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This week on New Mexico in Focus the state's film industry is showing some signs of recovery, but workers say they're still feeling the pain.

I do not see any increase, nor do I see predictions of that in the future.

I just see a lot of people hurting really bad right now.

And a candidate for governor bows out after a battle over ballot access and throws his support in a surprising direction.

New Mexico in focus starts now.

Thanks for joining us this week.

I'm Nash Jones, and yes you are in the right place.

This is New Mexico in Focus.

I hope you enjoyed that fresh opening to the show, and our new music.

You know, with this being our 20th season, we thought it was about time for an update.

And you'll catch some other elements of that throughout the show as well, with the new logo design and other graphics.

None of this would be possible without an entire team of folks who helped New Mexico in Focus come alive, who worked for months to get us here.

But one person, production tech, Jonah McDonald, played a particularly crucial role designing much of what you're going to see tonight.

So we are so grateful to have his expertise in giving in Focus a more modern look.

Thanks, Jonah, and we're not done.

We will be updating this set over the next several months as well.

But I know change can be hard.

So one thing at a time.

What we have not changed is what you can expect from us.

Focused, thoughtful discussions about the issues that affect you and all New Mexicans.

In a little less than 30 minutes I'm going to sit down with former mayor of Las Cruces, Ken Miyagishima.

I'm going to ask him why he dropped out of the governor's race, and why he's supporting Republican Gregg Hull after spending the vast majority of his political career as a Democrat.

In about 45 minutes, Senior producer Lou DeVizio talks with a maternal care doctor about the state's growing gaps in coverage for pregnant people and what's being done to bridge them.

We're also going to take you inside the UNM Student Union, where earlier this week, the state's utility regulators heard the public's thoughts on a potential merger between PNM█s parent company and private equity giant Blackstone.

But we begin tonight with a status report on an industry responsible for the livelihoods of many in New Mexico, the film industry.

The state's film office recently released data that shows a slight rebound after a major drop in spending over the three prior years.

Samantha Anne Carrillo has been following the spending and production trends and the people that they affect.

She writes for Viva New Mexico, an arts and culture media company here in Albuquerque, and recently published a story titled New Mexico's Film Rebound is Real.

So is the drought.

Carrillo joins me in studio to discuss what she learned about that seeming contradiction, along with two of her film industry sources who are living that reality.

Key grip Tyler Gendron and filmmaker Alonso Inda-Cochea.

>> Nash: I thank you all so much for being here.

Welcome to New Mexico in Focus.

Samantha, I'd like to start with you.

The film office -- the New Mexico film office is out with new data.

What is the status of the film industry locally, right now, and how does it compare to recent years?

>> Carrillo: So in fiscal year ‘26, which was just released on June 30th, the direct spend in New Mexico went up by 4.7 million, over fiscal year ‘25, and the number of productions increased by four.

But I think the -- for me, the drought is really that there was 3 strong years from fiscal year ‘22 through fiscal year ‘24, and then in 2025 and fiscal year ‘25, there was a steep single year drop by more than half.

Now, fiscal year ‘26.

We're up a little.

Productions are up, but -- it's kind of like a plateau at the bottom, more than a real climb back up.

>> Nash: So, it's a pretty slight bump after a really big plummet.

>> Carrillo: Yeah.

>> Nash: Basically.

>> Carrillo: Absolutely.

>> Nash: Well, in your article for Viva New Mexico, which is an online outlet that focuses on the importance of arts and creatives on social issues.

This is how you describe the experience of film industry workers hearing this good news about, spending and productions being up, slightly.

You said, quote, “imagine checking the weather forecast during a severe drought to discover there is a 100% chance of rain.

Then you step outside to find an endlessly sunny blue sky.” >> Carrillo: Yeah.

>> Nash: Why is that the case?

>> Carrillo: I think it's because it's -- essentially a micro-macro thing, right?

You're seeing these positive headlines as a film worker, and then you're experiencing personal unemployment or underemployment.

Many of the folks that I spoke to, both on and off the record, have not worked steadily in at least a year.

So that's a pretty -- I mean, it's disconcerting.

It's dissonant to see headlines hyping the rebound when in fact, you know, you are not building any of your retirement.

You don't have health insurance maybe anymore.

And most importantly, you don't have the work that you love and and that you've worked so hard to do.

>> Nash: Is that because that bump is just so thin that it's not making a significant impact on the ground with how people are feeling?

Or is it a -- delay in perception catching up with those numbers?

>> Carrillo: You know, that's honestly a question that I don't know the answer to, but I would say that I think it probably has something to do with how the spend is going.

Like who this spend is going to versus and whether or not it's trickling down, for instance, to actual workers.

>> Nash: Okay.

Well, Tyler, you've spent your entire career working in the film industry more than two decades, as I understand it.

How has the industry changed over the years?

>> Gendron: Just the amount of work.

I would say even less than five years ago, the same crews and people that I work with, we would all be working on a show, have another show lined up and still be prepping for a third show.

It was it was a full time job.

There were days were shows would line up back to back that I would work 23 days in a row on three different shows.

>> Nash: You mentioned your Key Grip.

For those who aren't familiar with that, tell us a little bit about your work.

>> Gendron: Basically, lighting and camera support.

I work closely with the Cinematographer to achieve all the things that they need, whether it's mounting cameras to cars, mounting cameras to ceilings, and the same with the lighting department.

If you are on set and you can't just put a light on a stand, you need it mounted to something.

We're support for lighting and camera.

>> Nash: Okay, and now, Alonzo, I want to get you in on this conversation you co-founded an Albuquerque based film collective called Dust Wave.

How does that work?

