Leadership. Trust. Experience.
I came to New Mexico as a young second lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps. Following four years at White Sands Missile Range reaching the grade captain I completed my service and became an Army civilian working as a physicist with the US Army's Atmospheric Sciences Lab. I spent 36 years at WSMR working on 25 projects and writing some 70 research papers on various topics related to improving the performance of Army systems affected by the weather.
I have lived in the Las Cruces area since 1984, since before the Mesilla Valley Mall was built, and the High Range and Sonoma Ranch developments arose.
Though my family's roots were in Philadelphia and the midwest, I have always found a friendly and inviting community here in warm New Mexico.
Along the way, I studied Electrical Engineering at NMSU, receiving a Master's in 1992 and a Ph.D. in 2013. Since retiring in 2017 I have taught classes at the Osher Life-Long Learning Institute at UTEP, and tutored several students in math. What I've learned from these experiences has been the tragic deficiencies in our public schools. I also saw this as I raised two boys from my first marriage. Both Nate and Sam graduated from Mayfield High. Nate also studied at Alma D'Arte.
What I have seen in the actions of our state is not in line with what I know from my experiences at White Sands and what I learned at NMSU or Penn State, my Bachelor's degree alma mater. Back in 2008 I was warning that the proposed SpacePort would not turn out the way the PR people around Richard Branson and Gov. Richardson were promising. Seemingly we should have been sending flights into space on a weekly basis by now. I knew back then that these promises just were not practical.
Similarly, today's hype around a solar and wind powered electric grid are not realistic. Nor are plans to force New Mexicans to drive electric vehicles and to end our state's thriving oil and gas industry. First, our grid is not up to the job. Second, solar and wind power sources are intermittent and unreliable. Third, claims of a looming climate crisis are not consistent with what we know of Earth's resilience to changing climates and temperatures.
We as a people and as a state must move from a state of fear and attempting to deal with a gradually changing climate through radical and unjustified proposed solutions to a reason-based set of policies looking at adaptation rather than mitigation.
As a scientist and engineer by training, as well as years of mathematics-based studies, I believe my skills are highly suited to addressing the technical challenges of moving our state forward and avoiding ideologically based solutions. I ask for your vote in the upcoming elections.