{"id":918,"date":"2006-11-27T03:02:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-27T09:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/11\/martinez-admits-considering-a-run-for-speaker\/"},"modified":"2006-11-27T03:02:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-27T09:02:00","slug":"martinez-admits-considering-a-run-for-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/11\/martinez-admits-considering-a-run-for-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez admits considering a run for speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Amid widespread speculation that Ben Lujan\u2019s<\/a> days as speaker of the House may be numbered, Rep. Ken Martinez<\/a> of Grants, the House majority leader, has admitted he may seek the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too early to tell,\u201d Martinez told the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a> in explaining that he hasn\u2019t ruled out a run against Lujan. \u201cAll of us are considering what would be appropriate in the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Democrats will pick their leaders on Dec. 18.<\/p>\n

Lujan has lost some confidence since he made this statement to me a week ago: \u201cMy members are evidently satisfied with my leadership, and there will be no challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lujan told the Tribune several days later that \u201cno one has told me they are planning anything. \u2026 I\u2019m pretty confident I have the necessary votes to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many House Democrats are upset with Lujan because of a $75 million appropriation for the settlement of water-rights lawsuits that he dropped into the capital outlay bill earlier this year without the knowledge of most legislators. They\u2019re also upset about his possible ties to the state housing authority scandal. The Albuquerque Journal<\/a> reported last week that a top aide to Lujan has been living rent-free in a home owned by the Region III Housing Authority.<\/p>\n

Martinez has still not returned phone calls I placed last week. Some politicos I\u2019ve spoken with believe he\u2019ll make a move, while others believe he\u2019ll back off. The game of chess being worked out behind the scenes is intense.<\/p>\n

Another politician I\u2019ve been unable to reach for comment is Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces and chair of the House Judiciary Committee. He sought the majority leader position two years ago, but ended up giving his support to Martinez in exchange for the committee chairmanship. Any move by Martinez would mean majority leader is up for grabs, and Cervantes is one who might consider a run.<\/p>\n

Several House Democrats from around the state have told me off-the-record that they are fed up with Lujan leading with an iron fist and through back-room deals. Rep. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a> of Las Cruces has publicly complained about Lujan\u2019s $75-million grab (which was later vetoed by the governor).<\/p>\n

And Cervantes, along with Sen. Dede Feldman<\/a>, introduced legislation earlier this year that would open conference committees<\/a> to the public. The Senate version died. Cervantes\u2019 bill went nowhere, and he said publicly during a meeting of Common Cause earlier this year in Las Cruces that he believes some legislative leaders killed the proposal as much to keep other legislators out of their meetings as to keep out the public.<\/p>\n

Cervantes did not name Lujan, but the speaker joined the Senate\u2019s leadership in publicly opposing the legislation.<\/p>\n

There seems to be an obvious point to make here: Many House Democrats have told me they believe Lujan is making secret deals for political gain, not for the betterment of the state, and said they think that\u2019s wrong. Earlier this year, 81 percent of voters in a non-scientific poll on this site said Lujan should not be allowed to continue as speaker.<\/p>\n

If House Democrats truly believe Lujan is corrupt, they have a duty to stand up to him. If they don\u2019t, they\u2019re complicit in the activity about which they complain.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t need any more hypocrisy in Santa Fe. We need leaders who do what they believe is right, not what they believe is best for their own political careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid widespread speculation that Ben Lujan\u2019s days as speaker of the House may be numbered, Rep. Ken Martinez of Grants, the House majority leader, has admitted he may seek the position. \u201cIt\u2019s too early to tell,\u201d Martinez told the Albuquerque Tribune in explaining that he hasn\u2019t ruled out a run against Lujan. \u201cAll of us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","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=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}