>> Indacochea: Yeah, so, Dust Wave operates on a mutual aid -- mutual support model.

So what we do is we work together on our film projects, we support each other.

We help each other promote our projects.

We share equipment, we share studio space, and we share other resources.

And it was really kind of put together out of a desire to have more opportunities to make films -- kind of at the creative level.

Within the industry, there's just not too many paths for folks actually -- writing and directing and so forth to -- to get reps.

So a lot of -- >> Nash: Reps, meaning, like weightlifting, right?

>> Indacochea: Exactly.

I mean, you know, all this stuff is just like anything, you know, the more reps you get, the better you are.

The more confident you get, the more ambitious you get.

And I think -- so for us, really was just in response to that.

And the lack of opportunities, you know, and the lack of money.

Right.

It's a lot easier for us to support each other.

Hey, I'll work for free on your project if you work for free on my project, sort of model, that's kind of how it came to be.

In the last few years, we've done a lot of fundraising, crowdfunding and so forth to be able to pay our folks something, right?

Which is which is awesome.

But, you know, it's it is very, very DIY, guerrilla everything.

And so, you know, and that's kind of where the Indie 50 proposal that I wrote about came out of.

>> Nash: And we'll get to that here in a little bit.

But I want to stick with kind of what the reality of this bump has been for folks on the ground.

Are you seeing more people engaging in dust wave now that productions have slowed up?

>> Indacochea: I mean, I'm seeing -- there's a lot of folks that don't have much to do, and they want to keep -- they want to keep doing things.

And I'm seeing a lot of indie productions happening.

You know, we█ve -- I think we did -- I don't know, maybe ten different projects last year.

And so yeah.

So there's a lot of pent up, pent up desire to, to make movies.

But, I don't think -- from my standpoint I just see a lot of people hurting really bad right now.

>> Nash: Tyler, you mentioned you are hurting.

You've, you know, had a slowdown in your career, used to be a full time job.

You're not able to make that happen anymore.

Are you feeling the slight increase that the Film Office has reported at all?

>> Gendron: No, not even a little bit.

That's kind of one of the things that got me involved in this kind of conversations was you just keep seeing online over and over again how wonderful New Mexico is for filmmaking, and how everything here is in the industry is so great.

And being somebody that that was that's where all of our family's income comes from.

And now that we have zero income, it was really difficult to read all of these posts over and over again about how wonderful everything is.

And it got really upsetting and, you know, caught me at the wrong day.

And I made a couple of comments that, you know, ended up being seen by the right people.

But it's - I as somebody who's on set for the past 25 years, I do not see any increase, nor do I see -- predictions of that in the future as a key grip, as a department head.

So I'm usually hired on films or TV shows pretty early on in the process.

Like I had mentioned, about receiving your phone calls.

I would receive those calls 3 to 6 months in advance, you know, we have a show coming, we need to start doing prep -- >> Nash: So you could really start to plan.

>> Gendron: You can plan almost a whole year based on pre-production and what's coming next.

There's absolutely zero opportunities in the future.

>> Nash: Your phone's not ringing.

>> Gendron: Oh absolutely not.

There has not been -- And it's not even just me.

If I talk to colleagues that I work closely with in camera and lighting departments, they also have no upcoming shows in order to work their jobs and pay their bills.

>> Nash: Yeah, how have you been able to weather this financially?

>> Gendron: I signed up with a temp agency and have been working in warehouses.

I -- it was a life changing decision.

I, to be honest, had to cry about it and took a lot of thought.

It felt a lot like giving up on my life.

Like I love my job.

Being a grip is the only thing I ever wanted to do and -- making the decision saying, well, there█s -- we've eaten through all of our savings and there is zero income coming in.

So making the decision to get a non film industry job really mentally destroyed me for a little while.

And it's it has been very hard that if you do film set work for so many years, it is such a completely different world than like a 9 to 5 job that I am having a very hard time adjusting my life to being a 9 to 5 employee, rather than doing what I love best, which is being a Key Grip, >> Nash: And what you've been able to do for more than two decades.

>> Gendron: Yeah, and it█s hard to do a job that you don't really care about.

[laughs] >> Nash: 100 percent.

I think a lot of people watching right now could relate with that.

And thank you for being vulnerable and sharing what you're going through and how hard this is, and being willing to share your story with folks, because I know that's not easy.

We did ask some of our viewers to chime in who work in the film industry about what they're going through, and I want to lift a few of their experiences as well.

Giovanna wrote on Instagram, quote, “I've worked in the film industry since 2013.

I've never seen it as slow as it is now.

Aside from a week or two every now and then on non-union gigs like commercials and ultra low budget indie projects, I've not worked since October of 2025.

My insurance benefits will have run out by the end of this year.

I'm out of unemployment insurance.” Keith Allen West wrote on Facebook, quote, “the numbers may be improving, but people working in New Mexico film are still not feeling a meaningful recovery on the ground.

A production bump is encouraging, but the real test is whether crew members are consistently working.

Actors are auditioning and booking, local businesses are seeing sustained spending, and New Mexico creators have a pathway to move their own projects forward.” And finally, Dave Gibson wrote in as well, he said, “I haven't felt the bump in 2026 at all.

I'm an actor, and my last New Mexico audition was January 26th, six months ago.

I'm a member of SAG-AFTRA, so maybe that bump the NM Film Office is talking about is in non-union productions.

Samantha, did the film office numbers distinguish between union productions and non-union?

>> Carrillo: They did not.

Not to my knowledge.

Not based on what I saw.

>> Nash: Okay.

>> Carrillo: Yeah.

>> Gendron: In my experience.

So, I have been a 480 Union member since 2010 and I do that a lot, but I also own and operate a small group rental house that caters to independent, non-union, small budget films.

