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Real News For Real New Mexicans.
The Chile Wire with Abe Baldonado. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The Chile Wire. We are in the midst of the primary election, and with me today in our studio is a candidate for governor, Doug Turner.
Abe Baldonado:Doug, welcome to The Chile Wire.
Doug Turner:Thank you for having me.
Abe Baldonado:My pleasure. Doug, I'm gonna give you the hardest question of the day right up front. Red or green? Green. Alright.
Abe Baldonado:That was probably the quickest answer I've gotten.
Doug Turner:Right. So, is the spiciest, but green is generally the spiciest.
Abe Baldonado:I love it. We love it spicy. Doug, well, first off, I wanna thank you for taking this leap to run for office. Having worked for public officials in the past, I know it doesn't come easy to make that decision to jump into the race. So I just wanna say thank you for putting yourself out there to run for office.
Doug Turner:Thank you. Yeah. A little nutty.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Well, Doug, on that note, I'd love for our viewers to get to know who is Doug Turner and what is the Doug Turner Turner round about?
Doug Turner:Sure. Well, I'm native. You know, I grew up in Old Town. My parents still live in the same house that I grew up in. I went to Jefferson Middle School here in Albuquerque, Albuquerque High.
Doug Turner:I'm a business owner. I've got a few companies, real estate development. I have another company, if any of your listeners and viewers are gearheads. Build custom Land Rovers. Oh, We basically import them from Africa, strip them down to the frame, re engineer them, rebuild them here, and then ship them all over The US.
Abe Baldonado:Oh, wow.
Doug Turner:And then I've got a public affairs firm, which is what most people have known me for over the years. And we do we work here in New Mexico, but we also work in about 40 countries around the world, including for the Department of War in Latin America and in Europe. I got three kids. I have a 19 year old who just started college, a 16 year old who's gonna be a senior next year in high school, and I got a 12 year old.
Abe Baldonado:Oh, wow. So Middle school, high school, and college.
Doug Turner:I got the whole thing.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. And
Doug Turner:I got two dogs. I got a, you know, big, big old black lab, and I have a a dog called an Australian Stumpy. Oh. Which is like a cattle dog born with no tail.
Abe Baldonado:Interesting.
Doug Turner:And she's nuts.
Abe Baldonado:Never seen it. We'll have to get her in the studio.
Doug Turner:They've been in my TV commercials.
Abe Baldonado:Oh, wonderful. I'll have to go back and look to catch that. I didn't pay attention to the tail, so I'm gonna have to go back and
Doug Turner:Well, you might not
Abe Baldonado:There it is.
Doug Turner:You might not see You might be sitting. I don't know. You know, we're shooting the commercial and just trying to hold the little dog food so the dogs look up at you just the
Abe Baldonado:right way. I love it. Doug, I I think it it's great. You're a native New Mexican. You've grown up here.
Abe Baldonado:You've seen New Mexico since childhood, and I'm sure you've seen it evolve into probably something that I don't even recall seeing in my childhood. And Yeah. You know, I I just gotta ask, you know, what made you jump into this? Because I know everyone has a why and it's usually a line is crossed and it's like, if not me, who?
Doug Turner:So, you know, you said evolve. You know, sure. We we've got new buildings and we got new parks and we got new, you know, industries. But, you know, when I look at, like, the real core things about this state, our education system, our economic development, our tax system, shockingly, things have not evolved. Yeah.
Doug Turner:You know, I got involved in politics pretty early. I I worked for Gary Johnson when he first ran for governor. I ran his reelection campaign. And in those years, you know, we didn't have the kind of state funds that we have now in our permanent fund, is about $72,000,000,000.
Abe Baldonado:All thanks to oil and gas. Mostly.
Doug Turner:One of our big industries. But our education system in the state was fiftieth in the nation. Mhmm. Fast forward to today, and we are still fiftieth in the nation. So there's a long list of those New Mexico rankings where we continue to be at the bottom of all the great things, and we have a very, very high tax system.
