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Clarification appended.

Today the Tribune continues its endorsements in the Nov. 7 general election. We are endorsing only in contested races in which Bernalillo County voters have a say.

Statewide races

Attorney general

Gary King, Democrat

The attorney general's race this year should be no contest. King is the best-equipped to run the office.

Candidates for attorney general routinely feel they've got to campaign as crime-fighters to appeal to voters, but prosecuting crime is only a fraction of what the office is about. The office represents the state in all manner of cases, mostly civil. It advises and issues opinions to government officials on whether proposals for bills, ordinances, regulations, public strategies and tactics are consistent with state law. It protects consumers and watchdogs open meetings and records laws.

So what you want for the office is not so much a hot, young prosecutor as a wise and seasoned leader who's familiar with government in New Mexico. King is that leader.

King has been a lawyer for 23 years, almost as long as his 35-year-old opponent has been alive.

He has worked as chief counsel and senior scientist for an environmental engineering firm in our science-blessed state. (He holds a doctorate in organic chemistry as well as a law degree.)

His public credentials are immense. They include some experience prosecuting crimes as well as serving as clerk for the state Supreme Court; Moriarty city attorney; guardian ad-litem for abused children; domestic violence hearing officer; assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy; and six terms in the state House of Representatives, where he crafted numerous laws of consequence for the state.

King is competent, respected and a bountiful resource for the state. Voters should not pass this opportunity by.

Secretary of state

Mary Herrera, Democrat

It is rare to find someone as prepared to run the Secretary of State's Office as Herrera. It's as if she has been training for the job for most of her working life.

Herrera has been the Bernalillo County clerk - head of the biggest clerk's office in the state and the bellwether for the rest of them - since her election in 2000 and re-election in 2004. Her experience dealing with voting issues is current and hands-on. During her term as clerk she also became actively involved in clerk- and voting-related organizations and trainings, from local to federal levels. She is definitely up to speed.

Before that, she worked for about 26 years at all levels of Bernalillo County government, including 18 years in county finance, preparing and handling the county's roughly $100 million budget, and as county human resources director for six years. She has a master's in business administration as well.

For extensive, up-to-date experience directly relevant to the office, Herrera is hard to beat.

Treasurer

James Lewis, Democrat

Lewis is to the state Treasurer's Office what Gerald Ford was to Richard Nixon's presidency - a person with the perfect background, temperament, ethics and charm to take over a crooked situation and set it straight.

The Treasurer's Office is embroiled in controversies involving charges of public corruption. It needs a competent leader who can inspire trust. That would be Lewis.

His massive experience over three decades in city, county, state and federal governments is too long to list here. We will mention as especially relevant his two terms as Bernalillo County treasurer and his appointment and then election as state treasurer during the 1980s. This is not to mention his service on numerous boards and commissions dealing with state financial issues and his master's in public administration.

Lewis is dignified, soft-spoken, honest and genuinely friendly. It is important that he is not a new face, untested in public office. Voters can know he is trustworthy, based on his public track record.

One could - and people did - say similar things about Ford when he took over from Nixon, who resigned the presidency in disgrace. Democrats and Republicans alike pretty much agreed that Ford was a good guy, even if they disagreed over his politics.

The next state treasurer needs to a healer - someone who can restore the public trust. Lewis best fits that description.

Auditor

Lorenzo Garcia, Republican

Garcia is another competent and trustworthy public official sorely needed to repair public embarrassments - in this case, in the state Auditor's Office.

Garcia's background is outstanding - in particular his status as a certified public accountant and his 30 years of public experience, including nearly six working in the same state Auditor's Office he now is running for.

But that's hardly all. Consider his two years as chief financial officer with the state Public Regulation Commission; five years as a senior performance officer with the state Legislative Finance Committee; 1 years as a financial consultant with the state Human Services Department; 1 year as state cash manager with the state Treasurer's Office; Auditor's Office experience including two years as a staff auditor and three years as head of its Medicaid Fraud Unit; nearly four years as a special agent for the state Attorney General's Office handling white-collar crimes; and six years as a bank examiner with the state Financial Institutions Division and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Garcia is primed and ready to pump. His professional career has been all about holding people and institutions fiscally accountable. He has consistently said he wants the opportunity to give the public good and honest service. He has been telling voters for years that the office needs a scrubbing and that he's the candidate to do it. We recommend giving him that chance.

Land Commissioner

Jim Baca, Democrat

The land commissioner's race this year is really a contest about who can look out better for the long-term best interests of New Mexicans and the state's public-trust lands, whose revenues go to schools across New Mexico. Both candidates can lay claim to good backgrounds for the office. But Baca has the foresight and inventiveness to serve New Mexico the longest and the best.

Though Baca is the challenger this time around, he has considerable relevant experience. He was New Mexico's land commissioner twice, from 1983-86 and 1991-93. From 1993-94, he headed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. He was mayor of Albuquerque from 1997-2001 and a state Natural Resources Trustee from 2003-06.

Generally, he has proved to be an innovator. The Tribune is particularly impressed with his bold and surprisingly successful efforts to turn the Land Commissioner's Office from its traditional emphasis on exploiting trust lands to get revenues from oil, gas and other extractive industries and from grazing leases. Instead, Baca began attending more diligently to conserving and protecting trust lands for recreational uses.

It's not that Baca abandoned money-making ventures. On the contrary, he pressed oil and gas companies and ranchers for higher revenues and initiated planning for the development of Mesa del Sol in south Albuquerque. But he recognized that oil and gas supplies are running out in New Mexico, and the ranching business has been declining under various pressures. In the long run, recreational uses are taking more prominent revenue-producing roles, and Baca is about encouraging this. This time around, Baca is promoting an interesting new round of innovations.

The current land commissioner is making money from trust lands, but for how long? We think the future, in the long run, lies with Baca's approach.

Public Regulation Commission

District 4

David Bacon, Green

At some point, the Public Regulation Commission, which oversees power utilities in New Mexico among other things, needs to get genuinely charged up about research and development of alternative forms of energy.

Now is that point. We've got global warming and rising energy prices - and all the social, economic and environmental turmoil that flow from them. We also have a New Mexico that most people agree is very well-positioned but under-utilized as an alternative-energy hub.

Bacon has the best background in this race to address such concerns and other important matters overseen by the wide-ranging PRC.

He is a builder and energy consultant with a long history of activism in promoting alternative and sustainable energy sources. During his run for governor in 2002, he briefed himself on other matters handled by the PRC, including insurance and telecommunications. He is a strong supporter of open and accessible government that is especially responsive to ordinary rate-payers and small businesses.

At one time, Green candidates were considered to be almost entirely on the political fringe. That is not so anymore - at least where energy issues are concerned. Let's give Bacon a chance to see what adding a Green to the mix on the PRC can do.

Thursday: The Tribune recommends in races for governor and lieutenant governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House districts 2 and 3.

Clarification: The endorsement for state auditor should have said that public embarrassments in the state Auditor's Office occurred during the 1990s.