{"id":27370,"date":"2011-03-17T13:21:23","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T19:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27370"},"modified":"2011-03-18T16:20:34","modified_gmt":"2011-03-18T22:20:34","slug":"in-session%e2%80%99s-final-days-all-eyes-are-on-sanchez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/in-session%e2%80%99s-final-days-all-eyes-are-on-sanchez\/","title":{"rendered":"In session\u2019s final days, all eyes are on Sanchez"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Senate majority leader decides which bills get floor hearings and which don\u2019t. Among those watching intently is Gov. Susana Martinez, who has complained that Sanchez is \u201cholding back\u201d her bills.<\/h4>\n

In 2009, Attorney General Gary King<\/a> complained during a speech about Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> not calling up a bill he was pushing for a vote.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the bill, which sought to limit the possession of pseudoephedrine, King said<\/a>, \u201cWe got that all the way through the Legislature\u2026 but we got it to the floor of the Senate and could not get it brought up for a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

King encouraged those to whom he was speaking to contact their senators, \u201cand specifically to talk to the majority leader, to Michael Sanchez, and make sure that he understands when they\u2019re setting priorities in the Senate that last week, that they should look at bills like this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

King singled out the majority leader because Sanchez, and Sanchez alone, controls the Senate floor calendar. He decides when \u2013 or if \u2013 bills get called up for debate. That\u2019s what makes the Belen Democrat one of the most powerful officials in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

Sanchez\u2019s power becomes particularly important in these final days of the session, when the list of bills on the calendar grows long (today it includes more than 150 bills<\/a>). By the last hour of the session \u2013 11 a.m. to noon on Saturday \u2013 it\u2019s common for all eyes to be on Sanchez as time runs short and he decides which bills die without a Senate floor vote.<\/p>\n

Those watching intently include Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a>, who, with the possible exception of the film incentive compromise<\/a>, hasn\u2019t yet had a single item on her legislative agenda make it through both chambers and to her desk. She complained about that last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you need to ask Sen. Michael Sanchez as to why he is holding back the bills that need to be discussed on the Senate floor, because they, some of them, have been there for a week,\u201d Martinez said at a news conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to continue to work with him, and continue to work with the Senate,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they need to start moving those bills along.\u201d<\/p>\n

After weeks of building tension between the Senate and governor over her webcasting<\/a> and heavy lobbying<\/a>, those remarks prompted a harsh response from Sanchez, who said in a news release<\/a> that Martinez\u2019s \u201cbackground as a prosecutor has not given her practical experience or any idea of governing and how the legislative process works, including the detailed efforts required for shaping legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than tying up valuable legislative time on divisive issues, Gov. Martinez needs to get out of campaign mode and get down to the business of governing and working with the Legislature to create a comprehensive plan for the future,\u201d he said. \u201cI would encourage the governor to focus her energy on solving problems instead of merely exploiting them for partisan political purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Compromise is not a dirty word\u2019<\/h3>\n

Sanchez appears to be fed up with the way Martinez has approached policymaking during her first session as governor. In response to questions submitted by NMPolitics.net, he said Martinez\u2019s prior experience as Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s district attorney \u201cincludes presenting matters to grand juries in secrecy where only one side of the issue is presented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat approach differs from our open and democratic process of governance that seeks to make reasoned and informed decisions by gathering input from all affected parties and interests,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cThis assures transparency and deliberate debate of the issues before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez had some advice for the governor: \u201cFind common ground, develop consensus and compromise to advance programs to solve the serious problems we all face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to stop campaigning and start governing,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cDivide and conquer may be a maxim of warfare, but unite and lead is what all of us should be trying to accomplish.\u00a0 Compromise is not a dirty word, as some would have you believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanchez also said he believes most of Martinez\u2019s bills \u201chave a chance\u201d of being approved by the Legislature before the session ends, \u201cbut not necessarily in the form she proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, he pointed to House Bill 78<\/a>. Martinez wants the bill to repeal a law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses, and the House passed such a version<\/a>. The Senate amended the bill<\/a> to continue to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain licenses but place more requirements on them. The chambers have not yet resolved their differences.<\/p>\n

