Rebecca Dow’s stance during her 2020 re-election campaign to retain her seat as state representative for New Mexico District 38 emphasized that Democrats and Republicans need to work together. In an eblast announcing her intention to run for the Republican nomination for governor sent out on July 7, bipartisanship was gone, and Dow declared war on Democrats, liberals and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
When Democrats and liberals struck back at the accuracy of many of the charges leveled by Dow in her announcement email, the Truth or Consequences native—one of five Republicans so far that have announced their candidacies for the 2022 gubernatorial race—claimed victimhood. “Ridiculous, debunked attacks by leftist organizations are already starting,” she stated in a July 14 email that also solicited campaign funds.
The Sun did a fact check on each of Dow’s assertions in the July 7 announcement, which is downloadable below. The Sun found that the announcement contained a mixture of falsehoods, innuendo, culture war issues and some hard truths, all of which are related here in the order in which Dow presented them.
“CONSEQUENCES OF BAD GOVERNMENT”
Dow asserted New Mexico’s “unemployment rate is among the highest in the nation” and that the state is “nationally last in education,” and “nationally last in child welfare.” Her statment that “[t]hese are the consequences of bad government” implied these problems are the result of Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s failed leadership. Lujan Grisham took office Jan. 1, 2019.
Historical data (see sources below) shows New Mexico has ranked near the bottom in child welfare and education for at least the last 10 years.
Unemployment was lower 10 years ago, during Democratic Governor Bill Richardson’s administration.
UNEMPLOYMENT
At the end of Richardson’s administration (2003-2010), unemployment rates were better than the national average. They worsened under Republican Susana Martinez’s administration (2011-2018).
New Mexico had the highest unemployment rate in the nation in June 2021, according to the most recent verified data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. New Mexico and Connecticut both had an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent—the highest unemployment rate in the country. Nebraska had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.5 percent. Indiana had the 16th highest unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, Rhode Island the 34th highest at 5.9 percent and New Jersey the 45th highest at 7.3 percent. The average national unemployment rate in June was 5.9 percent.
An examination of U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics data comparing New Mexico’s unemployment rate to the national average over the last 10 years shows that the state’s unemployment rate has been higher than the national average in every year but 2011, 2012 and 2013.
EDUCATION
According to the latest date available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, in 2019 the national average of U.S. citizens over 25 years of age who had earned a high school diploma was 89.8 percent, compared to New Mexico’s 85.88 percent. Only three other states ranked lower than New Mexico in the percentage of their citizens 25 and older who had a high school education: California, with 84.03 percent, Texas with 84.65 percent and Mississippi with 85.5 percent.
Only 27.67 percent of New Mexicans 25 years or older had a bachelor’s degree in 2019, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This placed New Mexico 41st in the nation. States ranking lower were West Virginia, Oklahoma, Nevada, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas and Alabama.
Probably the most significant indicator of New Mexico’s educational ranking is its students’ performance on National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, whose scores are regarded as the “nation’s report card.” The NAEP reading test for 4th graders is the most important. Educational studies show that if a child is not “reading to learn” by third grade, it is extremely likely that child will struggle with employment throughout life. She is unlikely to be an independent learner with critical thinking skills necessary in an increasingly complex and technologically advanced employment market.
The test is given every other year.
The NAEP website states that the portion of New Mexico’s 4th graders who have not been “proficient” in reading has held steady at nearly 80 percent since 1998:
“In 2019, the average score of fourth-grade students in New Mexico was 208. This was lower than the average score of 219 for students in the nation. The average score for students in New Mexico in 2019 (208) was not significantly different from their average score in 2017 (208) and in 1998 (205). The percentage of students in New Mexico who performed at or above the NAEP Proficient level was 24 percent in 2019. This percentage was not significantly different from that in 2017 (25 percent) and in 1998 (21 percent).”
Given the tragic evidence that most New Mexican children are poor readers, Dow’s June 28 Facebook claiming legislation needs to be passed to stop critical race theory from being taught in schools is off point, at best. It focuses attention on a problem that does not exist. Critical race theory, which has become a flash point in the culture wars over K-12 history education, is taught at the college level. The vast majority of New Mexican students are incapable of reading and understanding a theoretical framework that postulates educational, judicial, financial and other social systems discriminate against people of color and favor white people. Literacy is a much graver concern.
CHILD WELFARE
The Annie E. Casey Foundation ranks states on 16 indicators of child welfare, including child poverty and teen birth rates.
In 2021, New Mexico ranked 49th, up from 50th the year before. This year Mississippi ranked 50th. New Mexico ranked 50th in 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
See New Mexico’s child-welfare report card for 2021 below.
“GOVERNOR LUJAN GRISHAM HAS DONE PLENTY FOR HERSELF.”
To back up this assertion, Dow offers the following elaboration on the governor’s claimed self-dealing: “From ‘spoiling’ herself with lavish meals and such at taxpayer expense to breaking her own lockdown rules, to even using campaign funds to settle sexual harassment claims against herself.”
