{"id":18355,"date":"2010-06-08T08:07:50","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T14:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18355"},"modified":"2010-06-09T06:55:27","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T12:55:27","slug":"lujan%e2%80%99s-power-is-slowly-fading-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/lujan%e2%80%99s-power-is-slowly-fading-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Luj\u00e1n\u2019s power is slowly fading away"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Many say House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n\u2019s<\/a> near-loss in last week\u2019s Democratic primary should be a warning to all incumbents that no one is safe this election year.<\/p>\n

I disagree. I\u2019m convinced that voter anger is strong, but I\u2019m not convinced that it\u2019s motivating the masses to reject all incumbents, regardless of their records.<\/p>\n

What Luj\u00e1n\u2019s near-loss<\/a> does show is that his power is continuing to fade away. Don\u2019t count him out \u2013 the man who holds the second-most powerful position in state government is a skilled politician who holds a lot of cards and undoubtedly still has a few tricks up his sleeves.<\/p>\n

But his near-loss makes clear that the negative perception of Luj\u00e1n you get from paying attention to media coverage of his actions has filtered all the way down to his district<\/a> on the northwest edge of Santa Fe. And if it\u2019s filtered down there, it\u2019s everywhere.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n is exposed as an old-school politico with a penchant for backroom deals who the public perceives as potentially corrupt. His near-loss was about him and his record, not about anti-incumbent sentiment.<\/p>\n

Signs of trouble<\/h3>\n

The first sign that Luj\u00e1n\u2019s power was waning came in 2006. Outraged that the speaker had quietly slipped a $75 million appropriation into that years\u2019 capital outlay bill without the knowledge of most of his colleagues, some House Democrats began talking about a challenge<\/a> to his leadership.<\/p>\n

Will never happen, most analysts and watchers said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n on the House floor. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

But it did. Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a> stepped up to challenge Luj\u00e1n<\/a> for the speaker position. He was slapped down \u2013 Luj\u00e1n was still very powerful back then \u2013 but it was the first sign of trouble for the speaker.<\/p>\n

Then came the 2007 legislative session. Luj\u00e1n worked to kill a proposal to reform the state\u2019s scandal-plagued housing authority system, creating the appearance that he was trying to protect a political friend who was later indicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t work. A coalition that included House Republicans, a handful of Democrats and the lieutenant governor combined to create a force greater than Luj\u00e1n. When Luj\u00e1n failed to twist enough arms during a closed-door meeting of House Democrats to kill the reform bill, he was forced to accept a compromise<\/a> and allow the bill to pass.<\/p>\n

It was a big loss for the speaker \u2013 a key moment that revealed that, even though he had defeated Martinez, the dynamics in the House had changed.<\/p>\n

No longer an unchallengeable force<\/h3>\n

Luj\u00e1n has become bogged down in recent years by scandals surrounding an illegal billboard<\/a> on his land and the government paving of a church parking lot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s been challenged more frequently on the House floor. In 2009, House Democrats stood up to Luj\u00e1n and twice killed a controversial tax plan<\/a> to fund an Albuquerque development. The House also twice voted down a Luj\u00e1n proposal to help pay for a project at the Santa Fe Railyard that a developer wanted.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the two votes against the Railyard proposal, Luj\u00e1n quietly slipped the proposal into an unrelated bill during a committee meeting, and it sailed through the House without most members realizing it. But Luj\u00e1n still hadn\u2019t won: Senate Finance Chairman\u00a0John Arthur Smith<\/a> opened the first conference committee in the state\u2019s history to the public, and the Railyard provision was removed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n\u2019s frustration at the end of the 2009 session was apparent when he confronted Smith<\/a> in front of journalists, accusing him of being \u201cfull of shit\u201d and \u201ca racist S.O.B.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who stand up to Luj\u00e1n haven\u2019t won every battle in recent years. He got a controversial tax-hike bill through the House earlier this year by convincing two Democrats to take a walk<\/a> rather than vote.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n is still powerful, because he holds the position of House speaker and he\u2019s a skilled politico. But he\u2019s not the unchallengeable force he once was \u2013 at the Roundhouse or in his district.<\/p>\n

What now?<\/h3>\n

Luj\u00e1n\u2019s future is unclear. He survived a tough re-election battle and remains the speaker. But there\u2019s lots of behind-the-scenes talk about whether another Democrat should step up to challenge his leadership, and who it would be.<\/p>\n

Others have suggested that Luj\u00e1n be allowed to continue to slowly fade out \u2013 serving two more years and then retiring, or at least stepping down from the position of speaker on his own.<\/p>\n

Of course, neither of those options is what Luj\u00e1n will prefer. And he\u2019s still the speaker. Don\u2019t count him out \u2013 yet. But expect House Democrats to the left and right of Luj\u00e1n to continue to become more independent, as they\u2019ve been doing for the last four years.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502 Commentary archives<\/a> \u2502 Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n\u2019s near-loss in last week\u2019s primary reveals that, even in his district, he has been exposed as an old-school politico with a penchant for backroom deals who the public perceives as potentially corrupt. His power is waning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-18355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355","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=18355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}