwed forever. The first thing they do is to is put their cronies in places of power so they can control just about anything and dupe the public. The really sad part is that most of the common folk do not understand what is happening will they are voting against their own self interest.”

Thank you both for reading my article. I guess I am fighting for the restoration of our collective souls. It might be too late, but I have to try. Please share my article and let’s start the conversation, huh? 🙂

Rachael
9 years ago

I have family in NM and I think it’s a beautiful state. Unfortunately it looks like the politics are just as dirty there as anywhere. Good article.

Reply to  Rachael
9 years ago

I’ve traveled through NM and it truly is a beautiful place.

Margarita Mercure Hibbs
Reply to  Rachael
9 years ago

Thank you Rachael and Michael, I agree New Mexico is truly beautiful, but our politics has gotten so ugly. I hope we can change that, but if we don’t motivate people to take back their true power by voting, it will only get worse, at the expense of the people.

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