I have not rented out a piece of equipment yet this year.

So when these posts talk about, Oh, there's all these low budget, independent, non-union films making in New Mexico, I'm also not seeing any of that.

I don't believe that these bumps, even in non-union work are there.

My company caters and has been a staple in grip rental -- >> Nash: And you█re not seeing it?

>> Gendron: No, not even a little bit.

>> Nahs: Samantha, you also reported on the safety net that exists for these workers and how it's ripping.

Can you talk about why it's not coming through for people right now?

Carrillo: Yeah, absolutely.

And this is something I actually didn't know until I started working on the article.

So below the line workers, which is like camera operators, grips, wardrobes, set dressers, the way that they get health insurance is by on every union signatory job.

Their employer contributes to what's called CAP, which is contributions against premium payments.

And so this helps -- I think the film industry was built for irregular but steady work, right.

So you're working jobs here.

You're paying into your CAP account.

Maybe you have a little stretch here where you don't have work, but you do have access to health insurance.

When you stop working, when your employers stop contributing, your balance just sits there and then slowly starts depleting every time a premium comes to after that, it's basically a full priced Cobra premiums for people who do not have SETI work.

So -- and also when I spoke with Tyler for the interview, t's true with retirement accounts as well, whenever you get to a point where you're saying, you know, inflation's everywhere, gas, groceries -- Tyler actually had to withdraw and cash out his retirement account that he's been paying into throughout his career.

So I think I think that this maybe system was built for the type of work that does not exist -- >> Nash: It doesn't exist.

Well, Alonzo, you have proposed something called the Indy 50 Project.

You mentioned it earlier, which would put some of the state's film tax credits towards small local productions.

Can you talk about how your proposal would work?

>> Indacoceha: So all I'm saying is here's here's this group, we don't oftentimes have the resources to pay what studios or even bigger Indies can pay crew, right.

And then we have all these folks that are out of work and hurting.

And so what I'm saying is, 1% of what fiscal year ‘26 spend was, which I think was 101 million.

So 1 million, really to support New Mexico creators, to be able to hire crew at a fair rate.

>> Nash: And these would all be New Mexico residents, the crew, the actors -- >> Indacochea: That's exactly right.

>> Nash: The filmmakers.

>> Indacochea: That's exactly right.

And so, you know, I think what our return on the tax credit, what we recapture on the tax credit spend is quite low -- >> Nash: In terms of what the state gets back.

>> Indacochea: Exactly >> Nash: Every bit it invests.

>> Indacochea: And again, I'm not an economist, but I have to think that a program that really, really is focused on New Mexico residents, New Mexico creators and New Mexico crew, I think that that recapture will be higher.

>> Nash: Well, you said you're shopping this with state lawmakers.

Have you gotten any so tight for it?

>> Indacochea: Yeah, that's well, look, the whole thing was developed with New Mexico creators and crew.

I mean, that's really, this wasn't just didn't just come to me.

This is just stuff we've been talking about for a long time.

What if -- and there are programs like this all over the world that work.

I'm going to tell you right now, there is no French cinema without subsidies Right, from the government.

Right.

They can't compete with the Avengers and stuff like that.

Right.

So these aren't radical programs, right?

These aren't radical programs.

I've talked to folks from the Media Arts Collective, which is a program that's run by the state and CNM.

And then I've talked to folks at UNM, and then I have talked to some -- State senators.

The issue is we have a lame duck governor.

Right, and so we're kind of waiting -- a lot of folks are sort of waiting for that, for the new governor to have the momentum to try to do something different.

We need to start investing in our own to create some sort of floor, some sort of stability.

And I think with this program.

You know, the target would be 2400 workdays, just not a lot, in the grand scheme of things.

But it's a start.

It's a start.

>> Nash: Well, thanks for sharing a potential solution to what we're seeing and for sharing your lived experience of this and your reporting, Samantha, I really appreciate you all coming to the table today.

>> All: Thank you.

>>Quiner: Many communities lack access to pregnancy care.

Birth care.

We are in a state where New Mexico has a very high rate of pregnancy related maternal mortality, where people die from complications of pregnancies at a higher rate than the rest of the United States.

>>Nash: Lou's interview on the work being done to bridge gaps in maternal health care access is coming up in about 20 minutes Now for an update on a story we've been watching closely over the last several months.

Private equity firm Blackstone's proposed acquisition of TXNM energy, the parent company of PNM, New Mexico's largest electric provider.

Well, this week, the state's utility regulators held its latest hearing, dedicated completely to New Mexicans thoughts on that idea.

Chair of the Public Regulation Commission, Patrick O'Connell, told attendees that the six hour comment hearing in the University of New Mexico█s Student Union building was needed because interest in the topic has outpaced the amount of time its regular meetings allow for and the size of its usual meeting rooms.

>>O█Connell: We have to make our decisions based on, evidentiary record that gets collected during the processing of a case.

The value of public comment is.

It really helps me think about how to view that record.

There's more points of view than my own.

I█ve heard plenty of different points of view throughout this process.

I'm listening to all of it and thinking about it, while we go forward.

>>Nash: His last point there While we go forward, was, in and of itself, controversial among some attendees who questio whether the hearing was a sign that the merger application was in fact moving forward, despite being paused a few weeks back.

As we covered previously on this program, the commission earlier this month found PNM and Blackstone broke state law by engaging in a stock transaction without the PRC█s approval.

The commission ordered the companies to unwind that deal before their merger application could move forward.

>>Leeondra: So I am confused why we're here without that being fixed.

That problem, Are they going to pay for it?

Are they going to resubmit?

Why are we here before any of that has been done?