LAVISH MEALS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE
KOB 4, in an online article published on February 17, analyzed the governor’s expenditures from her office’s “contingency fund,” which is indeed derived from taxpayer dollars. The contingency fund is to be used to pay for events that “promote New Mexico,” the article states.
KOB 4’s analysis of expenditures covers the period from July 1, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020, which was during the pandemic lockdown. Most of the nearly $6,500 in expenditures was for food for in-person meetings that were held at the governor’s mansion and attended by the governor’s cabinet members and staff. The average monthly expense was about $1,100. Purchases included $350 for liquor.
It appears Dow’s assertion that Lujan Grisham spent taxpayer money on “lavish meals” is true. State Republicans asked State Auditor Brian Colon to determine if the expenditures were illegal. In a follow-up article on July 16, KOB 4 reported Colon found the law too vague to substantiate wrongdoing and suggested the legislature add definitions to the state law to clarify what constituted proper spending.
Lujan Grisham is the first New Mexico governor who has had to document exactly how contingency funds are spent. The state legislature passed a law in 2018 requiring public disclosure that was signed by Governor Susana Martinez, who was soon to step down. Martinez spent $8,000 in contingency funds in 2015 for a staff party, which the KOB article indicates precipitated the legislation.
GOVERNOR PERSONALLY BROKE LOCKDOWN RULES
KRQE Channel 13, in a May 26 article, made the case that Governor Lujan Grisham broke pandemic lockdown rules by her arrangements to take delivery of a jewelry purchase. The governor has a different version of this incident.
According to Lujan Grisham, in the first week of April she called a Lilly Barrack jewelry store employee with whom she had a “longstanding” relationship about an online purchase. The employee went to the store, picked up the purchased jewelry and took it home and left it outside the door. A friend of the governor’s picked up the package at the employee’s home.
Lockdown rules prohibited curbside service until May 1, 2020, but if the package was not left at the store, the governor did not violate her own lockdown orders.
In another version of events, related by an unnamed Lilly Barrack’s employee who only learned about the Governor’s purchase after it happened, the package was left outside the store, violating the lockdown order.
GOVERNOR USED CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO SETTLE A SEXUAL HARASSMENT SUIT
The Santa Fe New Mexican, in an April 13 article, reported that the governor settled a sexual harassment suit by using campaign funds, confirming Dow’s assertion.
James Hallinan was Lujan Grisham’s communications director during her 2018 campaign for governor. Hallinan later claimed that the governor had sexually harassed him by throwing water onto his crotch and then grabbing his crotch. “Our office maintains there is no merit to the allegations,” Nora Meyers Sackett, the governor’s press secretary, has stated.
The governor paid $62,500 from campaign funds to settle the suit in order to avoid the “continuing distraction and expense of litigation.” This is an allowed expense for “legal fees,” under the law.
LUJAN GRISHAM’S “RADICAL COHORTS IN THE ROUNDHOUSE”
Dow’s July 7 announcement claimed that several problems have arisen during Lujan Grisham’s administration because of the governor’s association with “radical cohorts in the Roundhouse.” Dow’s list of these adverse developments included loss of election integrity, the “skyrocketing” increase in government jobs, New Mexico’s closeness to “becoming” the only state in the nation to allow late-term abortions, the trampling of 2nd Amendment rights and “horrific lawlessness” at the border.
LOSS OF ELECTION INTEGRITY
There is no evidence of loss of “election integrity,” as claimed by Dow.
The Associated Press reported on Dec. 14, 2020, that New Mexico electors confirmed Biden as the winner of the presidential election.
Soon after that, the Trump campaign committee filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Mexico. The suit claimed election officials violated state law by using absentee-ballot drop boxes that were not surveilled by a video camera. State law requires only that drop boxes be locked. The suit was later dismissed, along with more than 60 other cases filed nationally to advance Trump’s objections to the presidential election results.
GOVERNMENT JOBS “SKYROCKETING,” WHILE PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS DIMINISH
Dow’s claim that government jobs have “skyrocketed” under Lujan Grisham’s administration, while 8,400 private-sector jobs have been lost is not only false, it is a reversal of the truth.
According to a June 2021 economic update published by New Mexico Workforce Connection, from May 2020 to May 2021, 43,000 jobs were added to the private sector (an increase of 7.4 percent), while the public sector lost 3,100 jobs (a decrease of 1.7 percent).
“NEW MEXICO IS BECOMING THE ONLY STATE IN THE NATION WHERE A HEALTHY BABY CAN BE ABORTED MOMENTS BEFORE BIRTH.”
Federal law has prohibited since 2003 what is known as “partial birth abortion,” in which a late-pregnancy fetus is killed outside of the womb. An exception for this form of abortion is allowed if the mother’s life is in danger. Other methods for late-term abortion are allowed by federal law, but some state laws make them illegal.
