KC Counts talks with Sam Bregman about his background, issues facing the state, and his proposed strategies for success. Bregman held a campaign event in Las Cruces Saturday at NMSU's Corbett Center. KRWG Public Media is reaching out to all candidates as they emerge and will bring you more interviews as they are conducted.
Here is a transcript of this interview:
KC Counts:
So why don't you begin by telling us a little bit about what in your background and experience has prepared you to serve as governor of New Mexico?
Sam Bregman:
Well, listen, first of all, I've had the pleasure, the privilege of raising a wonderful family here in New Mexico and having a great career. And I'm currently the district attorney here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we have 330 employees who get up every day and work hard to make this community as safe as it can be. And over the last three years of being this, in this capacity, I've realized that we've been able to get a lot of things done. We've been able to really have some accomplishments that I'm very proud of. And now it's time to take this same kind of can-do attitude, I think, to the next level, because we all know New Mexico has so many challenges, whether it's first in crime or 50th in education, a fragile healthcare system, or an economy that's really never lived up to its potential. So these are the reasons I'm running for governor, and these are the things that I want to make a difference in, not only in this campaign, but when I'm governor.
KC Counts:
Obviously, you just listed what you'll probably go over again in my next question, and that is, what do you believe are the top issues facing New Mexico? And so maybe you can expand on those a little bit.
Sam Bregman:
Be happy to. I really believe that the people of New Mexico deserve to know where people stand and what their vision is for their future, especially, obviously, if they want to be governor of this great state. And so I've laid out a plan, a blueprint for New Mexico's future. It's 189 pages. So if your listeners may be tired one night, they can certainly, or not tired, they can certainly read this and maybe they fall asleep easier. But in all sincerity, we really want to see New Mexico meet the challenges it faces. I will tell you the four main issues that I'm running on that are similar to what I think people talk about at the breakfast table and the dinner table. And that's crime. Is our neighborhood safe? Are our children and our families safe? Education, is the education system working? Are we truly getting the best bang for our bucks when it comes to educating our children? Healthcare, is healthcare Is it accessible? Is it affordable? Is it the kind of quality healthcare that people deserve here in the state? And economic opportunity, right? People talk about their jobs, about their ability to afford things, about their ability to afford the things that are important for them and their families. Affordability is a huge issue right now. And whether or not costs are going up or whether or not wages are being stagnant, We have to do something about that. And so economic development and opportunity, those are the four main issues. But I listed 13 different policies on our website at BregmanforNM.com. And I really encourage people to take a look at it.
KC Counts:
So what strategies do you plan to employ to address those issues successfully?
Sam Bregman:
Well, listen, to implement those policies, we've got to change it when it comes to crime. For example, we can't continue to be number one in crime in this country. I will tell you up in Albuquerque, we're having some success. By no means is the crime problem acceptable at this level, but we are really, truly having some success in reducing violent crime, reducing property crime, holding more people pretrial when they are violent in this community. But we need to put more police officers on the street. The single biggest thing you can do to make a difference in crime is put more police officers out on the street, have true community-based policing. And I think that is the number one priority. And that's going to take a lot of recruitment. It's going to take thinking out of the box to get the officers, to get young people wanted to start law enforcement careers. I'm someone that's been able to accomplish that in the past. In the last three years, we've hired over 80 prosecutors here in this office alone. We started out with 78 lawyers. We now have 130 lawyers. And we know that that's making a difference in the level of cases each lawyer has and success we're having in the courtroom. The same thing can happen on the streets of New Mexico. And that's by putting more police officers. We've all heard that the National Guard's been called out several different times to help with law enforcement in various communities in New Mexico. That is a situation that is really, it shows the symptom. It deals with the symptom. And that is the problem is we don't have enough police officers on the street. So number 1, I think that's extremely important. When it comes to education, for example, I think that number one, every decision made from the public education department down to the classroom, all the way top to bottom, needs to be made on what is in the best interest, what is the best for the student, for the child. That's what the decision should be based upon. Now at the same time, I think we dramatically need accountability in our schools. We need to be transparent about what our goals are in our schools, how we're doing when it comes to educating our kids. Transparency is extremely important to make sure that school districts are revealing those results on how they are doing when it comes to educating our kids. Everything from the basics on up, from reading, from math, Those type of things are very, very important that we have transparency. And of course, when it comes to education, we want to make sure not only are we compensating our teachers at a very competitive rate, as competitive, hopefully, as anywhere in the country, but certainly in our surrounding states. But we want to do things to make sure we're keeping our teachers. For example, we want to make sure that we are providing them with the training they need to keep up with the evidence-based teaching of literacy, making sure that kids are knowing how to read. And I think that can be accomplished by making sure we provide 10 days of training for that paid, for example, supporting our teachers 100%, supporting our administrators, but