Altamirano wants Jennings, Cisneros to lead Finance Committee, Smith to move to education

Senate Democrats this weekend voted by acclimation to keep the 2006 leaders in place next year, but committee assignments are still up for grabs – and the results could have major consequences for senators from Southern New Mexico.

Ben Altamirano of Silver City will continue as president pro tem. Michael Sanchez of Belen will continue as majority leader. Mary Jane Garcia of Doña Ana will continue as majority whip.

Where things go from there is much more complicated. The uncertainty stems from last week’s announcement of the retirement of Sen. Joe Fidel of Grants, the current chair of the Finance Committee.

Garcia told me much has already been worked out. She said Tim Jennings of Roswell, not John Arthur Smith of Deming, will chair finance, and Carlos Cisneros of Questa will be vice chair.

That would unseat Smith, who has officially been vice chair of the committee for the last two years but basically ran the show for the aging Fidel.

Smith, Garcia said, “can take the chair of any other committee he chooses,” but said he was offered chair of the Education Committee. That committee is currently chaired by Cynthia Nava of Las Cruces. Its vice chair is Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces.

Other Senate Democrats, who did not want to be named, said the situation is still being worked out, and is not the finalized deal portrayed by Garcia. But they acknowledged that Altamirano is pushing exactly what Garcia revealed.

Garcia said the proposal has nothing to do with politics, but is based on seniority. Jennings and Cisneros have been senators longer than Smith. She said finance chair was first offered to John Pinto of Tohatchi, who has been in the Senate longer than Jennings and Cisneros, but he turned it down to remain chair of the Indian and Cultural Affairs Committee.

One Republican Senator I spoke with agreed with Garcia, saying Jennings has paid his dues and deserves to be finance chair.

Others were skeptical, and suggested that the governor’s fingerprints were on the situation. The Senate has often been a thorn in Bill Richardson’s side, and Smith, as the man who often ran the most powerful committee, has been responsible for some of that. Though Jennings hasn’t been a friend to the governor either, he could be a compromise choice along with Cisneros, who is a close ally of Richardson.

James Jimenez, Richardson’s chief of staff, told the Albuquerque Tribune he met with Altamirano last week but didn’t discuss Senate leadership. He said the governor doesn’t meddle in such matters – a statement most find hard to believe.

Any such change would have consequences for Southern New Mexico. If Smith goes from vice chair of the most powerful committee to chair of the Education Committee, either Nava or Papen will lose a committee leadership position or have to go to another committee.

Papen, like Smith, has been instrumental in keeping the Senate independent of the governor. Were there a design to what’s happening, eliminating such dissent might be a part of it.

Asked about that, Garcia had this to say:

“Thank God we’re not going through anything like the House is right now, and we’re working better with the governor too,” Garcia said. “We’re a more cohesive unit than we’ve been in the past. There’s no division.”

On the other hand, the proposal by Altamirano could unseat Nava, who has often been an ally of the governor, so it’s hard to see why Richardson would support replacing her with someone who has given him many headaches.

What’s the truth? It’s hard to tell at this point, and Altamirano has not returned calls I placed last week. Unlike the House, where the speaker controls everything, seniority is traditionally a big factor in committee assignments in the Senate. At the same time, it’s also tradition for the Committees’ Committee to play prominent role in the selections.

This time around, according to Garcia, Altamirano is making the decisions himself, but citing seniority as the criteria.

If he needs the Committees’ Committee, perhaps it should be no surprise that five of its 10 members are Altamirano, Sanchez, Garcia, Jennings and Cisneros.

Update, 7 p.m.

Sen. Garcia called after reading this posting to say that she never told me Altamirano offered Smith chair of the Education Committee. She claims she told me earlier today that Smith asked for that position, and she asked me to correct that for the record.

My notes reflect Garcia saying it was offered by Altamirano, not sought by Smith, and that’s what I recall Garcia saying, but I wanted to allow Garcia this opportunity to be heard, since she’s apparently taking some heat.

Either way, it’s clear that Smith has spent a great deal of time working his way toward chairing the Finance Committee, and Altamirano is now proposing that he instead do something else.

Smith refused to comment.