{"id":25144,"date":"2011-01-18T12:47:36","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=25144"},"modified":"2011-01-19T08:29:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-19T15:29:31","slug":"lujan-keeps-job-as-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/01\/lujan-keeps-job-as-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Luj\u00e1n keeps job as speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> survived a challenge to his leadership today and will keep his position as the second most powerful official in state government.<\/p>\n

In the end, Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, wasn\u2019t even nominated for the position after it became clear that pressure from the tea party<\/a> had led a number of Republicans to refuse to join a potential bipartisan coalition to make Cervantes the speaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply humbled and honored to continue to serve as your speaker,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said in a speech he gave after the vote.<\/p>\n

Cervantes and two of three Democrats who had publicly supported his attempt to overthrow Luj\u00e1n all voted for Luj\u00e1n. The only other member nominated to be speaker was Minority Leader Tom Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a largely party-line vote, but Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, D-Hatch and a Cervantes supporter, refused to cast a vote, instead saying \u201cpresent\u201d when his name was called. The totals were 36 votes for Luj\u00e1n and 33 for Taylor, plus Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s \u201cpresent\u201d vote.<\/p>\n

Late last week, just before tea parties from around the state started passing resolutions opposing a potential coalition, many believed Cervantes\u2019 chances of overthrowing Luj\u00e1n were good. But, in the end, sources said some Republicans were not willing to join a bipartisan coalition and risk being challenged in a primary by tea party-backed candidates in 2012.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n has served as speaker since 2001. This is the second time he has survived a challenge from within his own party. Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a> unsuccessfully challenged him in 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n survived a challenge to his leadership today and will keep his position as the second most powerful official in state government.<\/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-25144","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\/25144","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=25144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}