The morning headlines celebrated Congress’s bipartisan passing of the big affordable housing bill – and the much narrower win for the War Powers Act resolution seeking to rein in Donald Trump’s costly and useless Iran War.
Political parties – and our sclerotic hyper-partisonship – were already on my mind. Fresh news included the probable end to former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagashima’s bid to run for governor as an independent and the jockeying for position by folks seeking our state’s Democratic nomination for lieutenant-governor.
We should discuss more often whether our two huge political parties, neither contemplated by our Constitution nor welcomed by George Washington, now do more harm than good; and, if so, what the hell can we do about it?
Mayor Ken, a political moderate, had little chance in a primary against Deb Haaland. He started gathering petitions to run as an Independent. (I signed, because he asked, although with mixed feelings generated by my concern that his candidacy might distract voters from making the best choice between Haaland and Hull.) Now, a state judge has declined to issue an order based on Ken’s lawsuit arguing that it’s unfair to make an Independent gather way more petition signatures to run than a Democrat or Republican would have to. Based on precedent, I thought Ken would lose, but he raised an interesting fairness issue. One argument against change is that we could end up with way too many candidates; but so what? Our two-party system yielded Donald Trump. If we’d had six candidates, and ranked-choice voting, he’d still be bankrupting casinos and stiffing sub-contractors.
Also on my mind was the Democrats’ odd situation regarding a nominee for lieutenant-governor. Days after Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s primary victory over Harold Pope, she announced that a health issue is forcing her to back away. Legally, the Democratic Central Committee will nominate a replacement candidate. Practically, gubernatorial nominee Haaland will interview and vet Democrats interested in the nomination and select someone the Central Committee will nominate.
Internet traffic debated whether Pope should win it because he ran for it. That has a certain appeal – although an opponent could argue that Oliver’s big victory margin undermines that idea. (It’s such an obscure position I was jokingly asking who remembered that nice guy from Silver City [our current lieutenant-governor, Howie Morales]? Haaland will choose. Pope definitely deserves some credit for having run. Since she’ll have to run with and work with [if they win] the nominee, who will be only as prominent as she allows, letting her choose makes some sense. If she doesn’t choose Pope, Republicans will attack her for it.
The two parties unofficially do a lot of work we’d have to figure out some other way to do if we didn’t have them; but they also interfere with government and are now interfering with life in the U.S. Political thought gets reduced to rooting for Ohio State or Michigan, and letting your team’s coach molest all the children he wants, while screaming bloody murder if their coach breaks wind.
Hours later, headlines said Trump had canceled signing ceremony for that great housing bill, passed by huge margins. He won’t sign until Republicans swallow their consciences and judgment and vote in the Save the Republicans Bill, making voting harder for normal people, which Trump [reasonably] thinks is the only chance they have in November. Another stunning win for partisanship over the good of the people.
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[The above column appeared Sunday, 28 June 2026, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper’s website and (presently) on KRWG’s website. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / ]
[Further developments: Between my writing this Wednesday and posting it here Sunday, Haaland chose Richard as the candidate for lieutenant-governor, and the central committee will quite certainly follow her lead. Richard is a fine choice, as Pope would also have been. Ironically, Richard had announced for the race, then had to back away because of her husband’s health. He’s apparently better now.
[Meanwhile, in a pretty shocking development. Kim Skaggs, Republican state party treasurer and a third-time candidate for State Representative, District 36, against Nathan Small. That, frankly, saddened me personally. Although I’ve disagreed with Kim about a lot, and although I sympathize above all with the victim, I’m saddened for Kim to see her in this situation. One can reasonably say “She deserves it,” but many of us“deserve” lots of bad things that, mostly through luck, don’t actually hit us. I sure have. That discourages judging others.
Politically, it'll be interesting to see what the Republicans do. Nathan has been a strong environmentalist and popular in his district. However, his involvement in pushing Jupiter, and its sly enabling legislation, down our throats hasn't increased his popularity. Note that one County Commissioner who rushed to vote Jupiter in decided not to run for re-election, and neither of the candidates seeking to replace him likes Jupiter a whole lot; a second resigned to run for county assessor and came in third; and the Jupiter candidate challenging State Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena got trounced. If Skaggs quits the race, or already has, the Republicans have until 25August, I think, to name a replacement candidate.]
[Also, Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy reversed positions on the War Powers Act, after his shouting match with Trump over not having been briefed quickly netted him a briefing. Whatever he heard, or the respect he was given, changed his vote.]
[Finally, a new disclaimer I should include: I speak (and write) for myself only. Although the Sun-News publishes these columns, and although I host a radio show on Las Cruces Community Radio, what I say, I say as one very old man, not as part of anything or as anything's spokesman.]
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