{"id":3590,"date":"2008-08-18T03:09:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T09:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/special-session-update-senators-blast-governor\/"},"modified":"2008-08-18T03:09:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T09:09:00","slug":"special-session-update-senators-blast-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/special-session-update-senators-blast-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Special session update: Senators blast governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s a lot happening quickly during the special session of the Legislature<\/a> underway in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. I\u2019m not there, but here are a few updates: <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 The most interesting moment thus far came Sunday when a number of senators blasted Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> for what they said are political motivations for forcing them to be in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI really have no earthly idea why we are in this building except to serve the political purposes of this governor,\u201d Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings<\/a>, D-Roswell, said during a hearing on Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s proposal to provide health care to every child in the state. The Albuquerque Journal<\/a> has the goods on the Senate tabling the bill. Some senators, according to the Journal, plan to introduce a substitute that does far less than Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> proposes.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sen. Kent Cravens<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, was quoted by The Associated Press<\/a> as saying during the governor-bashing that the session is \u201cabout self-glorification of a man that is moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a governor who has found a way to possibly grab a headline during this Democratic National Convention<\/a> and be on some short list to get a great job going forward, and you\u2019ve got a state in ruins financially,\u201d the news service quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n

\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s response: \u201cGovernor Richardson is not concerned about personal attacks made by a couple members of the Senate,\u201d a statement from his office read. \u201cRather, his focus, as it always has been, is on getting meaningful legislation passed to give 50,000 uninsured children access to health care and provide relief to working families who are struggling because of high gas prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was away from the Roundhouse most of Sunday on presidential-politics business. He was in Espa\u00f1ola campaigning on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama<\/a> with Hillary Clinton<\/a>, and then hosted two fundraisers in Santa Fe<\/st1:city> and Albuquerque<\/st1:city> to help Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> retire her campaign debt.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Speculation has increased in recent days that Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> may be on the short list to be Obama\u2019s running mate. The convention is being held in Denver<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> Aug. 25 to 28, and Obama could announce his VP choice this week.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Senate leaders, led by Jennings<\/st1:city>, want to hand out smaller rebate checks than Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is proposing. The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> has the scoop.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 The House has approved a bill that would provide $200 million for road funding. Check out the New Mexico Independent<\/a> for information about that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You can search for bills on the Legislature\u2019s Web site by clicking here<\/a>. Despite their complaining, senators have not defied the governor by adjourning sine die. The House and Senate are both scheduled to start work at 10 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a lot happening quickly during the special session of the Legislature underway in Santa Fe. I\u2019m not there, but here are a few updates: \u2022 The most interesting moment thus far came Sunday when a number of senators blasted Gov. Bill Richardson for what they said are political motivations for forcing them to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590","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=3590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}