NM Capitol Report | A view from the New Mexico state capitol

Governor's hair apparent to all

Some stories just can't be clipped

Gov. Susana Martinez had difficulty discussing issues this week while at the National Governors Association winter meeting.

"I was in D.C., and all they asked about was my hair," Martinez said today to Stuart Dyson, grizzled reporter for Albuquerque television station KOB.

It was Dyson who broke the story of a Santa Fe hair stylist declining to book the governor because she opposes gay marriage.

Martinez, 52, said she had not been to that particular stylist in 10 months.

The governor's staff reports that, after the stylist rebuffed her as a repeat client, Martinez received offers from many others who would be thrilled to cut and color her locks.

Dyson (below) has been a reporter for more than 30 years. He also worked for three years for the state Senate.

He knows the news business and he understands politics. But how certain stories get most of the attention is something he still cannot account for.

Suffice it to say that he saw nothing special about his 80-second story on  the governor's once but not future stylist.

A hard worker, Dyson churned out two other stories the day he reported on the stylist. But, it seems, only one of his pieces commanded attention from America's governors.

MARTINEZ ON POLITICKING

Aside from her grooming, Martinez talked today about a range of issues, including campaigning. She spoke during a 10-minute news conference after she signed a bill to give a property tax break to more veterans.

Has she pushed certain legislators to retire?

"Oh, no," Martinez said.

She also said she had not and would not use her office to assist in campaigns. But, of course, her political organization is another matter.

Through it, she can use her clout to help legislative candidates who share her beliefs.

SPACEPORT, IN BLACK AND WHITE

Legislators in February declined to pass a law that would have prevented space travelers' from suing manufacturers and suppliers in cases of negligance at Sportport America.

Martinez said the legislators' stand had made the Spaceport "less competitive" with similar operations sprouting around the country, including Florida, Texas, Virginia and Colorado.

"Unfortunately, special interest groups take care of themselves," Martinez said of the decision in New Mexico not to block lawsuits against space companies.

Legislators would not appreciate Martinez's loaded language. The "special interests" she referred to could have other names, such as tourists and consumers.

If Ford makes a defective vehicle, it is liable in the courts to drivers and passengers. Legislators say the same standard -- not a double standard -- should apply to manufacturers in the nascent space-travel industry.

Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, is a graduate of New Mexico State University and has been a supporter of most legislation to help the Spaceport. He said he hoped it would blossom into a tourist draw for southern New Mexico.

But Griego (right) voted against shielding Spaceport manufacturers from lawsuits. A government that looks out for businesses but not consumers is not doing its job, he said.

Griego is among at least a half-dozen state senators who will not be back in 2013. He is running for Congress in the New Mexico's 1st District, based in Albuquerque.

Definition of military vets widens

Gov. Susana Martinez said she righted a wrong today by signing a bill that expands New Mexico’s definition of military veterans.

The measure will enable the state to offer a small break on property taxes to those who served for at least six consecutive years in National Guard or military reserve units, even if they were never called to active duty by the U.S. government.

Previous state law restricted the veterans’ tax benefit. Those who had not served 90 consecutive days on active duty did not qualify, Martinez said.

                                                                                                                      Burt: 1st bill to become law

Martinez signed the bill at National Guard headquarters before a few hundred soldiers, all of them cheering.

She said the state’s old system of defining veterans could have slighted service members who helped fight the Las Conchas fire that burned 150,000 acres last summer, or those who helped northern New Mexicans displaced during the unseasonably cold winter of 2011.

“In my mind, these heroes have always been veterans,” Martinez said.

Sen. Bill Burt, R-Alamogordo, sponsored the bill broadening the definition of veterans. For Burt, appointed to the Senate by Martinez 13 months ago, this was his first bill to be signed into law.

He said a constituent in the Las Cruces area called his attention to the problem of differing treatment for who served in the military but were not on active duty.

A woman who was an officer in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service found upon moving to New Mexico that she did not qualify for the state veterans’ benefit.

Her service record was sound, but the rigid language in state law relegated her to non-veteran status, Burt said.

