Heath Haussamen
If Gov. Susana Martinez is successful in remaking the Legislature in this year’s election, so be it. If not, she needs to change her tone – and let’s hope there will still be some lawmakers around who are interested in working with her.
Gov. Susana Martinez loves a good fight. She’s picked a big one with the Legislature: Pass my agenda or I’ll take you out in the election and get new lawmakers to pass it next year.
I’ve been asked repeatedly what’s behind this year’s exodus from the Legislature. Thus far seven senators have announced their retirements; nine House members have done the same, though some of them are running for other offices – including open Senate seats – rather than retiring.
There are many factors, redistricting among them. But Democrat Steve Fischmann highlighted one of the biggies in explaining to the Albuquerque Journal why he’s not seeking a second term in the Senate:
“The lawmaker said policy has taken a back seat to partisanship and there has been ‘a profound lack of constructive action’ in the Legislature.
“He said Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has created a ‘gotcha’ atmosphere with her office’s videotaping during legislative sessions and the perceived threat that her political action committee will be used this election year to get rid of lawmakers who don’t agree with her agenda.
“‘I think that really rankled folks, and created an atmosphere in which it is hard to move forward,’ Fischmann said.”
To be clear, I think the Legislature needed to be “rankled.” Every public meeting of the Legislature should be webcast live and archived for the public to access later. A failure to do that is attributable to old-time lawmakers trying to hang on to an era when they did their work in the dark.
I told lawmakers earlier this year to quit whining and expand webcasting. If they would embrace the transparency the public wants and technology in the 21st Century makes cheap and easy, I doubt Martinez would waste resources duplicating their work.
Ground Zero for gridlock
But I honestly believe Fischmann is among those who thinks the Legislature needs some rankling. He may not have said it publicly, but I suspect he was also frustrated with his own party’s Senate leader, Michael Sanchez, and others who make the Senate Ground Zero for gridlock in Santa Fe.
Fischmann is exactly the type of legislator I believe this nation’s founding fathers envisioned: Someone who is passionate about his own views but believes that a group of people from different walks of life honestly seeking compromise can find better solutions than any one of us can on our own.
I think Fischmann went to Santa Fe with the hope that people passionate about their beliefs would duke it out and, at the end of the day, find middle ground. Instead, he discovered a dysfunctional system plagued by corruption, partisan bickering, grandstanding and personality conflicts (my words, not his).
Fischmann made a move during this year’s session that may have doomed him politically. Despite being up for re-election in the most politically balanced district in the Senate (50-50 on the performance scale), Fischmann inserted himself into the debate over allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses by going well beyond what others were proposing with a bill that attempted to comprehensively address immigration issues.
That didn’t win him any friends on the right and angered some on the left. But he believed it was the right thing to do.
That’s because Fischmann, like Martinez, is interested solving problems. But with their different styles – she likes to win a fight and he likes to move beyond fighting – the two ended up passing each other in the night.
Government needs to move
That’s the sad part about what’s happening right now. The problem in the Legislature isn’t senators like Fischmann or Democrat Cynthia Nava, who cites a deadlock on education reform as a factor in her decision to retire. Nava, a supporter of the governor’s education proposals, worked hard – without success – to find compromise between her party and the governor, but told me everyone was “kind of spinning our wheels in that regard because of the partisanship.”
Martinez’s combative approach to governing has helped chase out lawmakers like them who seek compromise.
The governor is entitled to be combative; in fact, voters seem to like it. They want Santa Fe to function and see Martinez trying to cut through the red tape to get things done.
I’ve watched Martinez grow from a young district attorney into the state’s chief executive, and I honestly believe she wants to solve problems. She has dug in her heels because she’s passionate about the issues on which she’s chosen to fight a war.
So war it is. Martinez may very well remake the Legislature during this year’s election. Her agenda might sail through next year.
But if the governor fails in her attempt to replace lawmakers she views as stumbling blocks, she needs to change her tone. To be effective, government needs to move. It’s time to get things done.
If the latter is the reality in 2013, let’s hope Martinez looks for compromise – and that there are still lawmakers willing to do the same.