Stephanie Garcia RichardCVNM News:
SANTA FE ― Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM), the state’s leading political advocacy voice for sound environmental policies that support healthy communities, announced Monday its endorsement of Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard for New Mexico Land Commissioner via its coordinated political action committee CVNM Action Fund.
“Rep. Garcia Richard has been vocal and ambitious in her plans for environmental protection,” said Ben Shelton, CVNM’s Political and Legislative sirector. “Rep. Garcia Richard has the potential to become a West-wide leading voice in conservation and public lands protection. She has a detailed and realistic plan to expand the role of state trust lands in renewable energy development in the New Mexico.”
“I am extremely honored to earn the endorsement of the Conservation Voters of New Mexico,” Garcia Richard said. “Renewable energy offers one of the clearest paths towards balancing long term land health and growing investment on our state lands. New Mexico has some of the best potential for both wind and solar production in the nation, and portions of state trust lands are in some of the best regions for renewables in the state. I look forward to working with CVNM to make that vision a reality.”
The Commissioner of Public Lands, commonly referred to as the Land Commissioner, is charged with generating and optimizing revenue from state trust lands to support public education and other beneficiary institutions, while simultaneously striving to protect, conserve and maintain the lands so they may be used by future generations. The New Mexico Land Office, which administers nine million acres of surface and 13 million acres of subsurface estate, is one of the largest land managers in the West. The office operates with nearly unfettered discretion.
“Few agencies are able to act as nimbly and autonomously as the State Land Office when it comes to supporting pro- or anti-conservation policies, so it’s particularly vital to ensure that an environmentally conscious advocate occupies the State Land Office,” Shelton added. “CVNM members and the public rely on us to indicate where one candidate is stronger than others on conservation issues and whose election will lead to stronger conservation outcomes. In the November Commissioner of Public Lands election that choice is clearly Rep. Garcia Richard.”
CVNM Action Fund engaged in a rigorous and thorough endorsement process with our board of directors that included all candidates that are up for election and returned a candidate questionnaire. Read our full endorsement process for statewide offices on our website.
For interviews with CVNM’s Political & Legislative Director Ben Shelton, please email Liliana Castillo at Liliana@CVNM.org or call 575.219.9619.
About CVNM Action Fund
Conservation Voters New Mexico Action Fund, the connected state political action committee of Conservation Voters New Mexico, is a nonpartisan “coordinated” political action committee that works to elect pro-conservation candidates and to defeat anti-conservation candidates at the state level. Through our work with CVNM Action Fund, we let voters know that – for New Mexico’s air, land water and healthy communities – who we elect matters.