The woman had a 100 percent disability, so any financial benefit was important. But beyond that, Burt said, the state was wrong not to recognize the service that she and others had provided.

Burt worked with the staff at the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services to draft the bill expanding the definition of who is a veteran.

Martinez also signed two other bills to help veterans living in New Mexico.

The measures will enable people registering vehicles or getting a tax refund to use a check-off system to donate to the Veterans’ Enterprise Fund. It helps pay for projects throughout the state.

Environmental groups chastise PNM

 

Regulatory commissioner Marks says they are right to criticize 'conventional coal' production
 

PNM's San Juan Generating Station. (Photography by Erika Blumenfeld)

Five environmental groups issued a report today accusing PNM, the state’s largest utility company, of being a greedy and shortsighted corporate citizen.

The Sierra Club, New Energy Economy and others say PNM raised rates three times in four years, increased executive pay by 68 percent and improved its bottom line while New Mexico residents typically saw their household income drop.

“PNM is a monopoly. Why does the CEO make $2.5 million a year?” said David Van Winkle, a Sierra Club member from Santa Fe.

Van Winkle authored the report’s financial analysis that was critical of the utility. It accused PNM of “a pattern of aggressive rate, profit and pay increases.”

Frederick Bermudez, a spokesman for PNM, said the report was a hodgepodge of unsupported accusations and errors. Further, he said, the groups ignored PNM’s track record of social responsibility and its recent financial difficulties.

“In general, much of the information that they released is inaccurate and disingenuous. Their claims about executive compensation and earnings cannot be verified, even internally,” Bermudez said.

He said the CEO’s pay, minus stock options that fluctuate with market prices, would have topped at $2.2 million, and that bonuses were paid by shareholders of PNM stock, not ratepayers.

Van Winkle said he understood the distinction but did not believe it mattered to hard-pressed consumers, who have seen executive pay rise with their electric bills.

Bermudez said the report contained gaps, including the fact that PNM only recently had sought rate increases.

It actually decreased electric rates three times between 1994 and 2007. Then the recession hit, Bermudez said, and PNM found itself in a difficult financial position that necessitated more income.

“We’re barely now starting to get out heads above water,” he said.

PNM in 2010 collected $191.7 million but poured $226.8 million into utility operations, Bermudez said. The additional $35 million came from stockholders who invested in PNM, not ratepayers, he said.

Mariel Nanasi is executive director of New Energy Economy, one of the five groups critical of PNM’s practices.

She pointed to the utility’s pay scale of 12 senior officers. In 2009, nine of them were making at least $200,000 a year. PNM received rate increases, authorized by the state Public Regulation Commission, in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

The typical residential consumer of electricity is paying about $250 a year more since 2008, her report says. That is a 41 percent increase.

Nanasi (left) said even as PNM drove up rates during the recession it failed to meet a state-mandated target for renewable energy.

Two other utilities that operate in New Mexico — El Paso Electric and Southwestern Public Service — complied with state law by providing 10 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, such as sun and wind. PNM stood at 7.3 percent.

“PNM has obstructed law and failed to invest back into New Mexico,” she said. “Its policy is delay, deny, defend. It would rather hire lawyers than do what it is supposed to.”

Bermudez said PNM, with 500,000 customers, has a much larger volume than other utilities and therefore more difficulty in reaching renewable energy targets.

In addition, the same law that mandates renewable energy contains cost caps, so that the consumers are not hit with exceptionally high utility bills. Renewable energy costs more to produce, and the company is bound not to force those extra costs onto the consumer, Bermudez said.

Even with the difficulties inherent in being the state’s utility giant, he said, PNM invested $100 million last year on a 22-megawatt solar power project uniquely tied to a battery storage power oepration, he said.

Jason Marks is the only state regulatory commissioner who has been in office during the three recent PNM rate increases.

Marks, D-Albuquerque, said the authors of the report “are mostly right about the big picture” in their criticisms of PNM.

“PNM should redirect its resources toward the future, not the past,” Marks said of corporate interest in spending hundreds of millions of dollars for pollution controls on conventional coal plants.

