STEVE TERRELL'S NM LEGISLATURE BLOG

I don't know whether anyone actually looks at this thing anymore, or how long this is going to be up, but just in case you stumble across this blog, please check out my NEW political blog, ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: THE BLOG.

My old blog is now my music blog. It's still HERE

Happy New Year!

I suppose I should blog here during the special session ...

UPDATE (Aug. 15):  Nawww .... I'll just do it on my regular blog. Nothing's happening any way. They came, they recessed and rumor is they'll come back. (Officially the Senate at 2:20 p.m. and the House at around 3.)

SINE DIE!

The session is over, but Gov. Richardson already is threatening a special session. Possibly as early as Monday, he said. I don't think many actually believe that.

Richardson praised the House, but blasted the Senate -- especially the leadership and the Finance Committee.

Of the failure of his health care bill, the governor said, "Unfortunately, a handful of Senators, including certain members of the Senate leadership and the Senate Finance Committee, were more focused on power, turf and personal agendas."

Power, turf and personal agendas. Sound familiar?

Many lawmakers I talked to said they expect a special after the June primary. But maybe that's just wishful thinking.

House Majority Leader Ken Martinez just said what Speaker Ben Lujan said last night -- that a special session would be useless without a lot of groundwork aimed at reaching a consensus on health care.

But just a few minutes before, Richardson said he disagreed with that.

The House passed the capitol outlay bill with only five voting no.

No health care bill, virtually no ethics bills, no stem cell research, no domestic partners.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that Brian Condit's son retained his mixed-martial arts (cage fighting) welter-weight title with a first-round knock out.

I'll be leaving this blog, at least until the special session. But please don't be a stranger at my regular blog, http://steveterrell.blogspot.com. 

My latest weekly political column, Roundhouse Round-up can be found HERE. It deals with ducks and dreams.

My story, with Kate Nash about the anti-climatic last night of the session is HERE.

And a more light-hearted piece, concerning all the gifts legislators find on their desk every day, is HERE.

I'd better get to sleep. It's been a long day and it'll be starting early Thursday.

 This is the way the world will end. Not with a bang, but a whimper. 

Been too busy to post the past few hours, but the "6 o'clock showdown" never happened because Gov. Bill Richardson acted on the spending bills around 5 p.m. He vetoed the entire Capital Outlay bill , HB 43 and signed SB 165 with some line item vetos.

The House -- which in recent years usually goes into the wee hours on the last night of the session -- quietly shut down at about 9:30. They're coming back in the morning. It's 11 p.m. now and the Senate is talking about leaving pretty soon. For the past several hours they've dealt with minor bills and memorials. At one point the senators paid tribute to Pete Domenici. God knows there haven't been nearly enough tributes to Pete Domenici.

Sen. Shannon Robinson might have put it best: “I think it would be best to just let the system crash,” he told me. “I’m not sure very much can happen now.”

There's a Senate bill in the House, SB 471, which is nearly identicial to HB 43. The governor wants the House to pass it. That way he can pick and chose what to line-item veto over the next 20 days. The House should take this up in the morning.

By the way, the governor didn't attend the press conference to explain his vetoes. His staff refused to say where he was, but several reliable sources said he went to the cage matches at Santa Ana Star Casino. Carlos Condit, son of Richardson aide Brian Condit, a champion mixed-martial arts fighter was on the card, defending his world welterweight title.

I think some cage matches would liven up the remaining hours of  this legislature.

XXXXX

Funniest thing I saw in the Roundhouse today: A lobbyist handed me a card for a new supposed organization called "Lobbyist Association Mobilized for Benevolent Equality" or L.A.M.B.E., described as "Advocates of Ethics Reform." The group's motto: "There Ought to be a Law."

On Tuesday the Senate voted down the Electronic Medical Records Act, HB 37, which was part of the governor's Health Care package. The bill, which passed the House 51-10, was supposed to pass easily. But in the Senate, it wasn't even close. The vote was 13 in favor, 23 against.

Also going down in flames was Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino's SB 474, which would have required insurance companies to disclose more information to consumers about the price of policies. The bill was amended to remove the enacting clause, which means it couldn't have become law even if it passed. Ortiz y Pino said opponents made confetti.

But here's some good news: The flowers in front of Room 300 -- which is part of a memorial to the late Corinne Wolf, who was champion of human service causes -- were returned. There is goodness in this world.

I wanna be sedated.

Everyone in the Roundhouse is gripped with anticipation of the 6 o'clock showdown. What's going to happen? Those who know won't say. Those who say don't know.

A senator I talked to said the governor could offer an "olive branch" by bringing down the spending bills before six and ask the Senate for a vote on the health care bill. (The senator predicted the Senate would vote down the bill.)

Supposedly lawyers for the Legislature supposedly are prepared to file some sort of legal action with the Supreme Court.

Someone suggested that Richardson would act on the bills before 6 tonight -- but not deliver them to the Legislature until 8 a.m.

There's a rumor Richardson would veto all the Senate project, but leave the House's project relatively intact.

Meanwhile, whoever stole the flowers from Room 300, please return them! 

This one sneaked by me yesterday.

The House, with only one dissenting vote (Rep. Moe Maestas) passed Sen. Michael Sanchez's SB 1, which allows candidates shot out at the pre-primary conventions to submit additional petitions to get on the primary ballot.

The bill passed with wide enough margins in both the House and Senate that the emergency clause will allow the bill to go into effect immediately -- as soon as the governor signs it. That might affect some of the crowded Congressional primaries in New Mexico.

Gov. Richardson has said he supports the bill.

Both major parties' pre-primary conventions are scheduled for March 15.  

An ethics bill that's been crawling all session actually passed the House today.

Rep. Mary Helen Garcia’s HB 309 now goes to the Senate, where it will have a day and a half to to what it took 28 days to do in the House.

“A State Ethics Commission will promote increased accountability for ethical behavior and strengthen the state’s ethical standards,” Garcia said in a statement. “We must restore the people’s confidence and trust in government. The voters want ethics reform.”

Good luck.

 The Senate just voted 27 to 13 in favor of a memorial that requests  the Legislative Council make arrangements start streaming Senate proceedings on the internet beginning next year.

 Back in 2005 Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, successfully carried a bill that appropriated  $75,000  for webcasting of the Senate. But Boitano said the council has not yet directed its staff to solicit bids so webcasting could begin.

Sen. Joe Carraro, R-Albuquerque, in supporting the bill joked that the main reason he's running for Congress is so he can be on C-SPAN.

It's not clear what affect this memorial will do, but maybe next year the Legislature will be streaming live.