{"id":37778,"date":"2012-03-09T08:17:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T15:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=37778"},"modified":"2012-03-12T05:06:35","modified_gmt":"2012-03-12T11:06:35","slug":"roundhouse-gridlock-must-end-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/03\/roundhouse-gridlock-must-end-in-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundhouse gridlock must end in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heath<\/a>

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

If Gov. Susana Martinez is successful in remaking the Legislature in this year\u2019s election, so be it. If not, she needs to change her tone \u2013 and let\u2019s hope there will still be some lawmakers around who are interested in working with her.<\/h4>\n

Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> loves a good fight. She\u2019s picked a big one with the Legislature: Pass my agenda or I\u2019ll take you out<\/a> in the election and get new lawmakers to pass it next year.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been asked repeatedly what\u2019s behind this year\u2019s exodus from the Legislature<\/a>. Thus far seven senators have announced their retirements; nine House members have done the same, though some of them are running for other offices \u2013 including open Senate seats \u2013 rather than retiring.<\/p>\n

There are many factors, redistricting among them. But Democrat Steve Fischmann<\/a> highlighted one of the biggies in explaining to the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> why he\u2019s not seeking a second term in the Senate:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lawmaker said policy has taken a back seat to partisanship and there has been \u2018a profound lack of constructive action\u2019 in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said Republican Gov. Susana Martinez has created a \u2018gotcha\u2019 atmosphere with her office\u2019s videotaping during legislative sessions and the perceived threat that her political action committee will be used this election year to get rid of lawmakers who don\u2019t agree with her agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I think that really rankled folks, and created an atmosphere in which it is hard to move forward,\u2019 Fischmann said.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be clear, I think the Legislature needed to be \u201crankled.\u201d Every public meeting of the Legislature should be webcast live and archived for the public to access later. A failure to do that is attributable to old-time lawmakers trying to hang on to an era when they did their work in the dark.<\/p>\n

I told lawmakers earlier this year to quit whining and expand webcasting<\/a>. If they would embrace the transparency the public wants and technology in the 21st Century makes cheap and easy, I doubt Martinez would waste resources duplicating their work.<\/p>\n

Ground Zero for gridlock<\/h3>\n

But I honestly believe Fischmann is among those who thinks the Legislature needs some rankling. He may not have said it publicly, but I suspect he was also frustrated with his own party\u2019s Senate leader, Michael Sanchez<\/a>, and others who make the Senate Ground Zero for gridlock in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

Fischmann is exactly the type of legislator I believe this nation\u2019s founding fathers envisioned: Someone who is passionate about his own views but believes that a group of people from different walks of life honestly seeking compromise can find better solutions than any one of us can on our own.<\/p>\n

I think Fischmann went to Santa Fe with the hope that people passionate about their beliefs would duke it out and, at the end of the day, find middle ground. Instead, he discovered a dysfunctional system plagued by corruption, partisan bickering, grandstanding and personality conflicts (my words, not his).<\/p>\n

Fischmann made a move during this year\u2019s session that may have doomed him politically. Despite being up for re-election in the most politically balanced district in the Senate (50-50 on the performance scale), Fischmann inserted himself into the debate over allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses by going well beyond what others were proposing with a bill that\u00a0attempted to comprehensively address immigration issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t win him any friends on the right and angered some on the left<\/a>. But he believed it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because Fischmann, like Martinez, is interested solving problems. But with their different styles \u2013 she likes to win a fight and he likes to move beyond fighting \u2013 the two ended up passing each other in the night.<\/p>\n

Government needs to move<\/h3>\n

That\u2019s the sad part about what\u2019s happening right now. The problem in the Legislature isn\u2019t senators like Fischmann or Democrat Cynthia Nava<\/a>, who cites a deadlock on education reform as a factor in her decision to retire. Nava, a supporter of the governor\u2019s education proposals, worked hard \u2013 without success \u2013 to find compromise between her party and the governor, but told me everyone was \u201ckind of spinning our wheels in that regard because of the partisanship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s combative approach to governing has helped chase out lawmakers like them who seek compromise.<\/p>\n

The governor is entitled to be combative; in fact, voters seem to like it<\/a>. They want Santa Fe to function and see Martinez trying to cut through the red tape to get things done.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve watched Martinez grow from a young district attorney into the state\u2019s chief executive, and I honestly believe she wants to solve problems. She has dug in her heels because she\u2019s passionate about the issues on which she\u2019s chosen to fight a war.<\/p>\n

So war it is. Martinez may very well remake the Legislature during this year\u2019s election. Her agenda might sail through next year.<\/p>\n

But if the governor fails in her attempt to replace lawmakers she views as stumbling blocks, she needs to change her tone. To be effective, government needs to move. It\u2019s time to get things done.<\/p>\n

If the latter is the reality in 2013, let\u2019s hope Martinez looks for compromise \u2013 and that there are still lawmakers willing to do the same.<\/p>\n

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

If Gov. Susana Martinez is successful in remaking the Legislature in this year\u2019s election, so be it. If not, she needs to change her tone \u2013 and let\u2019s hope there will still be some lawmakers around who are interested in working with her.<\/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":[156,107],"class_list":["post-37778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-2012-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37778","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=37778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}