I don’t know Nella Domenici, personally, but I knew her father. My husband and I had a recording studio, and the Senator’s people came in to ask my husband to write and record a campaign musical ad. “People for Pete” was created and was used in several of Senator Pete Domenici’s campaigns. I went on to work in New Mexico politics and had the opportunity to get to know the Senator a little.
For a wildly successful politician, Pete Domenici was a really down-to-earth fellow. And although I didn’t really know her, I did meet Nancy Domenici on a few occasions, and she, too, seemed to be a lovely down-to-earth lady. So, I’m hoping that the apple doesn’t fall far from that tree and that Nella is someone who is well-grounded and who genuinely cares about this state.
Nella Domenici was born in Albuquerque. She earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from Georgetown University and a graduate degree from Harvard Business School. She stayed on the east coast, rising successfully in the finance industry. Throughout, Nella maintained her ties to her family and New Mexico, and she and her Navy veteran husband bought a second home in Santa Fe to come back to over twenty years ago.
Martin Heinrich, Nella’s opponent and the incumbent, has made quite an issue of Nella having gone away to school and then having a career out-of-state. Mind you, Heinrich was born in Nevada, grew up in Missouri, went to college in Missouri and came here to take some graduate courses at the University of New Mexico. So, let’s put that one to rest. At least Nella spent her formative years raised on the concerns and values of New Mexicans by the longest-serving senator in the state’s history.
Nella appears to be a commonsense conservative, much like her father. She has warned that New Mexico’s border is the most open in the United States, and we make the whole country vulnerable. And looking at what is happening in Colorado this week, with armed Venezuelan gangs taking over multi-story apartment buildings, it’s damn sure hard to argue that point. She says we need a physical barrier, a wall, and she’s right.
Nella says that she is an “all-of-the-above” proponent on energy. Acknowledging that we will eventually need to move toward renewables, she, nonetheless, also recognizes that we are a long way from achieving sensible, reliable alternatives to fossil fuels. And in the meantime, New Mexico needs to remain a leader in the oil and gas industry. That industry provides nearly 150,000 high-paying jobs in a state that desperately needs them.
Nella’s stance on managing crime in New Mexico just makes sense. Unlike Heinrich’s anti-police, soft-on-crime view, she supports law enforcement, cash bail, fierce prosecution of the alarmingly high number of violent crimes like homicides, assaults, and carjackings, drug and alcohol deaths. Forbes Magazine named New Mexico “the most dangerous state” in the country. Right, again. The nearly 100 years of Democrat rule in New Mexico has literally left us almost defenseless.
Nella wants to make abortion “safe, legal and rare.” And yes, she opposes any federal abortion ban. And yes, she wants women’s choices to be respected. I agree. Where we apparently very much disagree is that New Mexico is a state that allows abortion up until the moment of birth. I too may support the individual states making these decisions, but a 7, 8 or 9-month abortion is barbaric, right up there with burning people at the stake. Unless a doctor is saving the health or life of the Mom, ban it.
Nella does a good job of laying out both the nation’s and New Mexico’s economic woes. She seems to understand that poverty and hunger in New Mexico, especially among our children, is a tragedy that simply shouldn’t be. I recommend that you visit her campaign website, but I won’t spend time here, because there is only one thing that will improve our economy . . . quit electing Democrat legislators.
It is almost as useless to talk about New Mexico schools. That’s something I really do understand. I spent years working those issues at the statehouse. Absolutely nothing has changed. Unions, poorly educated and trained teachers, wasteful expenditures, lack of merit-based pay and Democrats, Democrats, Democrats. They should be ashamed of what they have done to New Mexico children.
Nella and her husband, however, have done something about it. They and a group of bipartisan New Mexico leaders founded Excellent Schools New Mexico (ESNM). These public charter schools, in mostly underserved areas, outperform the district public schools in reading and math. They hope to show the state what allowing highly qualified teachers to enact their own vision for teaching math, reading, writing and other subjects can do for kids.
There are certainly other important issues in this and every other race in New Mexico and across the country. Everyone should take the time to learn how these candidates really feel about the issues by learning what they’ve done about the issues. Don’t take a politician’s word for a dang thing. Listen, and then get out and learn something. But understand one thing. You can’t learn what you need to know by paying attention to only one side of an argument . . . even mine!
