Readers tell us they want solutions

We asked you, “What do you want candidates to be talking about as they compete for your vote?”

And among those answers, there were many differences.

“Women’s personal freedoms. Our rights are being taken away quickly,” said one respondent.

Another said, “Why can't we get education right in New Mexico? We pour a lot of money into it and have bright minds working on it but it never seems to get better.”

Others pointed to election integrity, mental health treatment, climate change, or the war in Gaza.

But within the muck of multifariousness, a consensus emerged. Nearly all responses said, in one way or another, that they wanted candidates to talk about solutions—not platitudes and vague promises. 

“I want specific ideas for how to move NM out of the bottom of almost every measure of poverty, educational status and health issues. I do NOT want to hear rhetoric. I want specific proposals,” said one reader. 

Another reader put it more bluntly. 

“More transparency and less good-ole-boy-broken-promises agenda by pointing fingers at others. Candidates have wasted taxpayers' money bad-mouthing one another. Get to work!!!”

The differences in opinion and clear consensus regarding a desire for straight answers and tangible solutions are invaluable to us at the Bulletin.

Your answers provided us with a road map as we navigate the 2024 election, with the goal of providing you with valuable insight into the candidates seeking power. 

Your values, concerns, and questions become ours, and we, in turn, use our access to candidates to press them on these shared and synthesized points-of-view. 

This is not the typical process for newspapers. Most go straight to the candidates and ask, “What should voters know about you?” This can be useful, but it prioritizes the candidate and leaves us in the news to guess at what the most important issues might be.

Without your responses, we’d never get to points like the one this reader made: “Hardly original: the local economy, education, the border, the homeless, crime. Las Cruces needs to double down on its positive attributes to attract businesses, tourists, students, health care professionals, and retirees. The city and its environs have so much to offer - it shouldn't be a secret.”

Or points like the one this reader who wrote, “Retirees need more tax cuts to be able to exist on Social Security. Also, access to mailboxes should not be restricted by parked cars. This is a Federally mandated rule that Las Cruces and perhaps New Mexico is not enforcing.

“Handicapped persons should be given more consideration by the people in charge of enforcing the laws and not pushed to the back to be looked at or thought about later. There are a large number of retirees moving to Las Cruces and they need to be considered when regulations are being made and enforced.”

The survey remains open for those still interested in participating. It can be accessed by following this link.