Doug Turner:You know, we are we are the highest taxed state in our region if we're just looking at being remotely competitive. When I look at those things, education, crime, you know, taxation, and the fact that they have not improved year over year despite continual funding. Mhmm. That's what really got me motivated to do this. Because at some point, if we don't fix these things, we're gonna have no workers.
Doug Turner:Yeah. You know, we will have we won't have an educated population. CYFD will still be, you know, a place where children die.
Abe Baldonado:Where children will be dying. Yeah.
Doug Turner:You know, our taxes, you know, are the most regressive, one of the most regressive tax systems in in the country, and we have a population that can't afford it. We won't improve. And, you know, we are a state blessed with all the resources we could ever imagine. We've got sun, we've got wind, if you're into solar and wind power. We've got the second highest produced producer of oil and gas in the nation.
Doug Turner:Yep. You know, we have minerals. You know, we have amazing we're just talking about Chile. Mean, our agriculture industry is phenomenal. Tourism is amazing, but we we treat our people poorly.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. And we definitely don't foster an environment that makes individuals want to become business owners or create something.
Doug Turner:It's tough. It's really tough. I mean, the the difficulty of doing small simple things for a small business is insane. You know, I and I've been I I mean, I have I don't just say this because I'm running. I mean, I have walked through a fire in a gasoline suit, you know.
Doug Turner:I have dealt with all of these issues myself as a business person.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Doug Turner:And, you know, as a as a as a public charter school leader in the state, I have dealt with the challenges that kids and families face in in in getting a good education. This isn't like I woke up in the morning and said, oh, I think I'll talk about education. Yeah. This has been going on for a long time.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. I'm a former charter school teacher, also a government's board member for a charter school in Santa Fe. So it it's refreshing to hear that. And it and I know you served on the board of public charter schools of New Mexico. How important is it for us to leverage our best and brightest charter schools, but also expand that to school choice, universal school choice across
Doug Turner:the Santa
Abe Baldonado:Fe? Terra Encantada Charter School. Sure.
Doug Turner:Yeah. So
Abe Baldonado:And and I do have to know and I have to throw a shout out here because the team that I worked with when, you know, I didn't plan on becoming a teacher. I wanted to be a lawyer, ended up in the classroom and I'm forever grateful for that that I didn't even step foot in the law school and then became an educator because I learned a lot personally and professionally. I I actually probably wouldn't be sitting here today having this conversation with you had it not been for that experience, but it opened my eyes. I inherited a twelfth grade class and we were supposed to be a college prep school. And my twelfth grade students were reading at a sixth grade level.
Abe Baldonado:Well And that shocked me, opened my eyes. I do have to note though, in two years, we had school grading back then. So schools were rated a through f. We went from an f school to almost a b in just about a year and a half turnaround, and that was really exciting. Unfortunately, we see the issues with school culture, leadership.
Doug Turner:Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:We just didn't capitalize on that and it didn't continue to grow. We started losing great teachers. I even myself left because I saw that I wanted to do something for students because I saw how far behind we had left the students that I had served. And I I truly believe that education is the civil rights issue of this generation, and we have to do something about it because you don't fix crime, you don't fix economic challenges without fixing education. That's the pipeline.
Doug Turner:Well, you're absolutely right. And, you know, we we have an expectation that, you know, people who come to the state are gonna come here and find a workforce that's ready to And that's just not the case. I mean, you made a great point, you know, when you had a you had these twelfth grade students who were reading at sixth grade level. I mean, forty seven percent of our students in the state today at third grade don't read at third grade level, and yet we promote them to the next grade. So it's not a surprise that you told me that.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Doug Turner:And look, not all charter schools are great. I mean, failing charter schools ought to be closed just like a traditional public school ought to be closed if it's failing. That never happens.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Doug Turner:But I do believe in in school choice aggressively. More public school options for parents. Money ought to follow the child. You know, after ninety days in a traditional public school, the money that's allocated to the student stays at the school. If the school drops out, if the student drops out, the money still stays with the So, you know, we have a lot of real fixes that need to be made.
