{"id":924,"date":"2006-11-28T10:11:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-28T16:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/11\/martinez-seeking-support-for-lujan-ouster\/"},"modified":"2006-11-28T10:11:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-28T16:11:00","slug":"martinez-seeking-support-for-lujan-ouster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/11\/martinez-seeking-support-for-lujan-ouster\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez seeking support for Lujan ouster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>House Majority Leader Ken Martinez is seeking support for a bid to unseat Speaker Ben Lujan.<\/p>\n

Before I go any further, kudos to Joe Monahan<\/a> for reporting this before me. We\u2019ve both been talking with people about it for days, but he found sources before I did who were willing to be quoted, albeit anonymously.<\/p>\n

When House Democrats meet Dec. 18, Martinez will need 22 of 42 votes to unseat Lujan. Even then, there won\u2019t be certainty. Technically, the entire House votes to elect a speaker on the first day of the session. In addition to potential Republican votes, Lujan could convince some Martinez supporters to switch sides before then.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, historically, Democrats emerge from their December meeting in consensus, and vote as a group at the start of the session.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s decision apparently came after a closed-door meeting with Lujan early last week. Martinez expressed concern about a possible appearance of corruption in the House Democratic leadership, and in particular a report in the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> that a top aide to Lujan has been living rent-free in a home owned by the Region III Housing Authority.<\/p>\n

Few know what else was said at the meeting, but afterward, Martinez began making phone calls seeking support, sources tell me.<\/p>\n

Will Martinez have the votes? I spent a lot of time Monday talking with two politicos about this. One doesn\u2019t think Martinez will; the other thinks it\u2019s a 50-50 split. At least two House Democrats who Martinez\u2019s supporters were hoping to win over have said they won\u2019t likely go that way.<\/p>\n

This may, in part, be about ethical concerns, but it\u2019s also about power. Martinez\u2019s father is a former House speaker, and Martinez has long been ordained as Lujan\u2019s eventual replacement.<\/p>\n

Other lawmakers sense opportunity. At least one is seeking a promise of a committee chairmanship in exchange for support. Others are seeking committee appointments.<\/p>\n

Martinez, I\u2019m told, has made at least one such promise. Lujan is telling House members that he isn\u2019t yet making commitments to anyone. You can be certain he\u2019ll use them if he believes needs them.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he\u2019s using fear of uncertainty to try to keep the troops in line.<\/p>\n

The fact that he hasn\u2019t yet handed out promises suggests that Lujan is fairly confident he has the votes he needs. However, the fact that Martinez is challenging Lujan suggests he\u2019s also confident. A failed attempt to oust Lujan could be political suicide.<\/p>\n

Then again, if he finds he doesn\u2019t have the votes, Martinez might quietly get back in line and never formally challenge Lujan.<\/p>\n

That means there may or may not be an opening for majority leader. If there is, Rep. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces appears to be the favorite, sources tell me.<\/p>\n

Martinez and Cervantes are both lawyers, and some are saying they won\u2019t support Martinez because they don\u2019t want lawyers running the show. For the most part, that\u2019s an excuse, and this is still about loyalty to Lujan.<\/p>\n

And fear of Lujan. Some worry that, if they support Martinez and he fails, committee positions and capital outlay money won\u2019t come their way.<\/p>\n

Martinez is building a coalition that includes support from the north and south, but Lujan has support from every corner of the state. It\u2019s too early to predict how this will end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Majority Leader Ken Martinez is seeking support for a bid to unseat Speaker Ben Lujan. Before I go any further, kudos to Joe Monahan for reporting this before me. We\u2019ve both been talking with people about it for days, but he found sources before I did who were willing to be quoted, albeit anonymously. […]<\/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-924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924","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=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}