Victor Contreras
On March 3, N.M. blogger Heath Haussamen asserted on this website, “When Republicans opted against Rep. Joseph Cervantes’ attempt to overthrow House Speaker Ben Luján earlier this year, they made a political decision that they would have a better chance of taking control of the House in 2012 if the controversial Luján was speaker.”
It is an unwarranted, inferential leap to claim to know the collective Republican motive for not giving support to Rep. Joseph Cervantes, or any Democrat, for speaker of the House.
Most importantly, it’s over.
In regards to HB 78, I don’t think it’s particularly important that Speaker Luján broke rules. Most of our House speakers have. I think the real meat of this story is that some members found a way to get together and execute the will of the people. Also of significance is the transparency we enjoyed in the debate and passage of HB 78.
There was a big brouhaha over having this bill blasted out of committee. It has always been in committee that lawmakers have denied the will of the people and taken unpopular stands. It should be obvious why there is currently a fight going on regarding broadcasting committee meetings to the populace. Where would our politicians hide?
This is why HB 78 has been so fascinating – what usually goes on in committee meetings was now taking place on the House floor in full view. The only protection lawmakers had last week was that the House still only has audio webcasting, and for those who tune in, it is often difficult to know who is speaking, as no names are used to recognize lawmakers – they are referred to as “gentlemen” and “gentle ladies” of the counties they represent.
We should stand up as one and demand all committee meetings, as well as House sessions, be webcasted. Senate sessions are webcasted with audio and video. Why isn’t video available for House sessions? Why are some committee webcasts unavailable? Why isn’t all streaming video archived?
Meanwhile, this game of shoulda, coulda, woulda, is nonsensical. If we don’t like the way business is done in Santa Fe, it does no good to wag our finger at party politics. It is not productive, or even reasonable, to assert that any one person in the Legislature could transform it overnight into a civilized, rule abiding, integral entity.
We need to take responsibility. We need to have the self-discipline to watch what our lawmakers do. We must judge them on their legislative stands, and find the fortitude within ourselves to vote those we don’t agree with out of office – regardless of party affiliation.
Contreras is chairman of Hispanos Unidos.