![\"Ken](\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Martinez-Ken-336x217.jpg\")
<\/a>Courtesy photo<\/p>
Ken Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n
Martinez, D-Grants, says he\u00a0will\u00a0finish out his current term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2016.<\/p>\n
Assuming negotiations are successful, Martinez\u00a0will become\u00a0Bernalillo County’s\u00a0lead attorney. The county commission voted Friday<\/a> to negotiate with Martinez to head its legal department — a job he can take on the condition that he not seek re-election to the House next year.<\/p>\n Martinez made no mention of that job in a news release announcing his retirement from the Legislature.<\/p>\n “After much prayer, consideration, and family consultation — especially with my granddaughter — I have decided not to run for re-election,” Martinez said in the release.<\/p>\n The last 12 months or so represent quite a shift for a man who long aspired to be speaker of the House and finally got his chance in 2013.<\/p>\n His\u00a0father, Walter K. Martinez<\/a>, was elected House speaker when Ken Martinez was 11 years old. Ken Martinez won a seat in\u00a0the New Mexico House in 1998, representing District 69, which spans six counties — McKinley, Cibola, San Juan, Socorro, Bernalillo, and Valencia.<\/p>\n Martinez\u00a0was already the majority leader when he decided to challenge<\/a> then-Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n for the chamber’s top position in 2006. That attempt was unsuccessful<\/a>. Luj\u00e1n survived a second challenge from then-Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, in 2011<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was after Luj\u00e1n lost his battle with cancer<\/a> and died in 2012 that Martinez became speaker. But the next year, Republicans took control of the House for the first time in decades<\/a> and made Don Tripp, a Republican from\u00a0Socorro, the speaker. Martinez\u00a0decided after the loss to not seek a leadership position within the Democratic\u00a0caucus<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Friday, Martinez said he “couldn’t be prouder of the opportunity I’ve had to\u00a0serve the people of New Mexico alongside my dear friends in the House Democratic Caucus.”<\/p>\n “There is still much more work to do, and the people of New Mexico are counting on our lawmakers to ensure that New Mexico has a more secure future,” Martinez said. “I know that our Legislature will continue to work for the people of New Mexico with the dedication that I have seen over the years.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A year after Republicans took control of the N.M. House of Representatives and wrestled the position of speaker away from him, Rep. Ken Martinez announced Friday that he plans to retire from the Legislature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,157,107],"class_list":["post-102319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-bernalillo-county","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}