He said the report should be used as a catalyst by PNM to stop warring with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and retire a couple of its coal plants in favor of renewable energy production.

As for pay of PNM executives, Marks said he appreciated the groups’ criticisms, especially symbolically.

“The economy is weak. Folks are out of work. But would the executive compensation at PNM have a material impact on rates? The answer at this point is no,” Marks said.

Marks (right) last year single-handedly created a rate structure for PNM that that cut by $38 million the increase it sought over three years. Then he persuaded a majority of the five-member commission to install the lower rates.

Even so, Nanasi said the Public Regulation Commission had “abdicated it responsibility to the citizens of New Mexico” with the series of PNM rate increases.

The report criticizing PNM was authored by members of these groups
Sierra Club
New Energy Economy
San Juan Citizens Alliance New Mexico
Dine’ Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment  (Dine’ Care)
Southwest Organizing Project

To read the entire report, please see http://nmsierraclub.org/perspective-on-pnm

2 more legislators moving on

State Rep. Joni Gutierrez will not run for re-election so that she can seek the job that she says is a good fit for her interests -- Democratic national committeewoman.

 “I was born and raised in the party. I want to do this,” Gutierrez said in an interview today.

Gutierrez, D-Mesilla, said she will complete her fourth term in the House of Representatives this year while running for committeewoman.

She hopes to succeed Mary Gail Gwaltney, who is retiring from the office. Gwaltney has been New Mexico’s committeewoman since 1988.

                                                                                                                                           Gutierrez

Gutierrez, 53, said she did not know whether she would face opposition in her campaign to replace Gwaltney.

Gutierrez said she is making the move because the committeewoman’s job is a statewide position that would enable her to focus on big-picture issues. Gutierrez’s House District 33 is in part of Dona Ana County.

Gutierrez is a landscape architect, but said she had refused all public clients during her eight years in the Legislature.

She said she would have felt uncomfortable about working for schools or cities while casting legislative votes that affected them.

Gutierrez said she accepted private clients and also had done work for the University of Texas-El Paso while serving in the New Mexico Legislature.

She said the committeewoman’s job carries no pay or expense allowance. Legislators receive $153 a day for expenses while in session or on official business.

But, she said, she might be able to invigorate her business once she leaves the Legislature, as she will not have the day-to-day conflicts about taking public clients.

  Along with Gutierrez, state Sen. Mark Boitano, R-Albuquerque, said today that he would not seek another term. Boitano is in his 16th year as a senator.

 Boitano said he believes in term limits, and that he wanted to give another person the chance to serve in New Mexico's citizen Legislature.

 “I have a real estate business to run, a wife and children I love and want to spend more time with, and I will begin looking for new opportunities to serve my community and state," Boitano said in a statement.

 

Boitano

New redistricting plan likely to fly

 

UPDATED

One state representative woke up today to find that a judge had shifted his district 100 miles to the east, so it stretches from Bayard to Las Cruces.

Another saw his Republican-leaning Albuquerque district merged with one populated with mostly Democrats, creating what looks to be a tossup seat.

Those changes and hundreds of others were set forth in state District Judge James Hall’s final redistricting plan.

Hall’s redrawing of boundaries for 70 districts in the state House of Representatives did not please everyone, but one prominent Democrat said the plan was as equitable as any could be.

                                                                                                                            Rep. Ken Martinez

“He did a really good job,” said state Rep. Ken Martinez of Grants, floor leader of majority Democrats. Martinez said Hall’s reasoning was sound, and that he had produced a “very fair” plan.

Martinez predicted the redistricting case would not be appealed to the federal courts, given the logic and quality of Hall’s decision. Hall reworked portions of his original plan after the state Supreme Court found them objectionable.

Meantime, two top Republicans could not agree on whether Hall’s revamped plan was good or bad. One praised it, but the other called it unfair.

A spokesman for Republican Gov. Susana Martinez said she was grateful to Hall for adopting a redistricting map that “did not make the drastic partisan changes Democrats in the Legislature advocated.”

But state Rep. Tom Taylor, R-Farmington, was not nearly so pleased as the governor.

