{"id":1501,"date":"2007-03-30T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-30T22:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/session-ends-road-funding-public-financing-bills-okd\/"},"modified":"2007-03-30T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-30T22:52:00","slug":"session-ends-road-funding-public-financing-bills-okd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/session-ends-road-funding-public-financing-bills-okd\/","title":{"rendered":"Session ends; road funding, public financing bills OK’d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The 2007 special session of the Legislature is over. <\/p>\n

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

Now that I\u2019ve sorted through all the confusion that colored its last minutes, here\u2019s what happened:<\/p>\n

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

The Senate did not adjourn Thursday night after approving the feed, road funding and public financing bills. It instead stood in recess.<\/p>\n

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

When the House convened today, it immediately began considering House Bill 7<\/a>, the approval of which would have required the Senate to act again. It was a bill that would have placed limits on campaign contributions.<\/p>\n

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

Senators suspected something like that might happen, and they weren\u2019t willing to meet again, which is why they didn\u2019t adjourn Thursday. The four senators who stuck around \u2013 Democrats John Arthur Smith<\/a>, Tim Jennings<\/a> and Ben Altamirano<\/a> and Republican Stuart Ingle<\/a> \u2013 reconvened the Senate and voted to adjourn sine die while the House was considering the new bill. They then notified the House of their action.<\/p>\n

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

Smith said Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a> told senators he intended for the House to also adjourn sine die, but not before consideration of the campaign contribution bill. Smith said he believed that was Lujan\u2019s attempt to respond to the news that former Senate President Manny Aragon had been indicted, but said it was \u201clike calling the fire department after the barn has burned.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n

It didn\u2019t work. House Democrats were one member short of having a quorum on their own, and Republicans revolted by refusing to take their seats and vote, creating a standoff in the House that eventually ended with the bill dying because there wasn\u2019t a quorum.<\/p>\n

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

After a series of additional standoffs between Republicans and Democrats, the House eventually voted to concur with all three bills approved by the Senate. Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, said that happened only after Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a>, D-Grants, made a plea for an end to the standoff that included a promise that proved to be false.<\/p>\n

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

Republicans had a problem with the public financing bill, which would extend the state\u2019s public financing system to judicial races only if voters also approved a constitutional amendment that wiped out the retention system. Arnold-Jones said the bill was \u201ca pretty bad piece of legislation\u201d that didn\u2019t address many issues.<\/p>\n

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

She said Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> came to House Republicans and asked them to take their seats and vote. She said he told Republicans \u201cour members don\u2019t like this piece of legislation either. We want to vote it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Republicans agreed, believing Democrats would vote with them to kill the bill, Arnold-Jones said. The majority of Democrats, including Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, then voted to approve the bill. The final vote was 28-27.<\/p>\n

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

I couldn\u2019t reach Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> for comment.<\/p>\n

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

Regardless, with the House having concurred on all bills acted upon by the Senate, House members then voted to adjourn sine die, ending the session.<\/p>\n

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

In addition to the public financing bill, legislators approved a bill that provides about $108 million for roads around the state, including $10 million for a road to Spaceport America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Not surprisingly, Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> immediately declared the session a success.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI want to thank legislators for their hard work and for taking the time to continue their work during this special session on behalf of the people of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,\u201d he said in a news release. \u201cWhile we did not get everything we wanted, this special session was successful because we worked together to address urgent needs in our communities. I will be back next legislative session to push hard for the rest of our ethics reform package, tougher meth and domestic violence laws and civil protections for all New Mexicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Many lawmakers with whom I spoke said the session was a complete disaster.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 5:05 p.m.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> now says the road funding bill \u2013 the only real success of the special session \u2013 was his top priority for the session. That entirely contradicts what he said on March 17 when he announced the special session.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe main reason I\u2019m calling a special session is I want a complete ethics package,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

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

You go, guv. The truth is always flexible.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

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

House Minority Whip Dan Foley<\/a>, R-Roswell, said he was proud of the bipartisan work done during the regular and special sessions. In particular, he said a strong group from the House and Senate brought the session to an end today.<\/p>\n

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

He named Reps. Joseph Cervantes<\/a> and Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> of Las Cruces<\/st1:City><\/st1:place> and, from Deming, Sen. John Arthur Smith<\/a> and Rep. Dona Irwin<\/a> as Democrats he was proud to work with.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIf the New Mexico Legislature was filled with people with the character they have, we wouldn\u2019t be last in all the good categories and first in all the bad ones,\u201d Foley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2007 special session of the Legislature is over. Now that I\u2019ve sorted through all the confusion that colored its last minutes, here\u2019s what happened: The Senate did not adjourn Thursday night after approving the feed, road funding and public financing bills. It instead stood in recess. When the House convened today, it immediately began […]<\/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-1501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501","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=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}