holding everybody accountable in the system. When it comes to healthcare, listen, I see this, it's firsthand. My 87-year-old mother has to wait four months for a doctor's appointment. That's unacceptable. This entire state needs more doctors. We have a shortage of doctors. We're the only state in the union actually losing doctors. Every state wants more doctors. We're actually losing doctors. I think we need to make sure that we're doing everything we can to recruit more nurses. We have a shortage of 4,000 nurses. There's a lot of things we can do when it comes to that. For example, right off the bat, we need to do away with the gross receipts tax. on medical services. That's ridiculous when a doctor in Texas makes 8% more than what they do in the same work in New Mexico. And we want to make sure we increase the pay for residents in New Mexico. We want to make sure that we are giving a tax credit, a state tax credit, if you will, for medical malpractice premiums. We want to put the stakeholders when it comes to medical malpractice issues in a room. That means trial lawyers, doctors, hospital administrators, and insurance companies, and lock the door and leave them in there for a couple of days and tell them to come out with some solutions. I think it's extremely important. You know, we can reimburse or forgive tuition expenses and medical school debt for doctors for every year they stay and practice medicine in New Mexico. We'll reduce a year of their medical debt. We have to get creative. And there needs to be a real sense of urgency when it comes to our healthcare system. Economic development, certainly, we've got such opportunities with our natural resources in New Mexico, but we really ought to be diversifying and we can. We have all the foundational pieces in place. Not only should we be the energy capital of the world with oil and gas, but with renewables, with wind and solar and geothermal and hydrogen. But we also have things, and we hear so often, all over the state and all over this country about the troubles we have on the border. But the border is also an amazing opportunity for us. And Santa Teresa, for example, and their ability to attract more manufacturer and industrial-based businesses is really exciting with that intermodal over there. Then there's Albuquerque in the middle Rio Grande Valley, for example, with the brain power that's out there with Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs, UNM research facilities, NMSU. We have brain power in this state and we have, what we really need to do is be ready for the next technology explosion, if you will, when it comes to data, when it comes to AI, when it comes to quantum computing. We should be embracing that and being a real place where people want to come and move their businesses to where small businesses can flourish. So there's a tremendous amount of opportunity. I'm really confident about the outlook for New Mexico, but we have to face and deal with these very tough challenges that we have.
KC Counts:
What else do you think is important for voters to know as they head in for the primaries in just a few short months?
Sam Bregman:
listen, I think it's important that voters, and I said it earlier, that voters need to know where the candidates stand on the very important issues. I'm a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, and I always will be. But I tell you, we hear about the radical left, we hear about the radical right. I'm someone right in the middle, if you will, that just wants to get things done. I don't have, I'm not, I'm not interested in fighting wedge issues all day long. I'm focused on making a difference and getting stuff done on the issues that are important to New Mexicans, like what we've just talked about, like crime, like education, healthcare, economic development. Those are things that we can have an immediate impact on and have a truly immediate effect on the quality of life for every New Mexican.
KC Counts:
I have just a follow-up question for you first on healthcare. Do you think there needs to be a cap on medical malpractice?
Sam Bregman:
No, listen, there already are particular caps within the medical malpractice statutes. But what I think is more important is realizing and recognizing that, yes, as I said earlier, I want us all to get together, all the stakeholders, and work on some solutions. But that is not a silver bullet. I will tell you, Texas did medical malpractice reform, quote unquote, and premiums didn't go down a penny. And I think that's what we need to recognize, and we need to do everything we can to make this the best place to be a doctor, make it as attractive as possible when it comes to income issues. But listen, Doctors are educated folks, and they look at where they're going to move a family to, for example. Do you want to start or move your existing family to a place that's number one in prime and 50th in education as a state? No, of course not. We have to improve all these issues. And I think as we do that, and as we make particular, precise incentives for doctors to be here, we will move the needle, and we will start bringing more back into New Mexico.
KC Counts:
Second, on AI technology in general, specifically data centers, do you think it was the right decision to allow data centers to build these massive campuses outside of any regulation when it comes to utilities and water?
Sam Bregman:
Well, I'm not so sure that it's going to be outside of any regulations. If you're referring to specifically Project Jupiter, for example, I do support that project. I want to see that project take off and really blossom and create the great paying jobs that I think it will. I think we need to make sure we, of course, have proper regulations when it comes to governing bases, governing businesses. At the same time, we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to promote the kind of clean business that we want. And That's not to say that we do not have challenges. It's to say we got to find a way to yes, instead of always coming up as the first answer, no. That's what I think we need to change. The mentality of the first thing we say to any new project is no. What I do say is, of course, we want every industry, every business to follow the rules and hold them accountable. But at the same time, we want to encourage businesses to develop here in New Mexico.
KC Counts:
All right, Sam Bregman, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate you speaking with us.
Sam Bregman:
Thank you so much.
