by Jim Scarantino
Senator Jeff Bingaman has a reputation, deserved or not, for being a careful legislator. But he sure has pulled a boner on his wilderness bill for Dona Ana County. Instead of seeking true consensus, he listened only to the enviro lobbyists and bought their dog and pony show. They told them they had almost unanimous support for an aggressive proposal to create wilderness on the border with the war torn country of Mexico. They showed him a "coalition" of hundreds of businesses and rammed through some resolutions by local governments when the other side was either absent or not yet organized. What else do you need, Jeff? They beseeched him. Oh, and did I mention that a staffer assigned to this issue was dating an organizer for the New Mexico Wilderness Coalition at the time?
Senator Jeff started getting his back up when what he had been told started to unravel. But instead of backing off, he bulled ahead. He avoided meeting with the leaders of the opposing coalition, which lined up hundreds more businesses in opposition. Those opposing businesses happened to be real businesses, unlike many of the sham businesses used to inflate the numbers for the wilderness coalition. Jeff didn't like it much when the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce opposed his bill. Then came the realtors association. Then came the organization representing retired border patrol agents, and local law enforcement, and local municipalities and, well, the wheels came off the rosy chairot he had been riding to a legacy of wilderness in Dona Ana County.
Senator Jeff did not act as he has over his many decades of service. Instead of backing off when it was revealed to him how unpopular and unwise his wilderness bill was, he has tried to ram it through against growing local opposition. He has shortchanged local leaders opposed to the bill in opportunities to testify in Washington on their views. He has ducked local hearings. Now he's not even showing up for hearings on his own bill, as our friend Frank DuBois reports.
Wilderness in Dona Ana County is a dead legislative initiative as long as the local opposition remains organized, Steve Pearce represents southern New Mexico in Congress, and John Boehner is Speaker of the House. This debacle is a sad coda for Jeff Bingaman. It compares terribly with the wilderness bills he worked on when Pete Domenici was senior senator. We never saw train wrecks like this. Bingaman is leaving office not with a wilderness legacy, but with a gift of distrust and loss of respect among his constituents in southern New Mexico. Sad.
Here's a list of the coalition members in opposition to Bingaman's bill. Not exactly a sign of consensus down south.
Jim Scarantino is the former Executive Director of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
This column originally appeared at NM Liberty
2 comments:
Bingaman is acting according to the "standards" of most elected officials these days. They are oh so much "smarter" than the people they represent and of course they know what we want so much better than we do. This thing should blow sky high and cover Bingaman with egg and perhaps other substances. We can hope anyway. He is of course retiring and won't be worried about re-election. Hopefully those who run for this office will be paying attention.
Grant County, New Mexico. I remember when the local Ford dealership used the slogan, "Eat Beef, Use Copper and Drive Fords". I'm so proud of that heritage. Ranching and Mining are what built Grant County. But,today, Grant County has been invaded by radical enviromentalism and we stood by and watched it occur. Shame on us. Enviro-nuts like those in CBD are just plain evil. They don't give a damn about our cultural heritage. They could care less about the blood sweat and tears that were shed to settle and build this part of our world....they want us all out-a-here! And the real kicker....Jeff Bingaman is their mascot AND HE GREW UP IN GRANT COUNTY for cryin-out-loud! I'm ashamed of him. What has he ever done for the good of grassroot New Mexicans? NADA! He has only brought us grief and heartache since he got in bed with the enviro-nuts. We whipped him on 1069 and he came back with 1024 in an effort to salvage his enviromental legacy even in defeat. His legacy for most of us is that he'll be remembered as the worst Senator in New Mexico history.
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