Pearce running mate backs rival for post
SANTA FE — An already zesty race to be the New Mexico Republican Party’s next chairman got a new infusion of political intrigue this week.
Michelle Garcia Holmes, who was Steve Pearce’s running mate in this year’s gubernatorial race, announced her endorsement of John Rockwell, an Albuquerque businessman who is running against Pearce for the party chairmanship.
In her letter to state GOP central committee members, Garcia Holmes touted Rockwell’s business background. She did not directly mention Pearce.
State Republican Party insiders will meet Saturday in Albuquerque to pick a new party chairman for the next two years after an election in which Democrats swept all statewide offices on the ballot and picked up eight seats in the state House of Representatives.
Pearce announced his candidacy shortly after being soundly defeated by Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham in governor’s race. Despite running for the party chairman post, he has not ruled out a 2020 run for his current congressional seat, according to a campaign spokesman.
Rockwell, who ran unsuccessfully for Republican Party chairman in 2012 and 2016, has said Pearce would represent a status quo choice at a time when Republicans should be seeking change.
Under New Mexico law, lieutenant governor candidates must run in a
competitive primary election. Whoever wins the election then runs on a ticket with the party’s gubernatorial nominee in the general election. — Dan Boyd, dboyd@abqjournal.com
PRIVATE PRISONS: New Mexico relies more heavily on private prisons than any other state in the nation.
And lawmakers sounded interested this week in negotiating future contracts to hold corrections companies more accountable for their performance — a recommendation of legislative analysts.
State lawmakers, however, didn’t offer much support for getting out of the private prison industry altogether.
The topic came up Tuesday at a meeting of the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee.
Outgoing Rep. Bill McCamley, a Las Cruces Democrat whose term ends Dec. 31, pitched the idea of prohibiting the state and local governments in New Mexico from hiring contractors to run prisons and jails.
New Mexico is also out of step with the national picture, McCamley said. Forty-three percent of New Mexico’s prison population was in privately run facilities in 2016, compared with 9 percent nationally, according to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group. — Dan McKay, dmckay@abqjournal.com