Nunez Likely to Become an "Independent"

Andy Nunez

In an interview with News New Mexico on Sunday morning, Representative Andy Nunez of Hatch clarified his intentions on the possibility of changing his party affiliation. Nunez said he was almost certain that he would make a change. However, he said he was leaning towards not changing to the GOP, but instead joining the ranks of those who “decline to state.” In New Mexico “declining to state” is as close as one can come to being identified as an “INDEPENDENT.” Because the basic assumption of New Mexico law and the rules of the legislature are so steeped in the idea of party caucuses, the state does not even bother to formally recognize the term, “independent.”

Governor Martinez

Nunez also indicated during our interview that Governor Susana Martinez had called him over the weekend and requested a meeting on Monday morning in Santa Fe. It is not known whether the Governor wanted to make one final last minute pitch to convince Nunez to join the GOP, or simply to gain further insights into how she can better work with both parties in the Roundhouse.


James Madalena

To most observers Nunez appears to be the primary sacrificial lamb of the power politics divide in the Democratic Party that unfolded in Santa Fe over the last few weeks. For Nunez it seems clear that after several years of Speaker Ben Lujan effectively killing many of the agriculture bills introduced by Nunez during his tenure as Ag Chair, Nunez felt he had little to lose by reaching across the aisle in the speaker contest. Accordingly, Lujan stripped Nunez of his Ag chairmanship in the aftermath of the speaker vote last week. That punitive Ag chairmanship removal action came after Nunez (the house member with perhaps the deepest agricultural background), backed Joseph Cervantes as a replacement for Lujan. In Nunez’ place Ben Lujan named retired Jemez Pueblo member James R. Madalena as Ag Chair. Madalena, who is not a farmer or rancher, surrendered his committee chairmanship of the House Energy Committee to Representative Brian Egolf of Santa Fe. Egolf, a lawyer, is widely known as staunch opponent of the biggest breadwinner the state budget has……..the oil and gas industry.

Brian Egolf

Perhaps by the time Andy Nunez appears as a guest on News New Mexico at 7:00am Thursday morning, he will have officially changed his voter registration to “decline to state.” During the course of the week News New Mexico will run additional stories documenting the enormous dictatorial power that can be exercised by a Speaker of the House in New Mexico, as well as some of the personal experiences Nunez himself shared with us regarding life in the legislature under the heavy hand of Ben Lujan.

Nunez Likely to Become an "Independent"