{"id":121793,"date":"2016-01-30T16:36:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T23:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=121793"},"modified":"2016-01-30T20:11:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T03:11:05","slug":"roundhouse-operator-has-helped-keep-sessions-running-for-32-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/01\/roundhouse-operator-has-helped-keep-sessions-running-for-32-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundhouse operator has helped keep sessions running for 32 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_121835\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-121835\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/3075139_web_012216SpotlightXGR_30_tonedCMYK-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Martha Canon\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/3075139_web_012216SpotlightXGR_30_tonedCMYK-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/3075139_web_012216SpotlightXGR_30_tonedCMYK-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/3075139_web_012216SpotlightXGR_30_tonedCMYK-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/3075139_web_012216SpotlightXGR_30_tonedCMYK.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Luis S\u00e1nchez Saturno \/ The New Mexican<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Martha Canon of Santa Fe works the switchboard at the state Capitol earlier this month. Canon is on her 32nd legislative session.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One caller needed to talk with his lawmaker, but didn&#8217;t know who that was.<\/p>\n<p>Another was calling about a bill, but didn&#8217;t have the number.<\/p>\n<p>The two inquiries that came to the telephone switchboard were just a sampling of the 500 or so answered every day by Martha Canon and the other operators whose voices greet callers during the legislative session.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2016 legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/10\/nmpolitics-net-cant-exist-without-your-financial-support\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;Eight out of 10 of them don&#8217;t know who their representative or their senator is,&#8221; Canon said.<\/p>\n<p>Canon is the longest-serving employee for the Legislative Council Service, the office that employs hundreds of people to operate the Roundhouse and keep the Legislature running smoothly during the annual session. A Texas native, Canon started in 1984 and is now working her 32nd regular session and was called in for 20 special sessions, one just three hours long.<\/p>\n<p>She remembers the slew of calls that came in during a particularly contentious debate on abortion rights and said the volume of calls during the first week of the current session about the issue of immigrant driver&#8217;s licenses was on par with that. It especially peaks with the broadcast of statewide television ads that urge voters to contact lawmakers &#8212; without stating names or phone numbers.<\/p>\n<p>All those calls come into the switchboard, located on the first floor of the Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>But Canon said it is still nowhere near the pitch and fever that boiled over during a session in the mid-1990s on a bill that dealt with gay rights by increasing penalties for hate crimes and banning discrimination in housing. Even today, the switchboard operators remember SB 80, a measure backed by former Senate Majority Leader Tom Rutherford, an Albuquerque Democrat.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Canon said they had to bring in another telephone operator to answer the calls, and Rutherford was provided with an extra receptionist to log the comments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We really get some ugly calls,&#8221; Canon said. &#8220;Sometimes they get irate with us. You don&#8217;t have to take that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>During one of her first sessions in 1985 or &#8217;86, she recalled working through a filibuster. That&#8217;s when one or several lawmakers are opposed to a bill and stop its passage by continuous talking on the floor of the Senate, not ceding time to others.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were here all night, &#8221; she said. &#8220;They brought in cots and blankets and pizza. A Republican got up and started talking and that was it. It lasted all night. &#8220;As long as they&#8217;re on the floor of the House or the Senate, we&#8217;re here,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>One policy is that the operators don&#8217;t take messages. The caller is transferred to the appropriate office, and if that office doesn&#8217;t pick up or have voice mail, they have to call back.<\/p>\n<p>The small room does not have a computer. So while those outside can look up a bill or a telephone extension on the Legislature&#8217;s website, the operators have to forage through the paper-bound bill finder, a legislative guide to filings that is published daily during the session. But bills that are introduced one day can sometimes take 48 hours to be entered into the publication.<\/p>\n<p>She and her colleagues are also the ones whose voices issue the pages that echo around the Roundhouse to start a committee or floor session.<\/p>\n<p>She said it has been typical that lawmakers don&#8217;t stay over during the first week for committee hearings. But since the Republicans took over the House of Representatives, there has been more activity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is the first time in my 31 years the House stayed over [to <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1987711154\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday<\/span><\/span>] the first week,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>When she started, Toney Anaya was governor. Current Gov. Susana Martinez was finishing law school in Oklahoma. Current House Majority Leader Nate Gentry was in elementary school.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Texas, Canon moved to Santa Fe when she married her husband, who was then an electrician at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The two built a home on Rodeo Road, which was then a gravel and dirt road, and raised three daughters and a son. The family hunted, fished and traveled all over the state. Her husband, Willie, died in 2011, but when she&#8217;s not at the Legislature, she keeps busy with her 16 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>One of her favorite hobbies is going to garage sales and flea markets.<\/p>\n<p>The session job appealed to her because Canon worked for the telephone company in Lubbock and then in Santa Fe. When a neighbor mentioned the position was open, she figured it would be good for her to get out.<\/p>\n<p>Canon turns 86 on <span class=\"aBn\" data-term=\"goog_1987711155\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Feb. 3<\/span><\/span> &#8212; just another day at the Legislature, when she plans to be answering telephone calls and transferring them to the offices of the governor, secretary of state, senators and representatives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been here 31 years, and I&#8217;ve loved every day of it. I&#8217;ve made a lot of friends,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It&#8217;s been an adorable 31 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<article id=\"post-121258\" class=\"hnews item post-121258 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news-and-analysis tag-2016-legislative-session tag-ethics-reform tag-public-corruption tag-roundhouse\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p><em>Contact Bruce Krasnow at 986-3034 or <a href=\"mailto:brucek@sfnewmexican.com\">brucek@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Don&#8217;t know who your representative is? Martha Canon is ready to help. She&#8217;s the longest-serving employee for the Legislative Council Service, which keeps the Roundhouse running smoothly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3250,107],"class_list":["post-121793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-legislative-session","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121793","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=121793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}