{"id":963,"date":"2006-12-07T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-07T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/12\/should-seniority-trump-experience-in-the-senate\/"},"modified":"2006-12-07T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-07T14:59:00","slug":"should-seniority-trump-experience-in-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/12\/should-seniority-trump-experience-in-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Should seniority trump experience in the Senate?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some Democrats have expressed concern to me that the proposal to make Tim Jennings chair of the Finance Committee and Carlos Cisneros vice chair will take knowledge and experience away from two important committees. <\/p>\n

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

The Committee\u2019s Committee meets next week to discuss assignments. But Senate President Pro Tem Ben Altimirano, citing seniority, wants to replace the retiring Finance Chair Joe Fidel of Grants with Roswell<\/st1:city>\u2019s Jennings<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, and John Arthur Smith of Deming with Cisneros of Questa.<\/p>\n

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

That leaves Smith with the possibility of chairing the Education Committee, replacing Cynthia Nava of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

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

None who shared concerns with me would go on the record. In the Senate and House, it\u2019s becoming increasingly difficult to find Democratic legislators willing to talk about what they\u2019re calling internal matters.<\/p>\n

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

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan told me Wednesday that leadership and committee appointments are \u201cfamily business\u201d of the Democratic Party and not something most members want to discuss publicly.<\/p>\n

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

But the results could have a major impact on the business legislators do for the public.<\/p>\n

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

Smith has essentially run the Finance Committee for the past two years. Removing him from its leadership at a time when Fidel is also retiring would rid the committee of its two leaders at once. Some legislators have told me they\u2019re worried that the committee, without that experience and knowledge, would be less able to act independently and stand firm in the face of pressure from the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Then there\u2019s the Education Committee. Where would Nava end up if Smith took the chair? Would she take the vice chair from Mary Kay Papen of Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>? Would she move to another committee?<\/p>\n

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

Nava was appointed<\/a> in October by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to the National Assessment Governing Board \u2013 more commonly known as \u201cThe Nation\u2019s Report Card\u201d<\/a> \u2013 and is one of 26 members of the board, which is tasked with developing policy recommendations for assessment of schools across the nation under the No Child Left Behind Act.<\/p>\n

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

As a board member Nava, who is also a deputy superintendent of the Gadsden<\/st1:placename> Independent<\/st1:placename> School District<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>, is involved in selecting which subjects will be tested and what the objectives will be at each grade level, in addition to ensuring that standard benchmarks don\u2019t discriminate against any group.<\/p>\n

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

Several Democrats have called to tell me they think it\u2019s ridiculous that, at a time when Nava has just begun in this influential role, she might lose her position as chair of the Senate Education Committee.<\/p>\n

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

Many have told me they believe seniority should play a role in committee assignments, but so should experience. For example, one said to me, Smith isn\u2019t likely to become chair of the Judiciary Committee, because legislators have generally acknowledged that it\u2019s best to have an attorney lead that committee.<\/p>\n

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

As for Smith and Nava, they both declined comment. Altimirano has not returned my calls. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Democrats have expressed concern to me that the proposal to make Tim Jennings chair of the Finance Committee and Carlos Cisneros vice chair will take knowledge and experience away from two important committees. The Committee\u2019s Committee meets next week to discuss assignments. But Senate President Pro Tem Ben Altimirano, citing seniority, wants to replace […]<\/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-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","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=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}