“Generally the plan is negative for us. It doesn’t maintain our presence in the House,” said Taylor, leader of minority Republicans.

Republicans hold 33 of the 70 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats number 36 and there is one independent.

Taylor said Hall’s plan was not in line with the will of New Mexico voters, who in 2010 added eight Republicans to the House of Representatives.

In particular, Taylor had two complaints after reading the 17-page decision.

 

                                                                                                                  Governor -- plan OK by her

One is that Hall would combine the central Albuquerque districts of Reps. Al Park, a Democrat, and Conrad James, a freshman Republican.

Taylor said James would go from a Republican-leaning district to one evenly divided between the two major parties.

But Park is not seeking re-election, meaning James would be the only incumbent in the race. Park is leaving the Legislature after 12 years to run for a seat on the state Public Regulation Commission.

Taylor also said he disliked changes that would add more Democrats to the district of Republican Rep. Don Tripp of Socorro.

Taylor said Republican Party leaders and his House caucus would decide whether they should accept Hall’s plan or try to raise the money for an appeal.

As the minority party, Republicans would have to pay their own way if they decide to challenge Hall’s decision, Taylor said. Democrats used public money to challenge Hall’s initial plan with an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

That rankled Taylor. He said process had left Republicans at a disadvantage.

One highlight of Hall’s plan would mean a drastic change for Rep. Rudy Martinez, D-Bayard. Rudy Martinez now represents Grant and Hidalgo counties in southwestern New Mexico.

But his district would shift, giving him new territory in Sierra County and a portion of Las Cruces in Dona Ana County.

Rudy Martinez did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The original redistricting plan by House Democrats would have placed Rudy Martinez in the same district as Republican Rep. Dianne Hamilton of Silver City.

Hall’s plan would allow each to keep his or her district, though Rudy Martinez would have to persuade a new crop of voters to elect him.

Hamilton and Rudy Martinez would share precincts in Silver City under Hall’s new plan.

Hall said he looked at putting Silver City into a single district, but could not do so without splitting another town. One result is that Deming remains whole, in the district of Democratic Rep. Dona Irwin.

Hamilton said she liked Hall’s plan in that it gives her a portion of Sierra County, where she always has been strong.

Hamilton said she might not have run for re-election if she had had to face Rudy Martinez in an election. Though party rivals, they have worked cooperatively, she said.

Another significant change Hall is proposing would be in the district represented by first-term Democrat George Dodge of Santa Rosa. His district would lose Democrats and perhaps be in play for a Republican challenger.

Rep. Ken Martinez said that change by Hall also made sense because it kept together a community of interest in Clovis. Dodge now represents Curry, DeBaca, Guadalupe and Roosevelt counties.

Gov. Martinez, in praising Hall’s efforts, said he had accounted for the significant demographic changes in New Mexico. In particular, Hall would collapse three districts to add more legislators to the fastest-growing parts of the state.

“This map equalizes population and gives the voters on Albuquerque's West Side and Rio Rancho the representation they deserve," said Scott Darnell, the governor’s spokesman.

In addition to merging the two central Albuquerque districts, Hall’s plan would reduce four rural New Mexico districts into two.

Republican Reps. Bob Wooley and Dennis Kintigh would be thrown into the same district and run against one another. Both are from Roswell.

In northern New Mexico, two sitting Democrats would face off. They are Reps. Nick Salazar of Ohkay Owingeh and Thomas Garcia of Ocate. Salazar, in his 40th year in the House, is the body’s longest-serving member.

Judge's plan merges 6 districts into 3

Silver City would be divided into two districts of the state House of Representatives and Belen into three, under a plan released today by state District Judge James Hall.

Other highlights are the combining of two Albuquerque districts, and a boundary change that expands Democratic Rep. Rudy Martinez’s district from his hometown of Bayard all the way to Las Cruces.

Republican Rep. Dianne Hamilton’s district would become more competitive with the inclusion of more registered Democrats. Hamilton, of Silver City, currently represents parts of Grant, Hidalgo and Sierra counties.

