Bregman says his campaign for governor is shaped by his experience in the courtroom and in public office, arguing that his work has given him insight into the challenges facing everyday New Mexicans. He trails Deb Haaland as the two compete for support in June’s Democratic primary election, but Bregman said he is working to distinguish himself through a detailed policy platform and calls for more public debates between candidates.
In a March 17 interview, Bregman argued that New Mexico can spend more without raising taxes, proposing $500 payments to residents using a surge in oil revenues – an approach that leans heavily on the state’s existing energy wealth.
Bregman embraces an “all-of-the above” energy approach, supporting oil and gas as a major source of the state’s revenue but investing more in renewable energy. He said the state must diversify its economy now to prepare for a future when oil and gas revenues may plateau.
He also proposed creating a cabinet-level water resources agency, and called for accelerating aquifer mapping and expanding the use of brackish groundwater, which he described as a vast resource in New Mexico. (It’s true that New Mexico sits on a very large amount of brackish water, but it’s unclear that it is the largest in the world, as Bregman claimed in the interview.)
Overall, Bregman believes New Mexico has the financial resources to invest more in critical areas, including homelessness, behavioral health services, and job creation. He argues the state should direct more funding toward these issues while guaranteeing taxes will not be raised. Bregman claims these elements will give New Mexicans stronger support systems.
On crime, Bregman said violent offenses by juveniles – especially involving guns – are increasing and argued the state should intervene earlier while also holding adults accountable for providing firearms to minors.
To follow is a transcript of the interview with Bregman. It has been lightly edited for clarity, with brief paraphrasing in a few instances, from a reporter’s notes, to account for short inaudible portions of the recording. The substance of Bregman’s responses in those instances has not been changed.
Your career is quite vast, it’s spanned law, local government, public safety. How do you feel those experiences have influenced your priorities as a candidate for governor?
I’ve been able to stand up for the little guy, if you will, whether or not it’s taking on an insurance company, a major corporation, a government entity, standing up for people who are wrongfully hurt through no fault of their own, or wrongfully terminated, or were a victim or survivor of a crime. And I’ve owned small businesses.
So all those life experiences I think, of course I’m the district attorney now, all those life experiences have given me the opportunity to really understand New Mexico, understand, I think, the problems that we face, and try to make a difference. So that’s why I’m running for governor.
We have so many challenges here in New Mexico, whether or not it’s crime, education, health care, economic opportunity, affordability. These are all important issues that everyday New Mexicans are facing every day at the breakfast table, when they’re talking to their families.
I feel very blessed. I’ve been able to help a lot of people practicing law. I’ve also had businesses – I understand what small businesses go through, and the interaction with government and small business. And the ability to get things done here at the DA’s office I’m quite proud of. We’ve made a big difference in the safety of this community, and I want to continue to work in that direction.
I did create New Mexico’s first hate crime ordinance way back when I was on the city council here in Albuquerque in the 90s. I think it was important then, just as it is important now, because we have far too much hate in this country and in this state. We need to make sure we are doing everything we possibly can to hold people accountable. I also am very proud of something else back in those days. I, in many ways, helped found the sexual assault nursing examiners program in the city, and it’s become a statewide program, of course, and it’s helped a lot of survivors of sexual assault. I’m very grateful, because that’s a lasting legacy, if you will, of being able to help a tremendous amount of people and be able to provide them with compassion and care, with dignity, right?
You know, my son plays baseball and there’s this picture of Jackie Robinson on the wall and in our pool room at home. And it says, ‘A life is only as important as the impact it has on another human being.’ They’re quoting Jackie Robinson. And that, I’ve lived my life by that. My family’s lived by that. We, you know, we’re only here for a short period of time on this planet, and I think the most important thing you can do is have a positive impact, and that’s something I strive for every single day. And I’ve been able to do that as a lawyer, as the District Attorney here. Been able to do that as a businessman, and I’m very grateful for that opportunity.
That positive impact is important for voters as well, especially right now. You’re in this final stretch in the primaries, and I do want to point out Deb Haaland is currently leading in the polls. How are you positioning your campaign to stand out to voters more than what you have already?
Well, listen I’ve spoken with the community. I’ve also laid out 190 pages of policy on our website. I talk about my vision for the future of New Mexico all the time, and that’s why I think it’s so important that my opponent debate me. That’s why I continue to ask for that, because people need to know where we stand on issues, what our idea, or what our blueprint is for the future of this state. And I think that’s, you know, if you want to be governor, you’ve got to be willing to stand up on stage and answer tough questions, because you’re gonna have a lot of tough decisions to make when you are governor.
