The weekend before House Democrats choose one of the most powerful people in state government will be colored by private phone calls, closed-door meetings, deals and other political wrangling.
Lots could happen before Monday’s vote. House members are anxiously awaiting articles about Speaker of the House Ben Lujan that may run in newspapers this weekend.
The Santa Fe New Mexican will profile Lujan and take a look at his career. Many sources have also told me the Albuquerque Journal plans to run an article looking at ties between Lujan and former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos, but I’ve been unable to confirm that.
If there’s any doubt that that the stakes are high, lawmakers tell me a multitude of lobbyists, the governor and even the president of the Navajo Nation may be involved in pushing House Democrats to vote for either Lujan or Ken Martinez at Monday’s caucus meeting.
The House speaker is a powerful position.
“People should care about the speaker because he is the leader of the legislative branch and the most powerful person in the entire Legislature,” said Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque. Park wanted to make clear that he was speaking as the House parliamentarian and was not commenting on the race between Lujan and
The Senate has powerful leaders too, but the duties are divided in that half of the Legislature. The Senate president leads a committee that makes committee assignments, but the majority leader controls the docket.
In the House, the speaker controls everything. He or she decides who sits on what committee, which committees get to hear bills and how many committees will hear a bill before the full House votes on it. He or she assigns office space, staff and parking spaces to House members.
All that colors the fact that that House drafts the annual budget before it goes to the Senate for approval.
Though the Senate president is fourth in the line of succession to the governorship and the speaker is fifth, in practice, the speaker is more powerful. That makes him or her arguably the second most powerful person in state government.
The speaker is certainly the most powerful person in state government who isn’t elected to that position by the voters.
Rep. Mary Helen Garcia, D-Las Cruces, said there’s also a difference in the cultures of the two legislative chambers. She said Democratic senators more openly disagree with each other. Debate is encouraged. In the House, she said, there’s a tendency to line up behind the speaker.
“So we have to elect someone who will involve us in the decision making,” said Garcia, a supporter of
Garcia and other
But others say he has been a leader who has worked with the governor to accomplish a lot. The House has certainly gone along with the governor’s agenda more than the Senate in the last four years.
Most House members weren’t expecting
Until then, the vote count is nebulous, and the only agreement is that it’s extremely close. A few House members are keeping how they’ll vote secret. Some say the weekend’s news articles could end up tipping the balance on way or the other.
No other House Democrats I contacted for this article were willing to speak on the record.