{"id":36821,"date":"2012-02-15T15:27:04","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T22:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=36821"},"modified":"2012-02-15T16:30:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T23:30:13","slug":"lujan-again-shows-why-change-is-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/02\/lujan-again-shows-why-change-is-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"Luj\u00e1n again shows why change is needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

This session has largely been a lovefest between House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n and everyone else because he\u2019s battling cancer and retiring. But Luj\u00e1n\u2019s shenanigans were on full display Tuesday, providing a stark reminder that change is long overdue.<\/h4>\n

On Tuesday, senators said lots of nice things about House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a>, who is retiring at the end of the year because he\u2019s battling cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can watch senators honoring Luj\u00e1n here, thanks to the governor\u2019s webcasting and archiving:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Though there\u2019s no archive online, the House did the same thing earlier today. In fact, this session has largely been a lovefest between Luj\u00e1n and everyone else since he disclosed on the first day that he\u2019s fighting stage 4 lung cancer. Our society holds up people who fight cancer as heroes, as we should. I\u2019ve been impressed by Luj\u00e1n\u2019s tenacity in this fight, and I\u2019m certainly rooting for him to beat this disease and keeping him and his family in my thoughts and prayers.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t change Luj\u00e1n\u2019s history of bending and breaking rules, twisting arms, and not treating people fairly. On Tuesday, he presented a stark reminder of that.<\/p>\n

Ignoring motion, walking off floor<\/h3>\n

Remember when Luj\u00e1n broke House rules<\/a> last year to stop an attempt to hear the driver\u2019s license bill sponsored by Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, I-Hatch? Well, he did the same thing Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no archived video of the incident on the governor\u2019s website, but journalist Milan Simonich witnessed what happened. Here\u2019s what he wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Heath<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cLuj\u00e1n, D-Santa Fe, abruptly adjourned a floor session as Rep. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, stood to seek a vote on her bill for mandatory retention of children who do not read proficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans screamed at the 76-year-old speaker to allow a roll-call vote on whether the hearing should continue. But Luj\u00e1n walked off the floor, ignoring loud criticisms from Republicans that he had been unfair in shutting off discussion on a bill.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Capitol Report New Mexico\u2019s Rob Nikolewski has more<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the House floor session at a little after 8 p.m., Rep. Garcia (D-Las Cruces)\u00a0took the microphone from her seat\u00a0and\u00a0asked to be recognized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason? Her\u00a0bill \u2014 one of the so-called \u2018social promotion\u2019 bills that Gov.\u00a0Susana Martinez<\/a>\u00a0approves of \u2014 had\u00a0not been heard on the House floor and with the 30-day session winding down, Rep. Garcia wanted it debated in the hopes that\u00a0it can pass the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as Garcia asked\u00a0to be recognized,\u00a0Majority Floor Leader W.\u00a0Ken Martinez<\/a> (D-Grants) leaped to his feet and grabbed his own microphone and called for the House to be recessed for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cGarcia\u00a0still called to be recognized but Speaker Luj\u00e1n (D-Namb\u00e9) ignored her, recognized Martinez and\u00a0closed down the\u00a0House for the night.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Luj\u00e1n had announced earlier in the day that Garcia\u2019s bill, one of the governor\u2019s top priorities, would be heard.<\/p>\n

A change was needed last year<\/h3>\n

After last year\u2019s incident, I was harsh in my criticism of Luj\u00e1n<\/a>, and of House members for keeping him as their speaker:<\/p>\n

\u201cLuj\u00e1n has a history of bending and breaking House rules, of twisting arms, and of not treating people fairly. He acts that way in full view of the public without concern for who\u2019s watching. In fact, Wednesday night he broke the rules even though the governor\u2019s office\u00a0was recording him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuj\u00e1n plays dirty if that\u2019s what it takes to win. He often displays a lack of respect for the process, and for his colleagues. This is apparent to anyone who\u2019s paying close attention.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Sadly, many House Democrats voted with the speaker to adjourn on Wednesday and supported his unfair treatment of the other side, just like they voted to keep Luj\u00e1n in the leadership position last year. It\u2019s shameful, really, that they won\u2019t stand up to the speaker and show respect for House rules and their colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also shameful that Republicans put politics over fostering an atmosphere of respect and adherence to the rules \u2013 an atmosphere in which people might be treated fairly and bills would have a greater chance of being debated on their merits instead of having their fates decided by politics. I wonder if the governor\u2019s office had any role in this decision by the House GOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of who could have replaced Luj\u00e1n as speaker (Cervantes, Martinez, Minority Leader\u00a0Tom Taylor, someone else), a change was needed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The House needs a culture of fairness and reform<\/h3>\n

With Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s 2011 bill and again on Tuesday, Majority Leader Martinez enabled Luj\u00e1n\u2019s shenanigans. Martinez, who once challenged Luj\u00e1n<\/a> for the speaker position on a platform of reform, apparently fell in line after he lost that battle.<\/p>\n

With Luj\u00e1n retiring, Martinez is the heir-apparent. Is this a case of \u201cMeet the new speaker, same as the old speaker?\u201d<\/p>\n

I hope not. But I\u2019d like to see Martinez display more of the potential to be a reformer that he did before his unsuccessful 2006 challenge to Luj\u00e1n, instead of his current push to keep public information inaccessible<\/a> and his involvement in the speaker\u2019s inappropriate actions.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say I\u2019m sorry to see Luj\u00e1n leave the House. I\u2019ve already called for House members to replace him as speaker, so it would be disingenuous to pretend otherwise just because he\u2019s battling cancer.<\/p>\n

But I hate the reason that Luj\u00e1n is forced to retire. I don\u2019t wish cancer on anyone. I\u2019m glad he\u2019s going to focus on fighting it and I hope he\u2019s successful.<\/p>\n

I also hope our state representatives seize the opportunity to change the culture in the House from one of intimidation and unfair treatment to one of fairness and reform.<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Commentary archives<\/a>\u00a0\u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This session has largely been a lovefest between House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n and everyone else because he\u2019s battling cancer and retiring. But Luj\u00e1n\u2019s shenanigans were on full display Tuesday, providing a stark reminder that change is long overdue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[249,107],"class_list":["post-36821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-ben-lujan","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36821","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=36821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}