Doug Turner:You know, we need to stop social promotion of kids who can't read. If we need to hold them back, we should hold them back. I mean, Mississippi used to be our biggest competitor on who could be worse. Right? 49, 50.
Doug Turner:They're like 16 now, and they hold back upwards of 10% of those third graders every year, and when they get to read at their grade level, at that third grade level, then they move forward. It doesn't seem like that's a bridge too far to achieve here in And New
Abe Baldonado:interestingly enough, that Mississippi miracle as they call it was actually the New Mexico miracle because we were leading that not too long ago before this administration. We were we stopped social We were focusing on the science of reading and a lot of that got rolled back. And unfortunately, Mississippi stayed the course and you know, with sustainable leadership as well, a lot of people fail to realize they had one school, one leader for almost a decade in Kerry Wright that was steering the ship, you know. And we see under this administration, we've had maybe seven, maybe eight. I've I've lost count already with the public education department, but leadership matters and direction matters.
Doug Turner:Well, and I just learned, and, you know, maybe this is widely known, but they no longer no longer teach handwriting in school. So cursive.
Abe Baldonado:Yep. Penmanship's gone. They've even like rolled back civics. And when I think of conversations we're having today, and I talked to a lot of students. I mean, I have niece and nephew.
Abe Baldonado:Unfortunately, there's generations of kids not being educated about their duty in the civics world and understanding that they have a duty to fulfill and the role of government and the branches of government and the checks and balances. And I see a lot of, you know, the fear mongering on social media. And I'm like, no. Don't buy into that fear mongering because that's what you're taking for the word. Learn.
Abe Baldonado:Understand. Understand how our government works. And I will tell you that when you learn about how our government was formed, it really is for the people.
Doug Turner:Well, I'm I'm an optimist in this cycle, you know. I've been now campaigning, I think this is week 17 or maybe it's 18 or 16. It's hard to hard to remember. But, you know, traveling every corner of the state, you know, in the next couple days, it'll be in Lincoln County, then we'll be in Otero County, then in Taos, then Espanola. So it's like nonstop.
Doug Turner:And what I found is that most people right now want what we want. You know, certainly want what I view conservatives wanna see happen in the state. You know, we wanna see a good education system. You know, we want to have a reduction in crime. We want kids to be able to play outside and not be afraid.
Doug Turner:You know, we want lower taxes. I mean, find me one New Mexican who wants their taxes increased. Just one. Yeah. You know, so all of these things that our legislature continues to do year after year after year in, you know, to help the people of the state are actually doing the opposite.
Doug Turner:And so I think we need better leadership in Santa Fe, you know, someone who's willing to say no, veto things if necessary. Right. But quite frankly, also someone who recognizes that most people in New Mexico want the same things and is willing to go out and campaign for it. I'm not talking about just running for governor, but go campaign on issues that matter. You know, had this med mal bill, h b 90 which was a big success.
Doug Turner:There was advocacy. People were engaged, they were mad because their health care was crappy. Yeah. Right? And they mobilized legislators to to get behind it.
Doug Turner:They beat the trial bar, and it was successful. So, you know, I want to be a governor who's willing to go out, get on the road, stump for issues that matter, and get things passed, because otherwise, you know, we're gonna be in the same same boat.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. And Doug, I was at Race to the Roundhouse and I found it very refreshing because I remember you saying that as governor, you would wanna take that same thing on the road during your governorship.
Doug Turner:Right.
Abe Baldonado:Let me talk to the people. New Mexicans ask me questions. I will respond because you want to keep them informed of why decisions are being made and how it ultimately benefits them. And I think there's that disconnect right now. Also, given your business background, I always appreciate individuals who run for office who have signed the front of a check, understood, have ran payroll, understand GRT because those are a lot of the issues that a lot of times that if you're not trying to create a business, you don't realize how hard it is to start up your own business.
Doug Turner:Sure.
