{"id":23763,"date":"2010-11-21T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-11-22T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=23763"},"modified":"2010-11-23T01:12:07","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T08:12:07","slug":"house-coalition-is-still-a-possibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/11\/house-coalition-is-still-a-possibility\/","title":{"rendered":"House coalition is still a possibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Though House Democrats voted Saturday<\/a> to nominate Rep. Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> to continue serving as speaker, there\u2019s still a chance some Democrats and Republicans will band together to overthrow him in January.<\/p>\n

Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a> of Las Cruces, who unsuccessfully challenged Luj\u00e1n during this weekend\u2019s Democratic caucus, wouldn\u2019t say during an interview whether he is still considering trying to form a bipartisan coalition to become speaker. But he sounded like someone who is considering doing just that.<\/p>\n

Cervantes said it\u2019s time to \u201cevaluate where the (Democratic) caucus is going, and listen to all New Mexicans to see if they support the same direction.\u201d He said he challenged Luj\u00e1n in the Democratic caucus meeting because the message he took from the recent election is that \u201cvoters wanted to see change in the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a message that we shouldn\u2019t take any voters for granted,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cIt\u2019s a message for consensus building.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the voters were also sending a message that they want reform, which \u201creflects my own efforts over the past few years to reform Santa Fe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We need a change\u2019<\/h3>\n

Cervantes spoke before Saturday\u2019s meeting with some members of the Republican caucus about a potential coalition. Three Democrats have said they support a bipartisan coalition to make Cervantes speaker \u2013 and all three reiterated that support after Saturday\u2019s meeting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need a change,\u201d said Rep. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> of Las Cruces, Cervantes\u2019 aunt. \u201cThe people told us (in the recent election) that we hadn\u2019t been listening. \u2026 We\u2019re ready to go, if Joseph is willing and the Republicans are willing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cwe\u201d Garcia was referring to also includes Reps. Dona Irwin<\/a> of Deming and Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> of Hatch. Like Garcia, they also reiterated their support for a Cervantes-led coalition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that we need a change, and I\u2019m not one to back down from something I\u2019ve started out with, because I think we need open government,\u201d Irwin said.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez was quoted by the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> as saying he would also be willing to support a Cervantes-led coalition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do something. It\u2019s the same thing as in Washington, where they elected Pelosi. It\u2019s the same sort of thing here,\u201d the Journal quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n

It would take the votes of the entire Republican caucus and three Democrats to overthrow Luj\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

Cervantes said there are some House Democrats who, following an election in which they lost eight House seats to Republicans, think the party should be \u201ccircling the wagons and building the walls.\u201d He said he disagrees, but he still congratulated Luj\u00e1n for coming out ahead in Saturday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pleased to offer an option for change in the Legislature,\u201d Cervantes said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Who knows what might happen\u2019<\/h3>\n

Minority Leader Tom Taylor<\/a>, R-Farmington, said his party is still willing to consider a coalition but hasn\u2019t decided to get behind one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speaker election doesn\u2019t take place for two months,\u201d he said. Who knows what might happen in that period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The formal vote for speaker takes place on the opening day of the legislative session in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though House Democrats voted Saturday to nominate Rep. Ben Luj\u00e1n to continue serving as speaker, there\u2019s still a chance some Democrats and Republicans will band together to overthrow him in January.<\/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-23763","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\/23763","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=23763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}