KRWG Public Media is covering the New Mexico State Representative race for district 34. Democratic candidate Raymundo Lara spoke to Noah Raess.
Noah Raess:
Just to start off, can you tell us about your background and how that has prepared you for office?
Raymundo Lara:
So my background is in education, public education, K-12. I graduated from NMSU with a BA in English. I originally wanted to teach high school English, but I got attracted to other programs within the school district and, I ended up managing the parent outreach and engagement program for the school district several years ago, and that's what really got me involved in, in the public and working with the public. I also was a fellow with a group called Lead New Mexico. This was back in mid 2000. It was a group out of San Diego that was coming into New Mexico to train charter school leaders. I applied, I got accepted and, after the fellowship, I was assigned a mentor and that mentor was former Senator Cynthia Nava. And so as we were going over the projects or the follow ups that I had been working on as a fellow, she mentioned to me, hey, Ray, you know, you have some pretty good ideas. Have you ever considered running for office, which I well, no, I haven't, I haven't considered running for office. And so that's, that's, she kind of planted the seed on that, and that's how I got involved in this, in this process, as in becoming a legislative.
Noah Raess:
Why are you running for office?
Raymundo Lara:
The reason I'm running for office one of the reasons is to continue the work that I started. So, for example I was able to work with my colleagues to get the governor to sign HB 47, which was the 80/20 health insurance bill for school employees. That bill had been in the works for at least six years. And, I was finally able to work with the legislative finance committee to get the $71 million into the state budget in order for the school districts and the charter schools to pay 80% of the health care insurance for school employees. So this type of work doesn't happen overnight. It takes many years of negotiation and it takes many years of partnership to get things going as well as with capital projects, you know, capital projects. We received capital outlay money every year. And so there's so many needs in my district that I'm able to fund multiple projects at once. And the only drawback to that is, is that the funding isn't complete. So a lot of these, a lot of these projects have to be phased in. And so that's another thing that I would like to continue doing this in order to see those projects and those buildings built and put to use to serve the community.
Noah Raess:
What do you believe are the biggest issues facing your district?
Raymundo Lara:
So the the biggest issues facing my district are, water, for one, as we know, there's, some extreme drought. There was very little snowpack up the north. And since this is a very heavily agricultural district. Our farmers depend on a lot of that irrigation water and so one of the things I'm really concerned about is the water allocations that they'll be receiving. Of course, I totally understand that. Texas v. New Mexico, rulings and the limitations that we have with water and agriculture. I also understand that the, the, the very extreme low levels of water in Elephant Butte. So we have to come up with unique and interesting ways to get them water to where it needs to go, such as watershed restoration, management as far as working with EBID to see how we can prioritize water usage for our farmers. Also, there's an option for farmers to fallow their land in order not to irrigate it. And so, you know, Ag water is one of the biggest factors in my district. The other one would be education, jobs and quality of life type things. You know, I one of the that's one of the things that I've really worked on is quality of life because there's a lot of communities smaller communities who don't have community centers that don't have parks and I would like for my constituents to be able to enjoy those in their own backyard, as opposed to having to go to Las Cruces or El Paso.
Noah Raess:
You touched on this already, but how would you successfully address those issues?
Raymundo Lara:
We can capture a lot of the storm runoff if we can capture the storm runoff and be able to get it to our farmers or where it needs to go say through watershed restoration or through small damming projects, you know, that is something that we really need to look at and I and I've been glad to work with the Water Resources Institute at NMSU to help them achieve that, watershed restoration and I think they've done some really good work with that. So, the water situation with, with agriculture, I think that we're really between a rock and a hard place because that, you know, we're really depending on mother nature for that one. But as far as the quality of life, those types of projects and, you know, in infrastructure projects, those, you know, the best way to deal with those is to, number one, provide capital outlay. Number two, encourage those entities to apply for grant funding, either through the feds or through the State Water Trust Board, colonias, infrastructure, etc.. And I think that that would be the best way to make sure that these projects are complete and that there's a follow through of that.
Noah Raess:
Finally, what else do you think is important for voters to know about you in your campaign?
Raymundo Lara:
Something that's important for voters to know about me and my campaign. So I'll start with me first is, you know, this is my eighth year doing this. I have come to work with many individuals and many entities and the way I like to approach things is through relationships and building relationships and having measured leadership. You know, I think having constant, steady leadership is, is really, really important with it. That approach has really allowed me not only to get many things done within the district as far as infrastructure and other projects, but it also has helped me in the legislature as well. So I currently serve as the, as democratic caucus chair and, you know, my colleagues have elected me to that leadership position and being in that leadership position, I'm able to advocate for my constituents on a totally different level. And it puts me in a really good opportunity to, to meet with the leadership team, with the speaker, with the leader, and with and, you know, as being the only representative from southern New Mexico on that leadership team, I think that brings a lot of weight and credibility to the position. And I'm proud to serve that position. I'm proud to be able to leverage that leadership role to advocate for my communities.