Abe Baldonado:And also how it how hard it is to keep your employees and making sure that you you stay afloat to keep your business thriving and potentially grow. And I always tell people, if you go into business, your number one priority is your staff. You you want to keep them employed, you want to grow opportunities for them, but in the state that makes it hard, it's difficult.
Doug Turner:It's very hard for sure. For sure. I mean, I but I'd also say it's also hard to find people. Yeah. You know?
Doug Turner:We are the greatest exporters
Abe Baldonado:of our people.
Doug Turner:It is so unfortunate. We yeah. I mean, my son is going to college out of state. I mean, I hope he wants to come back. I mean, he loves the state.
Doug Turner:But, you know, will there be a job for him after he gets out of college? You know, we we have a tendency from an economic development perspective to look for these big kind of unicorn companies out there. They're gonna come in, They're gonna, you know, supply three or four, five thousand jobs, and we're gonna you know, it's gonna be awesome. Another intel kind of thing. Yeah.
Doug Turner:That's pretty rare. Yeah. You know? And even if we look at these data centers that might spend a billion or $2,000,000,000 in construction, they're only gonna be a couple 100 employees afterwards. So what we really need to be doing is finding ways to grow and support our small business people.
Doug Turner:Absolutely. Because for you guys to hire one person, you know, it's work. We need revenue and so forth, but there's no expectation you're gonna hire 300 people. So if there are a thousand of us hiring one person, that's real growth.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. That's a thousand jobs versus a 100 jobs.
Doug Turner:Right. Yep. So, you know, we need to be focusing on the small business in the state. It doesn't have to be that small, but, you know, not and we're not talking intel here. We need to look at the kinds of tools and incentives for economic growth that we provide to these giant companies and make them accessible to smaller companies.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah.
Doug Turner:Bonding, you know, lead of money. I mean, it is hard to navigate those systems.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. It's
Doug Turner:hard. And, you know, those are great tools that we have. They're in place, but we need to use them to grow small businesses in the state.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. Doug, I wanna talk about crime. That that's a big issue. I mean, we see it here in Abaco. You witnessed it.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. I mean, that was just it was shocking that you had to witness something like that just walking in the park. What do we have to do in New Mexico to turn around? I know we have to hold repeat offenders accountable. Sure.
Abe Baldonado:What does that mean? How do we do that?
Doug Turner:Well, I mean, there are a few things. I mean, one, you know, we just talk about we we're talking about education, and then we talk about jobs. I mean, part of this is creating an environment where where a big segment of folks who are involved in crime don't end up there in the first place. Right? I mean, people aren't born criminals when, you know.
Doug Turner:So that means we have to improve our education system so kids can get out of school and they have they have the skills to go do get a job. Some of it, I think, is mental health driven. Think we need to rebuild our mental health infrastructure in the state, because that, I think, will also help with a big portion of the homeless problem. But quite frankly, you know, we have judges who kick criminals out. I mean, it's not that they're not gonna be prosecuted, but rather than keeping them in jail until they are prosecuted, they let them out on the street under a cashless bail program.
Doug Turner:And, you know, you talk to law enforcement most anywhere in the state, they'll tell you their number one challenge is that they arrest the same people over and over and over again.
Abe Baldonado:It's just an endless cycle, just a revolving door.
Doug Turner:A lot of that is because of the 2016 Bill Reform Act here in the state, which changed the rules on what judges could and couldn't do, and DA's couldn't couldn't do. And I think that, unfortunately, was a constitutional amendment. So to make those changes will need to be another constitutional amendment. So it's kind of steep, but I think it's doable. I think we need to pay a lot more attention to sort of fentanyl smuggling and drugs that come in from south of the border.
Doug Turner:Much stricter enforcement of laws in that area, and even support of federal law enforcement as they do their work. So it's really kind of a mix of things. Absolutely. Not an easy not an easy thing to solve.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. It seems like you're gonna have to get a lot of different folks at the table to have these conversations. My wife will love the behavioral health piece. She's a social worker. Is she?
