The race is a doozy with at least five Democratic Senators said to be in the running and with all 26 Dems set to caucus November 21 to make their choice. 

The Pro Tem is selected by the entire Senate. Despite holding a majority in the chamber, the Democrats have been unable to advance one of their own to the powerful post since 2009 without GOP involvement.  That’s when conservative Dem Senator Tim Jennings formed a coalition with minority Senate Republicans to win the position. After he left, Mary Kay Papen became the coalition's champion. She and other conservative leaning Dems were defeated in the June primary, Now, for the first time in over a decade, it is highly likely that the coalition as a formal entity is dead and that the senator chosen by the Senate Dem caucus will be the next Pro Tem without Republican help. 

Sen. Pete Campos was the Dem caucus choice in 2012 when Sen. Papen took it from him with the help of the R's. Campos is now the longest serving Senator (first elected in 1990) and is again campaigning for Pro Tem. He's joined in the race by the oldest Dem Senator--78 year old Jerry Ortiz y Pino and Senators Ivey-Soto, Lopez and Stewart.

One possible deal floating is intriguing and may be the best way forward for the Democrats as they unwind the coalition. It would have Campos selected as Pro Tem and place Ortiz y Pino in the chairmanship of the most powerful committee of them all--Senate Finance. Or it could have those positions reversed. 

Sen. Ortiz y Pino

The reasoning being that the Senate would move left but not in a jarring way and that Campos and Pino provide stable and mature faces to the voting public as well as institutional knowledge and the smarts to do the jobs. (Pino is a former member of Senate Finance.)

Some Dems might invoke identity politics and demand that a woman be Pro Tem, but a woman has already had the post so there's no first to be had there. Sen. Mimi Stewart is already in leadership as majority whip and could be kept there. Sen. Linda Lopez would remain chair of the powerful Rules Committee..

Pino on Senate Finance would be a huge win for progressives seeking to rebuke the fiscal austerity that has enveloped the capitol this past decade and Campos' appointment would calm the waters with R's, moderate Dems and the business community. 

Campos would have to swear off any intention of playing footsie with the GOP and Pino would have to be willing to make the move to Finance and give up his Pro Tem dreams but it's a compromise that breaks through the chaos of a crowded contest and that calmly places New Mexico on a new political path. 

The explosion in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths could mean further state restrictions.  We predicted last week that such restrictions could be met with sterner opposition in the south where Trump and the R's scored big on Election Night. We said in the absence of a general shutdown or something similar, it will be up to the state to increase its virus fighting efforts. That brings this reaction from an administration spokesman: 

Well, it's a real stretch to claim the opposition party to the administration doesn’t care how many people die from Covid. And is anyone anywhere “pro-virus?” 

MLG is expected to offer an update this week on any further state action.