Candidates Matthew McQueen, Jonas Moya, Juan Sanchez III, and Michael Perry participated in the forum. They were given 2 minutes to answer 14 questions. One of the topics that was brought up was land swaps. Candidate Juan Sanchez III shared that he thinks it makes a lot of sense, and we have seen many successful swaps.
“I think the biggest thing is making sure that whenever we are making these decisions, we're coming into community and we're being transparent,” Sanchez said.
We spoke to Commissioner Michael Perry about land swaps as well, and he said he supported it, but of course there are exceptions.
“And the reason I say some of them is because It's a good idea to block up the same type of land masses together under the ownership of state land or
BLM,” Perry said.
Representative Matthew McQueen shared his thoughts on the Mescalero Apache Tribe land swap.
“I need to know more of the details of that swap. I certainly think they're going through a public process now. It's not a done deal yet. That's part of the process. There was an issue raised about the legality of the swap. That's certainly something I'll take a look at. Being a lawyer, that's the kind of thing that I'm interested in, like going back to the enabling legislation and seeing what exactly they're talking about. Whether or not that's right,” McQueen said.
Climate change was brought up. Candidates spoke about the way they plan to counteract it. Jonas Moya made the point that climate change is affecting farmers and ranchers.
“So, things are changing, our climate's changing. So, we need to make sure that we are acknowledging that and that we're making the choices with the energy development in our state that protects our lands, make sure that it's clean, safe, and available there for our children and for future generations to use that land,” Moya said.
Martha Desmond and Fernando Clemente moderated the forum. They said that they were looking for candidates to differentiate themselves and to see what knowledge and experience they can bring to the position.
“Well, we're talking about our state lands, and that is obviously, as it was mentioned,9 million acres on the state of New Mexico, that it not only provides a lot of funding, for schools and education, but it actually provides a lot of habitat for wildlife management,” Clemente said.
“Yes, I'd agree with that. With 9 million acres, those acres are important for management in terms of energy resources and other uses, agricultural uses for bringing in funds for our schools, but they're also critical for some of the state's threatened and sensitive fish and wildlife species,” Desmond said.
The 2026 election primary is on June 2nd.
