State Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, remained in a Denver hospital Tuesday for treatment of a heart condition. Trujillo, 77, was flown to Denver last week.
Courtesy photo
Jim Trujillo
He couldn’t be reached for comment, but House Speaker Brian Egolf said Tuesday that Trujillo is out of the intensive care unit and is “up walking and talking.”
“My understanding is that he is doing well and should be out of the hospital this week,” said Egolf, D-Santa Fe. “I am not sure when he will be back in Santa Fe, but we are hoping in the next 10 days or so.”
Trujillo is chairman of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee. In his absence, Egolf has appointed Rep. Carl Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, as acting chairman of that committee. Carl Trujillo is Jim Trujillo’s nephew.
Jim Trujillo has been a House member since being appointed to fill a vacancy in the south-side Santa Fe district in January 2003. He has since been elected six times.
This legislative session has been hard on older lawmakers from Northern New Mexico. In late January, Rep. Nick Salazar, D-Ohkay Owingeh, was treated at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for an unspecified illness. The 87-year-old lawmaker, who has been in office since 1973, has since returned to the Capitol.
And former Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, a Santa Fe Democrat who retired last year after serving 30 years in the House of Representatives, was admitted in January to Christus St. Vincent’s intensive care unit, where doctors placed a stent in his heart. Varela is 81.
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Contact Steve Terrell at (505) 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at santafenewmexican.com/