Rep. Andy Nuñez, D-Hatch
After a bipartisan coalition to oust House Speaker Ben Luján fell apart on Tuesday, Rep. Andy Nuñez, D-Hatch, refused to cast a vote for speaker, instead saying “present” when he was asked to vote.
Had he cast a vote, Nuñez told NMPolitics.net it would have been for Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, not Luján, a Democrat from Nambé. He said if he believed his vote would have helped Taylor win, he would have been willing to cross the aisle to get Luján out of the leadership position.
But there was no point, he said.
“I couldn’t vote for Luján,” Nuñez said. “And I knew that Taylor didn’t have the votes.”
Nuñez was the most outspoken Democrat involved in the coalition that tried to round up the votes to make Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, the new speaker. The coalition fell apart Monday night under the weight of politics.