Sanchez\u2019s statement about most of Martinez\u2019s measures making it to her desk, but not necessarily in the form she proposed, is certain to upset the governor. She has already pledged to veto the Senate version of HB 78 if that\u2019s what comes to her desk.<\/p>\n

Martinez declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n

Bad blood goes back to Baby Brianna bill<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

Even before this session \u2013 and before she ran for governor \u2013 Martinez had no love for Sanchez. As I\u2019ve written before<\/a>, the bad blood goes back to 2005, when Martinez, as district attorney, was lobbying for tougher penalties for fatal child abuse.<\/p>\n

The Baby Brianna bill, named after a five-month-old child killed in Do\u00f1a Ana County, made it to the Senate floor before Sanchez made claims about it that weren\u2019t true. He argued that parents could be prosecuted under the law if a child was hurt or killed in an accident or abused without their knowledge.<\/p>\n

Based on that claim, Sanchez pushed through a floor amendment that weakened penalties for child abuse resulting in permanent injury. So a bill that was designed to toughen penalties for fatal child abuse would have also weakened penalties for another type of child abuse.<\/p>\n

Martinez was infuriated and started working behind the scenes to combat Sanchez\u2019s amendment. She contacted me about writing an article.<\/p>\n

I did. My article quoted Martinez and an AG spokesman as saying that Sanchez\u2019s claim was false. Specific wording in the bill, the AG\u2019s office told me, prevented prosecution of parents whose children were hurt or killed in accidents or without their knowledge.<\/p>\n

In the article Martinez also accused Sanchez, a lawyer who does criminal defense work, and Sen.\u00a0Cisco McSorley<\/a>, another lawyer who argued for the weakened penalties, of manipulating colleagues who weren\u2019t lawyers and didn\u2019t know any better. She questioned whether the two were working for their constituents or clients.<\/p>\n

Copies of my article ended up on lawmakers\u2019 desks. Some behind-the-scenes wrangling by State Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a> and then-Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> breathed new life into the bill and got Sanchez out of the way. Sanchez\u2019s amendment was removed before the bill passed and was signed into law.<\/p>\n

Emotions don\u2019t affect Senate calendar, Sanchez says<\/h3>\n

Martinez has a long memory, and many say she holds grudges. She has been implicitly threatening all session that she will try to defeat lawmakers in the 2012 election who hold up her agenda.<\/p>\n

Sanchez currently sits at the top of the list of people who are in her way, and there\u2019s a chance he will face a tough general-election challenge next year, with Martinez heavily backing his opponent.<\/p>\n

Do such threats influence Sanchez\u2019s decisions on what legislation gets a floor hearing? Is he less likely to call Martinez-backed bills up for debate? Sanchez said the answer is no.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though this is a political process, we try to do what is in the best interest of the citizens of New Mexico, disregarding political attacks from all sides, including the governor,\u201d he said. \u201cMy preference over the years has been to work with governors and avoid emotional reactions: They don\u2019t play a role in deciding which bills I place on the calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then how does he decide which bills get a hearing?<\/p>\n

\u201cI do this in consultation with bill sponsors and majority and minority party members,\u201d he said. \u201cI also rely upon my years of experience in dealing with legislative matters and lawmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI weigh the complexity of the bill and review the debate it created in committee, which often indicates how much debate it will generate on the floor,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cMy goal is to balance the flow of Democrat and Republican bills through the process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez decides which bills get floor hearings and which don\u2019t. That power becomes particularly important in these final days of the session. Among those watching intently is Gov. Susana Martinez, who has complained that Sanchez is \u201cholding back\u201d her bills.<\/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-27370","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\/27370","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=27370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}