Demonstrators cheer and hold up signs during a public lands rally on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, outside of the state Capitol. Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican
The Santa Fe New Mexican
Dawn the duck: The New Mexico Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment Friday of Dawn Walters to lead the state’s newly established Office of the Child Advocate.
The office will be responsible for providing third-party oversight of New Mexico’s troubled child welfare system.
“This role has been long awaited and is critical to the safety and success of New Mexico’s children and families,” Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored Walters’ confirmation, said during a hearing before the Senate Rules Committee, which Duhigg chairs.
During the committee hearing, Walters’ mother offered emotional testimony in support of her daughter’s confirmation.
“When Dawn was about 4 years old, her pediatrician asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, and my darling daughter said, ‘I want to be a duck,’” she said, generating laughter.
The story drew comparisons with the potentially rough waters Walters, now the head of the state Children, Youth and Families Department Office of Advocacy, faces in her new role.
“A duck is a great analogy because a duck is calm and collected on the surface and works tirelessly underneath, and a duck, like many other birds, never leaves a flock behind,” Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, told Walters.
“They never separate,” she added. “So, while you may lead this [office], you don’t lead alone.”
During the floor session, Duhigg implored the Senate Finance Committee to fully fund the new office, which is administratively attached to the state Department of Justice.
“We are potentially setting this position up for failure by giving Ms. Walters these responsibilities without giving her the funding to actually do them and so I hope that that gets addressed,” she said.
Sen. Pete Campos, a Las Vegas Democrat who is a member of the committee, replied funding is “something we’ll be working on.”
Dueling gun rallies: Advocates on both sides of the gun issue will be at the Roundhouse Saturday.
The New Mexico Shooting Sports Association and the New Mexico Firearms Industry Association are sponsoring a pro-Second Amendment rally, which will be held on the east side of the Capitol at 10 a.m.
Meanwhile, volunteers with Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action plan to gather at the Capitol for a Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Day Saturday, with a news conference scheduled for 10:30 in the rotunda.
The rallies come as the Legislature considers a bill that would ban the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles, including AK-47s and AR-15s, and implement new regulations for firearms retailers. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Senate Bill 17 on a party-line vote Wednesday; the full Senate is the next stop.
Congresswoman warns of Pecos mining fight: A Republican effort to expand mining in a wilderness area in Minnesota could have consequences for the Pecos Wilderness, U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández warned Friday.
The U.S. House voted last month to overturn a Biden-era ban on mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Leger Fernández said that if the federal government can fast-track mining there they could do the same thing in the Upper Pecos River watershed. Deb Haaland closed the watershed to mining when she was interior secretary during the Biden administration, but the Trump administration is looking to cancel that withdrawal.
Leger Fernández said Republicans are “quietly trying to give more power to mining corporations.”
“They want to give away our public resources for free, leave us to clean up the mess, and the people who get the benefit are sometimes China, often Chile or Australia, but they’re tied to China,” she said.
Politicos call for public land protection: New Mexico is “the envy of much of the West” due to its pro-public land policies, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich said Friday.
Speaking to a crowd gathered in the Roundhouse rotunda after a pro-public lands rally, a camouflage vest over his dress shirt, Heinrich highlighted state policies such as the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund and spending on efforts to create wildlife corridors. He also praised the efforts of New Mexico conservation groups and talked about the bipartisan nature of support for public lands in the West.
Rep. Angelica Rubio, D-Las Cruces, contrasted her relationship with the land with that of her parents, Mexican immigrants who picked crops to support six children.
“For them it was exhaustion and survival, and for me it’s joy,” she said.
She said the interplay between environmental and other forms of justice is especially stark in Southern New Mexico, where scenic deserts clash with detention centers and border walls.
“Our fight for public lands must also be aligned with our fight for social and racial justice,” she said.
Leger Fernández says she’ll keep pushing on Epstein: Leger Fernández said Friday she plans to keep digging into disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s activities at Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe County and that she has been working with state legislators who are interested in establishing an investigatory “truth commission.”
House Resolution 1, which would establish the commission, is scheduled for a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee Saturday.
Leger Fernández said she plans to introduce federal legislation on Tuesday related to Epstein. She noted Epstein likely committed crimes in New Mexico and some New Mexicans are likely among his victims.
“We need to find the answers,” she said.
In response to a question about why the Epstein files weren’t released during the Biden administration, Leger Fernández said that “may or may not have been justified” but either way the only course is to move forward.
“I like to tell my kids that we can’t focus on what if, we have to focus on what’s next,” she said.
She also noted President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years and is mentioned in the files thousands of times, decided to make releasing the files “a signature policy of his campaign” and then went back on his pledge to release all of them.
“I know this was a big MAGA issue,” she said. “I thank them. Thank you for saying that this needed to be done.”
Leger Fernandez expressed outrage both at the contents of the files — some of which describe sex crimes against children that she said need to be investigated — and at the way Republicans have handled it. She accused the administration of violating the Epstein Transparency Act by redacting the names of people who may have committed crimes while releasing those of survivors. She said Congress can’t get to the bottom of what happened without understanding “the web of power and money” around Epstein.
“It isn’t just the outrage, the moral outrage we should be feeling,” she said. “It’s that this is a pattern and practice that is reflective in the rest of society that’s broken.”
Senate approves fairgrounds bonds: The state Senate on Friday passed a bill authorizing $92 million in bonds to redevelop the State Fairgrounds in Albuquerque.
Senate Bill 48 now heads to the House.
“Today’s Senate vote moves us one step closer to a historic revitalization of the International District and central Albuquerque,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “This bonding authority in a neighborhood with enormous potential will create the kind of mixed-use development with housing, vibrant streets and the economic opportunity that this community deserves.”
The master plan for the Fairgrounds will be finalized in the next few weeks, the governor said, with potential future uses including “mixed-income housing, a new exhibition hall and expanded green space.”
Quote of the day: “I hope you’re all wearing jeans just to piss them off even more.” —House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, after naming a bipartisan committee of House members to march through the Senate chamber with the basketball trophy the House again won Thursday night after beating the Senate in the annual House/Senate basketball game.