Abe Baldonado:So, I I think that that is definitely something we need to look into. You know, I've always said, I'm not into big government. You know? I I don't like growing government. We can help it.
Abe Baldonado:However, I think we need to maybe rethink or rebuild our behavioral health systems.
Doug Turner:Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:You know, I grew up in Las Vegas, New Mexico where we have our behavioral health hospital where you usually put people who have severe mental illness, you know, and something like that might be a worthwhile investment because what's the alternative? You know, I I hear about the the other side talks about empathy. I I'd like to talk about compassion because Sure. There is nothing empathetic or compassionate about letting people live in the streets and Not at all. Letting them live that way.
Abe Baldonado:And so, you know, I think it is imperative for us to build a system that gets them the help that they need, whether it's drug rehabilitation, mental health rehabilitation. I think taxpayers would appreciate that their tax dollars are going to that because they're not having to worry about driving down central in the middle of the night or down a random road in Albuquerque. You know, I've chat I've experienced it now that I moved to Albuquerque, but people just walking out in the middle of the road because they're
Doug Turner:on drugs. And just standing there.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Or just standing there. Yeah. And
Doug Turner:It's actually worse than that. I mean, you know, people just, you know, where we just at a bus stop, going to the bathroom right there. Or, I mean, I was getting gas at a speedway, I don't know, a few weeks ago. I didn't didn't tell my campaign crew about this. And this guy walking down the street completely naked.
Doug Turner:Nobody did anything. He just walking down the Street completely naked. He didn't he wasn't even carrying anything. There's there's it's a huge problem. It's a problem in every community that I've been in.
Doug Turner:It needs to be addressed. I mean, some of it's drugs and interdiction and crime, which we had here at Coronado Park for years.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. That, like, closing the park didn't do anything. They just moved
Doug Turner:them over to 1st Street. Yeah. Although they are building a nice fire station in the park right now. But it's a, you know, it's it's law enforcement, it's social services, it's mental health support. And, you know, some of the some of those folks just wanna be out there.
Doug Turner:And so if they wanna be out there, we need to require them to be in a state or city run facility. Yeah. Because, you know, it is a public nuisance. They are disruptive to people. I mean, I, you know, on a construction site, we we did a whole block down in Wells Park neighborhood.
Doug Turner:And the amount of vandalism we had from homeless people over the course of that construction is in the tens or 20,000, you know, $3,040,000 dollars breaking stuff, windows, pulling low voltage cabling out of the wall. I mean, for to to feed a drug habit.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. I mean, look at catalytic converters here in Albuquerque.
Doug Turner:Right. Still a big thing. Catalytic converters, transformers, a friend of mine's office. They have, you know, big transformer that the PNM covers up with a, you know, green housing, that's stolen. Right.
Abe Baldonado:Well, you know, it it it's sad because you you go to a state like Arizona, you know, and you compare. We have far more vast natural resources here. We just have the beauty that Arizona has and we have the resources that bring in money to our state coffers. Yet everything is blocked up with glass when you go into a Walgreens and, you know, you go across state lines. I mean, you you even go to some parts in rural New Mexico where they don't have some of those issues, and it's like, man, moving to a small town moving back to a small town might be nice.
Abe Baldonado:Nothing's blocked
Doug Turner:out. Just to Walgreens. My daughter, it was yesterday, I believe, went into we we went to a a Michaels craft shop. Right? You buy your candle supplies and so forth for a school project.
Doug Turner:And they even had the mat they had the magic markers behind plexiglass. I mean, it would like it was like the entire store had been covered with plexiglass. Lass.
Abe Baldonado:Wow.
Doug Turner:But that is not the place we want to be living in. Yeah. And
Abe Baldonado:we shouldn't be accepting of that either. Like, it shouldn't be something becomes a norm. Yeah. We should say, hey, something's wrong here. That if we have to lock up deodorant, there's a problem.
Doug Turner:But, you know, I would say I haven't found anybody who thinks at, you know, significantly differently than what you and I are talking I mean, some people, you know, think that they're doing, you know, doing things to help these people. I mean, I bought I buy them lunch every once in a while. You know, if there's a guy outside a grocery store, I don't give him the cash, but I'll be willing to buy him Food. Buy him food. But, you know, I look at this campaign year, and I am an optimist for the state.
Doug Turner:I mean, sometimes you feel like Sisyphus in New Mexico. You push a rock up a hill and it comes rolling down on top of you. But I really am an optimist. I mean, there is excitement about this race. There's excitement about the opportunity for a Republican to win in this state.
Doug Turner:There's excitement about legislative races. I mean, we go to these forums every single day, and there are more and more and more people who are who are turning out to get involved and get engaged. What I would say to your listeners and your viewers that no matter no matter what we believe and what we believe the the outcome will be, if we don't vote Yeah. We are we are responsible for our
Abe Baldonado:outcome. Absolutely.
Doug Turner:Right? We get what we deserve. And we have parts of the state that are, you know, huge Republican registration where we have low turnout. So we have got to vote as, you know, we have to, you know, it's time early voting is now. And, you know, no matter who you vote for, you know, exercise your right.
Doug Turner:And we live in a special country where we have this right, and people need to take advantage of it.
Abe Baldonado:I I couldn't agree more. You know, when I
Doug Turner:was
Abe Baldonado:teaching, a lot of students that I encountered would tell me, mister, my vote doesn't matter. I'm like, it in fact does. You know, you you the person you support may not always win, but you did your part to to try to elect that person, and you voiced yourself and that voice does matter, and it continues to grow. I, last election, we saw, you know, president Trump got nearly half of New Mexico and there was a minimal amount of money spent here from his campaign. I think had he spent a little bit more money and been a little bit more in New Mexico, those numbers could have been significantly higher.
Abe Baldonado:But if you look at, 2020 when he ran against Biden, you're talking about a 12 difference. He cut it down to about six. I mean, that's significant. That tells you that New Mexicans are changing their minds and oftentimes, they're they're thinking about the policies. They're thinking about, hey, what's keeping me up at night?
Abe Baldonado:What's hurting me? And now I'm paying attention.
Doug Turner:Oh, you know what?
Abe Baldonado:You are trying to tax me more. Cost of living is getting outrageous, and I'm noticing more money's gone from my paycheck now.
Doug Turner:Well, I think what it also tells you is that we are inherently a conservative state. Yeah. Right? I mean, you're from Las Vegas, Northern New Mexico. Mean, I I went to high school in Las Vegas for a couple years.
Doug Turner:Yeah. United World College. Early days. It wasn't it wasn't so it was it just been a monastery before I ended up there. But, you know, very Catholic part of the state, very old part of the state, predominantly Democrat registration, but conservative values.
Doug Turner:And I think that's what Trump saw when he came here to campaign is that, you know, we are not a red state. Right? We have traditionally been a blue state.
Abe Baldonado:And for a time, a little purple.
Doug Turner:A little purple.
Abe Baldonado:A little purple.
Doug Turner:I think it's coming back. I think we're gonna end up more purple and more in the middle. You see that with the way the registration is going. More people are leaving the Democratic Party and becoming independents. Yeah.
Doug Turner:So they have that balance, and they can choose people that more appropriately represent their values. And that's what I think we're gonna see in a general election here. You know, we're gonna see those people end up on a Republican side of things. Absolutely. I'm convinced of it, because I I believe Deb Holland, who is going to be the Democratic nominee, I think she's topped out at with her with her progressive base, and I think, you know, those folks who are who are voting for Sam, for example, in the in the primary, many of them will come over to our side.
Doug Turner:I'm convinced of it.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. They they definitely will. And and I I love that you talked about the independent vote is so important this election cycle. Yep. Independents need to get involved.
