Southern New Mexico sportsmen are upset by the governor's recent move to replace one of their own with an Albuquerque attorney on the New Mexico State Game Commission.

Gov. Susana Martinez last week appointed Paul M. Kienzle III to succeed retired university chemistry professor Rob Hoffman of Las Cruces.

"We were shocked to hear Rob was taken off. Everyone down here is unhappy," said John Moen, president of New Mexico Quail. "We finally had someone interested in what the hunters think. Hunters and anglers pay all the fees that provide almost all the funding for the whole Game and Fish Department."

Kienzle, a partner at the Albuquerque law firm of Scott and Kienzle, is one of three attorneys who filed suit against the state and the governor on Feb. 13 in federal District Court over redistricting. He represents The Paragon Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit organization dedicated to private property rights and limited government, and is a member of the conservative nonprofit Mountain States Legal Foundation. Kienzle was on Martinez's campaign committee and led the search for her general counsel.

Kienzle, according to the Governor's Office, has been hunting since he was a teenager, but belongs to no official sportsmen groups. He did not immediately respond to a message asking for comment.

"We had hoped Martinez would do better than her predecessor [former Gov. Bill Richardson] with Game Commission appointments," said Joel Gay, communications director for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. "We thought Hoffman was doing a great job. We're just disappointed the governor took off an everyday New Mexico sportsman and replaced him with what seems to be a political associate."

Gay said sportsmen also had hoped Martinez, who has promoted government transparency, would have made the commission appointment process more open than Richardson did.

Gay said the two nonprofits represented by Kienzle's firm, "are not on the same side as us when it comes to public lands."

Moen said sportsmen sent emails supporting Hoffman's reappointment to the Game Commission and sent emails again expressing their disappointment when he was replaced. "I just think this was a bad deal," he said.

Kienzle's appointment puts three Albuquerque residents on the seven-member commission, which sets policy for the Department of Game and Fish and its $36 million a year budget.

The commission has seen several turnovers in the last year. Martinez replaced four of the seven Richardson appointees to the commission when she took office in January 2011. Among them was Sandy Buffet, the executive director of Conservation Voters of New Mexico and the only woman on the board. She represented the hunter-friendly northeastern region of the state. Martinez replaced Dutch Salmon, a well known Silver City hunter and angler, a few days before the end of his term. Albuquerque residents Jim McClintic and Tom Arvas, both from Albuquerque, were kept on the commission.

Martinez replaced one of her own appointees, former state Game and Fish Department director Jerry Marachinni, six months after his appointment, with sportsman Robert Espinoza Sr. of Farmington.

The board is supposed to consist of five representatives from five regions in the state, and sportsmen think those appointees should be hunters and anglers. The other two board members are supposed to represent special interests -- agriculture and conservation.

Buffet was the last "conservationist" on the board, and Gay said he wonders who could claim the position now.

Sportsmen advocated for Hoffman, a longtime hunter and angler, and were happy when Martinez appointed him, said Moen. Hoffman and a fellow Las Cruces member of the commission, Thomas "Dick" Salopek, were advocates for modifying management of the funds available from the federal Sikes Act, which makes hunter fees charged on federal land available for habitat restoration projects. Last year, those funds amounted to $800,000. The funds are critical for helping habitat restoration on federal lands in New Mexico that benefit hunters and anglers.

The Game Commission is scheduled to vote on a modified Sikes Act program Thursday in Hobbs.

Hoffman, retired from his job as longtime organic chemistry professor at New Mexico State University, said he asked to serve on the commission and would have been happy to stay. "We serve at the pleasure of the governor," he said. "But I would like to have known if I offended someone. I would have liked to know if I did something wrong. I didn't think I had. I had a lot of support from sportsmen in the southwest region, the people I represent."

Hoffman is not convinced the new appointee has the best interests of sportsmen and public lands at heart.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.