{"id":37535,"date":"2012-03-04T17:44:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T00:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37535"},"modified":"2012-03-05T06:20:23","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T13:20:23","slug":"sen-fischmann-isnt-seeking-re-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/03\/sen-fischmann-isnt-seeking-re-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Fischmann isn\u2019t seeking re-election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>

Sen. Steve Fischmann<\/p><\/div>\n

Fischmann is the third Do\u00f1a Ana County lawmaker in about a week to announce that he isn\u2019t seeking re-election this year. All three are Democrats.<\/h4>\n

State Sen. Steve Fischmann<\/a> told a group of Do\u00f1a Ana County women on Saturday that he isn\u2019t seek re-election this year.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net hasn\u2019t been able to reach Fischmann, D-Mesilla Park, for comment, but did confirm with multiple sources that Fischmann made the announcement at a Saturday meeting. He\u2019s the third Do\u00f1a Ana County lawmaker to announce his retirement in the last nine days, and all three were surprises to many.<\/p>\n

The others are Sen. Cynthia Nava<\/a> of Las Cruces, who is retiring<\/a>, And Rep. Joni Gutierrez<\/a> of Mesilla, who is seeking the political position of\u00a0Democratic national committeewoman<\/a>\u00a0for New Mexico instead of running for re-election. Both women are Democrats.<\/p>\n

NMPolitics.net expects a formal announcement from Fischmann in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Fischmann join a growing list of lawmakers from around the state who are not seeking re-election this year. Other senators include Albuquerque Democrats Dede Feldman<\/a>, who\u00a0is retiring<\/a>, and\u00a0Eric Griego<\/a>, who is giving up his state Senate seat to run for\u00a0the 1st Congressional District seat<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. House; and Republicans\u00a0Clinton Harden<\/a>\u00a0of Clovis,\u00a0Vernon Asbill<\/a>\u00a0of Carlsbad, and\u00a0Mark Boitano<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who are all retiring (read more about Harden\u2019s departure\u00a0here<\/a>, Asbill\u2019s\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and Boitano\u2019s\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Several House members \u2013 all Democrats \u2013are also not seeking re-election. In addition to Gutierrez, they are Speaker\u00a0Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a>\u00a0of N\u00e1mbe and\u00a0Danice Picraux<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who are retiring (read about Luj\u00e1n\u2019s retirement here<\/a>);\u00a0Al Park<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who is running for a seat on the Public Regulation Commission;\u00a0Bill O\u2019Neill<\/a>\u00a0of Albuquerque, who is running for the Senate seat being\u00a0vacated by Feldman<\/a>; and Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, who is running for the Senate seat Nava is vacating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fischmann, who unseated longtime Republican Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a> in 2008, has been known for being more focused on policy than politics. He recently tried to find middle ground in the debate over allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses and went well beyond what others were proposing with a bill that attempted to comprehensively address immigration issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move didn\u2019t win him friends on the right and also angered some on the left<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fischmann, who was a successful community activist focused on growth and energy issues before running for Senate, recently helped start the nonprofit Children\u2019s Reading Foundation of Do\u00f1a Ana County<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fischmann was expected to face a tough re-election battle this year, though no one has yet announced their candidacy for his seat. Earlier this year, redistricting make his Senate seat one of the most competitive<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n

This article has been updated to include redistricting information.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: State Sen. Steve Fischmann told a group of Do\u00f1a Ana County women on Saturday that he isn\u2019t seeking re-election this year. He\u2019s the third Do\u00f1a Ana County lawmaker to announce his retirement in the last nine days.<\/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":[156,107],"class_list":["post-37535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37535","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=37535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}