And so, I’ve been very adamant about talking about the things and listening to people about the things that really are affecting their lives. And certainly at the forefront of my campaign is trying to make our neighborhoods safer, our community safer, trying to make sure that their kids are getting a solid, good education, that our health care system is working. My 88-year-old mother, who lives in Albuquerque, should not have to wait four months for a doctor’s appointment. That’s ludicrous. That’s ridiculous. And you know, economic development. Do we have a job that we can take care of our family with? If you’re able to support your family in a way that is economically viable, then a lot of other problems go away. Good things happen when you can put food on the table and you could put gas in the gas tank, right?
You have quite a few policies, I believe around 12. And a lot of them do touch on economics. Before I touch on that, I kind of want to talk about your water conservation plan. It focuses on reducing pressure on groundwater through alternative water sources, but it doesn’t clearly address limits on groundwater pumping itself. Would you support stricter regulations on groundwater use, and how would your approach differ from what has already been done by the state or other governors?
Water resources dictate so much about how we proceed into the future of the state. I want to set up a water resources department as a cabinet-level position that encompasses the state engineer and interstate stream commission.
The reason we have to do this, we know that we’re starting to map the underground aquifers right now, but they say it’s gonna take eight years. We need to make it take two years.
We need to make sure that we have the big picture because so many things are affected by our precious water. For example, our economic development, and everything that encompasses, is going to be dictated by our ability to provide water to our people and provide water period. I believe that we have to consider the acequias all over the state. We have to consider the tribal interests, some of those ancient water rights. We have to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure we’re taking care of our farmers when it comes to water and our agricultural community.
We have constant lawsuits with the state of Texas, constant fights over the Colorado River right now and who’s getting the water. These are big issues that we have to look at in a big way to make sure that we are preserving every precious drop of water. And we have to get a handle on, for example, our groundwater, because we know that in 25 to 50 years, we’re gonna have 25% less surface water. We’re already seeing that in this state, with the severe drought conditions that so much of the state is in. This is a big, big issue.
And you mentioned in the question, there are other ways and other things that we have to explore. For example, brackish water. We sit on the largest brackish underground aquifer in the entire world. We have an ocean beneath us. It’s 3,500 feet deep down there – until we get to it. But when we get to it, and then when we bring that water up, we got to have the desal (desalination) technology in place, and the economies to scale for desal (desalination) are there.
We can make a big difference when it comes to industrial use, for example. When it comes to using brackish water. Look, every day we treat greywater sewage in Albuquerque and water our parks and golf courses with it, we know how to treat water. We can do this. The same thing with produced water. We have to be able to use all of these other resources. Or these other types of water, other than fresh water, so we’re not using our fresh water so much for economic development, because that’s something we have to preserve every drop of.
Why do you think that lawmakers haven’t taken this plunge yet, if you say that you could probably get it done in two years?
Here’s the deal, I think when they’re mapping out the underground aquifer, which I think you’re referring to, when they’re mapping it out, the state engineer’s office will probably tell you it’s going to take about eight years to complete that mapping. I say no, put more resources into it. Let’s get it done in two years.
You talk about diversifying the economy beyond oil and gas, but that industry currently pays for a really large share of the state’s budget. Are you willing to risk short term revenue losses to transition away from it, or will New Mexico remain dependent on oil and gas under your leadership?
My approaches are all above. I don’t want to completely move away from oil and gas abruptly. We rely too much on oil and gas in this state. It’s eight billion dollars a year. It’s a billion dollars a year for education, it’s a hundred thousand direct and indirect jobs here in New Mexico. It provides so much. We need to be celebrating our oil and gas revenues, and the fact that we are able to have such natural resources.
But, at the same time, we should hold bad actors accountable and responsible if they pollute unnecessarily or against our regulations and laws. Our wind, our water, our air, our land, extremely important. And so we should be doing that. I think we can do an “all of the above” approach.
We need to use our oil and gas assets as a bridge to the future when it comes to energy. We should be the energy capital (of the) world. We have more renewables, wind and solar, than just about anybody out there. Just walk out on a spring day in New Mexico, and you see all the renewables we have. Today (March, 17) is an example. Yes, Sunday was an example with wind, of course. But listen, there’s so much opportunity with geothermal, with hydrogen. We have all of these energy assets. We should be an energy capital of the future. And we can be. We have to have a can-do attitude. We have to build out our capacity and our transmission lines and make sure that electric rates are not going up on any, any citizen of New Mexico, anywhere in the state. We can keep our electric rates down, and I know we can also increase economic goals because we have so much energy.
