{"id":949,"date":"2006-12-04T12:58:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-04T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/12\/altamirano-wants-jennings-cisneros-to-lead-finance-committee-smith-to-move-to-education\/"},"modified":"2006-12-04T12:58:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-04T18:58:00","slug":"altamirano-wants-jennings-cisneros-to-lead-finance-committee-smith-to-move-to-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/12\/altamirano-wants-jennings-cisneros-to-lead-finance-committee-smith-to-move-to-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Altamirano wants Jennings, Cisneros to lead Finance Committee, Smith to move to education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Senate Democrats this weekend voted by acclimation to keep the 2006 leaders in place next year, but committee assignments are still up for grabs \u2013 and the results could have major consequences for senators from Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ben Altamirano<\/a> of Silver<\/st1:placename> City<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> will continue as president pro tem. Michael Sanchez<\/a> of Belen will continue as majority leader. Mary Jane Garcia<\/a> of Do\u00f1a Ana will continue as majority whip.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Where things go from there is much more complicated. The uncertainty stems from last week\u2019s announcement of the retirement of Sen. Joe Fidel<\/a> of Grants, the current chair of the Finance Committee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Garcia told me much has already been worked out. She said Tim Jennings<\/a> of Roswell, not John Arthur Smith<\/a> of Deming, will chair finance, and Carlos Cisneros<\/a> of Questa will be vice chair.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That would unseat Smith, who has officially been vice chair of the committee for the last two years but basically ran the show for the aging Fidel.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Smith, Garcia said, \u201ccan take the chair of any other committee he chooses,\u201d but said he was offered chair of the Education Committee. That committee is currently chaired by Cynthia Nava<\/a> of Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. Its vice chair is Mary Kay Papen<\/a> of Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Other Senate Democrats, who did not want to be named, said the situation is still being worked out, and is not the finalized deal portrayed by Garcia. But they acknowledged that Altamirano is pushing exactly what Garcia revealed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Garcia said the proposal has nothing to do with politics, but is based on seniority. Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and Cisneros have been senators longer than Smith. She said finance chair was first offered to John Pinto<\/a> of Tohatchi, who has been in the Senate longer than Jennings and Cisneros, but he turned it down to remain chair of the Indian and Cultural Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One Republican Senator I spoke with agreed with Garcia, saying Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has paid his dues and deserves to be finance chair.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Others were skeptical, and suggested that the governor\u2019s fingerprints were on the situation. The Senate has often been a thorn in Bill Richardson\u2019s side, and Smith, as the man who often ran the most powerful committee, has been responsible for some of that. Though Jennings<\/st1:city> hasn\u2019t been a friend to the governor either, he could be a compromise choice along with Cisneros, who is a close ally of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

James Jimenez, Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s chief of staff, told the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a> he met with Altamirano last week but didn\u2019t discuss Senate leadership. He said the governor doesn\u2019t meddle in such matters \u2013 a statement most find hard to believe.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Any such change would have consequences for Southern New Mexico<\/st1:place>. If Smith goes from vice chair of the most powerful committee to chair of the Education Committee, either Nava or Papen will lose a committee leadership position or have to go to another committee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Papen, like Smith, has been instrumental in keeping the Senate independent of the governor. Were there a design to what\u2019s happening, eliminating such dissent might be a part of it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Asked about that, Garcia had this to say:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThank God we\u2019re not going through anything like the House is right now, and we\u2019re working better with the governor too,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe\u2019re a more cohesive unit than we\u2019ve been in the past. There\u2019s no division.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the other hand, the proposal by Altamirano could unseat Nava, who has often been an ally of the governor, so it\u2019s hard to see why Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> would support replacing her with someone who has given him many headaches.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the truth? It\u2019s hard to tell at this point, and Altamirano has not returned calls I placed last week. Unlike the House, where the speaker controls everything, seniority is traditionally a big factor in committee assignments in the Senate. At the same time, it\u2019s also tradition for the Committees\u2019 Committee to play prominent role in the selections.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This time around, according to Garcia, Altamirano is making the decisions himself, but citing seniority as the criteria.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If he needs the Committees\u2019 Committee, perhaps it should be no surprise that five of its 10 members are Altamirano, Sanchez, Garcia, Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and Cisneros.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sen. Garcia called after reading this posting to say that she never told me Altamirano offered Smith chair of the Education Committee. She claims she told me earlier today that Smith asked for that position, and she asked me to correct that for the record.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

My notes reflect Garcia saying it was offered by Altamirano, not sought by Smith, and that\u2019s what I recall Garcia saying, but I wanted to allow Garcia this opportunity to be heard, since she\u2019s apparently taking some heat.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Either way, it\u2019s clear that Smith has spent a great deal of time working his way toward chairing the Finance Committee, and Altamirano is now proposing that he instead do something else.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Smith refused to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Democrats this weekend voted by acclimation to keep the 2006 leaders in place next year, but committee assignments are still up for grabs \u2013 and the results could have major consequences for senators from Southern New Mexico. Ben Altamirano of Silver City will continue as president pro tem. Michael Sanchez of Belen will continue […]<\/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-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","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=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}