{"id":1266,"date":"2007-02-15T13:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-15T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/ag-king-discusses-a-wide-range-of-hot-topics\/"},"modified":"2007-02-15T13:11:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-15T19:11:00","slug":"ag-king-discusses-a-wide-range-of-hot-topics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/ag-king-discusses-a-wide-range-of-hot-topics\/","title":{"rendered":"AG King discusses a wide range of hot topics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Still settling into his new job as the state\u2019s top law enforcement officer, Gary King<\/a> says he isn\u2019t thinking much about the 2010 gubernatorial race. <\/p>\n

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

King, a former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and a former candidate for U.S. Congress, has twice run unsuccessfully for governor, but many suspect he still has gubernatorial ambitions and might be a strong candidate after four years of experience as the attorney general.<\/p>\n

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

\n

The son of former Gov. Bruce King<\/a>, Gary King notes that there are several other high-profile Democrats considering a run for governor in four years. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> are already raising money for the race.<\/p>\n

\n

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

\u201cI think there are a bunch of people lined up to run for governor now, some very strong players,\u201d King said. \u201cI think there are some good things I can do as attorney general for eight years, rather than getting in the middle of a massive Democratic primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

King, 52, made the comments during a lengthy interview while he was in Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> on Saturday. King was in the city to attend a banquet for Mesilla Valley Court Appointed Special Advocates. He was also there to accompany his wife, who had a meeting at New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

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

King spoke about a number of hot topics, including the effects a leadership battle has had in the House, his philosophy on responding to requests for legal opinions and the scandal that has plagued the state\u2019s regional housing authority system.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018An interesting dynamic\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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

King said he has observed \u201can interesting dynamic\u201d in the House this session that is a result of Majority Leader Ken Martinez\u2019s<\/a> December challenge to the leadership of Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The challenge to the generally all-powerful speaker\u2019s leadership \u201chas caused people to do a lot of thinking about how bills get assigned and how some of the committees get assigned.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The speaker has authority to do that in whatever manner he sees fit.<\/p>\n

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

King noted that Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/a>, D-Albuquerque and a supporter of Lujan who helped him retain the speaker position, became more influential when Lujan expanded the power of the committee she chairs, the Health and Government Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

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

Though King didn\u2019t say it, that was in contrast to Lujan stripping the Judiciary Committee chairmanship from Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, who like Stewart sought the majority leader position and may do so again in the future. Cervantes was a supporter of Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

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

King said he doesn\u2019t believe that the changes Lujan made have created fear in the House, and noted that Martinez<\/st1:city> and Lujan are working well together, but said that doesn\u2019t mean Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s challenge didn\u2019t change things.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere still was some choosing of sides,\u201d King said. \u201cI think everybody\u2019s working together, but there\u2019s sort of that vestige of choosing sides, and it will take a little bit to work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s just made the debate more dynamic, I think,\u201d King said. \u201cActually, it is positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Speedy legal opinions<\/span><\/p>\n

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

King turned heads last week by responding within days to a request for a legal opinion on whether Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s<\/a> fundraising for a White House run during the legislative session violates state law. Former Attorney General Patricia Madrid often took months to issue such opinions \u2013 and they were sometimes moot because so much time had passed.<\/p>\n

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

Though King sided with Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>, the timely response to the request from Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a>, R-Las Cruces, excited Republicans so much that they almost immediately sought another opinion on whether there was anything improper in the secretary of state\u2019s spending during the 2006 election.<\/p>\n

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

King acknowledged that his responsiveness also has an effect on the dynamic of the legislative session, and said timely responses will be a goal of his administration. In making the comments, he was careful to not criticize Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, who he said simply had a different philosophy on responding to requests for legal opinions.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think that the attorney general\u2019s office can have a lot more impact on the policy in the state through our opinions,\u201d King said. \u201cThe more quickly we can address those issues, the less disruption there is in government.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

King said that is one important way that he can help reduce \u201cgridlock\u201d in state government.<\/p>\n

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

Housing authority scandal<\/span><\/p>\n

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

King, who sits on the board of the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, said he supports legislation that would reorganize the scandal-plagued regional housing authority system under the MFA, but sees no reason why the two high-performing regions among the state\u2019s seven housing authority regions can\u2019t be kept open and moved under the MFA.<\/p>\n

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

That is not currently in the House or Senate version of legislation that would remake the system, which replaces the regions with contract services. The high-performing regions would, however, be allowed to remake themselves into non-profits or local government agencies and, if they did that, would be given preference in the bidding process.<\/p>\n

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

King\u2019s office is currently investigating the housing authority scandal to determine whether there are any criminal or civil remedies that can be sought.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere are a lot of disconcerting things there, and unfortunately that\u2019s probably all I can say about that,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

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

Changing conference committees<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Officially, King said he has no position on the annual proposal to open legislative conference committees to the public, which is currently bogged down in the House and Senate. He said that\u2019s because it\u2019s a legislative, not executive, issue.<\/p>\n

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

As a former legislator, King said he believes a couple of changes would improve the closed-door committee system. He suggested a rule that prohibits lawmakers who participate in a conference committee from adding anything into a bill that wasn\u2019t in either the House or Senate version.<\/p>\n

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

He also suggested that there be a time period after such a committee makes changes to a bill \u2013 perhaps 24-48 hours \u2013 before the House and Senate can vote to accept the conference committee report, giving other legislators and the public time to scrutinize the changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still settling into his new job as the state\u2019s top law enforcement officer, Gary King says he isn\u2019t thinking much about the 2010 gubernatorial race. King, a former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and a former candidate for U.S. Congress, has twice run unsuccessfully for governor, but many suspect he still has […]<\/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-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266","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=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}