Rep. John Sanchez told members of the College Republicans Wednesday that New Mexico business is failing because it’s exporting the wrong type of product — young people.
Sanchez, a Republican who represents District 15 in Bernalillo County, is best known for defeating former Democrat Speaker of the House Raymond Sanchez by a narrow margin in the 2000 state congressional election.
He said that New Mexico is losing its best and brightest young people, especially those graduating from colleges, depleting the workforce and causing businesses to reduce in size.
He said his construction business has suffered from this problem, reducing its size from 125 employees to 25 because he could not attract enough qualified workers.
“You start banging your head against the wall because it’s hard to find employees,” Sanchez said. “You have to justify how to keep your business open.”
He cited a former client, Blake’s Lotaburger, as another example.
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Sanchez said Blake Chanslor had hired his construction company to build several new buildings, but after awhile he stopped hearing from Chanslor.
He said that when he called Chanslor to find out if his work was unsatisfactory, Chanslor told him that he simply couldn’t find enough people to work at the new sites.
Sanchez said that these entry-level positions are left vacant because New Mexico is not a good place for many young people to work, so they leave the state looking for better options and job opportunities.
He said that one of his goals is to help New Mexico move forward to ensure that people don’t leave the state.
He said the greatest resource New Mexico has is its high school and college graduates.
Sanchez said that after defeating Sanchez, he has been able to bring heart back to the state Legislature.
He said that at first, when he arrived in the House, Republicans considered him the “greatest thing since sliced bread” and that the Democrats thought he was “public enemy number one.”
Sanchez added that once the dust settled following the election, many Democrats privately told him that they were proud of what he did.
He added that positive changes have been made in the Legislature that will help New Mexico grow.
“In the first session, the tone was different,” Sanchez said. “Democrats and Republicans could sit down and debate the issues. The system is back the way it should be.”
Sanchez said New Mexico has to move into 21st century politics and start getting people involved instead of keeping them in the starting block, which has been the standard practice until now.
“New Mexico is the last bastion of old world politics,” Sanchez said.
He said the New Mexico government now has to begin educating people and help provide opportunity instead of just giving excuses as to why nothing can be done about the poor economic situation that is holding the state back.
