{"id":23305,"date":"2010-11-09T08:12:23","date_gmt":"2010-11-09T15:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=23305"},"modified":"2010-11-17T09:35:22","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T16:35:22","slug":"rep-nunez-says-it%e2%80%99s-time-for-a-new-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/11\/rep-nunez-says-it%e2%80%99s-time-for-a-new-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Nu\u00f1ez says it\u2019s time for a new speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez, D-Hatch<\/p><\/div>\n

State Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, D-Hatch, says it\u2019s time for a new House speaker, and he\u2019s willing to support a bipartisan coalition, if necessary, to make that happen.<\/p>\n

But Nu\u00f1ez said he would prefer that the House Democratic caucus agree to internally replace current Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> with Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, or someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally would hate to see a coalition,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said Monday in an interview with NMPolitics.net. \u201cI would hate to see it come down to that because it doesn\u2019t do the Democrats \u2013 and I\u2019m a Democrat \u2013 it doesn\u2019t do us any good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez, who chairs the House Water and Natural Resources Committee, said he believes it\u2019s \u201cabsolutely\u201d time for a new speaker because the House lacks cohesion. He said he wants Luj\u00e1n \u201cgracefully\u201d step down, but he doubts that will happen.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n has already said he has no intention of stepping aside.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez said he has his doubts about the willingness of House Democrats to force Luj\u00e1n out \u2013 which would leave a bipartisan coalition as the only potential option to replace him. Nu\u00f1ez said he is willing to support a coalition if it comes to that.<\/p>\n

Cervantes hasn\u2019t yet announced whether he will run for speaker, but Nu\u00f1ez said there\u2019s no one more qualified for the job.<\/p>\n

Reached by phone Monday, Cervantes declined to comment.<\/p>\n

But he has been meeting with top House members, including Minority Whip Keith Gardner<\/a>, to talk about the possibility of a bipartisan coalition to oust Luj\u00e1n. Cervantes also met Friday with Luj\u00e1n and separately with Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republicans picked up eight new seats in the House in last week\u2019s election, bringing the composition in the House to 37 Democrats and 33 Republicans. That means it would take only three Democrats crossing over \u2013 if members of the GOP caucus all voted together \u2013 to elect a coalition speaker.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s potential support for such a coalition is significant because Cervantes would only need the backing of one other Democrat if the Republicans all agreed to support him. Reps. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> of Las Cruces \u2013 Cervantes\u2019 aunt \u2013 and Dona Irwin<\/a> of Deming are also seen as likely supporters of Cervantes if he makes such a move.<\/p>\n

Garcia and Irwin didn\u2019t return calls Monday seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Rep. Kintigh: Cervantes-led coalition \u2018actively being discussed\u2019<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Dennis Kintigh<\/p><\/div>\n

House Minority Leader Tom Taylor<\/a> said his caucus is so excited about gaining ground in last week\u2019s election and \u201chaving the ability to do a little bit of governing that, for the moment, we\u2019re enjoying that and not thinking about the organization of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, as far as I know, there haven\u2019t been any serious discussions with members on the other side of the aisle\u201d about a potential coalition, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

But Rep. Dennis Kintigh<\/a>, R-Roswell, said a potential Cervantes-led coalition is \u201cactively being discussed and talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kintigh has served with Cervantes on the House Judiciary Committee. He said he has learned a lot from and has \u201ctremendous respect\u201d for the Las Cruces Democrat, but said the two disagree on some important policy issues including criminal justice matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe philosophical differences are significant and real, so that becomes an issue,\u201d Kintigh said. \u201cI don\u2019t know where we go with this, truthfully. I know we need to kick it around some more, we Republicans. The Democrats have got to figure out what they\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kintigh said he would want some concessions before agreeing to support Cervantes for speaker. For example, currently in the New Mexico House the speaker decides what committee assignments to give members of the majority and minority parties. Kintigh said he would want Cervantes to agree to a system like the U.S. House has and allow the minority party to make its own committee assignments for its members.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tom Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n

A shift in dynamics<\/h3>\n

Serious discussion about ousting Luj\u00e1n is possible because of the Republican gains in the House, which make the threat of a Cervantes-led coalition possible. The situation is indicative of the new dynamics in the House.<\/p>\n

Taylor said the more balanced membership between Democrats and Republicans is \u201cwhat government was really designed to be.\u201d He said it forces bipartisan agreement and \u201cyields better legislation that\u2019s not politically motivated in a lot of cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez said there\u2019s another new dynamic. He, Cervantes, Irwin and Garcia are \u201cpretty much in the driver\u2019s seat.\u201d He noted it only takes three of the four Southern New Mexico Democrats voting with Republicans to override the will of the Democratic caucus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get more respect down here than we\u2019ve gotten in the past,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019re going to \u2013 we\u2019re going to demand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Nu\u00f1ez hopes the Democratic caucus will decide to replace Luj\u00e1n, he said if it comes down to a choice on the House floor between Luj\u00e1n and Cervantes, he will support Cervantes \u2013 and he believes Cervantes will win.<\/p>\n

Kintigh said House Republicans meet Saturday and will discuss the situation. House Democrats meet Nov. 20. If Democrats don\u2019t replace Luj\u00e1n at that meeting, discussions about whether to form a bipartisan coalition will become more serious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see this getting resolved real soon,\u201d Kintigh said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez, D-Hatch, says it\u2019s time for a new House speaker, and he\u2019s willing to support a bipartisan coalition, if necessary, to make that happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-23305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23305","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=23305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}