Still settling into his new job as the state’s top law enforcement officer, Gary King says he isn’t thinking much about the 2010 gubernatorial race.
King, a former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and a former candidate for U.S. Congress, has twice run unsuccessfully for governor, but many suspect he still has gubernatorial ambitions and might be a strong candidate after four years of experience as the attorney general.
The son of former Gov. Bruce King, Gary King notes that there are several other high-profile Democrats considering a run for governor in four years. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez are already raising money for the race.
“I think there are a bunch of people lined up to run for governor now, some very strong players,” King said. “I think there are some good things I can do as attorney general for eight years, rather than getting in the middle of a massive Democratic primary.”
King, 52, made the comments during a lengthy interview while he was in
King spoke about a number of hot topics, including the effects a leadership battle has had in the House, his philosophy on responding to requests for legal opinions and the scandal that has plagued the state’s regional housing authority system.
‘An interesting dynamic’
King said he has observed “an interesting dynamic” in the House this session that is a result of Majority Leader Ken Martinez’s December challenge to the leadership of Speaker of the House Ben Lujan.
The challenge to the generally all-powerful speaker’s leadership “has caused people to do a lot of thinking about how bills get assigned and how some of the committees get assigned.”
The speaker has authority to do that in whatever manner he sees fit.
King noted that Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque and a supporter of Lujan who helped him retain the speaker position, became more influential when Lujan expanded the power of the committee she chairs, the Health and Government Affairs Committee.
Though King didn’t say it, that was in contrast to Lujan stripping the Judiciary Committee chairmanship from Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, who like Stewart sought the majority leader position and may do so again in the future. Cervantes was a supporter of
King said he doesn’t believe that the changes Lujan made have created fear in the House, and noted that
“There still was some choosing of sides,” King said. “I think everybody’s working together, but there’s sort of that vestige of choosing sides, and it will take a little bit to work it out.”
“It’s just made the debate more dynamic, I think,” King said. “Actually, it is positive.”
Speedy legal opinions
King turned heads last week by responding within days to a request for a legal opinion on whether Gov. Bill Richardson’s fundraising for a White House run during the legislative session violates state law. Former Attorney General Patricia Madrid often took months to issue such opinions – and they were sometimes moot because so much time had passed.
Though King sided with
King acknowledged that his responsiveness also has an effect on the dynamic of the legislative session, and said timely responses will be a goal of his administration. In making the comments, he was careful to not criticize
“I think that the attorney general’s office can have a lot more impact on the policy in the state through our opinions,” King said. “The more quickly we can address those issues, the less disruption there is in government.”
King said that is one important way that he can help reduce “gridlock” in state government.
Housing authority scandal
King, who sits on the board of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, said he supports legislation that would reorganize the scandal-plagued regional housing authority system under the MFA, but sees no reason why the two high-performing regions among the state’s seven housing authority regions can’t be kept open and moved under the MFA.
That is not currently in the House or Senate version of legislation that would remake the system, which replaces the regions with contract services. The high-performing regions would, however, be allowed to remake themselves into non-profits or local government agencies and, if they did that, would be given preference in the bidding process.
King’s office is currently investigating the housing authority scandal to determine whether there are any criminal or civil remedies that can be sought.
“There are a lot of disconcerting things there, and unfortunately that’s probably all I can say about that,” King said.
Changing conference committees
Officially, King said he has no position on the annual proposal to open legislative conference committees to the public, which is currently bogged down in the House and Senate. He said that’s because it’s a legislative, not executive, issue.
As a former legislator, King said he believes a couple of changes would improve the closed-door committee system. He suggested a rule that prohibits lawmakers who participate in a conference committee from adding anything into a bill that wasn’t in either the House or Senate version.
He also suggested that there be a time period after such a committee makes changes to a bill – perhaps 24-48 hours – before the House and Senate can vote to accept the conference committee report, giving other legislators and the public time to scrutinize the changes.