New Mexico Daily Lobo
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tuesday, october 7, 2014/ Page 5
State House District 15 race is one to watch Fire captain fights to keep spot in Legislature
By Erika Eddy / NM News Port Emily Kane looked harried as she left Fire Station One in downtown Albuquerque. “Sorry, we were working out with tires,” said Kane, who is running for re-election in House District 15. Kane, 58, had been flipping tires in order to stay in shape for her day job as a captain of the Albuquerque Fire Department. A Democrat, Kane faces Sarah Maestas Barnes in November to retain her position. District 15 includes Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and the North Valley of Albuquerque. Kane said she already had some understanding of the political system when she began her first term in 2012. As a citizen, she pushed the introduction of a bill that raised the New Mexico firefighter death benefit for firefighters who die in the line of duty. The bill, sponsored by Kane, was signed into law last session by the governor. “Involving a lot of people in these pieces of legislation — that is the important part of creating good legislation,” she said. “I trust it; I believe in it. I believe it works.” Other bills that Kane sponsored during her first term include an act prohibiting former statewide elected officials from accepting compensation as lobbyists for a period of two years after their service; a memorial requesting that workers’ compensation study the disability impact of post-traumatic stress disorder on first responders; and a bill that requires the posting of information about the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline, according to New Mexico Legislature’s website. Kane said state representatives give every piece of legislation due process, even though she says the process is “painstakingly slow.” “You have to work through 10 bad bills to for every good one,” she said. “You can’t make a snap decision with every piece of legislation.” Kane said it is important to allow independent voters to participate in primary elections. She and state Sen. Bill O’Neill (D) co-sponsored legislation that would open
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primary election participation to Decline to State (DTS) and independent voters for 2015. Currently, only voters registered as Republican or Democrat are allowed to vote in their respective primaries. About 240,000 New Mexicans are currently registered as DTS. “I don’t think it’s a partisan issue,” she said. “Young voters don’t often feel as included in the (election) process. They’re not ready to say, ‘This is how I want to vote.’” O’Neill said he has been glad to see Kane working in District 15 since he helped recruit her to run for her first term. “I really like working with Rep. Kane,” he said. “She has such a unique background. The more diverse we are, the better we are as a legislature.” One reason Kane said she moved to Albuquerque from Taos was the hope of finding a better education for her and her husband’s four children. She now says the Albuquerque Public School system has been a disappointment. She said APS grew too large, exceeding its ability to be productive. Kane said a goal of the school system needs to be reducing class sizes. “When you have a group that gets so large, you have an anonymous student,” she said. “Smaller groups create identity and cohesiveness in classes.” She said there needs to be an internal process of change in order to reach goals of smaller class sizes and different school structures. “I’m hoping they get some intelligent people together,” she said. “A nice cross section of parents, students, a third-party consultant — and teachers, for sure. They are the boots on the ground.” Kane is in favor of spending money on early childhood education, especially to help working families. She said that working parents often do not have the luxury of being able to help their children with school work. Erika Eddy is a journalism student at the University of New Mexico. She also works as a freelance writer for the Daily Lobo. This story first appeared on the New Mexico News Port.
First-time candidate looks to unseat incumbent
By Casey Purcella / NM News Port Control of the New Mexico House of Representatives hangs in the balance in November, and in the thick of it all is Sarah Maestas Barnes, a 34-year-old Albuquerque attorney and first-time candidate running to represent House District 15. Maestas Barnes has been singled out by many local and national Republicans as a candidate to watch in the party’s bid to elect a Republican majority to the state house for the first time in 60 years. Currently, 37 Democrats and 33 Republicans serve in the House. The Future Majority Project, a Republican group co-chaired by Gov. Susana Martinez, named Maestas Barnes as one of their 14 in “14 Races to Watch,” according to a press release. She said the potentially historic implications of her race against incumbent Democrat Emily Kane are exciting, but not her motivation for running. “The ‘Republicans vs. Democrats’ fight is another group’s fight,” she said. “My priority is to do what’s best for New Mexico.” Maestas Barnes cites the state’s future as her primary concern. She said experiences she has had in raising her daughters, as well as her experiences as a lawyer, are among the factors that influence her. She said one of her priorities is to increase access to early childhood education. “I’ve seen the benefits that my own children have had with having access to these early childhood education centers,” she said. “Some of the research that I’ve read really indicates to me that that is one of the few ways that we can really break the cycle of poverty in New Mexico.” Maestas Barnes said she has first-hand knowledge that the state’s education system doesn’t produce workers with skills that meet the hiring needs of some of the state’s businesses. Doing legal work for her family’s engineering firm, T&D Services, she said it was difficult to find people qualified to do the kind
of work the company demanded. According to its website, the company “[provides] engineering design services for electric utilities in the southwestern United States.” “The workforce that’s available to small business owners in New Mexico is worrisome for the future,” she said. “That’s why we really need to focus on education and make sure we create a workforce that is adequately prepared.” Maestas Barnes is one of only five candidates running for the state House to have raised more than $100,000 in campaign funds. Her opponent, Kane, has raised $125,880, while Maestas Barnes reported $100,266 in donations, according to campaign finance documents filed with the New Mexico Secretary of State. GOPAC, a conservative nonprofit organization that boasts former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele as one of its past chairmen, named the House District 15 election one of its top ten races to watch in New Mexico and has donated to Maestas Barnes’ campaign. UNM political science professor Tim Krebs said that because large GOP groups have stated their interest in the race already, it means the people in the organizations believe the election is a winnable one. “Political experts have this race on their watch list, so people expect it to be competitive,” Krebs said. “When people expect it to be competitive, more groups get involved, more money flows into the race and you get a fundamentally different race than what we typically find at the legislative level.” Closer to the election, he said residents in District 15 can expect to be courted through direct mail, because TV advertising is too inefficient for candidates to use in a local election. Casey Purcella is a journalism student at the University of New Mexico. He also works as a design assistant for the Daily Lobo. This story first appeared on the New Mexico News Port.