Insight New Mexico Interview With NM Governor Candidate Alan Webber
I just finished watching Insight New Mexico's interview with my favorite candidate for Governor (for what its worth I endorse him), Alan Webber. As a person familiar with his professional career, his achievements are nothing short of amazing, and his vision as Governor has me awestruck. The times we live in are steeped in apathy and cynicism, and his refreshing take on New Mexico, one I personally agree with and share, is like hearing someone playing a tuned guitar for the first time in a while. He doesn't just hit buzzwords and talking points; he is a solutions driven individual that has the leadership experience to connect the right people to make good things happen.
Right now your thinking one of three things:
1. I know about Alan and Im just as excited as you are (good get involved, it takes a community to make a community)
2. I dont know enough about him to make any decisions yet, but Im looking for more information
3. Ive never heard of him and it sounds waaaaay to good to be true.
How about looking the gift horse in the mouth? This is one set of teeth you will be glad you saw.
Insight New Mexico Interview With NM Governor Candidate Alan Webber
Its clear from Alan's message that he isnt in this race for popularity, power, money, or influence. He is a visionary with a heart for New Mexico and proven leadership practices that produce results without compromising his deeply held values. He is the dream boss that you have always wanted.
While acknowledging the challenges facing New Mexico, the main point that Alan Webber consistently drove home was the abundance of talent within New Mexico. That may be a hard pill for many New Mexico natives to swallow, but the truth is that there is a depth of culture and vibrancy that you cant find anywhere else in America. (I would know I have lived all over the US). New Mexico has an abundance of people who are creative, innovative, and ambitious. Alan states in the interview, that the only thing NM really needs is leadership that shares the vision of the people in New Mexico, and is willing and able to use management techniques that bring together the people that have New Mexico's best interest at heart.
So what is that vision? Starting with education, which is every candidates favorite topic, Alan Webber comes out of the door with real solutions, not just "we need to improves" with no verifiable plan of action. His first solution? Recruiting (not just hiring but the process of courting good talent), training, and retaining GOOD TEACHERS. From his perspective, you dont build a successful enterprise by beating your employees till they do better. My takeaway is, when you start out with quality there is allot less you have to worry about. His second solution? Specialized training for education leadership positions, and recruiting and training leaders who take a hands on approach to managing their schools. Alan's next big solution based approach is the creation of programs that support families. Community support programs that actually tackle the issues of poverty that many of our Democratic candidates would rather romanticize than deal with.
Another topic he addressed, were New Mexico's strengths. He commented that one economic strength included our oil and gas natural resources, and acknowledged the monetary value in the responsible harvesting of them. He also pointed out an under leveraged tourism industry. Then he spends the rest of the conversation pointing out the risks of being dependent on outside sources of funding through mega-corps, stating, "it is better for a hundred people to give you one dollar, than one person to give you a hundred dollars" because the one person who gave you the hundred can practically own you, vs the collective and democratic cooperative of promoting opportunity within Mew Mexico which pays to build its own economy, and cultivates citizens invested our economy. He went through governments responsibility in managing the vital and scarce water resource, and pointed out the economic job opportunities created through watershed management, and the faulty thinking that allows careless mines to ruin our water table.
Alan talks about all the important issues, and what really hit home for me was why Alan Webber was running for Governor. Find out why in his interview here:
Insight New Mexico Interview With NM Governor Candidate Alan Webber