STEVE TERRELL'S NM LEGISLATURE BLOG

IT'S OVER. OR IS IT?

2008-02-14T21:00:52Z

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.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP

2008-02-14T07:50:25Z

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.

AS T.S. ELIOT WOULD SAY ...

2008-02-14T06:23:11Z

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."

SPEAKING OF THE SENATE KILLING BILLS ...

2008-02-14T00:18:56Z

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.

20, 20, 20, 20 HOURS TO GO

2008-02-13T23:33:51Z

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!

PRE-PRIMARY FIX PASSES

2008-02-13T20:09:03Z

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.

ETHICS COMMISSION BILL PASSES HOUSE

2008-02-12T23:57:43Z

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.

NETCASTING?

2008-02-12T20:38:58Z

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.

WHISTLE THIS

2008-02-12T20:31:07Z

Sen. Sue Beffort's Whistleblower Protection Act, SB 437 unaminously passed the Senate. The bill is designed to protect public employees who expose corruption and illegal activity they discover on the job.

The bill would allow government employees to sue their employer if they are retaliated against for disclosing improper practices or testify as a part of an investigation of wrongdoing.

Beffort in a news release said 27 other states -- including neighboring Texas, Colorado and Utah -- protect public employees against retaliation.

The question now is whether there's enough time for the bill to clear the House before noon Thursday.

NOTES ON THE "SHOWDOWN"

2008-02-12T16:41:18Z

As expected, Attorney General Gary King's office has sided with the Legislature and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish over the light guv's power to accept bills passed by the Legislature in the event of the guv's absence. Read Kate Nash's story HERE.

I wrote a speculative sidebar on possible scenarios on how this situation plays out. You can find that HERE. (Is there a scenario I left out? Feel free to comment here and/or on the New Mexican site.)

I also did a little analysis piece on Denish's showing some political independence from Gov. Bill Richardson, both in this situation and her public take on the state party's handling of last week's Democratic Caucus. You can find that HERE . But don't read that without also reading Deborah Baker's piece about Richardson's office denying state police protection for Denish. That one is HERE.

PROGRESS ON ELECTION BILL

2008-02-11T19:48:51Z

Rep. Al Park's HB 190 got a do-pass this morning from the Senate Rules Committee. That's the one that would let candidates who don't get 20 percent of the delegates at a party pre-primary convention to petition to get on the ballot. The bill goes on to Senate Judiciary. On the House side, the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee gave a do-pass to the mirror bill, SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Michael Sanchez. It goes to the House Voters and Elections Committee. Surely at least one of these will get through. But you never know.

Another interesting bill, Rep. Kenny Martinez's HB 438 -- which would allocate $176,000 to fix the Secretary of State's Web site and create a searchable database for campaign finance reports -- passed the House unanimously last week. It's on the Senate Rules Committee consent calendar for Tuesday, but still has to go tot the Senate Finance Committee before reaching the Senate floor.

UPDATE: I fixed the dollar amount for HB 438. I originally said the bill would allocate $176. Times aren't THAT bad here!

CQ SAYS UDALL AHEAD

2008-02-11T18:55:16Z

Congressional Quarterly has changed its rating of the U.S. Senate race in New Mexico from "No Clear Favorite" to "Leans Democratic."

A recent survey from New Mexico State University indicated Udall handily led both Reps. Heather A. Wilson and Steve Pearce in a general election match-up. In a one-on-one race with Pearce, Udall would hold a 22-point lead (53 percent to 31 percent, with 16 percent undecided) while he would lead Wilson by 28 points (58 percent to 30 percent, with 13 percent undecided), the poll indicated.

And in what promises to be one of the most expensive races of the 2008 election cycle, Udall raised more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than Wilson and Pearce combined, even though he did not get into the race until late November. According to the candidates’ year-end reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Udall raised just over $1 million in the fourth quarter while Wilson raised $524,000 and Pearce raised $402,000

You can read the whole article HERE.

REAX TO HB 9's TABLING

2008-02-10T00:15:14Z

(from e-mails)

Gov. Bill Richardson: “I am extremely disappointed with the Senate committee’s action. This is a matter of civil rights and equity for all New Mexicans. I urge the Senate to follow the courageous action by the House and allow a full vote on this issue.”

Sen. Clint Harden, R-Clovis (a member of the Judiciary Committee who voted against the bill): "Many constituents called, emailed and wrote to say they believe marriage is between a man and a woman and they asked that I vote no on the House’s domestic partnership bill,” Harden's news release said New Mexicans are able to contractually make arrangements to give them the protections some might have sought in the domestic partnership bill. He said his constituents did not want a bill that would lead to gay marriage.

