While running a business coaching firm with her husband in Albuquerque, Nicole Tobiassen said she often hears complaints from her clients that it’s becoming harder and harder to be a business owner in New Mexico. Part of her coaching involves encouraging clients to be part of the solution, advice she said she took to heart when making the decision to run for public office.

A rare Republican representing Albuquerque in the state Senate, the first-term legislator is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, the Legislative Finance Committee and now on a new public safety task force convened by Republican lawmakers that plans to push a suite of anti-crime bills during the upcoming 30-day session that begins in January. In the latest episode of the “Around the Roundhouse” podcast, Tobiassen joins Santa Fe New Mexican senior politics reporter Daniel J. Chacón to discuss the purpose of the new task force and what it hopes to accomplish.

Tobiassen shares what came out of the first meeting of the public safety task force earlier this week in Albuquerque, noting bipartisan representation among the presenters. She said the goal is to offer common sense solutions to public safety issues that serve the better good.

Republicans are greatly outnumbered in the Legislature, and Tobiassen spoke on the expected challenges of getting public safety bills heard in the upcoming session. Some public safety priorities she mentioned include increasing penalties for felons in possession of a firearm, bail reform and revisiting the juvenile code.

The Democratic legislators and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham have not seen eye to eye on public safety legislation the governor has endorsed. Tobiassen spoke on that dynamic and how the Republican legislators and the governor have been more aligned when it comes to public safety.

Tobiassen also discusses the crime issues in Albuquerque, saying “here in Albuquerque, we lock up our laundry detergent, our deodorant, our toothpaste. Go to Walmart or Target, it’s all locked up. We lock up simple necessities that cost dollars, but we don’t lock up the repeat offenders, the repeat violent offenders.”

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