Quote

Having been governor of New Mexico, I know that legislation gets passed to benefit those who have money and influence. Then they buy more money and influence. That's one reason why, as governor, I vetoed more than 750 bills and thousands of line items. I did it to keep crony capitalism away from government.

I was the Republican governor of the heavily Democratic state of New Mexico. I focused on good government, and I got it done - just like my running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. The people of New Mexico reelected me by a comfortable margin. Ditto for Weld.

I'm running for governor; I'm not running for a legislative office.

I'm a former governor, and so I was the chief executive, and when the legislature wasn't in session, I was running the state.

In New Mexico, I inherited the largest structural deficit in state history, and our legislature is controlled by Democrats. We don't always agree, but we came together in a bipartisan manner and turned that deficit into a surplus. And we did it without raising taxes.

New Mexico is 2-to-1 Democrat. I got elected as a Republican. I think I did a great job of showing people that government doesn't have to spend money to make you happy, that government really needs to be providing a level playing field.

I was the governor that drew a tough, tough straw. I was governor during the worst recession since the 1930s, and I had to cut $5 billion from the state budget.

As a kid who grew up in Montana, I resent regulation being formulated and forced in Washington from bureaucrats that have never been to Montana.

When I was elected Governor, we had an audacious agenda that naysayers said couldn't be enacted with a Democrat majority in the state legislature. However, we worked across party lines and enacted historic reforms. Working together, we cut taxes by more than $600 million.

I've made more cuts than any governor has ever made.