Tom Wakely for Congress / P.O. Box 1501, Columbus, NM 88029
Paid For By The Tom Wakely for Congress Campaign
I was in Las Cruces yesterday for a VA appointment with my primary provider, an MD from the Philippines. I showed up at 1:10 pm for my scheduled 1:15 appointment with the clinic intake nurse. She took all my vitals, weight, blood pressure, all those typical types of things. As she went about her business, we talked, and among the things we talked about was how she and every else at the clinic were handling all the changes taking place at the VA now. Her response: I love taking care of veterans and that is why I do this job. But we are so short staffed she said. Everyone was concerned about how it was impacting the veterans they all served. I asked her how she felt about the 2026 VA budget being cut by 17% for direct care while the community care budget was being increased by 50% to over $300 billion. She said she didn’t know that. She also said every vet that she came in contact with at the clinic complained about community care. I told her I know, it’s absolutely terrible. I didn’t tell her that our Congressman, Rep. Gab Vasquez, voted to cut the VA direct care budget while at the same time voting to increase in the community care budget. But maybe I should have. Anyway, after I left the clinic, I popped over to the Milagro Coffee shop to meet a bunch of local activists who wanted to talk to me about Project Jupiter, the massive $165 billion AI Data Center planned for Santa Teresa.
There were four people waiting for me there when I arrived. I ordered a cup of black coffee, no sugar, no cream. After introductions were made, we talked a bit about our campaign and why I was primarying Gabe. As we talked, more folks arrived, and by the time we got down to discussing Project Jupiter, they were eight of us. The youngest of the group was 21, all the rest, under 30. Everyone asked me questions, I gave the best answers I could. I asked them questions, and they gave me answers. I enjoyed talking to them all, and came away with the clear belief that they were our country’s future. Anyway, on the drive home I thought of some of the things they said concerned them about Project Jupiter, and it helped me clarify my policy position regarding its construction.
It is my position that a moratorium on the AI data center’s construction needs to happen. The voters living in and around Doña Ana County need more information, a lot more information about Project Jupiter. Concerns about the concentration of wealth and power among tech billionaires, potential job losses, significant energy consumption and environmental impact, rising electricity costs for Las Cruces residents, are my major concerns. Whether this data center will be built needs to be determined by those most affected by it, not just by a handful of wealthy tech executives who live thousands of miles away.
Furthermore, it’s my position that the construction of AI Data Centers, like Project Jupiter, will only further deepen the economic inequality that already exists in the country, in our state. Oligarchs like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos will use AI to consolidate their wealth and power while working families will continue to struggle with just making ends meet. I also have great concerns over what will these same working families do if AI, as many, including myself, predict will result in mass unemployment. How will New Mexicans survive or pay for basic needs like healthcare and housing if AI and robotics eliminate millions of jobs? In addition, voters in Doña Ana County need to understand that they are effectively bankrolling the infrastructure for the ultra-wealthy to build the Project Jupiter AI Data Center. And despite what the companies behind this project are telling everybody, your electric and water bills, will at some point soar, forcing many of you to move out of Las Cruces.
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows”