The New Mexican’s interview with Lujan Grisham, plus a look at key issues.

Guns

Lujan Grisham’s campaign platform on gun control was ambitious for a state that has enacted relatively few limits on firearms in recent years.

The Democrat ran on banning so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, for example.

But it is not just Republican lawmakers who have blocked gun control in past years. Plenty of Democrats in the Legislature are queasy about it, too, if not outright opposed.

This is New Mexico, after all, where plenty of Democratic voters are also hunters and firearm enthusiasts.

Still, Miranda Viscoli, co-president of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, is optimistic.

She acknowledges a ban on assault weapons would be a tough push. Then again, Viscoli added, such a law might not be the most effective policy given that many of the mass shootings perpetrated in New Mexico recently were carried out with handguns. So, what is on the table? Proposals for expanding background check requirements and toughening the laws on domestic violence offenders are more likely to gain traction, as are proposals for encouraging safe storage of firearms.

Such bills would allow lawabiding gun owners to keep their firearms, Viscoli said.

At the same time, this session comes amid what Viscoli sees as mounting pressure on legislators to take some sort of action on gun policy, with her organization busy mobilizing students in particular.

“I think we stand in a pretty good place,” she says.

Permanent fund

New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund totals about $18 billion, and the state parcels out 5 percent each year, mostly to its public schools.

But for years there has been a running debate over using a bigger share of the endowment to fund an expansion of early childhood education, particularly as the stock market’s rebound and an oil and gas boom have fueled the fund’s growth.

Lujan Grisham’s platform suggested that using $285 million over five years would be prudent.

House Democrats passed a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would take an additional 1 percentage point each year — that is, an additional $150 million a year from the start.

Fiscal conservatives counter that touching the fund at all could imperil its growth in the future.

Cabinet appointments

How many Cabinet secretaries does the governor of New Mexico really need?

Lujan Grisham was in Gov. Bill Richardson’s Cabinet and served on a 2010 task force that recommended merging several Cabinet-level departments.

For example, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management could fit inside the Department of Public Safety, the task force said.

That idea could still be relevant, as Homeland Security and Emergency Management has since been hit with troubling audits as well as allegations that staff forged training certificates.

An analysis by the Department of Finance and Administration said combining the two agencies “would generate some cost savings but just as important would generate greater efficiencies and effectiveness of operations.”

The task force also recommended the Department of Game and Fish combine with the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. And it suggested one big Commerce Department could envelop the departments of Tourism, Economic Development and Workforce Solutions, along with the Border Authority.

A separate report around the same time suggested similar changes, along with merging the Aging and Long-Term Services Department with the Human Services Department. None of this has happened. And with no financial crisis spurring cuts to government services, there may not be much reason to rush a reorganization.

Then again, these ideas seem bound to re-emerge.