{"id":25242,"date":"2011-01-20T13:16:42","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T20:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=25242"},"modified":"2011-01-21T07:24:17","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T14:24:17","slug":"lujan-strips-nunez-of-committee-chairmanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/01\/lujan-strips-nunez-of-committee-chairmanship\/","title":{"rendered":"Luj\u00e1n strips Nu\u00f1ez of committee chairmanship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> has stripped Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> of his committee assignments, including removing him from the position of chairman of the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez, D-Hatch, confirmed that Luj\u00e1n informed him of the changes earlier today. He said the speaker gave him no reason for the changes, but Nu\u00f1ez views it as retaliation. Nu\u00f1ez was the most vocal Democrat who backed the unsuccessful, bipartisan effort<\/a> to replace Luj\u00e1n with Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat other reason would he have to do it?\u201d Nu\u00f1ez asked.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Rep. James Roger Madalena<\/a>, D-Jemez Pueblo, will replace Nu\u00f1ez as chair of the agriculture committee.<\/p>\n

The speaker didn\u2019t strip Cervantes of his positions as vice chair of the Judiciary and Rules Committees. And he made Rep. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> \u2013 D-Las Cruces and one of Cervantes\u2019 supporters in the failed speaker attempt \u2013 chair of the Voters and Elections Committee. Garcia had been vice chair.<\/p>\n

Rep. Brian Egolf<\/a>, D-Santa Fe, will replace Madalena as chair of the Energy Committee.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez, who had been the agriculture committee chairman and a member of the Energy Committee, was removed from both positions and instead assigned to the Education and Transportation committees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was expecting something,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said. \u201cBut I did not expect it that bad. I thought maybe he\u2019d remove me as chair and just leave me on the (agriculture) committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n made Nu\u00f1ez chair of the agriculture committee in 2007 in exchange for Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s support for his bid to remain speaker. Luj\u00e1n was challenged in late 2006 for the speaker position by Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a>, who was backed in that unsuccessful effort by Cervantes.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez said he has been frustrated ever since because Luj\u00e1n meddled in his committee, sending agriculture-related bills to other committees to bypass Nu\u00f1ez and killing his bills. That\u2019s why Nu\u00f1ez decided to support Cervantes\u2019 challenge this year.<\/p>\n

After the challenge fizzled out Tuesday, Nu\u00f1ez was the only member of the Legislature who refused to cast a vote in the speaker race between Luj\u00e1n and Minority Leader Tom Taylor<\/a>. He later said he would have voted for Taylor<\/a> if he believed it would have helped Taylor defeat Luj\u00e1n.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n has stripped Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez of his committee assignments, including removing him from the position of chairman of the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee.<\/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-25242","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\/25242","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=25242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}