>>Nash: That sentiment was shared by Youth United for Climate Crisis Action, or Yucca, who delivered a collective comment using a call and response technique that the organization called the People's Mic.

>>Zephyr: A hearing now assumes nothing has changed.

>>Crowd: A hearing now assumes nothing has changed.

>>Zephyr: Is the PRC even listening?

>>Crowd: Is the PRC even listening?

>>Zephyr: Blackstone and PNM broke the law.

>>Crowd: Blackstone and PNM broke the law.

>>Zephyr: What are we even commenting on?

>>Crowd: What are we even commenting on?

>>Zephyr: We don't know.

>>Crowd: We don█t know.

>>Zephyr: No one knows.

>>Crowd: No one knows.

>>Zephyr: Compliance comes first >>Crowd: Compliance comes first.

>>Nash: TXNM and Blackstone announced earlier this month that they're in the process of unwinding that illegal stock sale.

TXNM says it took out a $400 million loan to pay Blackstone back.

The company's plan to submit a report by the end of the month, showing compliance and ending that pause.

Meanwhile, others in attendance shared their thoughts on the proposed merger with commissioners.

Several members of the local chapter of the Laborers International Union of North America, or Liuna local 16, expressed support for Blackstone's takeover of PNM.

Like Jason Chavez, >>Jason: I support this acquisition.

I think that'll bring good paying jobs, benefits throughout the state.

And I thank Blackstone, for want to invest $20 million in apprenticeships and keeping our youth here and jobs more, more stable in the state.

>>Nash: Last month, Blackstone pledged $20 million to expand local labor unions apprenticeship programs, only if its purchase of PNM goes through.

In an opinion article in the Albuquerque Journal this week, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed support for this kind of private investment in PNM, though not necessarily from Blackstone.

She wrote, quote, we need the investment of private partners to ensure a reliable energy grid and achieve our climate goal of 100% carbon free electricity by 2045.

Whoever the private partner is, we must be pragmatic about what significant, well-regulated capital could offer us.

She encouraged New Mexicans to let the PRC do its job of assessing whether Blackstone is the right company.

Most commenters at the meeting said they don't believe it is.

That included Don Meaders, who said that he was a carpenter's union member for more than 50 years.

>>Don: I do not believe that Blackstone will be a good employer.

They have got a lousy record and to be honest with They've got a lousy record nationwide and some of the other stuff that a lot of people have had to strike against them and try to get their wages what they promised.

So do not have faith in a private equity company like that >>Nash: TXNM and Blackstone has extended the expiration of their merger agreement through next May to allow more time for regulators to make their final determination.

For a while there, it looks like we may have a three way race for governor in November between Democrat Deb Haaland, Republican Gregg Hull, and independent Ken Miyagishima, the former longtime mayor of Las Cruces.

But the contest is now down to two after Miyagishima recently dropped out of the race.

Throughout his campaign, the biggest headlines he ever got were not exactly about his ideas for New Mexico's future, but instead his struggle to qualify for the ballot.

Independent candidates aren't nominated through primary elections like major party candidates are.

Instead, they must collect thousands of voter signatures equal to 2% of the number of people who voted in the last governor's race.

This year, that was 14,200 signatures.

Miyagishima sued Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver over that requirement, arguing it was an insurmountable barrier to getting on the ballot That lawsuit was dismissed last month, marking kind of the nail in the coffin for his independent bid as he exits the field, We wanted to talk with the longtime Democrat about his decision to run as an independent.

Whether he's going to continue to push for change to the electi to the election code, and why he█s now backing Republican Gregg Hull for governor.

>> Nash: Thanks so much for being here.

Welcome to New Mexico in Focus.

So, before we get into why you endeding your campaign for governor, let's catch folks up with how that all went down.

You initially ran as a Democrat and you switched to Independent in February.

Why did you make that change?

>> Miyagishima: Well, you know, I actually texted about 500 state Central Committee.

I sent them videos.

I asked them if I could get their support.

I probably ended up with about 12%.

And I realized I'm just not their candidate that wants that particular movement in that type of philosophy.

>> Nash: What kind of philosophy is that?

>> Miyagishima: A bit more to the left than what I am.

I consider myself a moderate and I get it.

I understand it.

I mean, that's who the Democratic Party is today, and that's different than it was when I first ran for office in 1990.

So I thought, if I█m going to have a shot at this I█m going to have to go independent.

>> Nash: When you decided to run for for governor as an independent, what did that afford you that running as a Democrat did not?

>> Miyagishima: Well, first off, it allowed me to kind of reset the campaign.

I'll admit, I mean, this is a statewide campaign.

This is a little bit different than running for the city of Las Cruces█ mayor.

And you're talking statewide.

You're talking having to make all types of contacts throughout the state.

And when I get down to it, if I had focused more on you know, certain issues first, instead of kind of doing what I was doing, it allowed me to kind of reset, kind of redo the campaign, go after the signatures and move in that direction.

>> Nash: Did your policy platform change at all?

>> Miyagishima: Not at all.

>> Nash: It remained the same as an independent -- >> Miyagishima: In fact, nothing changed.

Not not a single thing.

Except on the website.

It said I was going for the Democratic primary.

It just changed the independent candidate, but not a single item change.

>> Nash: The other thing that changed was the threshold to qualify for the November ballot.

However, and you have taken issue with what that threshold is.

Can you talk about the challenges for qualifying for the ballot, which you did not?

>> Miyagishima: Sure, so -- if I was running as a libertarian, that's an independent.

If I was running as a Green party -- >> Nash: Well, it's not an independent.

It's a minor party.

>> Miyagishima: Well, a minor party, but -- >> Nash: But we're running without a party.

