By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – Eight attempts, eight incompletions.
That’s not a statistical line for a struggling quarterback but rather the number of times New Mexico Watchdog has tried without success to log onto healthcare.gov since the Affordable Care Act was rolled out Oct. 1.
Sunday night and Monday morning, NM Watchdog tried [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – Both U.S. senators from New Mexico have joined a group of 10 Democratic colleagues in calling for an extension for people seeking health-care coverage on the troubled www.healthcare.gov website.
Sen. Tom Udall and Sen. Martin Heinrich co-signed a letter sent Friday to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE — Now that the partial government shutdown and debt ceiling debate is over (for now), members of New Mexico’s Capitol Hill delegation are getting cheers and jeers on social media.
A perusal of the Facebook pages of the four Democrats and one Republican reflect the bitter partisan divide [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – He may not have the name recognition — and he certainly doesn’t have the campaign war chest — of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, but 33-year-old David Clements says the nation fiscal problems are so severe making a run for the U.S. Senate is a chance worth [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are divided, and so is the New Mexico delegation on Capitol Hill.
The federal government shut down just after midnight Monday, and it didn’t take long for the Democrats and Republicans to start blaming one another.
“I had hoped that a shutdown [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – It’s not a sagebrush rebellion, but it’s close.
Five western states — Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming — have set up legislative studies or task forces to consider transferring immense tracts of federal land to the control of state governments.
And there’s talk of exploring the issue [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE — Earlier this month, New Mexico got $26 million back from the Obama administration in mineral and energy royalties.
Now, New Mexico is one of 14 western states demanding the federal government return money it seized — citing sequestration— from a program designed to held rural communities.
“The undersigned [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
SANTA FE – A freshman senator who was a critic of U.S. intervention in Iraq under George W. Bush has come out in favor a military strike in Syria and, judging from reaction from New Mexico constituents, his announcement is not a popular one.
“I know that we are a [...]

Update 5:17 p.m. MDT: Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, just released a statement saying he will vote in favor of authorizing the use of force in Syria:
“I know that we are a nation that is not only rightfully weary of war, but also jaded by the dishonest use of cooked intelligence reports that led to [...]

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall has a mild-mannered disposition but he gave John Kerry the most forceful push-back of any senator on the Foreign Relations Committee when the secretary of state appeared on Tuesday to argue for the Obama administration’s call for possible limited military action in Syria.
Udall, who [...]