Journal Poll: Democrats lead in five statewide races - Olivier Uyttebrouck, Albuquerque Journal
Democratic candidates lead in a series of statewide races in New Mexico, with Attorney General Raúl Torrez showing the largest advantage in his bid for a second term, according to a Journal Poll.
Torrez, one of three Democratic incumbents seeking reelection to state constitutional offices this year, showed a 17-percentage-point advantage over his Republican challenger, Samuel Isaiah Kane Sr., according to a scientific poll conducted Aug. 21-28 by Research & Polling Inc.
In 2018 and 2022, Democrats swept every statewide race in New Mexico.
Democrats enjoy a built-in advantage in down-ballot races, with 40% of state voters registered with the Democratic Party. About 31% are Republican and the remainder are independents, Libertarians or members of other parties.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico lawmaker resigns from job with DA, accuses AG of ‘attempt to disrupt’ Epstein commission - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
The New Mexico state representative who leads the House’s investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday announced she had resigned from her job with a local district attorney amid mounting criticism.
State Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) on Tuesday also said Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s recent advice that district attorneys across the state should not hire sitting state lawmakers was an “attempt to disrupt” her work leading the state House’s investigatory subcommittee on Epstein.
Romero’s employment with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office came under scrutiny in recent weeks as Republican lawmakers called for an ethics investigation. House Minority Whip Alan Martinez (R-Rio Rancho) recently requested a legislative ethics investigation and said her work with the local DA’s office violated state laws that prohibit sitting lawmakers from simultaneously working as state employees.
Romero had previously defended her employment by citing a 2024 opinion from Torrez’s office, which cleared fellow Epstein commission member Rep. Andrea Reeb (R-Clovis) to serve as a special prosecutor in the prosecution of Alec Baldwin. Baldwin’s lawyers, citing the same law as Republican lawmakers, said Reeb’s work on the case was unconstitutional. She ultimately resigned from the case.
In a Monday letter to district attorneys statewide, Torrez wrote that his 2024 opinion “has been read more broadly than intended.” He instructed any DA’s office employing a lawmaker to rectify the situation immediately and noted that he would not pursue legal action against any office that had previously hired a lawmaker “based on an honest misunderstanding of our 2024 opinion.”
In a news release responding to Torrez’s letter, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies’ office said the agency was “disappointed” by Torrez’s directive but would comply with it.
“Andrea Romero sought appropriate guidance from the Attorney General’s Office before accepting a part-time position with the FJDA, and our Office relied on that guidance,” the statement said. “Romero is a licensed attorney whose professional experience made her well suited for a part-time role in our office. At a time when New Mexico continues to face challenges recruiting and retaining attorneys in public service, we believe qualified professionals should have opportunities to serve their communities in different ways.”
In a Tuesday statement issued through a New York-based public relations firm that represents Monica Lewinsky, Romero said that she had resigned from her job at the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office and said that she had previously “sought and had received explicit authorization to be allowed to hold both positions, a fact the AG’s office was well-aware of.”
She said she was “deeply disappointed” by Torrez’s Monday letter and saw it as “an attempt to disrupt the work of our Survivor Truth Commission that seeks justice for the many young people who were harmed by Jeffrey Epstein and his co-collaborators in our state.”
Torrez early this year reopened a criminal investigation into Epstein and sued the federal government for allegedly blocking the release of files related to the late sex offender. In August, Torrez joined U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) to announce new federal legislation that he said would make it easier for law enforcement agencies across the nation to file legal challenges against the U.S. Department of Justice when it refuses to release Epstein-related documents.
Although Romero did not cite specific examples, she said that Torrez’s letter would impact other state lawmakers and force them to resign from their jobs.
New Mexico is the only state in the nation to not pay its lawmakers. Voters will have the choice in the Nov. 3 general election to change that.
“Serving as a legislator remains the greatest honor of my life, and no attempt to distract from our work will succeed,” Romero said.
New Mexico Department of Justice Chief of Staff Lauren Rodriguez, in a statement provided to Source NM, responded to Romero’s assertions in part by noting that Torez “rather than moonlighting as a part-time prosecutor” had “spent the better part” of 20 years “working as a real prosecutor and standing up for victims’ rights.”
Rodriguez added that Torrez had backed proposed legislation in 2025 that would have protected “survivors of sexual assault from the abusive pre-trial witness interviews that traumatize hundreds of survivors each year, a bill that Representative Andrea Romero voted against.” (The bill died; Romero appears to have voted to table the bill in committee).