>> Miyagishima: Correct, but theoretically, that is, you know, declined to state.

I mean, it's not a Democrat or Republican, >> Nash: But the state does have two minor parties, and that's one of them, libertarian Green Party.

And so they do have a party affiliation, whereas declined to state running without a party at all is a separate -- >> Miyagishima: Sure, and they require 7,100 signatures.

So at the time, one day I kind of stumbled on the fact that I thought the presidential candidate had to have 7,100 candidates also, if I was running for president.

Turns out, that you only need half of that.

So that's 3,500.

Well, I was just trying to get the courts to allow me to to be equal to the other minor party candidates, even though I'm an independent, because the state says the reason why they made such a high limit was they didn't want to have too many people crowd on the ballot.

And the other thing it says you're supposed to show a modicum amount of support.

So if you look at the definition of modicum, it says show a little bit of support, you know.

So we felt that 10,000 signatures each, both for my lieutenant governor candidate, running mate JC Lopez and myself.

So, 10,000 - 10,000, we have like 20,000 would have shown a modicum of support, but it was not -- it was denied.

And so, the next step would be to appeal to the Supreme Court.

>> Nash: And so how many signatures did you collect at the end of the day?

>> Miyagishima: About 20,000.

>> Nash: Okay, about 20,000.

>> Miyagishima: Well, I saw one report who said that I had collected 11,400 or something.

I just figured it was on 10,000.

>> Nash: And you mentioned that the lawsuit against Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, was dismissed.

You had characterized the threshold that we're talking about as an insurmountable barrier for independent candidates alleging violations of the First and 14th Amendment.

So Free Speech and Equal Protection under the law.

State District Court Judge Matthew Wilson dismissed that lawsuit last month.

He ruled, quote, “New Mexico has an important state interest in requiring some preliminary showing of a modicum of support before including candidates on the general election ballot” and that the requirement of 2% of folks who voted in the last governor's general election was not unconstitutional.

How did you take that ruling?

>> Miyagishima: Well, I was hoping that he would see that all we were asking for was to go back to what 1% is a lot of our states surrounding us, or use 1%, or they actually have a lower threshold for independent candidates.

Again, I recognize what the state was was saying.

But, you know -- the other candidates who are running for independent, I think one of them got 3000.

The other maybe a couple hundred.

It's not like there was a bunch of people crowding -- you know, like when I ran for mayor the last couple of times, yeah, 8 or 9 people running for mayor, but they don't even have to put a provide any type of signatures.

You know, just anyone runs for mayor.

Okay, you know -- so what's the difference between that and -- >> Nash: I will note, the requirement for gubernatorial candidates, including independents, is the same as candidates for U.S.

Senate and other statewide race.

And that while some states may have a lower percentage that they need to get.

Other states do have higher ones.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld more restrictive signature requirements.

Also, a federal district court here in New Mexico in 2014 found that a 3% requirement was constitutional.

So we're not necessarily an outlier at 2%.

>> Miyagishima: Two things I want to state.

One, no candidate has ever done 14,200 signatures for independent.

None.

The second is earlier this year in 2026.

Representative McQueen, who was a candidate for for Land Commissioner, actually put a bill in to reduce the percentage from 2% to 1% for independent candidate because he felt that that was just too hard.

Unfortunately, the rules committee said, hey, this session is for financial items only, so I'm going to expect it to appear next session.

And if they call on me to testify, I'll explain to them, every day -- every day I got up to the time I went to sleep, members of my family, members of our team, All we thought about was, who can sign our petition?

I have never experienced that before.

I mean, it was like a second full time job.

>> Nash: How did you go about trying to get the signatures?

>> Miyagishima: Oh, we had people from social media, Facebook, Instagram, you name it.

They were -- I had a list of people and text them, “hey, can you sign my petition?” I mean, we did that.

My wife, one of my greatest supporters, and I felt so bad, she would go into grocery stores and just asking people, I mean, I would tell her, you don't have to do that.

[Nash laughs] >> Nash: In the milk aisle.

>> Miyagishima: Yeah.

I mean, you know, she would act like she's a shopper.

And she's saying, by the way, can you sign?

You know, and fortunately in Las Cruces, it went really well.

I mean, we would get the most from there.

Although we have statewide.

But I mean, we had a lot of people working on this every day.

We were getting 200, 250 but -- > Nash: Do you think there was a way that -- >> Miyagishima: And we only had 90 days to do it.

>> Nash: Right, do you think that there's a way that you could have adjusted your strategy and gotten there?

>> Miyagishima: I think so, if we had done what -- but see, it took a while, we had to tweak, different tweaks because we would send out emails, we'd send out text messages, and it gets kind of expensive.

But the emails, depending on the server that we were using, if it's not done just right, they'd shut us off.

So then we'd have to restart it up again.

And, you know, and then those were hard.

And then you have to get the list.

It's a lot.

It's a lot to it.

It is something that, excuse me, we felt that we had the knowledge, technology and the wherewithal to do it.

It's it's not easy.

>> Nash: As you mentioned, if you had run as a minor party candidate, that threshold would have been lower at 1%.

Why didn't you run as a minor party candidate?

I know you were, maybe considering running with the new forward party, which just got minor party status in New Mexico.

>> Miyagishima: Well, two reasons, as it turns out.

You know, again, I was little naive to think that an independent would just show, as you know, there's a Democrat or a Republican and independent.

But if I had qualified to be a forward party, it would have my name and it would say forward party.

You know, people would say, what is a forward party?

And I was afraid that that might -- >> Nash: Just because it's so new -- >> Miyagishima: It is.

>> Nash: People aren't as familiar with it.