Equality New Mexico Executive Director Alexis Blizman: “Despite this disappointing outcome, we are not yet done fighting for fairness and justice for all New Mexico families. We have a passionate governor and legislature who support this bill. With five days left in the session, win loose (or) draw, we will continue to fight.”

HB 9 TABLED BY SENATE JUDICIARY

2008-02-09T23:54:34Z

The Senate Judiciary has tabled HB 9, the Domestic Partnerships bill, by a 6-4 vote.

Supporters of the bill, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Cisco McSorley realized they didn't have the votes. He's been holding up the Judiciary Committee for days, apparently in hopes of being able to squeak this through.

I suppose supporters could "blast" the bill out to the Senate floor. But it's questionable whether there's the votes to pass it. Last year a similar bill was killed by just one vote in the Senate.

Heterosexual sexual couples can relax now. Your marriages will no longer be threatened by gay couples getting equal rights. At least until next session.

MORE LOBBYIST-SPONSORED PARTIES

2008-02-09T15:21:02Z

If lawmakers thought the Gift Act, passed last year, would put a crimp on the the free meals and parties they've come to expect during a session, they thought wrong.

My story on the latest round of lobbyist reports (meaning the reports that have come in since last time I'd checked a couple of weeks ago) can be found HERE.

My favorite item was the health-care company lobbyist who spent $3,000 on Santa Fe Baking Company cookies he had delivered to the Legislature. Shouldn't health-care companies be distributing fruits and vegetables instead?

I also did a sidebar on Santa Fe local government lobbyists HERE.

And here's the story I did based on lobbyist reports a couple of weeks ago. CLICK HERE.

A NEW STATE NICKNAME

2008-02-09T01:44:14Z

Early this week I made arrangements to contact Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics to get some comments on the New Mexico Democratic Caucus as the results came in Tuesday night.

We all know what happened Tuesday night.

So today I emailed Sabato to apologize for not contacting him Tuesday. (Not that he probably minded all that much. He's a much-in-demand pundit and had a gig with the BBC on Super Tuesday night.)

He responded, commenting on the lack of results from this state:

"I think New Mexico is a lovely state and I enjoy visiting. But this is outrageous. Maybe the state should change its slogan from Land of Enchantment to The New Florida."

TWO NIGHTS AFTER THE CAUCUS ...

2008-02-08T06:21:13Z

Once again, no ballots were counted all day Thursday. But, shortly before 9 p.m., the state Democratic Party released a statement announcing that The Clinton and Obama campaigns and the party have reached an agreement on the ground rules for counting the 17,000 or so provisional ballots cast Tuesday.

I'm not sure whether the shape of the table was one of the points of disagreement.

Here's the announcement:

Clinton and Obama Campaigns Agree on Ground Rules For Vote Counting Process

Agreement Paves the Way For Smooth Counting Process

(Albuquerque, NM) Today, the Democratic Party of New Mexico and the presidential campaigns of Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama reached an agreement of standards for qualifying the 17,276 provisional ballots cast during the February 5^th New Mexico Presidential Preference Caucus. The agreement determines how ballots will be verified and qualified.

"With this unprecedented turnout and close margin between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, both campaigns and the Democratic Party of New Mexico agreed to establish ground rules for the qualification of provisional ballots prior to the official count, thus assuring a more fair, consistent and transparent vote counting process," said Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon. "Often the vote counting process begins without agreement and is slowed by disagreement over the treatment of individual ballots, but by agreeing to common, inclusive standards the two campaigns and the party are taking the unprecedented step of preventing disagreement before it starts."

"Both campaigns have successfully worked together to reach a framework from which to move forward and ensure New Mexicans voices are heard in this process," Mara Lee, State Director for the Hillary Clinton Campaign.

"Today is a step forward in counting the thousands of provisional ballots in a transparent and fair way. We look forward to continuing to work with the New Mexico Democratic Party and the DNC to complete this process in the days to come," Carlos Monje, Jr, Obama State Director.

DEMS NEED VOLUNTEER COUNTERS

2008-02-08T01:16:28Z

No, the state Democrats haven't quite started counting the provisional ballots as of Thursday evening. Not sure what's the hold-up.

I first saw the following announcement from the Democracy for New Mexico blog. After talking with Robert Adams, I updated it.

ACTION ALERT: Help Needed to Count Caucus Ballots

ATTENTION ALL
Volunteers needed to come to REDW
And help count provisional ballots.
6401 Jefferson St NE
Albuquerque, NM 87109
(505) 998-3200

Please call me at 975-8780 if you can help today, tomorrow or Saturday.

