{"id":35219,"date":"2012-01-17T12:35:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-17T19:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=35219"},"modified":"2012-01-18T06:56:57","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T13:56:57","slug":"speaker-lujan-battling-cancer-won%e2%80%99t-seek-re-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/01\/speaker-lujan-battling-cancer-won%e2%80%99t-seek-re-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Luj\u00e1n battling cancer, won\u2019t seek re-election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n, shown here in 2010. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Update, 1:25 p.m.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the full text of Luj\u00e1n\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

Original post:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a>, the Namb\u00e9 Democrat who has served as speaker of the N.M. House of Representatives for more than a decade, is battling cancer and is severely weakened.<\/p>\n

Despite that, he is in the House chambers this afternoon to preside over the opening ceremonies for the 30-day legislative session that begins today. His plans for the rest of the session aren\u2019t immediately clear.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n revealed the illness during a speech moments ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne week after our 50th wedding celebration, in October 2009… I was not feeling well. I went to see my doctor. One month later, November of 2009, with Carmen and my children at my side, a medical team of doctors at the University of New Mexico cancer center gave me a prognosis that I had stage 4 lung cancer,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n

Despite undergoing treatment for more than two years, through two regular legislative sessions and a tough re-election battle, the cancer isn\u2019t gone, Luj\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n

He said he won\u2019t seek re-election later this year.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n has served in the House since 1975 and has been speaker \u2013 arguably the state\u2019s most powerful legislator \u2013 since 2001. He\u2019s been challenged by members of his own party twice for that position, but both attempts were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

He is loved by some and considered notorious \u2013 or worse \u2013 by others. Regardless, there\u2019s no doubt he\u2019s had a huge impact on the Roundhouse and the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: Ben Luj\u00e1n, who has served as speaker of the N.M. House of Representatives for more than a decade, is battling cancer and is severely weakened. His plans for the rest of the session aren’t immediately clear, but he won’t seek re-election later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,249,107],"class_list":["post-35219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-ben-lujan","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35219","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=35219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}