Rep. Lundstrom

Finally some long overdue constitutional tension in Santa Fe. For a decade Senate Finance Committee Chairman John Arthur Smith has ruled the fiscal roost pretty much unchallenged while the House has played dead with a a series of finance chairs who cowered whenever Smith glowered. Now comes a new era in the new chairwoman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom isn't to be taken lightly as were her predecessors. Smith knows it and doesn't like it. The two legislative heavyweights are in tense combat in the final days of this 30 day legislative session with Smith upset about what he deems overspending by the more liberal House.

Lundstrom, 60, begs to differ and that in itself is a major development. When's the last time the House money chair dared publicly to take on powerful "Dr. No," even if the two are arguing about a relatively small amount of cash, $160 million?

Sen. Smith

That the two are at each others throats is made clear from Smith's warning over $15 million proposed to aid McKinley County in the closing of the coal-fired Escalante Generating Station in Grants which is in Lundstrom's home county. That's a subject dear to her heart and Smith is stabbing it right in the center.

Smith, 78, and his conservative allies may have to get used to the lady of the House. She is not known for backing down and has the wind at her back. The House Dems have a massive majority (46-24) as a result of the state's recent shift to Blue. Lundstrom is no drunken sailor when it comes to spending but neither is she a skinflint.

The Senate and especially Smith have been pushing back against the sweeping demographic and ideological shift in New Mexican politics, centered in the state's majority cities. But history has a way of not being denied (witness Senate passage this session of the Red Flag law). And then there are those progressive June primary challengers the conservative-leaning Dem senators face.

Good can come from the Smith-Lundstorm rivalry. Santa Fe is out of balance with the majority of its citizenry. A restoration of the balance of power on key money matters is overdue. Whether it happens is another story but the game is on.

SAPIEN OUT

ABQ area Dem state Senator John Sapien gave a Sunday night jolt to La Politica, announcing that after 12 years in the chamber he will not seek re-election this year. That's significant because Sapien is one of a handful of conservative/moderate Dems who often join with all the senate Republicans to thwart liberal legislation. It's know as the Conservative Coalition.

Sapien, a Corrales insurance salesman said:

A lot of career opportunities have presented themselves in recent weeks and I think I should pursue them. I was committed to re-election but I decided to go another route.