{"id":640230,"date":"2018-10-30T09:20:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T15:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=640230"},"modified":"2018-10-30T09:20:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T15:20:46","slug":"working-with-the-legislature-will-be-key-for-next-governors-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/10\/working-with-the-legislature-will-be-key-for-next-governors-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Working with the Legislature will be key for next governor\u2019s success"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_506738\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-506738\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/SenateRoundhouse-771x486.jpg\" alt=\"The Senate chambers at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"486\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/SenateRoundhouse-771x486.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/SenateRoundhouse-336x212.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/SenateRoundhouse-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/SenateRoundhouse-1170x737.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/SenateRoundhouse.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Senate chambers at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Governors typically come into office with high expectations, after telling voters what legislation they\u2019ll ensure passes to improve the state.<\/p>\n<p>But they can run into one major challenge: the state Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>Any legislation must pass both the House and Senate with a majority from each chamber. To do so, the governor must convince and cajole members who represent ethnically, socio-economically, geographically and ideologically diverse districts throughout the state to advance the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>At times, their efforts crash upon the rocks and the promised progress is stalled. Other times, a compromise is reached.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/2018\/10\/29\/working-with-the-legislature-will-be-key-for-next-governors-success\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>,\u00a0a nonprofit news organization\u00a0focused on promoting a greater public understanding of politics and policy in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Democrats, who have controlled both chambers of the Legislature for much of the past eight years, often complained that Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s office did not communicate enough with legislators.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, for example,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/357972\/gov-says-she-would-have-supported-8-minimum-wage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">she claimed<\/a>\u00a0she would have signed a minimum wage increase to $8 per hour. Legislators said they were never told this.<\/p>\n<p>When speaking to current and former legislative leaders,\u00a0<i>NM Political Report\u00a0<\/i>consistently heard one piece of advice for the next governor when it came to building a better relationship with the Legislature: communicate.<\/p>\n<p>That applies to either Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham or Republican Steve Pearce, the two candidates vying to replace outgoing Gov. Susana Martinez after her two-terms in office.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle has served in the state Senate since 1985. The next governor will be the seventh he\u2019s served alongside. The Portales Republican said the governor should just do what everyone in the state does to get along with people \u2014 invite them for coffee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything in life is a matter of talking to people and trying to get them to know where they know you and they trust you,\u201d he said. \u201cThe secret to government is knowledge and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Communication with legislators often comes through the governor\u2019s staff, since the governor is only one person and the Legislature has 112 members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes staff people don\u2019t communicate as good as they should or sometimes staff people get a little heavy-handed with some of the decisions they make,\u201d Ingle said.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Rumors of clashes between top staffers in the governor\u2019s office and members of the Legislature come up nearly every legislative session.<\/p>\n<p>One Democrat, however, says conditions improved in the last session, the final of Martinez\u2019s time in office.<\/p>\n<p>Speaker of the House Brian Egolf, a Democrat, said that in the last 30-day session, Martinez\u2019s staff was helpful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe sent her chief of staff down at the beginning of the session to say something along the lines of \u2018we want to make sure that we\u2019re talking,\u2019 and we said, &#8216;that\u2019s great and let\u2019s keep it up,&#8217;\u201d Egolf said.<\/p>\n<p>When the governor doesn\u2019t communicate, Egolf said, problems can take place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you say \u2018That\u2019s it, conversation\u2019s over\u2019 and they walk away and the Legislature passes a bill and the governor vetoes it, and they\u2019re not talking, that doesn\u2019t benefit anybody,\u201d Egolf said.<\/p>\n<p>Egolf also said the next governor should provide leadership on \u201cbig economic development ideas.\u201d The Santa Fe Democrat said it isn\u2019t possible to work with the State Investment Council or the Economic Development Department without back-and-forth between the Legislature and governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Former Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez had many high-profile clashes with both Martinez and her predecessor, Democrat Bill Richardson, during his time in leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The clashes led to PACs with ties to Martinez spending big money to defeat him in 2016 (even as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/887728\/senate-majority-leader-says-he-willingly-endured-loss-for-good-of-party.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democrats made gains elsewhere in the state Senate<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez worked alongside Ingle for years, and the two helped their caucuses pass compromise legislation, often with bipartisan support, whether or not the governor signed the bill.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez said that the governor must work with the independent-minded Senate, not try to bully them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven when Richardson was there, I can remember him trying to tell me, \u2018This is what you gotta do and you better do it,\u2019\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cAnd because the Senate is an independent body, it just doesn\u2019t work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps because of his time working alongside Ingle, Sanchez had similar advice for the next governor, saying he or she should sit down with leaders between the election and the start of the legislative session and talk about what they need help with and listen to advice from the leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the key to moving our state forward,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cThe next governor has to listen &#8212; not only to the legislators, but to the people in terms of where we want to go and how we want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, even with all the advice on the next occupant of the offices on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse can work with the Legislature, there are still things that may be a bridge too far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s going to be some issues philosophically that the Legislature and the administration are not going to agree upon,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cAnd that goes to both sides of the aisle, as a matter of fact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Mexico Political Report\u00a0consistently heard one piece of advice for the next governor when it came to building a better relationship with the Legislature: communicate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":506738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2238,107],"class_list":["post-640230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2018-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640230","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=640230"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640236,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640230\/revisions\/640236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}