Keith Gardner with Rep. Cook

There's no cooling off period for former Governor Martinez Chief of Staff Keith Gardner--he's joined the legion of lobbyists at the Roundhouse after finishing an eight year stint under Martinez at the end of 2018. Gardner signed up this month to lobby for oil services company Select Energy Services of Houston as well as the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the national firearms industry.

We wondered on the blog recently what Gardner was going to do. Political insiders expressed some surprise that he had not landed a comfortable gig.

His decision to become a lobbyist does raise the revolving door question--top government officials going to work to influence legislators after completing their government jobs. But Gardner can argue the government he would influence is no longer, as Martinez has been replaced by MLG. Still, his government tenure made many contacts for him in the bureaucracy which brings up this from Martinez in her 2012 State of the State speech:

It's why all of my appointees must disclose their financial interests online and it's why my appointees are barred from lobbying state government for 2 years after serving in my administration. Public service should be about serving the public--not setting up a future payday.

Gardner may be happy to have any job. As chief of staff he once confronted a female lobbyist for the ABQ Public Schools at the Roundhouse and was accused of physically assaulting her by grabbing her arm. That's not much of a selling point on your resume in the "Me Too" era.

Then there was the disclosure of secretly recorded audio tapes in which Gardner, a former GOP Roswell state representative, trashed numerous politicos including former Roswell State Senator Tim Jennings He also opined about state legislators in general, saying, "I hate those fuckers."

Well, politics is nothing if not notorious for having short memories, a blessing so far for freshly minted lobbyist Keith Gardner.

THE GREAT ETA DEBATE (cont/)

A lot of fun this week here debating the Energy Transition Act (ETA) (SB489) with some of the sharpest minds around when it comes to the environment and energy.

Reader Robert Levy jumps into the fray with an idea that may have seemed off the wall a decade ago, but may now cause some pondering:

Joe, the state of New Mexico would be smart to buy PNM. The regulated utility has a state guaranteed rate of return which I believe would be higher than the interest rate on the bonds that would be needed for the buyout. NM should be selling energy country or worldwide. PNM has always been in the way.

Interesting stuff. The stock market currently values the electric utility at $3.47 billion. That's a lot of money but not that much if paid off over 30 years. And the state could aggressively market renewables to sell on the open market as Levy suggests. NM bonds are being floated in the 3 to 4 percent area so that does indeed look good with nearly a 10 percent rate of return guaranteed.