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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.
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!
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.
Rep. Al Park's HB 190, which would make it easier for candidates in state and congressional races to get on the primary ballot unanimously cleared the House Consumer & Public Affairs Committee Tuesday. My story in today's New Mexican is HERE.
The mirror bill, SB 1, is working its way through the Senate.
If the bipartisan support shown on the House committee holds up the bill shouldn't have difficulty winning the two-thirds majority vote needed to pass the emergency clause, menaing the bill would go into effect before the March 15 pre-primary conventions. Without the bill it's possible that only one candidate -- and possibly even no candidates -- would be able to get on the ballot in some of these crowded primaries.
Speaking of today's paper, I also have a round-up of Democratic presidential caucus news -- including the possibility of Gov. Richardson endorsing a candidate this week. That story is HERE. In it I quote a story about Richardson in The Washington Post. But I didn't use my favorite part of the story by Jose Antonio Vargas, where Richardson says Barack Obama saved him in one of the debates.
"I had just been asked a question -- I don't remember which one -- and Obama was sitting right next to me. Then the moderator went across the room, I think to Chris Dodd, so I thought I was home free for a while. I wasn't going to listen to the next question. I was about to say something to Obama when the moderator turned to me and said, 'So, Gov. Richardson, what do you think of that?' But I wasn't paying any attention! I was about to say, 'Could you repeat the question? I wasn't listening.' But I wasn't about to say I wasn't listening. I looked at Obama. I was just horrified. And Obama whispered, 'Katrina. Katrina.' The question was on Katrina! So I said, 'On Katrina, my policy . . .' Obama could have just thrown me under the bus. So I said, 'Obama, that was good of you to do that.'"