>> Miyagishima: Exactly.

And then the second thing is, as it turns out, they themselves didn't qualify to have 7,100.

They're being told that they needed 14,200 -- >> Nash: Right, because they didn't get enough voters registered to hit that 7,100.

>> Miyagishima: So, had I had listened or had I moved in that direction, it would have been -- >> Nash: Well, now, you had originally said that you'd planned to appeal the dismissal of your lawsuit to the Supreme Court.

You've decided not to.

Why?

>> Miyagishima: Well, one of the things I was thinking, and as I mentioned earlier to -- actually, I was talking to my wife, I said, I have a funny feeling, we might get on the ballot, if we do, let me just share with you the weeks before this.

So after the ruling from the district court, I for the most part, I mean, that was, you know, that's like popping someone's balloon, right?

And and my people would ask me, how's the campaign going?

I said, well, right now I'm on life support.

Okay.

We may appeal, but what I'm trying to get at is, I mean, I kind of took a break.

I mean, it was kind of nice to be able to catch your breath from every day, nonstop!

From the time you get up, the time you go to sleep, “hey, can you sign my petition?” I mean, it was kind of good, but then I thought, okay, we could do this.

We're going to have to start up again.

We're not going to have to sign signatures, but we're going to have to start the machine up again, because I'll admit, it kind of was going down.

I mean, people saw that and they go, “well, it's going to be a tough, tough hill to climb.” >> Nash: So you decided to call it?

>> Miyagishima: Yeah, and then I thought, you know what?

I know both Deb -- Secretary Haaland and Mayor Hull, they're both great people.

I like Secretary Haaland, and she's a nice lady, very historic.

Mayor Hull, He was actually -- I was actually his mentor.

Mayor and the Conference of Mayors.

He won't let me forget this, but I had lost him.

I'm supposed to show him around, and I forgot to bring him along a few times, but, you know, they're good people.

>> Nash: And this is the Democratic and Republican nominee for governor.

>> Miyagishima: Right, and I thought, you know what?

I would feel like the ideas if I can help gel better with Mayor Hull -- >> Nash: Why is that?

>> Miyagishima: Well, we're both mayors.

We ran cities.

We balanced budgets.

You know, we're nonpartisan.

We were.

We didn't have to ask party bosses.

“Hey, what do you think about this?

What do you think about that?” And I believe that, Greg, much like I, when we were in our positions as mayor, he█s mayor of Rio Rancho.

I was mayor of Las Cruces.

He just happened to have that that Republican behind him, just like I did say, as Democrat.

But we weren't we weren't involved in the party.

>> Nash: Well, the mayor's office are nonpartisan.

You have historically been a Democrat.

He is a Republican and is now running with the, at the top of the ticket with the Republican nomination.

Do you see any contradiction in supporting the Republican nominee, as a long time Democrat?

>> Miyagishima: I look at it as supporting the fellow mayor who I know wants to get things done and has done that before?

I mean, he's had a leadership position.

Is something here that, you know, he knows how to balance the budget.

He knows how to work with all different types of constituencies.

Again, I'm not trying to say Secretary Haaland hasn't, but hers has been more focused.

As a as a congressperson, you're more of a legislator.

As a mayor, you're more on the Executive team.

It's just different.

It's just bigger numbers.

>> Nash: Well, she was an executive at the secretary level over the Interior Department.

>> Miyagishima: Sure, I understand that, but that's just one area of focus I'm talking about.

I mean, we're talking like, for example, there's something that Mayor Hull said that made a lot of sense when someone saying, hey, let's do it with gross receipts tax.

And he specifically said, you know what?

We can't do that because not only their city, in Rio Rancho, Las Cruces, every city relies on that gross receipts tax.

About 60% of their income to run the city comes from GRT.

You wouldn't know that unless you're in there.

And I've never heard that from anyone else.

But he knows that it's real easy to say, oh, let's just get rid of this tax.

Let's get rid of that until you really know what it uses, what it does.

>> Nash: Okay.

Did you communicate at all with the Haaland campaign before you endorsed Greg Hull?

>> Miyagishima: All I did was, I texted Secretary Haaland that I did not make -- the district court ruled against me, and that probably the next day you're going to see a -- newspapers or media saying that I did not qualify.

That's all I did.

>> Nash: But not that you were going to endorse Hull?

>> Miyagishima: I didn't.

Nash: Okay.

>> Miyagishima: He didn't even know I was going to endorse him.

>> Nash: Oh, really?

>> Miyagishima: No.

>> Nash: It was a surprise.

>> Miyagishima: It was because I think I sent it on Wednesday evening and he didn't get it.

It's so funny.

I sent to him, like, in the evening, and he responded, right.

And then I thought, well, maybe he's like me.

Just shuts his phone off.

And then Thursday morning he goes, oh, wow.

Thanks, Ken.

You know, I got, you know, and and then I said, keep it quiet because it was supposed to be for Friday.

>> Nash: Right.

And that's when you did finally announce -- well beyond your advocacy in the governor's race, I imagine you're going to be working to support Greg Hull throughout the rest of this campaign.

Do you plan to continue to call for change to New Mexico's election code around the ballot access issues you've brought up?

>> Miyagishima: Absolutely.

When you think about it, I think in one more year independence or to climb, the states are going to exceed registered Republicans.

In two more years, they're going to exceed Democrats.

The legislature has to address this.

They can't continue to put their head in the sand and think that independents aren't going to become a major force here.

We're here trying to break the ceiling here.

And, you know, they're just -- they're going to have to address it somehow.

>> Nash: Well, Ken Miyagishima, thank you so much for coming on to talk about your campaign and its end and what's next.

