By Daniel J. Chacón
The Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTA FE, N.M. — Pictures of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with other politicians or everyday people are a regular sight on social media.
But here’s the tall and the short of it: Some photos of the governor generate a bigger response than others.
Such was the case over the weekend when the 4-foot-10 governor posed next to a New Mexico State Police officer who is a towering 7 feet tall.
https://twitter.com/GovMLG/status/1472390395547906052
The picture of Lujan Grisham standing next to Officer Timothy Smith, who has been on the force two years, sparked thousands of reactions on the governor’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“People appreciate the governor posting something that just puts a smile on folks’ face, and she really enjoyed meeting Officer Smith,” Nora Meyers Sackett, the governor’s press secretary, said Monday.
“It was just a nice moment,” she said.
Lujan Grisham met the officer, who is assigned to District 2 in Eagle Nest, when she traveled to Springer to meet with the community and attend the town’s annual Christmas light parade at the invitation of Mayor Boe Lopez, Sackett said.
“She likes to say she’s the shortest governor, and she is,” she said. “She asked him if she could take a photo with him, and he was very, very kind and said yes, that he was happy to do so.”
Sackett called their meeting “a remarkable combination of different heights.”
The height difference is so striking the picture almost appears Photoshopped.
“There wasn’t any illusion about it — it was just an accurate picture of them,” she said. “There’s some great diversity in New Mexico and that includes height diversity. The governor is a perfect example of that.”
As of Monday afternoon, the picture had generated more than 5,200 reactions on Facebook, most of them “likes,” along with more than 500 comments.
On Twitter, the picture so far has received nearly 1,100 likes, 76 retweets and more than 100 comments.
The comments on both social media platforms were mixed. Some aren’t fit for a family newspaper.
“Kind of reminds me of Napoleon and his army, his enforcers,” Chris Nixon wrote on Facebook.
George Fischer thanked the governor for all she does for New Mexico and the officer for his service to the community.
“I guess you don’t compare NM to other states,” Robbi Jennings responded to Fischer’s comment. “She is a failure.”
Brittny Huffman steered clear of politics in the thread.
“This is how I feel when walking with my son,” she wrote, adding she’s 5-foot-5 and her son is a foot taller.
“He gives me a hard time about being short,” Huffman added. “I just remind him that God just grows things til they are perfect.”
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