{"id":23343,"date":"2010-11-10T08:07:33","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T15:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=23343"},"modified":"2010-11-17T09:33:34","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T16:33:34","slug":"two-more-dems-want-cervantes-to-be-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/11\/two-more-dems-want-cervantes-to-be-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Two more Dems want Cervantes to be speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

State Rep. Joseph Cervantes (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Two more Democratic House members said Tuesday that they want Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a> to become speaker, even if he has to form a coalition with Republicans to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Reps. Dona Irwin<\/a> of Deming and Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> of Las Cruces \u2013 Cervantes\u2019 aunt \u2013 said in interviews with NMPolitics.net that they hope the Democratic caucus will agree to replace current Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> with Cervantes, D-Las Cruces. Both said they are willing to back a coalition with Republicans if the Democratic caucus refuses to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly not changing parties, but I want to change my party leadership to fit my district, because that\u2019s what I was elected to represent,\u201d Irwin said. \u201cI just feel that there\u2019s not as much transparency, and I\u2019m very, very supportive of Joseph.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irwin and Garcia join Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, who said Monday that it\u2019s time for a new speaker. While he said he would prefer that his caucus replace Luj\u00e1n with Cervantes or someone else, Nu\u00f1ez also said he\u2019s willing to support a coalition if it comes to that.<\/p>\n

The support of the three Democrats for a potential coalition means, should the Democratic caucus refuse to act, that Cervantes and the GOP caucus have the Democratic votes to overthrow Luj\u00e1n \u2013 if they want it to happen. Come January, there will be 37 Democrats and 33 Republicans in the House.<\/p>\n

Republicans meet Saturday to discuss the situation, and Democrats meet Nov. 20. Cervantes has declined to comment to the media and hasn\u2019t announced to members that he is running for speaker, but he has met with some members of both parties to discuss the possibility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dona Irwin<\/p><\/div>\n

Garcia said she believes Cervantes will run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough some informal conversations, I feel as his aunt that he will commit himself to submitting his name as speaker,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n has said he has no intention of stepping aside. The willingness of House Democrats to challenge that isn\u2019t known, but many think it\u2019s unlikely that the caucus will act.<\/p>\n

One top Democrat was unwilling to discuss the situation on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get into that. I don\u2019t even know what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Rep. Kiki Saavedra<\/a>, chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. \u201cThe speaker\u2019s been our leader for so many years that I don\u2019t even want to get into a debate like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mary Helen Garcia<\/p><\/div>\n

Garcia: Members \u2018fear retribution\u2019<\/h3>\n

Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a> challenged Luj\u00e1n for the speakership in 2006 and lost. Luj\u00e1n responded by taking influential committee positions away<\/a> from Cervantes and Garcia, who supported Martinez. Nu\u00f1ez supported Luj\u00e1n in that battle, and the speaker made him chairman of the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee.<\/p>\n

But Nu\u00f1ez has remained independent, challenging the speaker on some key issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most in the caucus remember that leadership battle. Garcia said some House Democrats have shared with her a willingness to change leadership, \u201cbut they\u2019re very hesitant to say anything at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fear retribution because he\u2019s done it to me,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Perhaps sensing that, Nu\u00f1ez, Irwin and Garcia said they hope Luj\u00e1n steps aside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to me that would be the proper thing to do,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Irwin and Nu\u00f1ez both said they prefer that the caucus replace Luj\u00e1n with Cervantes but are willing to consider other members as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reps. Dona Irwin and Mary Helen Garcia said Tuesday that they want Rep. Joseph Cervantes to become speaker, even if he has to form a coalition with Republicans to make it 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":[107],"class_list":["post-23343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343","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=23343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}