>>Nash: Thanks to Ken Miyagishima for making the trip up from Las Cruces.

Now, before we move on to our next story, another update on who will appear on your ballot this November.

This time running alongside Deb Haaland, The Democratic Party of New Mexico has announced Stephanie Garcia Richard will be the party's nominee for lieutenant governor after a four day vote of its state's central committee.

Haaland endorsed Garcia Richard for the spot after Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who received 80% of the vote in primary, dropped out for health reasons.

State Senator Harold Pope, who lost to Toulouse Oliver in June, was Garcia Richard's leading contender at this stage of the process.

But State Land Commissioner Garcia Richard eked out the nomination with 255 votes to Pope's 218.

To understand how that vote was held and why party insiders chose the lieutenant governor nominee instead of voters.

Check out last week's episode on the New Mexico in Focus YouTube page.

Nearly half of New Mexico counties don't have a birthing facility for a third of the counties in the state, A clinic to give birth might be two or even three counties away.

And that reality is leaving expectant parents at risk, and has left New Mexico with one of the highest rates of complications and deaths related to pregnancy and birth in the country, and those gaps are widening.

Since just last year, four freestanding birth centers have announced their closure or ended birthing services.

That's Santa Fe Birth Center, La Clinica in Silver City and Dar A Luz Birth and Health Center in Albuquerque, which transitioned out of birthing into an integrated health center model.

Meanwhile, Three Suns Birth in Roswell plans to close in the next few months.

And it's not just clinics giving up on this care.

Just last month, Los Alamos Medical Center permanently ended inpatient labor and delivery services.

So where does that leave New Mexicans desperate to find the care that they need during pregnancy and to safely give birth?

Well, that's what senior producer Lou DiVizio asked doctor Trevor Quiner, a maternal medicine specialist who co-directs the program through UNM█s Project Echo working to bridge the gap.

>> Lou: Doctor Trevor Quiner, thank you so much for being here on New Mexico in Focus.

>> Quiner: Thank you so much for having me today.

>> Lou: Absolutely.

Now you've spent more than six years trying to address gaps in maternal care with Project Echo.

I'll get to those efforts a little bit later in this interview.

But first, I want to understand the problem that you are trying to address.

What is the state of maternal care in New Mexico right now?

>> Quiner: That's a big question to ask and answer.

And I think it helps a little bit to ask the question, like, what should we have in New Mexico for maternal health care?

And I'll also say that I'm still learning from the patients and families that I take care of about what their communities deserve and need.

And from the other providers throughout the state that spend time day in and day out to provide the care.

But what all New Mexican families and patients deserve is full access to safe, respectful, culturally competent, evidence based pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care in a way that doesn't force them to drive hours from their homes and sacrifice time, effort, money, relationships to obtain it.

And that's where we want it to be.

But where we're at is, unfortunately, that many communities lack access to pregnancy care, birth care.

And because of that, we are in a state where New Mexico has a very high rate of pregnancy related maternal mortality, where people die from complications of pregnancies at a higher rate than the rest of the United States, and much higher rates than the rest of the world.

And beyond just, you know, mortality related to pregnancy, significant complications, complications for themselves, for their babies that are related to lack of access to care.

And these complications and deaths and, you know, tragedies are unfortunately, inevitably borne by our native and indigenous communities, by communities of color and by our rural communities.

All who through, for various reasons, are at higher risk of having lack of access to care.

>> Lou: Okay.

Now, some statistics that I know you're aware of, but 14 of New Mexico's 33 counties have no birthing facilities.

And 11 counties meet the definition of maternal health care deserts, meaning that the closest one might be 2 or 3 counties away.

Where geographically is the biggest need in our state right now?

>> Quiner: Yeah, unfortunately all of our state is still at high levels of need.

When we look at where are these maternity care deserts?

And actually I'm getting away from using the word desert and choosing to use gap or void because deserts are beautiful places, beautiful ecosystems that function.

And unfortunately, what's happened with maternal care is is not a natural process and a functioning ecosystem.

But but voids that have occurred because of of the different motivations that that that determine where birth care is available.

It seems that a lot of the decisions being made about continuing to have birth services at our hospital are based on on whether for two, two main reasons, whether those services are profitable enough or sustainable or financially sustainable enough to support the workforce that's needed to provide them.

And do the hospital administrators feel that there is adequate volume to provide safe birth care if those numbers are small.

What we're hoping to better understand is or to to maybe change the focus is not that these are services that could be gone away with, or that maybe aren't necessary in all locations, but that birth services are are right that each community have, and that we need to think of ways to make sure that they are sustainable financially and that they can be done safely, even with lower numbers.

>> Lou: I promise I'll get to Echo's work in just a second, but just to to nail down broader potential solutions, a lot of times we hear about a lack of access to healthcare, and people immediately want to point to medical malpractice laws.

There was just some action in the legislative session this past year.

Will those changes create opportunity for more professionals to come here and maybe help hospitals reassess whether or not they keep these birthing centers open?

Or do you see that as a relation at all?

>> Quiner: Yeah.

You know, from from the voices that we hear from the research that we've done, it certainly is a part of the problem.

Right?

When we lose providers, because the cost for malpractice insurance to provide birth care is astronomically high, or when the cost to a hospital to provide birth service is astronomically high becomes really difficult to to have that conversation about the bottom line in needing to support birth services.

That was one of the factors that featured strongly in the closure of Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital's birth services.

It certainly is not the only problem.

Just having more doctors in New Mexico doesn█t fix the the system that preferentially reimburses OBGYNs for care above midwives for care?

It doesn't think, it doesn't allow us to innovate models where we have that whole group of providers working together to provide prenatal, postpartum, and birth care for a community.

