The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Group plans to use influence to force bipartisan cooperation. ‘Those who dig in along party lines are not going to be passing legislation this session,’ Cervantes says.
Though they weren’t successful in overthrowing Speaker Ben Luján, a group of four Southern New Mexico Democrats who crossed party lines to try to oust the House’s leader still wield a great deal of power in the Roundhouse.
Those four – Las Crucens Joseph Cervantes and Mary Helen Garcia, Dona Irwin of Deming, and Andy Nuñez of Hatch – benefit from their willingness to cross the aisle, and from the new reality in the House that it takes fewer rogue Democrats to help Republicans win a fight.
“Voters said they wanted change,” Irwin told NMPolitics.net. “This may be the way to make that happen.”
Democrats have long held a large numerical advantage in the House, but not any more. The GOP picked up several House seats in the November election, and there are now 37 Democrats and 33 Republicans. With Nuñez considering becoming an independent, the numbers for Democrats are even less solid.
Consider some of the ways in which the four southern lawmakers could influence things:
- If the Republican caucus is united in opposition to a piece of legislation, it only takes two additional votes to kill it. Legislation dies on a tie vote.
- It takes three others voting with the Republican caucus to pass legislation, so Republicans have the opportunity to proactively push their agenda.
- Cervantes ran for speaker on a promise of treating everyone fairly, something Luján has not done. If Cervantes and others see Luján holding up a bill in a committee, it would only take three of them voting with Republicans to bypass the speaker and bring the bill directly to the House floor for deliberation.
That means Cervantes, Garcia, Irwin and Nuñez could act as the enforcers of House rules and fairness. It also means both sides will be working to craft legislation the four are willing to support.
Cervantes said he intends to use his influence to force the House to work in a bipartisan manner.
“The only way we’re going to rebuild our economy, get ourselves out of debt, and restore confidence and trust in the government is by working in a bipartisan way,” he said. “Those who dig in along party lines are not going to be passing legislation this session.”
‘They stuck their necks out’
Of course, Cervantes, Garcia, Irwin and Nuñez are still left-leaning lawmakers, and there are many issues on which they won’t find common ground with Republicans. And there is certainly the possibility that Republicans will find other Democrats to work with as well.
But Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, acknowledged that Republicans will try to work with Cervantes and the three Democrats who openly supported his attempt to become speaker.
“They stuck their necks out, and so we’ll do what we can to return the favor,” Taylor said.
House Republicans find themselves in unfamiliar territory. In recent history, they haven’t had the numbers to pass many bills, so their primary focus has been on stopping liberal legislation. Now they have the opportunity to be more influential in setting the state’s agenda.
“There aren’t any coalitions, so it will be an issue-based situation for us – no different than it’s been in the past, other than the fact that we don’t have to get as many on the other side to see things in our direction,” Taylor said.
‘The speaker has to have those four votes’
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Tuesday that many of the differences between Democrats are regional. He has often been at odds with Luján and on the same side of issues as Cervantes, Garcia, Irwin and Nuñez.
Smith said he believes there are instances in which that north/south divide will come into play, and others in which Cervantes and the other three will side with the Democratic caucus.
Luján is going to have to reach out to those four Democrats, Smith said.
“There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it: The speaker has to have those four votes, because if he doesn’t have those votes, his interests are not going to carry the day,” Smith said.
He said the days of “punishing membership for what they do is going to have to end.” His comments came before Luján removed Nuñez from his committee positions, including stripping him of his chairmanship of the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee.
But Luján did extend an olive branch to Garcia, making her chair of the Voters and Elections Committee. And he left the committee assignments of Cervantes and Irwin untouched.
Shifting the focus
Cervantes said the first week of the session was, “unfortunately, marred by really very little more than politics.” He said he and the others will try to shift the focus.
“There was too little emphasis on what the citizens of the state need for us to be doing to help create jobs and get people back to work,” Cervantes said. “So our goal is to try and make those things happen.”
Garcia said she and the other three southern Democrats will consider each issue individually and decide whose position is in the best interest of the state. If the GOP position is better, she said, “there’s no way we will go along with what the speaker is demanding of us.”
“If we think it’s good legislation, and we think we should go along with it, we will,” Garcia said.
Luján has not returned a call seeking comment.