                                                                                                                                           Rudy Martinez

Another significant change would be in the district represented by first-term Democrat George Dodge of Santa Rosa. It would become less a Democrat district. Dodge now represents Curry, DeBaca, Guadalupe and Roosevelt counties.

Rep. Dona Irwin, D-Deming, would get a district with more Democrats. So would Republican Rep. Don Tripp of Socorro.

Hall’s plan would combine the central Albuquerque districts of Reps. Al Park, a Democrat, and Conrad James, a Republican.

Park, though, is not seeking re-election. He is leaving the Legislature after 12 years to run for the state Public Regulation Commission.

In addition, the fast-growing west section of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho would pick up districts to account for population growth.

In addition, Hall’s plan maintains two previously announced combinations of districts in the House of Representatives.

One pairing would pit Republican Reps. Bob Wooley and Dennis Kintigh against one another. Both are from Roswell.

The other would force a race between two sitting Democrats in northern New Mexico. They are Reps. Nick Salazar of Ohkay Owingeh and Thomas Garcia of Ocate. Salazar, in his 40th year in the House, is the body’s longest-serving member.

Hall revamped his redistricting plan for the House of Representatives at the direction of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Jocks run for high office, rarely win

Craig James long line a string of jocks who lost at politics

Craig James, former running back for the SMU Mustangs and New England Patriots, did not consistently vote during the last 30 years. No matter. Now he is one of four Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in his native Texas.

Like so many others from the sports world, James may be running uphill without realizing it.

Perhaps the most famous election involving a sports figure occurred in 1964.

Bud Wilkinson had won three national championships and an NCAA-record 47 consecutive games while coaching football at the University of Oklahoma. He was an icon.

But Democrat Fred Harris, then just 33 years old, defeated Republican Wilkinson in a race for the U.S. Senate.

Harris went on to run for president without success. He later taught political science at the University of New Mexico.

Of Wilkinson, Harris said: "His knowledge of government was really rather shallow."

Here is a capsule of other sports figures who made or tried to make the transition to politics:

Lynn Swann -- Like James, Republican Swann (below) sought a high office without any political experience. Swann, a hall-of-fame receiver of the Pittsburgh Steelers, lost the 2006 Pennsylvania governor's race to Democrat Ed Rendell.

Tom Osborne -- The legendary Nebraksa football coach won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000. Then, in an upset, he lost the Republican primary for governor of Nebraska in 2006.

Pete Dawkins -- A Heisman Trophy winner, Rhodes scholar and retired brigadier general, Republican Dawkins ran for the U.S. Senate in 1988 in New Jersey. Incumbent Democrat Frank Lautenberg defeated Dawkins by a decisive margin.

Steve Largent -- Another hall-of-famer in pro football, Largent was a four-term congressman from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2002. A Republican, he ran for governor of Oklahoma in 2002, losing to Democrat Brad Henry.

George Mikan -- One of the NBA's first stars, Republican Mikan in 1956 lost a race for Congress in Minnesota.

Bill Bradley -- He was a Rhodes scholar and basketball star at Princeton and then with the New York Knicks. After his playing days were done, Democrat Bradley won three terms to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2000.

Tom McMillen -- He made the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high school senior in 1970 when he averaged 47 points a game in basketball. He went on to play at the University of Maryland and then in the NBA. Yet another Rhodes scholar, he turned to politics, winning three terms as a Democratic congressman from Maryland. But his political career derailed in 1992, when redistricting forced him to compete with another sitting congressman, Republican Wayne Gilchrest. McMillen lost his seat by 7,000 votes.

Jim Bunning -- He might be the most successful of athletes turned politicians, and he was one of the few to stage a comeback after a crushing defeat. Bunning pitched in the major leagues from 1955 to 1971. He threw a no-hitter for the Detroit Tigers in the American League and a perfect game for the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League. After retiring, he returned to his native Kentucky and won election to local and state legislative offices as a Republican.

Bunning lost the 1983 election for governor of Kentucky to Democrat Martha Layne Collins, who became her state's first female chief executive. He re-emerged in 1986, winning a seat in Congress.

All told, Bunning won six, 2-year terms before making a run for the U.S. Senate in 1998.