Abe Baldonado:You know, I I would love to see more of them come over to the Republican side, but that's where, you know, candidates like you have those conversations with those folks to let them know what you're all about and maybe and even if they stay independent, but they maybe they say, hey. The Republicans have the better plan for New Mexico and the better future.
Doug Turner:Well, look. I think Republicans are willing to sit down, listen to people, listen to you know, understand their perspective and generally find that common ground. What I found among, you know, a lot of the progressives in the state is it doesn't matter what you say. Oh, no. Right?
Doug Turner:This is this is. Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:And You could have a common sense take on an issue and they will call you a far right wing Right.
Doug Turner:Like, even the mayor here in Albuquerque during his reelection campaign, you know, the progressives who were running against him viewed him as right wing. Yeah. Right?
Abe Baldonado:And he's far from that.
Doug Turner:So I'm just saying that there's a lot of there's a lot that we can do as Republicans, you know, common sense approach to government. Small government is better government. You know, I like to say that, you know, the government government that governs less governs least. Governs best governs least. You know, simple issues that matter to people, lower taxation, I mean, I think we get rid of the grocery seats tax and lower our personal income tax.
Doug Turner:You know, dealing with crime, protecting our second amendment rights. Find me someone up north who doesn't want, you know, their second amendment rights protected. You know, and I'm the only candidate that you know, I've been a member a life member of the NRA for almost twenty years. Think I'm the only candidate, both Republican and Democrat, who can say that. Yeah.
Doug Turner:And so, you know, we can have these conversations and we can win. I'm convinced. Yeah. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing this.
Abe Baldonado:Right. No. There's definitely a pathway. And I I love that you bring up Northern New Mexico because it is all about hunting. It's about fishing.
Abe Baldonado:It's, you know, that just Western way of life that just has a beauty to it. But those Democrats in Northern New Mexico, they love their guns. You know? They Sure. They're law abiding citizens.
Abe Baldonado:They have their consular's license. They love hunting. And, you know, that's some of my own family who, you know, the moment you start telling them what's happened, they're like, what do you mean you're gonna take my gun? It's my right. Sure.
Abe Baldonado:They understand why we have that right as well to bear arms and protect ourselves from a Mhmm. Tyrannical government.
Doug Turner:Yeah. So, I mean, we've had a great great campaign response up up in the North. I mean, I was up in Mora and Pecos last weekend. This weekend, I'll be up in Taos because I'm gonna vote. I'm actually registered to vote in Taos County because I'm a I'm an elected village councilor up there.
Doug Turner:Got elected as a Republican, so it's possible. In house.
Abe Baldonado:In house. House.
Doug Turner:Then Espanola, and so you have spent a lot of time, and beautiful beautiful part of the state.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. Doug, as you travel across the state, are there any key counties, key cities, or villages that you see that are gonna be vital this election season?
Doug Turner:Well, as always, I mean, Bernalillo is the largest population center. So, you know, from my perspective, you know, we may not win Bernalillo in a general election, but we don't have to. Right? Right. We can get half?
Doug Turner:Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:You grassroots in some more rural parts
Doug Turner:I I in my campaign right now, I mean, we have extremely strong support in the South, sort of Las Cruces and that Silver City area, the Southeast, so all the whole oil patch. Mhmm. San Juan County is great. And, you know, we're we're working on Bernalillo. So we've got I mean, we're gonna hit 20,000 houses in our walking program here.
Doug Turner:You know, we're up on television. We're up on on radio statewide. But I think ultimately, Bernalillo is is necessary. Absolutely. In both the primary and the general.
Doug Turner:Absolutely.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. So Bernalillo voters get out, vote. Yeah. You know, pay attention to the issues. Get to know the candidates.
Abe Baldonado:Doug, on that note, finance reports came out yesterday. Yep. Very solid campaign fundraising. Congratulations to Thank you. It was big.
Abe Baldonado:$700,000.
Doug Turner:Yep. So we so far have out raised every other candidate combined from all over the state. We just did a surreal fundraiser at Mar A Lago last week.
