By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper.
Sandoval County’s District 3 commission candidates agree Rio Rancho needs better roads and better-paying jobs. They split on whether Washington should pick up the tab.
Democrat Frank Smith Jr. and Republican Edwin Paul Linson faced off during a Sept. 29 forum hosted by the Rio Rancho Observer and the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce. Smith is a Marine veteran with a law degree who chairs the New Mexico Veterans and Military Families Caucus. Linson is a 24-year law enforcement veteran and former police chief who runs a real estate business with his wife. The Rio Rancho-centered seat is on the Nov. 3 ballot, and early voting started Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Jobs before rooftops
Smith said the county already has economic anchors in Intel, Project Ranger, pueblo tourism and higher education, but it lacks the infrastructure to grow. A company needing 150 acres, 10 megawatts of power and fiber would land in Bernalillo County, he said, leaving Rio Rancho with the leftovers.
“Rooftops, fast food restaurants and car washes,” Smith said.
Linson said more than half of residents commute out of the county daily, taking their gross receipts tax dollars with them. He’d court high-paying employers so residents live, work and spend locally.
Who pays?
Smith wants the Paseo del Volcan extension designated a defense access road, which he said would put the Department of Defense on the hook for construction. He’d also press federal, state and tribal partners for money and negotiate infrastructure contributions from developers who receive industrial revenue bonds and LEDA funds.
Linson took the opposite tack.
“No one’s going to come fix this,” Linson said.
He called grants temporary and said he’d identify the biggest safety problems, look for savings in the budget and consult constituents.
Seats at the table
Smith said the county gave tribes and municipalities notification, not consultation, on Project Ranger. He said the county has spent four years in a voting rights lawsuit with tribal partners over redistricting. According to Smith, the county lost a ruling in June, has appealed it and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending its map.
Linson pledged an open-door policy and said he’d meet with pueblo leaders even outside his district.
Linson’s record
Linson’s law enforcement career includes a 2013 DWI arrest that ended in dismissal. Sandoval County deputies stopped Linson, then a 41-year-old Albuquerque police detective, on Interstate 25 near Bernalillo after clocking his unmarked police car at 90 mph in a 70 mph zone, KOAT reported at the time. Deputies said he admitted to drinking three beers but blamed his poor driving on texting. They charged him with aggravated DWI, and Albuquerque police placed him on leave.
The case was dismissed in early 2015, court records show. Linson later served as Bosque Farms police chief. He did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Health care and housing
Smith would push for countywide broadband to expand telemedicine and for round-the-clock staffing of the mobile mental health unit at Sandoval Regional Medical Center. He also wants $30,000 in down payment help for first responders who stay in the county, modeled on a Valencia County program.
Linson said he’d fund behavioral health aggressively and back state law changes that draw doctors to New Mexico. He called townhomes and condos good entry points for first-time buyers but said housing hinges on jobs first.
Vote in the Sandoval County Commission District 3 race:
- Early voting: Begins Oct. 6
- Election Day: Nov. 3
- Polling locations and sample ballots: https://www.sandovalcountynm.gov/countyclerk/bureau-of-elections/
- Watch the full forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qHeVBdK4kU