Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch
The Santa Fe Reporter says Rep. Andy Nuñez has become “the unlikely poster child for a rising right” in New Mexico politics.
That’s from a recent profile of the only registered independent in the House, the former Democrat from Hatch. You can read the profile here.
The core of the article is this:
“(House Speaker Ben) Luján’s coming retirement marks the declining dominance of northern Democrats in state politics; conservatives from agricultural, oil-and-gas-dominated southern New Mexico are positioning themselves for greater influence. As a former Democrat turned independent and the champion of an effort to repeal the state law allowing foreign nationals to obtain driver’s licenses, Nuñez has become the unlikely poster child for a rising right.
“But like Luján, he’s also a vestige of times past, when politics had more to do with internal compromise than with super PACs and robocalls. Through the combination of his stubborn individualism and conservative appeal, Nuñez embodies both the end of one political era and the beginning of another for New Mexico.”
Read the full article here.