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If I were appointed mayor of sa国际传媒官网网页入口 for a week, I'd assemble a world-class wrecking ball crew.

We'd start by demolishing the supermax prison structures known as San Mateo towers that the city is foolishly trying to turn into luxury apartments, work our way down Central taking out the Bliss Building and other 100-year-old buildings about to collapse into the streets, and make sure we had enough iron left on the ball to take down Tingley Coliseum.

When Mayor Tim Keller got back in town, he'd be furious with me.

"What have you done?" he'd exclaim. "There's rubble all over my city!"

"What are you so upset about?" I'd respond. "I gave them all 30 minutes to get out."

"You didn't even do traffic studies, get environmental impact statements or consider Tax Increment Financing ramifications," Keller would continue, dressing me down like a drill instructor. 鈥淵ou just did it!鈥�

"I told you I gave them all 30 minutes to get out," I'd calmly reply. "Let's not point fingers and play the blame game. Let's get down to the business of rebuilding."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez is my metaphorical wrecking ball. New Mexico's one-party political stranglehold is my metaphorical collapsing structure.

I encouraged Rodriguez to enter the political arena in a column in August. It took him until mid-December, but he did it, so far committing $1.5 million of his own money to his campaign. I like that he's got skin in the game, it shows me he's not just trying to become famous in a losing cause.

Since last fall, former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner have entered the governor's race. Hull, a popular three-term mayor, and Turner, an accomplished small businessman, are both well qualified. But I don't think either one has much chance of slowing the Democratic socialist momentum in Santa Fe.

Republican voters don't want a better negotiator with Democrats. We want someone who can defeat Democrats and win over public opinion to reverse misguided policies, starting with rescinding the governor's electric vehicle mandates, repealing the so-called Immigrant Safety Act and other job-killing legislation, and embracing the lifeblood of New Mexico's economy, oil and natural gas.

The film and cannabis industries have not diversified New Mexico's economy as promised and programs like universal childcare and the Opportunity Scholarship are unsustainable without O&G revenues. That's just a cold, hard fact.

Activists who oppose any form of development or progress have grown fond of saying "You can't drink data." Well, you can't eat food without dollars. We need a much, much better economy, one capable of attracting a Fortune 1000 company to New Mexico.

I want some damn hope. I want a billion-dollar state-of-the-art indoor stadium in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 anchored by NBA and WNBA teams and capable of hosting the Democratic and Republican national conventions, NCAA Tournament games and Bad Bunny concerts, not another two-bit rodeo arena. And while we're at it, let's finally build a proper outdoor stadium for New Mexico United, somewhere, anywhere, for crying out loud. I'm tired of the excuses.

Rodriguez was the only gubernatorial candidate who expressed any enthusiasm for building a stadium in sa国际传媒官网网页入口, suggesting a $200 million venue with a retractable roof of which we all could be proud.

We're so steeped in nostalgia in New Mexico it keeps us from moving forward. I don't want to see New Mexico move up from 50th to 49th or 48th in various categories. I want a leader who can get us to 25th in four years, and put us in the Top 10 in a decade. sa国际传媒官网网页入口 and New Mexico as a whole need a renaissance, and Rodriguez is the only GOP candidate who gives me cause for hope.

The president and CEO of Ultra Health that he founded in 2010 is a business pioneer and a winner. Yes, Rodriguez owns homes in both New Mexico and Arizona and he voted over there a few times in recent years. But I don't believe in holding a man's success against him. If his whereabouts become an issue as governor, we can ask him to wear an ankle monitor. If we can keep track of Asha the Mexican gray wolf, we can keep track of Duke.

Rodriguez has made a couple of recent missteps on the campaign trail, interviewing a homeless man that made some of my colleagues cringe, and getting a little too playful using President Trump's image in campaign materials. At least he's trying. I haven't seen a TV ad yet from Hull or Turner. They're taking the more traditional campaign route of fundraisers and dinners, and that doesn't give me cause for hope in November of the first statewide GOP victory since 2016.

Rodriguez is out there working for it, demonstrating the work ethic he's had since he was a kid picking fruits and vegetables alongside his parents in California's Imperial Valley, and which made him chief operating officer at Lovelace Health System by the time he was 32.

He's a fighter, anything but a political retread. He's a fountain of fresh ideas and frank talk that this state needs as its population declines, its aging infrastructure crumbles, and the state inches toward socialism and systemic poverty under one-party rule each legislative session.

Rodriguez promises to actively use his veto pen to thwart new Democratic job-killing initiatives. He is the one GOP candidate who can hold Democrats to account for making us No. 1 in crime and food stamps and 50th in education and child well-being, not to mention our overstressed healthcare system that is about to snap.

Before launching what would become New Mexico鈥檚 largest cannabis operation, Rodriguez was secretary of New Mexico鈥檚 Human Services Department under former Gov. Gary Johnson. He wants to be known as a healthcare-minded governor and he's got the background to be so.

Rodriguez also has some big ideas to improve our economy. He wants to eliminate state personal income taxes and eliminate gross receipts taxes on retail sales. If he can accomplish either of those, his election will have been worth it.

He wants term limits for state lawmakers, requiring data centers to build their own water supply through desalination, stricter sentencing for youth convicted of violent crimes, a Children, Youth and Families Department secretary with prosecution experience, and education funding following families.

I'll take all that and more.

The clincher for me was the final question asked of the three GOP gubernatorial candidates at a May 8 Journal Town Hall. Each candidate was asked what they would prioritize in their first 100 days.

Hull said he would sit down with school superintendents before hiring an education secretary. Turner said he would reform the state procurement code to help small businesses. Rodriguez said he would address the "crisis in healthcare."

I rest my case for endorsing Duke Rodriguez in the Republican gubernatorial primary, potentially our first Hispanic male Republican governor since Gov. Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo in 1920. He's the political wrecking ball the Roundhouse so desperately needs.

Jeff Tucker is a Journal columnist, former Opinion editor and a member of the Journal鈥檚 Editorial Board. He can be reached a jtucker@abqjournal.com.