NM Land Commissioner Forum: Baca vs. Lyons

Dem challenger Jim Baca has some excellent photos of last night's debate with Repub incumbent Land Commissioner Pat Lyons on his blog, Only in New Mexico. More than 100 people showed up for the League of Women Voters' candidate forum at the First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque and a chance to compare the views of Lyons, who has received a ton of campaign money, almost all of it from gas and oil interests, and long-time environmentalist Jim Baca, who served previously as Land Commissioner as well as Mayor of Albuquerque.

Select candidate quotes from Steve Terrell's article in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

"I was the first New Mexico land commissioner elected without the blessing of the oil and gas industry," Baca said, referring to his terms in the 1980s. "And if I'm elected again, it'll be the same. I haven't received a dime from them while my opponent has received hundreds of thousands of dollars.''  -- Jim Baca

"You can't let the oil and gas industry have their way on everything. I wouldn't drill on Otero Mesa. The best thing we can do is move away from oil and gas." -- Jim Baca

State land at Otero Mesa "isn't as pristine as everyone thinks. It's the constitutional duty of the land commissioner to try to produce gas out of there. If not, you're taking away from the school children of New Mexico. We can do a real clean gas drill on Otero Mesa." -- Pat Lyons

Choice quotes from an article in today's Albuquerque Tribune:

"We just have to protect these water supplies and landscapes and croplands so that we can sustain ourselves. I think it's going to take some visionary leadership not just in the Land Office, but everywhere to figure out how our quality of life is going to remain where it should be." -- Jim Baca

"As a commissioner of public lands, your constitutional duty is to try to maximize revenue for education in a sustainable way. It's your constitutional duty to try to produce some gas out there. If not, you're taking away from children's education in New Mexico." -- Pat Lyons

"I think there are areas like Otero Mesa that are worth saving. I think we owe it to future generations to protect places like that." -- Jim Baca

Baca wants a constitutional amendment to create a board overseeing the land commissioner's decisions.

"We're the only state that really doesn't have something like that," he said. "I think the time has come for that. We need to make sure that ethical, fair market exchanges are being made."

Lyons disagreed, saying such a board would sacrifice the land commissioner's independence.

I wonder how Lyons thinks he can be "independent" when he's taking massive blobs of money from oil and gas interests. Probably the same way Heather Wilson stays "independent" while following in lockstep with the Bush administration and taking massive blobs of money from big pharma and energy corporations! You can check out the facts on Lyons at LyonsWatch.com

Baca needs our help to win this incredibly important race, so head on over to his campaign website and volunteer or donate a few bucks to the cause. The future of New Mexico's beautiful environment is at stake. Let's elect someone who will work to protect the special places we can't do without, while raising funds on the rest to support our education system. We need balance, not someone who caters almost exclusively to his corporate cronies.