He squeaked through, defeating Scotty Baesler, a former University of Kentucky basketball captain, by about 7,000 votes of 1.12 million cast.

Bunning, among the most conservative of the 100 senators, did not seek re-election in 2010. Another Republican, Rand Paul, won the seat he had held.

Sapien-Doyle matchup one to watch

Somebody's going home awfully disappointed

At least one incumbent is guaranteed a bitter defeat in this year's legislative elections.

Republican Rep. David Doyle will challenge for the state Senate seat held by Democrat John Sapien.

Both are from Corrales and both are businessmen. Doyle will criticize Sapien for voting to keep a 2003 law that enables illegal immigrants to receive New Mexico driver's licenses.

                                                                                                                                        Sen. Sapien

Doyle, though, may be vulnerable to attacks himself, the main charge being legislative laziness.

He and the other 32 Republican members of the House of Representatives tried to abruptly adjourn a special session last September before an $86 million public works bill was voted on.

It is an episode that Doyle wants to forget. But Democrats have it fresh in their memories, and they already have thrown it in Doyle's face.

Seeming angry, Doyle began the legislative session this year by asking the Democrats who run the House if anything would be accomplished, or if the 30 days in Santa Fe would be another waste of precious time.

 The majority floor leader, Rep. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, was quick to remind Doyle of his vote to stop the special session in its tracks, before any capital projects could be funded, creating construction jobs.

 Martinez said the capital outlay bill was signficant, but Doyle cared so little about it that he wanted to go home instead of voting on it.

 The Repubicans also wanted to halt the special session before various redistricting maps were completed. As it turned out, the House never did approve a plan for congressional redistricting.

 

Rep. Doyle

The knock on Doyle for these episodes is that he was a docile follower of House Republicans, not a leader trying to put people to work or complete the job of redistricting.

House Republicans were vexed by what they said was a ponderous pace. But their response -- let's go home because we are unhappy with the way Democrats run things -- was no good to the taxpaying public.

Sapien, who runs an insurance agency, knocked out a two-term Republican incumbent in 2008, despite being outspent. He will be formidable, but the Republicans have to take some chances if they are to get their bills through the Senate.

The Senate now is controlled by Democrats 28-14. Republicans need to pick up at least four or five seats if they hope to move forward with their agenda -- and the programs that Gov. Susana Martinez wants implemented.

Republicans think they can win back the Senate seat abandoned by Kent Cravens, who quit public service to become a lobbyist for the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association.

Cravens took care of his bank account, not his constituents, when he resigned from the Senate in September. That cost his party dearly.

Democrats maneuvered to get a member of their own party, Lisa Curtis, appointed to the vacant seat. Now she represents Senate District 21, covering parts of Bernalillo and Sandoval counties.

An attorney, Curtis took stands that Republicans hope to exploit if she runs for election.

Curtis favored keeping the driver's license law. She also voted against granting immunity from civil lawsuits to manufacturers and suppliers involved in New Mexico's nascent space travel industry.

Republicans will say it was an anti-business vote. But Curtis, an excellent orator, said she could not eliminate consumer protections by changing law to give select businesses special protections.

Republican Mark Moores, executive director of the New Mexico Dental Association, already has created a website declaring himself a candidate for the seat Curtis holds.

Republicans also have a Senate candidate they may never embrace.

He is Shannon Robinson, who for 20 years served in the Senate as a Democrat.

Upstart Timothy Keller ousted Robinson in the Democratic primary election in 2008. Robinson is back, as a Republican, to run against Sen. Keller in District 17.

Robinson, 63, is an attorney. Keller, 34, the youngest member of the Senate, makes his living in finance.

The Republicans will embrace the Senate campaign of Doyle and perhaps Moores' candidacy. But will they bother with Robinson, or try to find a candidate of their own who has been a Republican for more than a few months?

Rep. O'Neill makes his move

He hopes to succeed retiring Sen. Feldman

The fallout from Democratic state Sen. Dede Feldman's announced retirement today was immediate.

Rep. Bill O'Neill, D-Albuquerque, said he will seek the Senate seat that Feldman is vacating after 16 years.

