Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard
By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post
caclark@ladailypost.com
Voters re-elected Stephanie Garcia Richard (SGR) to serve a second term as Commissioner of Public Lands.
Democrat Garcia Richard received 377,913 votes or 55 percent over Republican opponent Jefferson Byrd with 310,130 votes and write in Independent candidate Larry Marker with 1,088.
“Just over a decade ago, I began my public service in this community. I will never forget the people in Los Alamos who helped elect me to my first ever political office with all of their hard work and support,” Commissioner Garcia Richard said. “Ever since that day I was elected in 2012, I have never forgotten where I started.”
Commissioner Garcia Richard is the first woman, the first Latina, and the first educator to serve in the position as New Mexico’s Commissioner of Public Lands.
Born in Tucumcari and raised in Silver City, she recalls learning at a young age the importance of serving others. Her father, a WWII veteran, was a teacher; her mother was active in their church and community. Garcia Richard grew up in a family that operated ranches on the eastern plans and northern mountains of New Mexico, sparking the strong connection to our land that she holds today. After graduating from Silver High School, she went on to receive her undergraduate degree from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York.
Garcia Richard was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 2012. During her six years as a State Representative, she championed laws to increase access to a quality education, transparency, and investments in renewable energy, job training, and economic development. She served as Chair of the House Education Committee for two years before being elected Land Commissioner in 2018.
As Land Commissioner, she said she is focused on raising as much money as possible while always keeping an eye toward stewardship and preserving the land for generations to come.
“We can diversify the revenue that comes into the Land Office by tripling the number of renewable energy projects, promoting outdoor recreation, and encouraging new and innovative commercial development on state trust land,” Commissioner Garcia Richard said. “With the largest continuous oil and gas resources potential ever assessed in the world sitting in Southeast New Mexico, and land that is prime for wind and solar development, I am committed to working to make more money for New Mexico while protecting the health of our land.”
The New Mexico State Land Office, under the direction of Commissioner Garcia Richard, manages nine million surface and 13 million mineral acres across every county. This land, referred to as state trust land, was allocated to New Mexico by the Federal Government under the Ferguson Act of 1898 and the Enabling Act of 1910.
The mission of the agency is to use state trust land to raise revenue for New Mexico public schools, hospitals, colleges, and other public institutions. The entities are the beneficiaries of revenue raised when the Land Office does business on state trust land. Revenue is raised by leasing land for oil, gas, and mineral exploration, business and commercial operations such as renewable energy projects, agriculture and livestock grazing, outdoor recreation opportunities, and much more.
In 2019, the Land Office raised more than $1 billion for the public institutions it supports for the first time in the history of the office, with an estimated saving to the taxpayer of $1,500 for the year. The Land Office accomplished that feat three years in a row and earned more than $2 billion in Fiscal Year 2022.
