Speaker Javier Martinez

"The House ran circles around the Senate." So declared a weary Senior Alligator traversing the Roundhouse halls on the last night of the 30 day legislative session. Their analysis was not fatigue-induced but an apt summary of the continued shift in the balance of power toward the 70 member House. 

That shift did not come overnight. 

It began at the June 2020 primary election when two conservative Democratic powerhouses, John Arthur Smith and Mary Kay Papen, were defeated by progressive opponents. No comparable personalities have replaced them, making for a drifting Senate contrasted with the growing resolve of the House. 

The success of the medical malpractice bill was a defining blow to senatorial prestige and power. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Cervantes and Majority Leader Peter Wirth both leaked oil (and power) in their battle to slow the measure and lost decisively.

In the House, Speaker Javier Martinez banged heads together, got everyone concerned in the room and forced a resolution to one of the more complex pieces of lawmaking to grab the public eye.

Back in the Senate, George Munoz, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, provided another example of how progressive House power is now the order of the day. 

After public hesitancy the fiscal hawk turned dove and agreed to spend potentially billions from an $11 billion early trust fund for the Governor's universal child care plan. The shift made observers wonder if Munoz realizes his fate could follow the path of Smith and Papen if he does not bend to the new political reality. 

This was the fourth year as Speaker for ABQ Rep. Javier Martinez and the experience shows. Besides the malpractice coup, he avoided another fruitless session dominated by crime and appears to have quietly overturned the Senate's denial of a one percent pay raise for state employees.

BUILDING A TEAM 

Martinez has also built a team whose muscles are now bulging.

Rep. Chandler

Rep. Christine Chandler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was berated by Senate counterpart Cervantes over the malpractice bill and responded with poise and strength. She came into her own as sponsor of the bill. Now at 67 and with seven years in Santa Fe, the Los Alamos Democrat, a Georgetown law grad, represents a judicial power center that rivals if not surpasses the Senate's.

Rep. Andrea Romero of Santa Fe came to the capitol in 2019 bruised from a campaign that questioned her ethics. Flash forward to today and the Stanford and UNM law school grad is also coming into her own. 

Her leadership on the ICE detention center bill sent a vital national message that New Mexico will not bend to unconstitutional policing and will stand firmly for its majority-minority population. That told Washington no Minneapolis here. 

THE EPSTEIN SAGA 

The soiling of the state's reputation because of the Epstein affair and the ranch he owned here is now under repair thanks to the empaneling of a special House subcommittee led by Romero to unearth nefarious activities that allegedly occurred there. 

The challenge is to probe deeply without political considerations. 

Radio talker Eddy Aragon, a longtime tracker of all things Epstein, wonders if former Attorney General Balderas and Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard will be asked to detail their relationships with former Gov. Richardson regarding the ranch. He also asks if the committee will request a search of all police records that may touch upon ranch activity. 

Politically the establishment of the Epstein committee showcases a Democratic party no longer dominated by former Gov. Bill Richardson and many of his followers whom he successfully groomed for power. They are fading and being replaced by a new generation with different world views.

LOOKING AHEAD 

What's next? A glaring deficiency in the Legislature is the inability (or unwillingness) to fully confront the ongoing and embarrassing activity at CYFD. While pumping millions into child care, lawmakers continue  to ignore the department's crisis as does the Governor. Something has to give when the next Governor comes aboard. 

Whatever that next executive plans, their success now runs directly through a revitalized House and Speaker. 

THE BOTTOM LINES

The jet that Deb Haaland and Gary King took for a campaign trip in 2014 was linked to Jeffrey Epstein--not owned by him--as a headline here said Wednesday.

This the Home of New Mexico Politics.