>> Lou: Okay.

Thanks for allowing some time to establish the problem and some potential solutions.

But you, of course, are already part of an effort to work to bridge some of these existing gaps.

You're a co program director for the Improving Perinatal Health Echo program.

Tell me about the work that you're doing through that program and how you're addressing this crisis.

>> Quiner: So the improving Perennial Health Echo started before I was a part of it.

And from the beginning, its purpose was to work together to provide education, to decrease maternal morbidity and mortality in New Mexico.

And it started mostly focused on teaching hospital teams, OBGYNs, midwives and nurses how to how to address obstetric emergencies that come up during pregnancy and labor and delivery admissions.

And so it was very much focused on just this narrow window of safety bundles, of how best to take care of things like high blood pressure during pregnancy or when people have too much bleeding after giving birth.

But as we continued to develop the program and after 2020 with with the COVID-19 pandemic, we started to understand that some of the big gaps in our ability to support people were needed, that we needed to support our workforce more, to be able to support our patients and families, that providers that worked in rural locations needed to have a community of practice.

We're not just getting lectures to hear about how to do this X, Y, and Z on labor and delivery, but needed a community that they could ask questions to, that they could learn together with, that they could teach about what they were going through and get real resources.

How do I get an ultrasound for my patient who has Covid right now?

And it really began to develop after that point to to recognize that there's a huge community of people providing care for our pregnant patients in New Mexico, and those are doulas.

Those are community health workers.

Those are public health workers.

Those are people who run community based organizations.

And those are the physicians and midwives that that provide birth care and nurses that work there.

And so we've really worked to expand our focus on that multidisciplinary team.

We still focus a lot on specific medical, you know, teaching and and best practices.

But we also seek to be a place where people can come for for community and for support.

And we've seen it grow a lot over the last six years.

>> Lou: Great to that point of community and support.

What have you heard?

I know you can't give specific stories, of course, but what have you heard generally from patients about their experience trying to get adequate care in what is one of the most stressful and important times of their lives?

>> Quiner: Not to speak to specifics, but I have patients literally every day who travel 3 or 4 hours you know, one way to have prenatal care visits or ultrasounds.

I have patients who may have, you know, pregnancy complications for normal pregnancies but can't get care in their hometown who relocate themselves to Albuquerque, where they can have better access to birth care or prenatal care.

I see every day where patients, family members, you know, quit their jobs or lose their jobs to be able to move with their families.

And while there are some supports that come through insurance and community to have a place to stay and have food and things like that is often inadequate.

And so these experiences of being displaced for birth or being displaced for care have a real cost, both that financial cost, right, lost wages, you know, the expenses of gas, of traveling long distances, but also costs to, in the form of mental stress and an emotional stress and being separated from your support system in your community.

Because even if there's adequate resources for that pregnant person and one family member to come to Albuquerque, they're often leaving other kids behind.

They don't have the opportunity to be surrounded by their extended family at this really important time in their lives.

And I know that that leads to to trauma for our families and, you know, the women of New Mexico, the people I take care of are the most resilient people I've met they█re they are far and away stronger individuals than I am, but they deserve to not have to be resilient all the time and to have to claw every, you know, every little bit of care that they need.

>> Lou: Sure.

Now, kind of to the same point of starting this interview with establishing the problem, what purpose does it serve to hear those stories, to to get them out into the public, to try to establish for the rest of the public that this is a serious problem?

Are you trying to hear more from from folks?

>> Quiner: Yeah.

You know, I, I can speak for myself.

I can speak from my experiences and my expertise, but I can't speak for my patients, and I can't tell their stories and or even understand their stories to the depth that they can.

And I also can't speak for a community with what it needs.

And what we really need is for the voices of our patients and families, for our community leaders to be able to tell our political leaders, to be able to tell our health care leaders what type of health care they need, what changes they want to see, and what their community communities deserve.

We really need to get away from people making decisions without talking to the communities that they're serving are supposed to be serving.

So we've recently had and a session where we were talking about the closures of hospitals in several communities for birth services.

And we're very lucky to have some, some people who share their experiences of being displaced for birth.

We plan to continue to have these series, and would really love to hear from patients and families on how the lack of access to birth care, prenatal care, postpartum care has affected you, has affected your families, has impacted your pregnancy and what you would want to see changed in New Mexico.

>> Lou: Okay.

Now, as for the work that you've done, establishing these stories, gathering input from people who experience this every day, working with emergency services to try to fill in these gaps.

Building community care, as you say, not just specifically OBGYNs.

Are your efforts making a difference?

Are you seeing data that supports that?

This program is helping folks?

>> Quiner: I am very encouraged by the participation that we have in the work that we're doing.

I see every day where in each community, there are providers and community members who are working to make sure that their relatives and family members and community members have the care that they need.

I see more and more those participations with us in the Echo Forum and in other in other settings.

I'm really encouraged by by the work that the state is starting to work on through the Rural Health Transformation Program to fund new programs that will specifically focus on maternal health and access to care.

New Mexico is a strong state and strong community.

And I'm really encouraged by the evidence that when I see the evidence of that.

But I think we still need is is a prioritization is leadership helping us to to, you know, gather our efforts together and work towards a specific goal of making sure that that care is available to everyone.

>> Lou: Understood.

Doctor Trevor Quiner, thank you so much for being here.

>> Quiner: Thank you for your time, I appreciate you.

>> Lou: Of course.

>>Nash: Thanks to Doctor Quiner, Lou and everyone else who contributed to the show.

Join us here next week as we explore what that big federal housing bill might mean for New Mexico.

For New Mexico PBS, I'm Nash Jones.

Until then, stay focused.

Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by viewers like you.