In my last column, I wrote about a grassroots petition drive to save single-family zoning in Las Cruces. I promised to give an update after the petition signatures were counted. Well friends, we have a situation. After Volunteers gathered 4,600 signatures in a valiant effort to save their neighborhoods, the City Clerk threw out nearly half, using various dubious excuses in order to keep the attack on single-family zoning from facing a vote of the people.
The average signature validity rate for initiatives certified for the ballot is 75-77%. With 3,240 signatures needed, the petition would have succeeded with anything over a 70% validity rate. It seems there was clearly significant political pressure placed on the City Clerk to invalidate the maximum number of signatures possible in order to keep this question off the ballot at all costs.
Even the city attorneys were unclear on the law, since it has been 10 years since the last petition drive in Las Cruces. By giving conflicting instructions while at the same time sticking to tight deadlines, the process was the punishment and the citizens’ civil rights were denied by intransigence verging on malfeasance. Nevertheless, the signature total should have been enough to place the Realize Las Cruces zoning rewrite on the ballot.
When our civil institutions become overrun with ideological zealotry and left-wing activism, we see the rules go out the window and a by-any-means-necessary mentality becomes corrosive to democracy. Petition organizer Sarah Smith was limited to three minutes for comment at the city council meeting at which the petition was denied. And the arrogant and insulting conduct of some councilors was beyond the pale. How dare you challenge our authority was the clear impression they gave. I will provide some examples of the City Councilors playing the outdated and overused race card to prove their supposed moral superiority over the citizens they purport to lead.
But first, I need to introduce you to Emerge New Mexico, a training center for Democrat women politicians with a Marxist bent. Emerge program alumni include numerous local and state politicians up to and including 2026 Democratic Candidate for Governor Deb Haaland, as well as District, Appeals Court and New Mexico Supreme Court Judges. So, with that background in place, let’s go to the audio tape.
District 4 Councilor Johana Bencomo, Emerge New Mexico class of 2018. “If you signed this petition because you are inherently against multi-family housing and a diverse (sic) of housing going up in good neighborhoods with good parks I would ask you to reflect on where your segregationist tendencies come from.” This is rich coming from the left who want segregated safe spaces, segregated graduations, segregated affinity groups at work, segregated DEI initiatives and the list goes on. Who’s really got the segregationist tendencies here?
District 5 Councilor Becky Corran, Emerge New Mexico class of 2016 and former President of the Board. First, she said a homeowner claimed that “they menaced me by suggesting my neighborhood would become devalued with potentially diverse people.” No, the neighborhood becomes devalued when apartments and businesses are allowed amongst the single-family homes when the zoning is changed. That’s real estate 101. And Las Cruces is 60% Hispanic, so the city is very diverse already. Then she claimed sending the measure to a vote is “not how we do things, we have a job to do and it is making policy.” Perhaps, but when you make policy based on the fringe ideological views of Emerge New Mexico and essentially tell people to sit down and shut up, you might get some push-back on that.
District 6 Councilor Yvonne Flores, Emerge New Mexico. “Because I am a woman and because I am a minority… I can call one when I see them. All of you who came up [to speak at the meeting] displayed a lot of dislike for your fellow person (sic) and I’ll bet a lot of you are fear-mongering, church attending whatever.” Got that? She’s passing judgement on you by playing the sex card and the race card, and the anti-Christian bigotry so shamelessly on display should be widely condemned. A truly odious and uncalled for outburst, but oh so revealing.
In the minds of these people laws are racist, the Police are racist, borders are racist, zoning is racist, America is racist, and you dear reader are a racist. Never mind that Las Cruces is majority Hispanic. Ironically, implying that minorities don’t live in “good neighborhoods” is actually truly racist. But maligning the character of their opponents is the only weapon for people who cannot support their arguments with facts or logic. Fortunately, the political tide is turning in America and the “everybody who disagrees with me is racist” tactics are losing their effectiveness.
Some of the Las Cruces City Council will be up for election in November and we hope these self-important and frankly bigoted Emerge councilors will get voted out. Unfortunately, Councilor Becki Graham is also Emerge New Mexico giving this out-of-state Billionaire funded special interest group a majority on the City Council. Districts 3, 5 and 6 are on the ballot this year meaning Las Cruces has an opportunity to at least replace Corran and Flores and undo the Emerge stranglehold on the city. The stakes for the future of Las Cruces could not be higher.
Robert Witsenhausen is a Santa Fe based sound engineer and electrical contractor with an interest in politics and current events.