Abe Baldonado:Great connections, I'm sure. Great conversations Really with some
Doug Turner:amazing. We've got
Abe Baldonado:a big ask, are they excited about New Mexico? I I keep hearing that national folks do believe New Mexico is is getting there to to be flipped.
Doug Turner:So, you know, I I never have high hopes that the RNC or in the governor's race person, you know, the the Republican Governor's Association are gonna back up the truck here. It has been a very frustrating thing for me for my decades in Republican Party politics in New Mexico that we are, you know, we are the cheapest date in the nation when it comes to elections. You know, you could put a 100,000,000 in Ohio, win one seat. If you put a 100,000,000 in New Mexico, you'd own the state.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. Absolutely.
Doug Turner:So, you know, I think look. I think Washington is watching. I know the congressional race is definitely a key target race for the the congressional committee. I think for for New Mexico to get some real attention from the RNC and the Republican Governors Association, we're gonna need to be within, you know, five or six points. Yeah.
Doug Turner:And that's not gonna happen until August, you know, September. But I'm hopeful. I mean, we're gonna have to raise or I'm gonna have to raise about $10,000,000 for because Deb Haaland will have at least 11. She's already raised 11, spent most of it.
Abe Baldonado:She's And most of it out of state money.
Doug Turner:National fundraising network. We're gonna have to build that here. And I think we can. I mean, I think we will we'll pull the money together.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. I believe
Doug Turner:And from my perspective, you know, I'm the only candidate that's actually proven that they can raise any money.
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. I mean, you were the last to get in and you've already surpassed the others who have been in far longer.
Doug Turner:And so, you know, that is what I mean, if you can't raise money now, how can you be expected to raise money in a general election?
Abe Baldonado:Yeah. And you're going up against Goliath right now with her war chest. I mean, again, it's I
Doug Turner:mean, I even outraced Sam Bregman in this last report. So I
Abe Baldonado:think I think a lot of his supports kind of dwindled down now and, you know, I think early on in his campaign, he tried to appeal to Republicans and then he came out and said, Yeah. I'm not gonna work with ICE. And everyone's like, Woah, man. Like, that's that's the federal government there.
Doug Turner:Yeah. Well, I'm I'm I am really encouraged about the business community in this state. I mean, it's they've sort of coalesced behind my race funding. You know, we got a guy driving around the state putting giant signs up right now. So it's really an exciting time, and we are just over just under.
Doug Turner:It was three weeks yesterday. That's election day. So, yeah, it's been like a rocket ship. It's been great.
Abe Baldonado:Absolutely. Well, Doug, we wanna be mindful of your time. If folks wanna learn more or get involved, where can they go to learn more about you and get involved and maybe get one of those big campaign signs?
Doug Turner:Or or donate.
Abe Baldonado:Or donate. Yes. Write the checks, everyone. Write the write the checks.
Doug Turner:Yeah. So people can go to turnerfornm.com. That's turner,fornm.com. Lots of campaign information there, and they can they can volunteer, they can donate. I mean, we've got it's they can get us.
Abe Baldonado:That's wonderful. And y'all, you heard Doug is traveling around the state. He has stops in multiple towns and cities in the coming weeks, so be sure if he's in your neck of the woods, get out, meet Doug, and learn more about him. Doug, thank you so much for coming on The Chile Wire. God bless you and your family.
Abe Baldonado:Thank you. Continue on this journey, and we'd love to get you back and hopefully in a few months, we can say Governor Turner. That would be excellent.
Doug Turner:That's the plan. Yeah.
Abe Baldonado:And we'll get you back on the Chile Wire and we'll do some more podcasts during your
Doug Turner:Or we'll we'll get you up to the Governor's Office and you can broadcast live from there.
Abe Baldonado:Love it. Y'all heard it here first. So that's Doug, thank you very much.
Doug Turner:Thank you.
Abe Baldonado:Y'all, that's it for this week's Chile Wire. We'll see you next time and please continue to learn more about our candidates. Thanks.