Colorado has a $180 billion annual GDP — compared to New Mexico’s $93 billion in 2016. It ranked in the top eight states for business with some lists putting it as number 1. New Mexico ranked in the bottom five states for business, with some lists putting us second to last. NM Governor Susana Martinez has been sued both by the state legislature and by the press — specifically the Santa Fe Reporter— over what that paper alleged was an executive delay behind a shutout in public records requests. In Colorado, Governor John Hickenlooper began serving as the state’s governor in 2011; he has challenged his own state attorney general to get her to enforce the Clean Power Plan mandates. He also sued the Obama administration over its decision to list the Gunnison sage grouse on the endangered species act. Hickenlooper will complete his second term next year after which nobody’s sure yet what it is he will do next.
Colorado ranks #6 in the nation for concentration of creative-economy workers and fourth for startups. And while my past experience proves it can be controversial to cross state borders by way of economic comparisons, Colorado also definitely also has something that New Mexico does not have: A governor who will speak on the record to the press, even to a public radio station not in his own state.