{"id":127853,"date":"2016-02-14T16:38:49","date_gmt":"2016-02-14T23:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=127853"},"modified":"2016-02-14T16:38:50","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T23:38:50","slug":"lawmakers-honor-outgoing-rep-lucky-varela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/02\/lawmakers-honor-outgoing-rep-lucky-varela\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers honor outgoing Rep. Lucky Varela"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_127856\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-127856\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3159797_web__MG_0151_rtonedCMYK-771x499.jpg\" alt=\"Luciano &quot;Lucky&quot; Varela\" width=\"771\" height=\"499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3159797_web__MG_0151_rtonedCMYK-771x499.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3159797_web__MG_0151_rtonedCMYK-336x217.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3159797_web__MG_0151_rtonedCMYK-768x497.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/3159797_web__MG_0151_rtonedCMYK.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jason Stilgebouer \/ The New Mexican<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Luciano &#8220;Lucky&#8221; Varela, D-Santa Fe, is retiring from office at year&#8217;s end. The budget expert&#8217;s colleagues honored him Friday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Three weeks of rancor in the state House of Representatives disappeared for a half-hour Friday as Republicans and Democrats found something to agree on.<\/p>\n<p>Members of both parties said they will miss retiring Rep. Luciano &#8220;Lucky&#8221; Varela, D-Santa Fe, for the skill and dedication he brought to the House during three decades of service.<\/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;Lucky is a dictionary. He is an encyclopedia about the state of New Mexico,&#8221; said Rep. Nick Salazar, D-Ohkay Owingeh, the senior member of the Legislature with nearly 44 years in office.<\/p>\n<p>Varela, who turns 81 next week, was a presence &#8212; often a fierce one &#8212; on finance committees.<\/p>\n<p>Republican Rep. John Zimmerman, a freshman from Las Cruces, said he once found himself in the cross-hairs of Varela&#8217;s icy stare during a meeting. Then, Zimmerman said, Varela approached &#8212; and the newcomer wondered what he had done wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Zimmerman said, Varela lifted his confidence: &#8220;Representative, I was wondering when you were going to come out of your shell. You belong here,&#8221; Varela said.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jim Smith, R-Sandia Park, said Varela was a mentor. One of the lessons he took from Varela was civility, Smith said. He said Varela was never disagreeable, no matter how much he disagreed with others on an issue.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Though Varela typically was recognized for his work on finances, he was just as knowledgeable about technology, said Smith, who came to the Legislature as a teacher.<\/p>\n<p>Varela might weigh 130 pounds if he had a big lunch, but he could be intimidating.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Doreen Gallegos, D-Las Cruces, said she feared him during her first three years in office. She likened him to a firecracker that could explode in one&#8217;s hand. After working with Varela, she said, she has no more fear, only respect for him.<\/p>\n<p>The most typical of the testimonials focused not on budgets or technology, but on the personal relationships that Varela built.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to thank you for your friendship and support,&#8221; said Rep. Roger Madalena, D-Jemez Pueblo.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Milan Simonich at (505) 986-3080 or <a href=\"mailto:msimonich@sfnewmexican.com\">msimonich@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Follow his Ringside Seat column at <a href=\"http:\/\/santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\">santafenewmexican.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luciano &#8220;Lucky&#8221; Varela, who is retiring from the Legislature at the end of the year, was a presence &#8212; often a fierce one &#8212; on finance committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3250,107],"class_list":["post-127853","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\/127853","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=127853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}