In declaring her candidacy for governor of New Mexico, former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland became the first high-ranking official from the Biden administration to run for a new political office. The announcement surprised no one, especially after her only real primary challenger, the state’s senior U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, withdrew from the race. Perhaps Heinrich, the Silver Spring, Maryland, resident who was born in Nebraska and grew up in Missouri, realized that a competitive gubernatorial primary would require him to actually live in New Mexico, but I digress.

During her confirmation hearing to lead the Interior Department, Haaland celebrated how she was making history, as if that were innately positive. Lots of people “make history.” How they are remembered is often very different. Once confirmed, her tenure running the Interior Department gave her four years of near limitless authority over hundreds of millions of acres of land, both on and offshore.

Haaland controlled access and leases and permits for oil, gas, coal, mining, timber, and ranching. She decided on the construction of access roads and other infrastructure projects like pipelines and transmission lines. She also had blanket approval of wind, solar, and other “green” projects with hundreds of billions of dollars from both the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Bill.

Let’s check the tape to see how she did.