Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, 63, of Albuquerque, is running for governor on the Democratic ticket against former secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, 65, of Laguna Pueblo.
Bregman graduated from The University of New Mexico School of Law and began his career as a prosecutor more than 30 years ago. He served as an assistant district attorney for the Second Judicial District, served as the deputy state auditor for New Mexico and also served on the Albuquerque City Council. He was appointed as the Bernalillo County district attorney by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2023 and was elected to the position in November 2024.
El Rito Media sat down with Sam Bregman to discuss his vision for New Mexico, should he be elected governor.
What are your plans for K-12 education?
“It’s important to recognize we used to battle Mississippi for who was 50th. We’re still 50th. They’re 15 or 16th in the country they call it the Mississippi miracle and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel in a lot of ways. It’s called accountability. Accountability for our school districts, making sure they’re transparent, making sure they’re posting their goals and whether or not they’re achieving their goals and how close they are to achieving their goals. It’s meaning holding administrators accountable, it’s meaning holding teachers accountable … and listen, we want all the great teachers we can get, but we also have to pay them great but we also have to recognize the fact that they’re being tasked with so many different things. Let’s focus on the ability to teach instead of, right now, teachers are having to focus on not just teaching, but on being a disciplinarian, a parent, a social worker, a nurse. There’s far too many they’re things being asked to do … But we also need to hold parents accountable. We lead the country in chronic absenteeism. If the kid’s not in the school house, they’re not going to learn and too many parents, families are struggling out there. A lot of single parent families are working two jobs and they’re not there when the school bus arrives and we need to work as much as we can with the families out there.”
“… PED needs first of all, needs a continuum of leadership. In other words, we don’t need six PED secretaries in six years. That’s not any kind of fluid leadership and we should be better than that. I will say that PED needs to have a rapid response team for those schools, and we can identify them if everybody’s being transparent, those schools and classrooms that are falling behind and failing our kids. We need to get in there with super tutors, if you will, and the master teachers identifying first and second graders, specifically, because we know in third grade, if they’re not at reading level or math level they’re supposed to be, they’re going to suffer from K all the way to 12.”
What are your spending priorities for New Mexico?
“New Mexico is the second-richest state according to our wealth funds. There’s $75 billion in oil fund. We’re not a poor state. That doesn’t mean we raid the treasury and go on a spending spree. I think we need to continue to manage our funds. It also means that no New Mexican should fall through the cracks as far as I’m concerned. Regardless of your politics, it’s clear that millions and millions of dollars were cut from this Big Beautiful Bill for Medicaid, for example. I’m happy the legislature and the governor back-filled some of that for the short term. We have to get a handle on the longterm because in the longterm it’s going to be very, very expensive and we want to make sure we’re getting every dollar we can out of Washington. There’s a lot of things we have to do and not all of them are going to depend on money, but some of them are. We have to hire a lot more cops. This thing we saw with the National Guard is a symptom of not having enough police officers out there. We can do better, we’ve done it at the DA’s office. The biggest way to fight crime is to fund our justice system appropriately.
One thing the next governor has to do is, we have to do a top to bottom look at every single department and see what’s working and support that and enhance that and get it going, continuing, but also looking at the things that aren’t working.”
What is your tax policy for individuals and companies and are you in favor of reducing, changing or eliminating GRT?
“I propose doing away with income tax if you’re 65 or older. Seniors on fixed incomes are being hit hard by the affordability issue and I don’t think that as a state, we should be taxing people who are 65 or older. We’re going to do away with Gross Receipts Tax on medical services … This Iran war has spiked the price of oil. If you’re a family that makes $200,000 or less, every single member of your family is going to get a check for $500 to help with the affordability issue. We’re seeing a windfall in revenue as a state I want to take that money and help offset the huge spike in gasoline prices, the huge increase in groceries right now. For a family of four, that’s $2,000. I think we ought to double the child tax credit, I think we out to double the working family tax credit. For small business, for every job your create as a small business, you should get a $5,000 tax credit. If you’re a doctor and are willing to practice in rural health, or an under-served area, you ought to get a tax credit, and a good tax credit. For medical malpractice premiums, you ought to get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. We’re playing a lot of favoritism toward doctors in my proposal, but we need doctors. We have a health care crisis right now.
The biggest struggle when you talk about eliminating GRT is how we get the source funding for local communities. If you eliminate it or partially eliminate it, it hurts municipalities and counties in a big way, much more so than the state. They rely so heavily on those revenues to fund their community. If we do it, we have to fund some type of supplemental source of revenue for our communities.”
What are your plans for reducing homelessness and drug abuse?
“I mentioned earlier, behavioral health, specifically in addiction recovery. I’m dealing with this everyday. On any given day, 50 of the new cases we get every morning are some type of drug possession. We don’t coordinate at all when it comes to behavioral health and addiction recovery. We need to have a real time dashboard at the department of health if you are a nonprofit and you are getting any type of state funding, there needs to be a requirement that you send in through online or phone and tell the department of health how many beds are available so that every available bed is known throughout the state on any given day. When you go in as a social worker, to the international district (in Albuquerque), to the homeless encampment, you can have an iPad and that person who has hit rock bottom, you can say there is a bed two blocks away from here, get in that van, you’re going to get three squares, you’re going to get some temporary housing and you’re going to get the treatment you need to get you back on your feet and operating as normal human being instead of this addiction that is so bad or this mental health that you’re suffering from. It’s not just funding, it’s staffing and coordination and if we don’t have all three, we won’t get out of this homeless problem and open air drug problem we have in this state. I can’t prosecute my way out of this problem. If you’ve been arrested four or five times for using illicit drugs that are felonies and are a homeless person, we have to involuntarily commit you. My office is doing that already. We have filed 12 involuntary commitments on people to try and get them a bed to get them help. Going to jail isn’t effective in any way. You can’t put someone under a bridge and bring them food once a day. That’s inhumane.”
What can New Mexico do to be more attractive and competitive for new businesses?
“Let’s be business friendly. We are known for our bureaucracy. We’re known for punting the ball down the field and not getting anything done. We should have a sense of urgency, which we absolutely don’t have. Ninety-nine percent of New Mexico business is small business. We should be investing in start-up companies. I’m all about economic development. I want to have a diversified economy. I’m not against any out-of-state company that wants to come here and flourish but yes, let’s grow our local business.”
Do you approve of data centers?
“If done right, data centers can bring an enormous amount of economic stability to local communities. And they could also expedite renewable energies. Done right means using treated water, not fresh water. For example, brackish water. I’m not for using fresh water that will suck our aquifers dry.”
How can environmental concerns be addressed?
“I’m very concerned with Los Alamos because of 2,500 barrels that are sitting out there with old nuclear waste under a tent. We’ve got to do something about that. We need to respond by making sure the state permits are enforced 110%. Then you hold Los Alamos and the federal government accountable. Not just here, but the plumes at Kirtland Air Force Base. We have to clean it up for the people and the environment. We have to hold everyone’s feet to the fire and make sure it happens.
We have a lawsuit all day every day with Texas over water rights. Economic development issues, acequias throughout the state, the culture and way of life are going to be in real trouble if we don’t get the big picture figured out. Our future is going to depend on how we develop in any meaningful way.”