Rodriguez’s statement continues to say the NMDOJ appreciates Romero’s “frustration at losing her part-time job at the District Attorney’s Office, but we reject any insinuation that our recently released guidance on that issue was motivated by anything other than the law. We remain committed to supporting Epstein survivors through our ongoing criminal investigation and hope that Representative Romero’s newfound commitment to victims’ rights will be on full display in the upcoming legislative session, not just on social media.”
UN spotlights nuclear weapon states' refusal to ratify test ban treaty at divisive time - By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press
With the U.S., Russia, China and other countries that have nuclear weapons refusing to ratify the treaty that bans atomic testing, the United Nations warned on Monday that any new test could trigger another arms race.
U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu told the U.N. General Assembly that it was meeting to mark International Day against Nuclear Tests at a time of "deep geopolitical tension, growing division and diminishing trust," as well as concern about the possible resumption of testing.
Late last year, the United States and Russia, which have the world's largest nuclear arsenals, threatened to resume nuclear testing, setting off global alarm bells. President Donald Trump accused Russia and China of conducting tests, which they deny.
"Even contemplating such a course is dangerous," Nakamitsu warned. "Any resumption would erode decades of restraint, deepen mistrust and risk triggering reciprocal tests and an arms race. This must never become reality."
When the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was adopted in 1996, it had a very high bar to enter into force. It had to be ratified by 44 specific countries, and nine of them have not yet done so.
The United States, China, Iran, Egypt and Israel have signed but not ratified the treaty. India, Pakistan and North Korea have neither signed nor ratified. Russia signed and ratified, but revoked its ratification in 2023.
Robert Floyd, head of the organization overseeing the treaty known as the CTBT, told the General Assembly that Tonga's ratification last month brings the number of parties to the treaty to 179.
Since 1945, he said the planet has seen more than 2,000 nuclear test explosions, but in the past three decades fewer than 12. He cautioned, however, that "the international scene is tense, full of mistrust," including about nuclear testing
If nuclear testing resumes, Floyd warned, the result would be new technologically advanced nuclear arsenals, soaring risks of nuclear miscalculation, and "devastation from nuclear `bad luck.'"
The International Day Against Nuclear Tests was established to commemorate the Aug. 29, 1991, shutdown of the former Soviet nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, now in Kazakhstan, which saw 456 nuclear tests, Floyd said.
It also puts a spotlight on victims of the atomic era.
Tina Cordova described to the U.N. General Assembly how five generations of her family were exposed to radiation that began with the testing of the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945, in New Mexico — and how every succeeding generation until today has suffered from cancer.
"We were never warned before or after of the danger, so we lived our lives off the land as we always did," said Cordova, who co-founded an organization called the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium 21 years ago to spotlight the negative health effects of radiation suffered by the people of New Mexico.
She stressed that they were not alone.
Nuclear testing took place around the world, she said, and people living in Guam, Tahiti, Kazakhstan and Aboriginal areas of Australia as well as in Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Montana were also exposed — including uranium workers and their families.
"We're the people that became the collateral damage to the development and testing of nuclear devices and were left to deal with the consequences on our own," Cordova said. "It is why we fight for acknowledgment and assistance."
NM Supreme Court leaves Project Jupiter permit on hold - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously denied a bid by Project Jupiter’s developers to partially reopen proceedings on an air quality permit application for a massive data center campus under construction in Santa Teresa.
Yucca Growth Infrastructure LLC, the applicant, had filed a motion asking the court to partially vacate its Aug. 23 stay, which paused the process, and allow pre-hearing filings to move forward.
The public hearing, which would have opened on Sept. 14, is an evidentiary proceeding before an independent hearing examiner to consider air permits for an on-site microgrid power facility that would supply the data center with energy through a methane-powered fuel cell system.
Nonprofit clean energy advocate New Energy Economy argued that the hearing should not proceed because the developer does not have an approved route in place for its natural gas pipeline. The line would supply 400 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from El Paso, Texas, across 18 miles of private, federal and state trust land. New Mexico’s State Land Office has denied access to state land for the project and federal approvals remain in process.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
Albuquerque stretch of Rio Grande to receive water by Thursday – KOB-TV
The Rio Grande is currently dry in Albuquerque, but that stretch of the river should have water in it by Thursday.
KOB-TV reports that more than 650 million gallons of water were released Monday afternoon from the Abiquiu Reservoir.
The Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Authority expects water from that release to arrive in the Middle Rio Grande Valley by some time on Thursday.
Water Authority Board Chair Barbara Baca told KOB that the release should allow public agencies to gather data about how water flows through the river following a period of extended dryness, and the effects of the release on drought-stricken plants and trees.
The Rio Grande in Albuquerque has been mostly dry since early June.
A very low winter snowpack combined with above-average temperatures and a weak monsoon season have all contributed to the river’s dryness.
The City of Albuquerque is currently using groundwater to supply water for the city’s distribution systems.
Judge blocks ‘racino’ move to Clovis - Eastern New Mexico News
The horse racing track in Farmington will - apparently - not be moving to Clovis.
Eastern New Mexico News reports that a district court judge on Monday blocked plans to relocate the SunRay Park and Casino.
Judge Daniel Ramczyk ruled that the New Mexico Racing Commission does not have the authority to relocate a racing license.
SunRay Park and Casino’s upper management had intended to open a casino in Clovis by September 2027, with horse racing to follow some time in 2028.
On Feb. 20, the state’s Racing Commission voted unanimously to allow Western Gaming LLC to move its operations from Farmington to Clovis, but this week’s ruling appears to invalidate that endorsement.
Santa Fe House Rep. Romero resigns from controversial job at District Attorney's Office - Santa Fe New Mexican
Santa Fe Democratic State Representative Andrea Romero has resigned from her part-time job at the First Judicial District Attorney's Office.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Romero did so following guidance from the state Department of Justice that it is "unlawful" for sitting lawmakers to work as employees in district attorney's offices.
The House Democratic caucus published a statement Tuesday saying Romero had only accepted the role "after receiving prior guidance from the AG’s office that it was permissible.
House Minority Whip Alan Martinez, a Rio Rancho Republican, and Española resident Pablo Lujan filed ethics complaints over her job, and Martinez called on the state attorney general’s office to open an investigation.
New Mexico insurance superintendent approves 24% premium increase on healthcare exchange plans - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Citing inflation and rising health care costs, the New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance on Tuesday announced that it had approved a 24.4% average premium increase on BeWell, the state’s health insurance marketplace, established by the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
The increase is higher than the nationwide median increase of 15%, according to a statement from the office, and will take effect Jan. 1. Despite the rise, OSI officials noted that the state’s premiums have historically been lower than the national average and that next year’s boost will result in monthly healthcare payments that are largely in line with the rest of the nation.
A recent analysis from the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee confirms that the average premium for the exchange’s “benchmark” plan, used to compare premium averages across states, was roughly $100 a month less than the national average between 2019 and 2022. Since 2023, the state and national averages have become roughly the same and risen in unison from approximately $450 that year to more than $600 in 2026.
“Rising health care costs and inflation are continuing to affect consumers nationwide and New Mexico is no different,” Insurance Superintendent Alice Kane said in a statement Tuesday. “Despite the rate increase, I can assure you that the rates for all the insurance companies are actuarially sound, non-discriminatory, and transparent.”
In addition to inflation and rising costs, the OSI cited the state’s “uniquely comprehensive benefits” and a statewide ban on insurance companies requiring prior approval of behavioral health services a BeWell enrollee receives as additional factors for the increase. Such prohibitions inflate premiums in the short-term, according to the office, but will ultimately lower costs and improve overall health outcomes.
The OSI further notes that 92% of the state’s roughly 80,000 BeWell enrollees qualify for state or federal subsidies, based on their incomes. Those subsidies can significantly shield enrollees from the premium costs, according to a recent Legislative Finance Committee report.
For example, the LFC found that more than 25,000 BeWell enrollees whose incomes sit between 100% and 200% of the federal poverty level paid premiums of between $10 and $67 per month, thanks to federal and state subsidies, despite their pre-subsidy premiums averaging roughly $845.
New Mexico stands out as the only state in the nation with increasing enrollment this year on its exchange. That’s because the state Legislature opted to fully replace federal tax credits that expired at the end of 2025. No other state went as far to pay for the expiring subsidies, according to the LFC.
However, the LFC report noted that the Health Care Affordability Fund, which the Legislature expanded in 2025 to pay for the expiring tax credits, could become insolvent without reductions in the state subsidies.
In the statement Tuesday, the superintendent’s office predicted that the state subsidies will “continue to play a significant role in safeguarding the affordability of health insurance” when rates increase next year.
