The pounding of Gov. Lujan Grisham by national and local environmental groups over her vetoes of several climate change bills from the last session of the legislature seems overwrought. After all these are the same groups who got into bed with her to ram through the Energy Transition Act which paved the way for the ill-advised merger of PNM with Spanish corporation Avangrid, a merger still pending and still a mess. 

Now the environmentalists are upset that the Guv is acting like a corporate Democrat after they did the same with the ETA?

Nevertheless team MLG has done a poor job of defending those vetoes, leading even the usually Guv friendly ProgressNow NM perplexed: 

We’re rarely confused because we were long ago schooled by the Alligators of La Politica to follow the money. And when you follow MLG’s multi-million dollar campaign money trail much of it leads to the fossil fuel industry.

The enviros know that but can’t say it because most of them are mucked up with dark money from California billionaires and such. Yes, enviros, there is gambling in the casino! The shock of it all.

Now if only the state Supreme Court would do some environmental clean up and get tough on the PNM-Avangrid merger that the enviros forced down the throat of the state in order to get their renewable energy standards approved. 

We regret not being able to attend the memorial service for former Governor Jerry Apodaca at the Roundhouse but we were out of the country. 

As a cub reporter in 1974 he was the first New Mexico chief executive we covered and it left quite an impression. 

This photo of the Apodaca service by Eddie Moore of the Journal caught our eye. It shows former Governor Toney Anaya, now blind, being assisted by former Gov. Bill Richardson as he paid his final respects to his old friend Apodaca who died last month at the age of 88 and who served one term as governor from 1975 to 1979. 

Their relationship was tight in ‘74 as they both campaigned for office, with Anaya getting elected Attorney General. But as AG Anaya went after powerful Democrats as he pursued an anticorruption agenda. That did not sit well with establishment Democrats. 

In any event the photo of Anaya and Richardson brought up the question of how many former New Mexico governors survive now that Apodaca is gone and how old those governors are. 

First, while Apodaca lived a long life he was not the longest lived governor. That title belongs to Andrew W. Hockenhull who became governor upon the death of Governor Arthur Seligman in 1933. He only served out the remainder of the term to which Seligman had been elected in 1932, leaving office on January 1, 1935. However he lived on for almost 40 years after his term. Born in 1877, Hockenhull died in 1974, at the age of 97. 

Republican Gov. Ed Mechem died in 2002 at the age of 90. Big Ed, as he was known, won four two-year terms as governor in the 1950s and early 60s. In 1962 He famously appointed himself to the US Senate to fill  the vacancy left by the death of Democratic Senator Dennis Chavez. Mechem, however, was not elected when he stood for office in 1964 but did go on to serve many years as a US District Court judge.

Now to the five surviving governors, starting with Toney Anaya  who served from 1983 to 1987. Now 82, Democrat Anaya was restricted from serving more than one term but probably would not have been elected to a second as he finished his first one highly unpopular. Today the Moriarty native is retired from his legal practice. 

Republican Garrey Carruthers succeeded Anaya when he was elected in 1986. He served from ‘87 to ‘91. Now 83, at last report Carruthers, a former NMSU president, enjoyed good health. Like Anaya he was term limited and unable to seek a second term.

Republican Gary Johnson pulled off an upset in 1994 when he defeated Democratic Governor Bruce King. Johnson went on to serve two four year terms, the first governor to do so under the law allowing the extended service. He has also run for President as a third-party candidate. Like Apodaca, Johnson was and remains a highly athletic individual. At 70 he regularly skis Taos where he now resides. 

Former Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson served two terms from 2003 to 2011. An accomplished diplomat he continues to conduct missions to free Americans held hostage in foreign nations. Richardson, 75, is healthy and splits his time between Santa Fe and Cape Cod.

Richardson was succeeded by Republican Susana Martinez who was elected in 2010 and served until 2019. Only this week she made blog news as the subject of speculation about a possible US Senate run in a poll that surfaced that tested her strength against Sen. Martin Heinrich. Martinez, 63, is retired. She is a former district attorney in Dona Ana County and now lives in Albuquerque.