This week's guest on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is Attorney General Gary King, Democratic candidate for governor of New Mexico. In this in depth interview, AG King presents his vision for New Mexico and rebuts some of the distortions of his record seen in the negative ads that are running against him.

A special feature of this interview is the inclusion of video clips of former Governor Bruce King, Gary King's father, who passed away several years ago, speaking about western values and New Mexico politics. These clips are from an interview with Governor King and AG King from the REPORT FROM SANTA FE archives, taped in December 2008, and offer a historic perspective on candidate Gary King's background.

 Describing his early experiences working on the King ranch, and the lessons learned from campaigning with his father (one of New Mexico's most beloved and dynamic politicians), Gary reveals chapters from his past that have made him who he is today. 

Discussing his family heritage of public service, Gary describes his mother’s (First Lady Alice King) dedication to improving the life of the state's children, and how this extends to his own work to help the kids of New Mexico.  Alice King established the first Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) in the entire country. AG King notes with great sadness that New Mexico now ranks on the very bottom of the lists for child hunger and poverty, and describes what steps he will take, if elected governor, to move our kids back up the ranks of well-being. 

AG King has a Ph.D. in chemistry as well as a law degree and has specialized in environmental law. King states, “Our environmental work in the AG’s office is very important. Right now we are battling with the state environment department over rule changes that they are making that I believe would allow particularly large open pit mines to pollute our ground water. And so one of my number one issues...is that we have to protect our ground water.”

King talks about the increasing role of big money in politics, but notes that Facebook and Twitter mark the return of people-to-people communications in politics. He discusses ways to grow small business and restore job growth. Other topics include the behavioral health crisis, early childhood education, and how negative advertising suppresses voter turnout.