New Mexico currently outlaws a late-term abortion method termed “dilation and extraction.” Dow’s claim that the state will soon allow late-term procedures is not supported by any legislative attempt to overturn this law. Governor Lujan Grisham signed a bill this year that repealed a 1969 state law that banned most forms of abortion because, according to an Associated Press report, the landmark 1973 case, Roe v. Wade, made abortion legal in the Unites States, rendering the New Mexico law unenforceable.
“SWEEPING RED-FLAG LAWS THAT TRAMPLE ON 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS”
Although Dow used the plural “laws,” New Mexico has only one red-flag law. It allows those close to persons deemed likely to use a firearm on themselves or others to petition the court to have the firearms removed after due process.
The “Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act” went into effect May 20, 2020, and, since then, four petitions have been filed to have firearms removed from at-risk persons, according to a report by KRQE Channel 13. One of those petitions was denied by the court.
New Mexico is among 18 states that have passed red-flag laws permitting the removal of firearms from those in mental and emotional distress.
The recent New Mexico legislative session saw the introduction of an amendment to New Mexico’s red-flag law that sought to add law enforcement officers to those permitted to petition the court to remove a firearm from a person deemed at risk. The amendment did not pass.
“HORRIFIC LAWLESSNESS ON OUR BORDERS”
New Mexico is part of a U.S. Border Patrol sector that includes all of the state and El Paso. Data about the so-called “El Paso Sector” does not break out statistics for New Mexico alone, making it difficult to refute or substantiate Dow’s claim about “lawlessness on our borders.”
“Lawlessness” is also difficult to determine because the statistics kept by the U.S. Border Patrol are for “encounters” with persons seeking admission to the U.S. by both lawful and unlawful means.
Specifically, these statistics are grouped together as “Title 8 Inadmissibles and Title 42 Expulsions.” The former category is defined on the U.S. Border Patrol website as “individuals encountered at ports of entry who are seeking lawful admission into the United States but are determined to be inadmissible, individuals presenting themselves to seek humanitarian protection under our laws, and individuals who withdraw an application for admission and return to their countries of origin within a short timeframe.”
Enacted in March 2020, Title 42 Expulsions allow for rejection based not on nationality or other standards, but for the blanket reason of decreasing the risk of transmission of COVID-19.
According to Wikipedia, “Title 42 expulsions are removals by the U.S. government of persons who have recently been in a country where a communicable disease was present.”
Title 42 Expulsions are administered by the Border Patrol’s Office of Field Operations, which also oversees Title 8 Inadmissibles.
The U.S. Border Patrol, on the other hand, according to its website, only handles “Title 8 Apprehensions.” Title 8 is a huge body of law that covers all immigration and nationality issues that do not necessarily constitute “lawlessness” on the part of the person seeking admission.
“Apprehensions refer to the physical control or temporary detainment of a person who is not lawfully in the U.S. which may or may not result in an arrest,” states the U.S. Border Patrol website.
Office of Field Operations Encounters in El Paso Sector
From October 2020 to June 2021 the Office of Field Operations in the El Paso Sector “encountered” 14,487 individuals classified as Title 8 Inadmissibles and Title 42 Exclusions. In the three-month period of October through December 2020, 8,590 encounters occurred, for a monthly average of 2,863 encounters.
In the six-month period of January through June 2021, 5,897 encounters occurred, for a monthly average of 983 encounters.
The number of Office of Field Operations encounters went down about 66 percent in the last six months.
U.S Border Patrol Encounters in El Paso Sector
From October 2020 to June 2021, the number of encounters or “Title 8 Apprehensions” by the U.S. Border Patrol in the El Paso Sector was 171,171. There were 34,845 encounters in the three-month period of October through December 2020, for an average of 11,615 encounters a month.
There were 135,326 encounters in the six-month period from January through June 2021, for an average of 22,554 encounters a month.
Although not necessarily indicating an increase in unlawful behavior, the number of encounters in the El Paso Sector has doubled in the last six months.
This and related data on border control activity may be examined here.
THANK YOU so much for this fact-finding article. I have emailed Ms. Dow personally regarding the possible reopening of the mine in Hillsboro and her replies, all of them, were straight Republican Party line. I understand this is her constant stance, so trying to pretend she is open to compromise on many subjects isn’t working for me, at least. And with her constant use of non-factual claims regarding our Governor . . . shame on her. She is still young enough to learn something from this excellent article. CHECK YOUR FACTS. No, there is no such thing as “alternative facts.”
WOW! Just wow…. Are you going to do this for all of the Republican candidates running for office? Sierra County Sun, is it possible to ease off just a bit on the Rabid Rebecca stance? I would love to see some research into all of the money and awareness she has brought into our area. She is a huge advocate for those left in the margins of society and is an honorable, honest woman. The campaign the Democrats from Sierra County waged against her last election cycle was an embarrassment to me, a Democrat. Yes, some of her stances are not mine, but if she knew she had the votes of sensible-minded people from across all party lines, then she wouldn’t have to pacify any of the crazies from the other side. We can continue to choose a party or person. I choose a person every time, party be damned.