ALAMOGORDO — A campaign postcard from Rep. John Block tells District 51 he “delivered more than $11 million for Alamogordo and Otero County priorities and passed legislation to expand funding for critical water projects and infrastructure.” The Legislative Council Service’s own sponsor chart, and the House roll calls, do not say that.

The 2026 funded-projects report lists seven projects under Block’s name, totaling $2,500,000. The same report lists $2,500,000 for Rep. Gail Armstrong and $2,500,000 for Rep. Brian Baca. An Appropriations and Finance Committee handout from July 2025 says the 2025 session allocated $2.5 million to every representative and $4.2 million to every senator. The figure on the card is not the figure on the chart.

His 2026 list is Alamogordo High School facility work, $650,000; Alamogordo municipal facility improvements, $300,000; Alamogordo police vehicles, $100,000; New Mexico Museum of Space History improvements, $730,436; a New Mexico National Guard museum project in Santa Fe County, $20,000; an Otero County dispatch facility, $326,564; and an Otero County dump truck, $373,000. One of the seven is not in the district. A 2024 request form asked for far more, including $3 million for a Mescalero fire substation. A request is not an appropriation.

Capital outlay in New Mexico is not a bill a rank-and-file member sponsors and passes. About half the capital bill is statewide. The other half is split among the House, the Senate and the governor. The House half is divided evenly. Each member turns in a list. Those lists are folded into one bill and the bill passes or fails as a package.

Block voted no on that package. Block is misleading constituents on the process and his own actions. 

On the 2025 capital-outlay bill, House Bill 450, the House roll call records him as No. The bill passed and was signed April 11, 2025. His projects were in the bill he voted against. On the 2025 General Appropriation Act, House Bill 2, Vote Smart records him as No. The House vote was 50-18. He was one of the 18 no votes voting against the very appropriate he claims credit for delivering. The bill was signed as Chapter 160.

That is the dishonesty in the $11 million line by NM State Representative John Block’s. He did not sponsor the appropriation. He submitted a list, as every member does. He voted against the bill that approved the list

The bill passed without him!

A member who wants credit for the projects votes for the bill, or he tells voters the projects passed over his objection. He does not get both!

If “more than $11 million” is a multi-year sum of equal shares, it is still the automatic allocation, not a sum he won. Four sessions at $2.5 million is $10 million, and only if every year’s share was that large. The postcard does not show that math. Figures from 2022 belong to his predecessor.

The water line has the same problem of degree

House Bill 63 of 2026 is a real law, and his name is on it, second. The introduced text reads “Kathleen Cates and John Block and Pete Campos.” The fiscal impact report lists the sponsor as Cates/Block. It passed unanimously and was signed as Chapter 35. Eileen Acres and the Mescalero Apache Tribe are on a statewide list of 75 entities. He did not pass it. He was the second name on a committee-endorsed authorization.

The cost line does not survive his own bills.

The card says he fought bills that would raise gas and energy costs and sponsored legislation to lower taxes on small businesses. 

Fact: House Bill 45 of 2025, which he introduced, was a 3.75 percent excise tax on wind, solar and geothermal generation. It would have raised your PNM bill and energy costs It died. 

On House Bill 91, the low-income utility rate structure, he voted no.

The small-business gross-receipts bills he sponsored or co-sponsored, including a 2023 deduction, died in committee

Pressing PNM at a public hearing is not a statute it’s theatre! 

The veterans line uses “sponsored and passed” for measures that were not his and did not pass. 

The card says he passed a bill to make moving to New Mexico easier for military families, expanded property-tax relief for veterans, and sponsored a measure to let veterans keep 100 percent of retirement pay. A move-in bill framed that way is not on his sponsor list. The property-tax piece was a 2023 joint resolution he co-sponsored. The exemption voters adopted was carried by other members. The 100 percent retirement exemption, House Bill 221 of 2026, died in committee. The cap is still $30,000.

Set next to the sponsorship record, the mailer is one argument told twice. He led no bill into law in 2025 or 2026.

The crime bill voters may have heard about was Representative Reeb’s. The water bill was Cates’s. The money on the card is the House share, and he voted no on the 2025 bills that contained it.

Ineffective is the committee docket. Dishonest is the postcard’s decision to describe that docket, and that no vote, as delivery.

Note:  John Block is in a competitive election that the Santa Fe New Mexican called “the race of his life” running against lifelong Alamogordo resident and Independent, Grace Nagamine. Nagamine’s platform focused on local issues can be found at 
https://graceforhd51.org/

Check the facts for yourself!

Sources: Legislative Council Service, “SB 240 Funded Projects by Sponsor with Governor’s Actions,” March 25, 2026, Block summary, seven projects, $2,500,000; Legislative Finance Committee handout, “Strategies to Improve Local Project Success,” July 22, 2025, $2.5 million per representative in 2025; nmlegis.gov, House Capital Outlay Request 0051 (2024), Rep. John Block; Bill Sponsor roll call, House Bill 450 (2025), Block no, signed April 11, 2025; Vote Smart, House Bill 2 (2025) House final passage, John Block, District 51, no; LegiScan, House Bill 2 (2025), House 50-18, Chapter 160; nmlegis.gov, House Bill 63 (2026) introduced text; Legislative Finance Committee fiscal impact report on House Bill 63, Jan. 26, 2026; BillTrack50, House Bill 63, Chapter 35, March 5, 2026; governor’s Executive Message No. 18, House Bill 36, April 11, 2025.

More News from Alamogordo

• Child abuse arrests, domestic violence and DWIs fill Alamogordo police log for Sept. 21–27Featured are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court…
• Golden Cube Turns 50: Space Museum to induct Kelly Twins, Mercury 13, and Other Pioneers Saturday Night in Alamogordo Gala at the Tays Center Saturday to mark the museum’s and anniversary of Oct. 5, 1976, and welcomes a class nominees.