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Urban/rural divide seen in committee chairs

Walt Rubel

Commentary: Once again this year, none of the committee chairmen in the state House of Representatives are from southern New Mexico.

Nine of the 14 committees in the House are led by chairmen from Albuquerque. The other five are from Santa Fe, Gallup, Milan, Corrales and Sandia Pueblo.

Things are much different in the Senate, however. The recent selection of Joseph Cervantes as chairman of the Judiciary Committee means the two most powerful committees in the Senate are now led by chairmen from southern New Mexico. John Arthur Smith of Deming heads the Finance Committee.

Judiciary and Finance are always the last committees a bill must clear before reaching the Senate floor. Everything dealing with new law must go through Judiciary, and everything dealing with new spending must go through Finance. 

Many don’t make it through. Last year, there were 48 bills that were passed by the House and cleared their initial Senate committees, but died in either Senate Finance or Judiciary.

Senate Finance will get the final say on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s plans to offer new Opportunity Scholarships to college students or start a new fund for early childhood programs.

Senate Judiciary will get the final say before any marijuana legalization bill reaches the full Senate.

Cervantes was named by Senate leaders to replace Sen. Richard Martinez, who was forced to give up his chairmanship after pleading guilty to aggravated drunken driving charges. Martinez kept his seat in the Senate, and on the Judiciary Committee, and will serve at least until the elections in November.

The selection of Cervantes was a little surprising in that Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto had served as vice chairman under Martinez. Both have the same seniority in the Senate, but Cervantes also served in the House, where he was once chairman of their Judiciary Committee, before backing the wrong horse in a power struggle with former Speaker Ben Lujan.

Cervantes ran for governor last year, losing to Lujan Grisham in the primary. Melissa Ontiveros, special operations coordinator for the Community Action Agency, has announced that she will challenge Cervantes in the upcoming Democratic primary election.

During his campaign for governor, Cervantes noted that he had carried legislation to decriminalize marijuana, and said that he was “open to examining” legalization and commercialized sales. 

He recently appeared with Gov. Lujan Grisham at an event to support red-flag laws that would allow for a court order to temporarily remove firearms from those deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.

Other Senate changes this year include the selection of Gabriel Ramos of Silver City to lead the Indian and Cultural Affairs Committee, replacing John Pinto of Gallup, who was 94 years old when he died while still serving in the Senate.

With Sen. Mary Kay Papen serving as chairwoman of the Committee’s Committee and Bill Soules as chairman of the Education Committee, five of the nine committees in the Senate are led by chairmen from southern New Mexico.

That difference in committee leadership goes a long way toward explaining the divide in the state Legislature.

The House is completely dominated by Albuquerque. With nine of the 14 committee chairs and the majority leader all coming from the same city, it’s no surprise that bills passed by the House tend to reflect the needs and values of that city.

It’s also no surprise that many of those bills don’t reflect the needs and values of senators representing the rest of the state.

Both chambers are controlled by Democrats, but there are real differences in who they are trying to serve.

Walt Rubel can be reached at waltruebl@gmail.com