Opinion

Letter To The Editor: Vote For Pete

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By SUSAN O’LEARY
County Councilor

 

I recommend Pete Sheehey as best qualified to serve Los Alamos County in the State Legislature.

 

I support Pete for several reasons. First, he’s service oriented. He gets that serving in government means working for actual people, not simply engaging in policy debate. He knows that the job of our legislator is to achieve results that improve our community. He’s demonstrated that philosophy in the hundreds or thousands of decisions he’s made over the past decade as County Councilor and Planning and Zoning Commission member.

 

Second, Read More

Letter To The Editor: Response To Robert Visel…

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By RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

I write in response to Mr. Robert Visel’s May 29 letter to the editor (link).

The rate of deaths due to gun violence in the US is 30 times greater than in Germany, more than 50 times greater than in the United Kingdom, and more than 90 times greater than in Japan. Easy access to guns in the United States is the most important factor explaining those differences.

Over 15,000 people in the US died as result of gun violence in 2017. This is almost 4 times more than the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2017. In fact, you now face a greater risk of dying Read More

Letter To The Editor: Christine Chandler Will Work Hard … And Smart For Us In House District 43

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By KELLY and STEVE MYERS
Los Alamos

We would vote for Christine Chandler just based on her education, training and experience alone, but she offers so much more to her constituents in New Mexico House District 43.

Christine is incredibly intelligent and we need brains in our state government. Her legal experience is extensive, working in the legal department at Los Alamos National Laboratory, serving as Los Alamos County Probate Judge, working as a legislative analyst in Santa Fe and Washington, D.C. and leading Los Alamos County as an elected County Councilor, serving in the late 90’s and early Read More

Letter To The Editor: Stop Blaming Inanimate Object

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By ROBERT VISEL
Los Alamos

Once again people are blaming an inanimate object for the violence we’re seeing in our schools and our country.

Do you blame the car for killing someone in a DWI? Do you blame the fork and the spoon for obesity? When someone uses a truck full of fertilizer to blow up a government building do we blame the fertilizer? Do you blame the knife when it’s used to stab someone to death? Was a gun responsible for killing six million Jews? Gun control made the Holocaust possible.

The gun, knife, car, or sack of fertilizer are all inanimate objects incapable of doing anything on their own. Read More

Letter To The Editor: Rick Miera For Lieutenant Governor

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By JODY BENSON
Los Alamos
 
When I was on the School Board back in 2009, Rick Miera would drive all the way from Albuquerque in the evening, often in winter, to advise and consult with the School Board’s Political Committee about issues we needed to understand in order to not only improve education but better lobby the state for our survival.
 
Information included: How the State’s Legislative Education Committee works; the funding formula and budget; how to get optimum help from the state for constructing our new schools; issues other state schools were facing—and something especially
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Letter To The Editor: In Support Of Pete Sheehey

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By THOMAS CANFIELD
Los Alamos
 
I worked with Pete Sheehey for many years at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  
 
The work we did at LANL involved many large and small teams and lots of strong personalities. Pete is excellent team player. He led many teams and played a significant collegial role in our work.
 
He had confidence in his own knowledge and abilities, but he was always happy to seek additional expert advice and learn from others. Pete has good team building skills, leads by example and is quick to give credit to others for their contributions. I have seen Pete work effectively
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Letter To The Editor: Stephanie Garcia Richard Most Qualified To Be Land Commissioner

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BY KARYL ANN ARMBRUSTER
Public Education Commissioner
District 4

There is no doubt that Garrett VeneKlasen is a conservationist: that is his job. Yet what experience does he possess to be our Democratic candidate for state Land Commissioner?

Has he ever been active in the Democratic Party? A ward chair/delegate? Walked/called for candidates? He has never voted in a school bond or school board election, so how much does he care about education for NM children? What is his experience working with the Legislature? Has he worked with the entire state’s budget? Interestingly, only a small

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Letter To The Editor: First Class Response On Voting Systems Brings More Ideas

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By JOHN BARTLIT
White Rock
I appreciate the additional ideas in Terry Goldman’s reply (May 27) to my column (May 25) about voting systems that would better meet the goals of a democracy. Mr. Goldman supplies details and gives good reasons to support his own proposal for averting today’s harmful effects of gerrymandering.
 
In writing my column, perhaps I did not think of his approach that involves forming an “independent, non-partisan districting commission,” a task that may have unwittingly discouraged me. Be that as it may, Mr. Goldman’s reply offers fresh ideas
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Letter To The Editor: Disagree On Compactness Of Voting Districts Issue

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By TERRY GOLDMAN
Los Alamos

I generally agree with John Bartlit. On the issue of compactness of voting districts, I acknowledge that I have also advocated that in the past. However, I now must disagree. (link)

I have realized that compactness can lead to similar results as does gerrymandering. There is unequivocal measure of how democratic a voting system is: It is the agreement between the number of representatives of each party and the relative fraction of votes cast for each party. 

For example, if 45 percent of voters in a state

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Letter To The Editor: Sheehey A True Public Servant

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By MIGUEL M. CHAVEZ
Former Santa Fe County Commissioner
Former Santa Fe City Councilor
 
Los Alamos County Councilor Pete Sheehey, candidate for Dictrict 43 State Representative, and I served together on the Board of Directors of the North Central Regional Transit District (N.C.R.T.D) from 2014 to 2016, when I was a Santa Fe County Commissioner.
 
We also served as chair and vice chair of N.C.R.T.D’s Board of Finance and Environmental Sustainability subcommittees. Throughout our work, l was impressed with Pete’s commitment to the best interest of the entire Region.
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