{"id":25424,"date":"2011-01-25T23:28:07","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T06:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=25424"},"modified":"2011-01-26T11:44:01","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T18:44:01","slug":"rep-nunez-becomes-an-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/01\/rep-nunez-becomes-an-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Nu\u00f1ez becomes an independent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

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

Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> switched his party affiliation from Democrat to declined to state on Tuesday and announced that he won\u2019t caucus with either party during the legislative session.<\/p>\n

The move gives Republicans the majority on two important House committees \u2013 Education<\/a> and Transportation<\/a> \u2013 for the first time in a very long time. There are now six Republicans, five Democrats and one independent on both committees.<\/p>\n

But Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s switch doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the outcomes of votes on those committees, or on the House floor, will be dramatically different than if he had remained a Democrat. He has long been an independent-minded lawmaker who didn\u2019t vote with Democrats simply because they shared a party affiliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I am a very moderate person, and I\u2019m just probably a little bit more to the left than I am to the right, and that\u2019s why I didn\u2019t go to Republican,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said Tuesday after switching his party affiliation at the Secretary of State\u2019s Office in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s decision wasn\u2019t a surprise. The resident of Hatch said last week he was thinking about leaving<\/a> the Democratic Party after Speaker\u00a0Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a> stripped him of his chairmanship<\/a> of the Agriculture and Water Resources Committee and took him off the Agriculture and Energy committees.<\/p>\n

Asked on Tuesday whether he would caucus with either party, Nu\u00f1ez said, jokingly, \u201cI\u2019m going to have my own caucus at the Rio Chama,\u201d a restaurant and bar near the Roundhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, seriously, I won\u2019t caucus with either one of them,\u201d Nu\u00f1ez said.<\/p>\n

Decision came after meeting with governor<\/h3>\n

Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s switch came after he met Monday with Republican Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a>. He said the two had a \u201csuper meeting, very cordial,\u201d and added that he and the governor are \u201cgoing down the same path on bills\u201d and \u201cworking together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, Nu\u00f1ez said he will work with Martinez to repeal the law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses, and to revoke licenses already issued to those who aren\u2019t here legally.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez has already introduced legislation<\/a> to require those applying for driver\u2019s licenses to provide a valid Social Security number. He said he and Martinez discussed adding an amendment to his bill that revokes licenses.<\/p>\n

Martinez said in a prepared statement that she applauded Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s \u201cwillingness to put addressing the important issues facing New Mexicans ahead of partisan politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez and I had an excellent meeting Monday morning, where we discussed issues on which we can work together, such as repealing the law that gives driver\u2019s licenses to illegal immigrants and revoking those licenses that have currently been issued,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

\u2018This way I won\u2019t be beholden\u2019<\/h3>\n

Nu\u00f1ez was one of three Democrats who openly supported Las Cruces Democrat Joseph Cervantes\u2019<\/a> unsuccessful bid to overthrow Luj\u00e1n<\/a> and become speaker. Nu\u00f1ez, who was Cervantes\u2019 most vocal Democratic backer, has said he believes that\u2019s why Luj\u00e1n stripped him of his previous committee assignments.<\/p>\n

Cervantes said Tuesday that he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d to see Nu\u00f1ez leave the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are a lot of Democrats in the state who think very much like Andy does and appreciate the role that he represents in the Democratic Party,\u201d Cervantes said. \u201cWe see an increasing number of people becoming independents in the state, and unfortunately too often that\u2019s because the parties remain closed to people who think outside the orthodoxy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez said he\u2019s OK with having no party affiliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way I won\u2019t be beholden to either one of the two parties,\u201d he said, adding that independents make up \u201cthe fastest growing party in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez switched his party affiliation from Democrat to declined to state on Tuesday and announced that he won\u2019t caucus with either party during the legislative session.<\/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-25424","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\/25424","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=25424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}