{"id":485455,"date":"2017-12-18T09:19:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T16:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=485455"},"modified":"2017-12-19T09:47:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T16:47:43","slug":"democratic-senators-remove-padilla-from-leadership-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/12\/democratic-senators-remove-padilla-from-leadership-position\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic senators remove Padilla from leadership position"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disclosure: The author of this article has\u00a0opined on this issue<\/a>, and his girlfriend is\u00a0<\/em>among those who pushed for Padilla to leave the lieutenant governor\u2019s race.<\/em><\/p>\n

Democratic leaders in the N.M. Senate had words of praise for Michael Padilla even as their caucus removed him over the weekend from a leadership position.<\/p>\n

\"Michael

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Michael Padilla<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSenator Padilla is a valued member of the New Mexico state Senate,” said Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe. “We look forward to supporting his ongoing legislative efforts to create jobs and help New Mexico families.\u201d<\/p>\n

And\u00a0Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, said she appreciates “everything\u00a0Senator Padilla has accomplished.”<\/p>\n

“He is a strong and compassionate advocate for the people of New Mexico,” Papen said.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats made the decision during a closed-door meeting to remove Padilla, D-Albuquerque, from the position of majority whip. Padilla has been plagued recently by the resurfacing of lawsuits from a decade ago charging him with creating a\u00a0\u201csexually hostile\u201d workplace while tasked with overhauling Albuquerque\u2019s 911 dispatch center.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Padilla quit his bid<\/a> to become the state’s next lieutenant governor, saying he didn’t want to become a distraction.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats will decide at a later meeting who will replace Padilla as their whip. Padilla intends to remain in the Senate.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, Padilla was accused of asking dispatch employees for dates despite objections, making sex jokes, and saying women belonged at home having babies and making tortillas. Padilla has always denied the charges, saying his mistake was enacting reform too quickly.<\/p>\n

A City of Albuquerque investigation\u00a0validated some allegations<\/a>\u00a0made against Padilla a decade ago. The city settled one lawsuit for $149,000. A jury sided with one of Padilla\u2019s accusers in\u00a0a second lawsuit<\/a>, finding the city liable for subjecting the woman to a \u201csexually hostile work environment.\u201d The city paid $1,200 to the woman and more than $101,000 in legal fees.<\/p>\n

After Senate Democrats stripped Padilla of his leadership position this weekend, Padilla posted on Facebook<\/a> that he appreciates the opportunity to have served in the job.<\/p>\n

“Tomorrow is another day, and I will work just as hard as I always do,” Padilla wrote. “I look forward to continued partnerships with my colleagues to get New Mexico moving in the right direction again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Democrats will decide at a later meeting who will replace Padilla as their whip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":476400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3321,107,292],"class_list":["post-485455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-michael-padilla","tag-roundhouse","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485455","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=485455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}