O'Neill, 56, said her North Valley district overlaps with his own House district, so he decided to seize the moment.

Practical politics is another consideration.

O'Neill in 2010 won re-election to the House by 163 votes in a race that saw more than 10,600 people cast ballots.

A native of Granville, Ohio, O'Neill matriculated to the Ivy League, then to the desert.

He graduated from Cornell University and went on to work with some of New Mexico's toughest cases when he headed the juvenile parole board.

Now O'Neill is a fundraiser for the New Mexico Conference of Churches and its Parole Empowerment Partners program.

In it, a youth being paroled from a state juvenile center is mentored by a group of volunteers.

O'Neill, in the legislative session just completed, voted for a bill to mandate retentions of third-graders who do not read proficiently, based on standardized assessments. He broke from majority Democrats in doing so. The bill ultimately failed on the last day of the session.

He also voted against a repeal of the 2003 law that enables illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver's licenses.

O'Neill pressed for a compromise on the licensing controversy. His idea was to allow those without proof of immigration status to receive driving privilege cards, good in New Mexico only and limited to two-year intervals.

His proposal, though presented in a matter of minutes during a long floor debate, came close in the House of Representatives. It failed 37-33.

O'Neill said he considered Feldman a calm and intelligent presence in the Senate.

"It's daunting to endeavor to replace her," he said.

If he wins, O'Neill said, he would feel a bit uncomfortable suiting up for the Senate instead of the House of Representatives in the annual charity basketball game.

O'Neill is widely regarded as the best basketball player in the Legislature.

The question of whether he can take his game to the Senate will be decided  by voters in District 13, so long the province of Feldman.

 

                                                                                                                                          FELDMAN

O'NEILL'S COLLEGE DAYS

O'Neill played football at Cornell, lettering in 1977 for coach Bob Blackman.

He said he liked Blackman, but was less enthralled with his first coach at Cornell.

That was George Seifert (left), who went 3-15 in two forgettable seasons with the Big Red.

Awful in the Ivy League, Siefert later won two Super Bowls as coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

As with a good politician, Seifert rose again after he fell.

Rep. Antonio Lujan running again

State Rep. Antonio Lujan said today he will run for a sixth term, regardless of how his district ends up being redrawn.

“I’m committed,” said Lujan, D-Las Cruces.

He said one redistricting plan took away his “community of interest,” the core of Las Cruces. But he has decided he will run no matter how the final maps look.

A state district judge is to put forth another redistricting plan no later than Monday.

                                                                                                                                         Antonio Lujan

Lujan said the 30-day legislative session completed this month disappointed him.

“It moved so slowly it was frustrating, and not very much got done,” he said in an interview. “We needed to turn our attention to the economy, to employment, instead of wasting our time with the driver’s license debate.”

Rep. Andy Nunez, an independent from Hatch, again pushed to repeal the 2003 law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain New Mexico driver’s licenses. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez threw her support behind Nunez’s bill.

The repeal measure cleared the House of Representatives 45-25 but failed in the Senate. Lujan was one of the 25 House Democrats who opposed the repeal.

He said people will continue crossing the border, lawfully or not, because of relentless violence in Mexico and the bad economy. Offering driver’s licenses to those living and working in New Mexico improves public safety because people must pass driving tests in English and many also purchase auto insurance, he said.

“Driver’s licenses are an emotional issue. Unfortunately, I think the governor has taken advantage of that,” Lujan said.

Lujan, 67, still works part-time at Rio Grande Behavioral Health Services. He has a master’s degree in social work from Tulane University.

“We’ve been enduring this economic crisis so long. I talk to people who are hanging on by a string,” he said.

Lujan said one reason he wants another term is to help refocus the Legislature on meaningful programs to improve the economy.

Across the years, Lujan has tried without success for bills to ban texting and cell-phone use by drivers. He also sponsored a failed bill to provide worker’s compensation for agricultural and ranch workers.

Democrats now hold a 36-33 advantage over Republicans in the House of Representatives. The 70th member is independent Nunez.