Swapper in Chief - State land commissioner gets little publicity, lots of power

The last time candidates jockeyed to take over the office of New Mexico commissioner of public lands, a contentious swap overwhelmed a crowded race for the usually quiet public job. The down-ballot race is heating up for the November general election, and the topic lingers...Though a relatively unknown public office, the land commissioner holds a great deal of unchecked power. The office is charged with the balancing act of managing and generating revenue from 9 million acres of surface and 13 million acres of subsurface state trust land across New Mexico. Land commissioners do this all without having to answer to the state Legislature or governor...Dunn, who is trying to unseat Powell before he takes on what would be his fourth four-year term, argues that Powell hasn’t leveraged the office’s full potential to generate revenue and jobs for the state. Dunn strongly opposes the recent designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, which is poised to turn just under 80,000 acres of state trust land in southern New Mexico over to the federal Bureau of Land Management. Powell favors the federal designation, adding that the land has “intrinsic biological value” and will be exchanged for land better suited for development. Dunn, on the other hand, criticizes the designation as a land grab that will kill revenue-generating uses for that area, including what he characterizes as putting 40 current grazing leases of state trust land in jeopardy. “The land commissioner is tasked with not creating state parks but creating state revenue,” Dunn says. But Powell maintains that grazing will still continue when the land gets transferred to BLM. He adds that his office is negotiating a swap as part of the designation to acquire BLM land west of Las Cruces that’s primed to be used for renewable energy projects. He expects a swap process to begin at the start of next year. Powell’s current term also benefited enormously from a recent boom in the oil and gas industry, which makes up 97.5 percent of the royalties that go to the Permanent Fund. This, plus Powell’s incumbency status and name recognition, give him an advantage going into November. But Dunn, the son of former Democratic state Sen. Aubrey Dunn Sr., is no stranger to politics. He ran both for US Congress in the state’s second district in 2008 and state senator against Democrat Phil Griego in 2012, but lost both efforts. So far, he’s outraised his opponent by collecting $175,000 in donations as of late June compared to Powell’s $66,000...more