And that takes me to diversification. Listen, it’s not just energy, it’s not just oil and gas. We can be a high tech center of this country. We have so much brain power from Los Alamos National Labs to Sandia National Labs. UNM research on quantum computing. We have New Mexico Tech. We have aerospace when it comes to Spaceport and White Sands Missile Range. We have New Mexico State University down there. The whole Rio Grande, from Los Alamos down to the border is ripe with opportunity. And not everybody’s going to be an engineer or computer scientist in the future, but not everybody’s going to be dependent on AI. AI doesn’t turn a wrench. The trades are going to be so important in the future as we build out wind farms, as we build out solar places, as we build out all this AI technology and quantum computing. The future for New Mexico is exciting. We have all kinds of opportunities. We just got to seize the moment, take advantage of it.
Why do you think we haven’t done this in the past? What do you presume New Mexicans will have to sacrifice in order for us to have this?
I don’t think we need to sacrifice anything. I think we already are some of the hardest-working people anywhere in this country, are New Mexicans. We just don’t get the wages that we deserve. We’re not a poor state. We have close to $68 billion in wealth funds, we’re gonna have the second largest wealth fund in the entire country. We can do so much better. And listen, high tech industry is about to take leaps and bounds. The iPhone and all of its abilities is going to look like a horse and buggy compared to a Lamborghini when it comes to quantum computing, which is just around the corner. We need to be ready. We already do have so much of the foundational aspects of that high tech revolution already in New Mexico. With the laboratory work that they do in Los Alamos and Sandia. Energy, we have to look no further than right now what’s going on in the Middle East.
Because of the war in the Middle East, the price of oil is going through the roof. The price of gas is going up substantially. Consumers are going to really feel it. People are already hurting when it comes to the affordability issue, I will tell you that it’s close to a dollar more a gallon in gas. But at the same time, because we are such an oil producing state, we are going to have a lot more revenue on the oil side. And I mean oils jumped up to a hundred dollars a barrel. We know that we’re going to have anywhere between a half a billion and a billion or more dollars come in extra because of what’s going on in the Middle East.
I’ve announced today that we’re going to give every New Mexico citizen back $500 of that money. Any family that makes less than $200,000 is going to get a $500 check per family member. And I think it’s important to put money back into the people. It’s the people’s natural resource oil and gas, they need the money to offset all these huge gas increases. So I think it’s a win/win, and that’s something I want to do as your next governor.
Along with this, can you specify an industry or project that could realistically match the revenue and job levels that oil and gas give us within the next decade?
Not in the next decade. I don’t know an industry that could fund the state eight billion dollars a year. No, a billion dollars a year for education, eight billion towards our budget. No, I don’t think there is a specific industry.
But we do know that in time, oil and gas – and we just had the biggest oil and gas disruption in the world’s history going on in the Middle East right now – we do know in time, though, that oil and gas revenues will probably plateau and they may even drop. We have to be ready for the future, and renewables is exactly the way to deal with that. Geothermal is another amazing opportunity that we have in New Mexico because we have so much of it. There’s great opportunity here. We just gotta lay the groundwork and make sure we’re ready to take advantage of all of it.
Moving on to your government reform plan. In that plan, you touch on various topics. One issue you surfaced was that lawmakers aren’t paid, and we’ve heard this time and time again, especially from lawmakers. You said that this often leads to working class people being left out of decision making. How do you convince struggling New Mexicans that paying politicians more money should be a priority right now?
We’re the only state union that doesn’t pay our legislators. And the time is long past due where we start. The reason is because, we don’t want people who are simply retired or just independently wealthy being the only ones that end up being legislators. We want everyday New Mexicans to be able to have the opportunity to be legislators. Because it’s important that everybody who goes through the struggles of life that we all do, and all the different perspectives, has a say so up in Santa Fe when it comes to making our laws, I’m really adamant about this. And the Legislature just passed something for a constitutional amendment that will go to the voters, I believe. I’m very supportive of that.
A lot of your policies are about how you will distribute money or how we might make more money. How can we do both at the same time?
We need to continue to support our small businesses. Small businesses account for 99% of businesses. Half the jobs in the state of New Mexico are small business jobs. Just a quick example, we need to support our small businesses by every job that they create, every new job they create we give them a $5,000 tax credit. That’s something we should be doing. We need to make sure the government isn’t getting in the way of business. It’s getting out of the way and helping business. That doesn’t mean we don’t regulate, we don’t make sure they’re doing things the right way. It just means that we need to have a sign on the side of the state of New Mexico that says we’re open for business. And everybody here knows that we have a business environment that is conducive to people creating jobs, so that people have good paying jobs and can support their families.