Friday 7am - 3pm , 7 - 10 pm
Saturday 7am - 3pm, 7-10 pm

Thanks! Robert Adams, Deputy Clerk, Bernalillo County .

Adams said the count probably will go on Sunday and Monday as well.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP

2008-02-07T08:53:59Z

My weekly political column can be found HERE. In it I take a rather jaundiced look at New Mexico's kooky kaucus.

But don't accuse me of being a cynic. All the best cynics are dead.

PRE-PRIMARY FIX PASSES HOUSE

2008-02-06T19:42:18Z

The House just passed Al Park's HB 190, which would allow state and federal candidates who don't make the magic 20 percent cut-off at the pre-primary convention to gather petition signatures to get on the ballot. The House vote was 57-1. At this writing I don't know who the dissenter was.

This means that the Senate's "mirror" bill, SB 1 is in the House and the House bill is in the Senate. It appears there's no real opposition to the fix. But you never know.

DIE HARDS FOR BILL

2008-02-06T19:12:02Z

Gov. Bill Richardson, who dropped out of the presidential race last month, still appeared on the Dem Caucus ballot yesterday. At least for those lucky enough to get printed ballots.

According to the latest figures on the state Democratic Party Web site, 1,120 Democrats voted for Richardson yesterday.

There's no way of telling whether all of those were exempt state employees.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

2008-02-06T16:07:32Z

From the Associated Press:

"(Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon) said results from four precincts were being delayed — three in Rio Arriba County and one in Sandoval County — because the county chairpeople could not be reached."

For the record, Clinton is leading Obama by just over 100 votes, but there's still some 16,000 provisional ballots to count. And if anyone has seen those county chairs or knows where those ballots are, please alert the state Democratic Party.

CAUCUS UPDATE

2008-02-06T07:45:37Z

The state Dem Web site now includes Santa Fe County figures, including, apparently the polling places I didn't have when I filed my story. With those counties figured in as well as the votes for the non-active candidates, it looks like Obama won the county with 52.5 percent to Clinton's 35.8 percent. There are still 2.347 provisional ballots from Santa Fe that need to be counted.

There still are no results reported from Albuquerque or Las Cruces, so at this point nothin' means nothin'

Obama did carry Sandoval County, where there were serious problems with only one polling place in Rio Rancho.

Hillary is winning Congressional District 2, while Obama is winning CD 3. But in this district there are nearly 4,700 provisional ballots yet to be counted -- and the margin between the candidates is only about 3,000 votes.

The number of provisionals in CD 3 is more than 10 times the total of CD 2. Many of these ballots are the photocopies of ballots that had to be created to meet the demand of the huge turnout.

Believe me, we have not yet heard the end of complaints from people who had to wait hours, saw ballots run out and other frustrations. The caucus in Iowa sure seemed to go a lot more smoothly.

THE CAUCUS SO FAR

2008-02-06T06:26:07Z

Here's the results from Santa Fe County so far, with 18 out of 22 polling places reporting.

Obama has a good lead here -- nearly 60 percent to Clinton's 40.

Obama has 11,081 votes, Clinton has 7,506. There are 2,150 provisional votes, which represents about 10 percent of the county's vote.

So far I've seen no Bernalillo County results -- which means that any analysis at this point basically is meaningless.

So far Clinton is carrying most the small counties. Besides Santa Fe, the only counties so far going to Obama are Los Alamos, Taos and Catron -- where he won by five votes.

I had an interesting discussion tonight with Democratic Party activist Gideon Elliot, who said the party blew an opportunity by not allowing independents to vote.

“We’re losing young voters,” he said of the Democrats. With so many independents interested in Obama, it would have been a chance to attract them into the party, he said.

Of course there's probably some Dems who don't want to see a bunch of new faces in their party.

The results as they come in, can be found HERE.

CAUCUS DAY UPDATE:

2008-02-06T00:23:03Z

Some polling places in Santa Fe have reported running out of ballots. Party leadership says, "We have it covered."

Here's a word from the state chairman:

Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Brian Colón issued the following update today on the New Mexico Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus:

“Given the amazing amount of people turning out to polling sites across the State of New Mexico, we would like to re-assure voters that as long as you are in line by 7:00 p.m. we will ensure that everyone is able to cast their ballot.”

“We are experiencing tremendous voter turnout throughout the State of New Mexico and are very pleased that New Mexicans are going out to the polls in such large numbers to have their voice heard on who they want to be the Democratic nominee for President.