{"id":1110,"date":"2007-01-16T19:41:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-17T01:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/cervantes-doesnt-believe-reason-speaker-gave-for-removing-him-from-judiciary-chairmanship\/"},"modified":"2007-01-16T19:41:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-17T01:41:00","slug":"cervantes-doesnt-believe-reason-speaker-gave-for-removing-him-from-judiciary-chairmanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/cervantes-doesnt-believe-reason-speaker-gave-for-removing-him-from-judiciary-chairmanship\/","title":{"rendered":"Cervantes doesn’t believe reason speaker gave for removing him from judiciary chairmanship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> doesn\u2019t believe the reason Speaker of the House Ben Lujan gave for removing him from the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cervantes said he met with Lujan for 20-30 minutes earlier today, and Lujan told him he was replacing him as chair of the committee with Al Park of Albuquerque because Cervantes had sought the position of majority leader. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When Majority Leader Ken Martinez announced he would challenge Lujan for speaker, Cervantes said he would seek majority leader if Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> did not. Cervantes later withdrew when Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s speaker bid failed and he was nominated to continue as majority leader.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s meeting, Cervantes said, Lujan \u201cwas generous with praise. He thanked me for my service, but he was disappointed that I had run for majority leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

However, the other two representatives who sought the majority leader position \u2013 Mimi Stewart and Gail Chasey of Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> \u2013 both retained committee chair positions, Stewart as chair of the Government and Urban Affairs Committee and Chasey as chair of the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason the speaker gave me doesn\u2019t make sense, since the other people who ran for majority leader didn\u2019t lose their positions as well, so there has to be another reason,\u201d Cervantes said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cervantes said those in power in the House tend to be from the Santa Fe\/Albuquerque area, and he suspects fear of losing that power was what motivated Lujan to remove him as chair of judiciary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t help but reach that conclusion,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cThose from Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> want to keep their power and, I think, fear the thought of anyone outside the Santa Fe\/Albuquerque corridor challenging the status quo. I\u2019m unsatisfied with the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cervantes said he isn\u2019t interested in power and influence for the sake of having it, and said his constituents didn\u2019t elect him so he could have a big office, as he did as chair of judiciary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked me to correct the fact that, for example, the state was just ranked the worst place in the nation to raise a child, which as a father bothers me,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cI want to actually move New Mexico<\/st1:state> forward, not just create the appearance that New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> is moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lujan has not returned a call I placed earlier today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces doesn\u2019t believe the reason Speaker of the House Ben Lujan gave for removing him from the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. Cervantes said he met with Lujan for 20-30 minutes earlier today, and Lujan told him he was replacing him as chair of the committee with Al Park of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110","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=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}