At the same time, we know how expensive it is. We should double the tax credit for working families. I mean, that’s a no brainer to me. Look at how far we’ve come when it comes to early childhood. That is a phenomenal program that I give tons of credit to our current governor for establishing. I think these are really important things – that we make it more affordable and we also make it more business conducive to create jobs.
So do you foresee in New Mexico’s future under you that New Mexicans may need to pay higher taxes?
No, never. We have plenty of money in our state. There is no reason why New Mexicans would ever need to have their taxes increase. That is just not going to happen when I’m governor.
Going back to your government reform plan, you have criticized capital outlay spending, and you say it’s being driven by political favoritism. Can you point to a specific example of waste in the current system and explain how your plan would prevent it?
Billions of dollars are just sitting idle because people get certain parts of a project funded. And, you know, I get it. Every legislator wants to bring home capital for their constituencies and make sure that they’re helping build parks, or building community centers, or building libraries, or building whatever they believe it’s necessary. But too many of these projects, they get funded for, let’s just say a half a million dollars, and then nothing happens. And that money just sits idle.
There’s billions of dollars like that, I would respectfully submit that, and this is something that the Legislature is going to have to work out, you give each legislator certain parameters in which they can present projects and have them really lay out the projects. As a professional, really lay out the project to get an exact amount of what it’s going to cost, and that project has to be within that year.
You can’t say we’re going to start a project in five years, and let’s set aside $250,000 for it now. I don’t think that’s the best use of the people’s money.
You have a plan for solving or confronting homelessness. Your plan is to expand shelters, housing, treatment, but this requires significant amounts of funding. How will you pay for this without cutting other services? Can New Mexico realistically cut homelessness in half in two years, or is this more of a political goal?
No, we can’t afford not to. There’s too many people who are suffering out there when it comes to behavioral health. We absolutely can do so much better, and we have to do better. I will tell you that we need to spend the money on behavioral health. There’s a lot of people working in behavioral health and addiction recovery who do great work, but it’s not coordinated out there, and there’s not enough funding.
It’s not coordinated in a sense that social workers should be able to walk up to a homeless encampment, pull out an iPad and tell that person who has hit rock bottom because they’ve smoked their last fentanyl pill that, ‘You know what? We got a bed for you, It’s two blocks down. Get in the car. I can see it on the iPad. They have one available for you, just get in this van, get in the car. We’ll give you a ride over there and get you a bed so you can get some help.’
We don’t have that. The Department of Health should have a real time dashboard up there so that we know where every available bed is in the entire state, so that no matter whether or not the person is homeless in Española, Taos, Las Cruces, Gallup or Tucumcari or right here in Albuquerque, we can get them the help they need in a timely way. Get them off the drugs, get them the behavioral health they need.
Before I go, because you are a DA and you’ve expanded in the past on youth that are kind of going through a rough patch, will you expand on your goals for the youth?
We have a real problem with violent juvenile crime right now. Especially violent juvenile crime with guns. It’s the one area of crime that’s going in the wrong direction. Everything else is starting to go in the right direction. So, I’m very concerned about it. Too many kids, we all were kids, we all make bad decisions, but too many of them are making bad decisions with guns, and people are dying and getting terribly hurt. And then that kid’s life is ruined as well, that did the crime.
I think we need to spend more on behavioral health, more on mental health, more on family intervention services. So that we get the help right away when they steal their first car and they got in trouble at the age of 15, that we find out why they were out at four in the morning. That a social worker finds out, why is the parent not home? That we find out why the kid hasn’t been in school for two weeks.
We find out all these things, and we get them to help that they need, and we get them in the direction they need to be in, so that they don’t continue to have a problem. If you steal a car right now, you never get booked to the D-home, you go right back home to mom and dad. And if you steal a second car, you don’t get booked in the D-home, you go right back home to mom and dad.
And what kids learn is that they can get away with it. And when they get away with it and no intervention, no family services, then they escalate. And, God forbid, but then they end up shooting a gun outside of a car, and someone dies, and then everybody’s life is ruined, and that’s what I want to avoid. I think we can do a lot better when it comes to having family intervention, behavioral health again, social workers dealing with what’s going on in the family, to get a handle on it so that this kind of behavior doesn’t continue before it gets out of control.
We see a lot in teenagers right now handling guns and harming other people. Do you have any stances on that, on how this could be solved?
I asked legislators to carry a bill, which some did, that would make it a serious felony for anyone, any adult, to give or transfer a gun to a juvenile. Because they’re not allowed to have firearms. And that never even got a hearing. Very, very disappointing. I’m going to continue to try and advocate for things like that as your next governor.
This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth and is republished here with permission.
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