Courage and Vote Counting Math in Santa Fe

In the last few days New Mexico witnessed an amazing series of political events in Santa Fe. The background is straightforward. Polls have been fairly consistent. They show that 75-80% of the citizens of New Mexico do NOT support the idea of issuing state driver's licenses to people who have entered the country illegally.

Unfortunately for the law abiding governed, during the 2011 legislative session the invisible iron fist of House Speaker Ben Lujan has once again been at work. Often in order to thwart the will of the people, Lujan will stack certain committees for the purpose of being able to assign bills he personally opposes to those committees. Any bill Ben Lujan opposes gets killed as a matter of routine in his pet committees. And accordingly, all efforts to halt the mindless practice of issuing legitimate driver’s licenses to people here illegally have died under Lujan’s committee stacking scheme.

Dona Irwin

Let’s fast forward to Wednesday March 2nd. On this day Speaker Lujan is caught red-handed on video in direct violation of basic House rules when he illegally adjourned a session of the full house. On Thursday the tide began to turn when it became somewhat more apparent that the groundswell of outraged citizens was starting to take effect on their leaders.

Sandra Jeff

In the end respect for the rules rested in the hands of two brave Representatives, Sandra Jeff and Dona Irwin. These women joined the House’s lone Independent, Andy Nunez, in defying the speaker’s dictatorship. It was the votes cast by Sandra Jeff and Dona Irwin that unclenched the iron fist of Speaker Ben Lujan and brought a fundamental issue to the House floor for a full vote. The final margin was 36-34.

Legislative math is always an interesting exercise, especially in trying to figure out which officials mean what they say and say what they mean. And the legislative math on the driver’s license issue quickly draws into question the so-called issue stands of the following house members:

Ray Begaye, Joseph Cervantes, Rhonda King, Patricia Lundstrom, Al Park, and Debbie Rodella. These aforementioned House members first voted on Thursday to NOT allow the driver’s license issue to come to the House floor for a vote. Essentially with this vote, these members were voting to allow Ben Lujan’s dubious committee dominating actions to stand. However, on Friday, a day after the game changing votes of Sandra Jeff and Dona Irwin were cast, the House members listed above reversed themselves and voted with Jeff and Irwin and bill sponsor Andy Nunez. We look forward to having these late stage 180 degree flips explained.  

Tim Jennings

Now the attention of House Bill 78 turns to the Senate. What will elected officials in that body do? Will respect for both the letter and the spirit of federal immigration laws matter? Will the Senate play games and allow the state to continue to provide legitimizing credentials to people who do not obey the nation’s immigration laws? We are watching. And of course, if committee meetings were webcast and archived it would be much easier to monitor the processes by which all law abiding citizens of New Mexico are governed by the ruling elite.

Courage and Vote Counting Math in Santa Fe