{"id":37279,"date":"2012-02-27T18:40:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37279"},"modified":"2012-02-28T08:16:37","modified_gmt":"2012-02-28T15:16:37","slug":"webcasting-champion-retiring-from-nm-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/02\/webcasting-champion-retiring-from-nm-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Webcasting champion retiring from NM Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>

Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque<\/p><\/div>\n

Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, is the 10th state legislator to announce that he\u2019s not seeking re-election this year.<\/h4>\n

Sen. Mark Boitano<\/a>, a champion of the movement to webcast legislative proceedings, announced tonight that he won\u2019t seek re-election, making him the fifth senator thus far to announce that he\u2019s retiring this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always believed in term limits, and after four terms in the Senate, it is time to move on and allow others to continue the fight in the Senate to improve New Mexico,\u201d the Albuquerque Republican said in a news release. \u201cI have a real estate business to run, a wife and children I love and want to spend more time with, and I will begin looking for new opportunities to serve my community and state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other senators who have announced they\u2019re not seeking re-election include Dede Feldman<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who, as NMPolitics.net\u00a0reported Friday<\/a>, is retiring; Republicans\u00a0Clinton Harden<\/a>\u00a0of Clovis and\u00a0Vernon Asbill<\/a>\u00a0of Carlsbad, who are also retiring (read more about Harden\u2019s departure\u00a0here<\/a>); and\u00a0Eric Griego<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who is giving up his state Senate seat to run for\u00a0the 1st Congressional District seat<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re joined by several House members who are also not seeking re-election \u2013 Speaker\u00a0Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a>, D-N\u00e1mbe, and\u00a0Danice Picraux<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who are retiring;\u00a0Al Park<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who is running for a seat on the Public Regulation Commission; Bill O\u2019Neill<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, who is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Feldman; and Joni Gutierrez<\/a>, D-Mesilla, who is instead seeking the political position of Democratic national committeewoman for New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Boitano spent four years sponsoring legislation that would require Senate webcasting. He wasn\u2019t successful until others in the Legislature and media joined him in the fight, but he was among the early leaders of the movement. Today, the Senate webcasts floor sessions but not committee meetings; the House webcasts both (links are here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Boitano said he is \u201cproud of the hard-fought success he spearheaded\u201d to webcast Senate floor sessions.<\/p>\n

He also cited his work to craft the Charter School Act of 1999 and legislation \u201cto strengthen marriage and reduce unnecessary divorces.\u201d The businessman and real-estate broker said he will continue to \u201cadvocate for a fix on what he coined the \u2018property tax lightning\u2019 problem in Albuquerque.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boitano\u2019s release states that he \u201cwas often novel in his approach to finding solutions to problems and many times relied on ideas he developed rather than relying on others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBoitano thought a part of his job as a legislator was to create a wave of interest around an issue,\u201d the release states. \u201cOther legislators ride the wave created by others, he said.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Mark Boitano, a champion of the movement to webcast legislative proceedings, announced tonight that he won\u2019t seek re-election, making him the fifth senator thus far to announce that he\u2019s retiring 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":[156,111,107],"class_list":["post-37279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37279","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=37279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}