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| Susana Martinez |
SANTA FE – Today, Governor Susana Martinez vetoed legislation that would re-draw district lines for the New Mexico Senate, the New Mexico House of Representatives, and the Public Regulation Commission – as well as a stand-alone bill that would have split a single Bernalillo County precinct. Only the redistricting map for the Public Education Commission which involved a bipartisan compromise and broad support was signed into law. Inexplicably, the legislature failed to pass a redistricting plan for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Governor Martinez provided detailed explanations for her veto of each bill, outlining some of the specific problems that call into question the fairness, appropriateness, and even constitutionality of the measures that were sent to her desk. With respect to the House of Representatives redistricting plan, the legislature’s own demographer admitted that the plan intentionally over-populates districts in Albuquerque, while under-populating certain rural areas. He explained that keeping rural districts on the lower end of the population deviation allowed leadership in the House and Senate to preserve the number of districts in those regions. According the Governor's statment, Democrats used this strategy to avoid moving a Democratic district in north central New Mexico, which has not kept pace with state-wide population growth, to the Westside of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho, areas that have experienced explosive growth. Martinez called the Democrats tactics "manipulation of population deviations, a tactic that has been found to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court."
The Martinez press release went farther: "Such a plan does not demonstrate appropriate regard for the “one person, one vote” principle, as it dilutes the voting strength and representation of a significant number of New Mexicans, and in some cases, leaves high-growth areas over-populated, which will guarantee the increased dilution of representation in those areas for years to come. In both chambers, the House plan had bipartisan opposition.
The Senate plan suffers from similar flaws. When the sponsor of the Democrats’ Senate redistricting map presented the plan in the Senate Judiciary Committee, she was asked directly if the proposal was fair, balanced, bipartisan, and reflected an attempt to compromise. Her response was, “I would prefer not to answer that” - a strong indication of the Democratic majority’s effort to pass a partisan map that reduced political competition and rejected any attempts to compromise. Moreover, in packing population into Republican districts and under-populating Democratic districts, the map not only allows for the creation of more Democratic districts, but the population disparity also ensures that the votes of some New Mexicans will count more than others, depending upon where they happen to live.
The Democrats’ redistricting plan for the Public Regulation Commission was another example of a partisan plan that does not fairly address changes in population over the last decade. Despite the fact that the central goal of the redistricting process is to provide for equal representation by creating districts of nearly equal population, the PRC map creates a district that has 35,000 more residents than another district. In a plan with only five districts, there is no justification for such extreme population deviations.
“The purpose of redistricting is to fairly equalize population among districts to ensure that New Mexicans have an equal voice in their representation,” said Martinez. "Unfortunately, the Democratic leaders chose to pack thousands more New Mexicans in the districts of certain areas – including Albuquerque and its fast-growing Westside in the House plan – to avoid creating new districts that would provide New Mexicans with the representation they deserve. That tactic is clearly unconstitutional and I have no choice but to veto these plans. Despite our best efforts to develop a compromise, Democratic leaders have refused to negotiate and have chosen the courts over compromise – and that’s their costly decision.”
SB 41 would have split a precinct, providing for the separation of the Mesa del Sol area from Isleta Pueblo. The legislation represents an unjustified end-run around the Precinct Boundary Adjustment Act, an existing law which provides a mechanism for the secretary of state, boards of county commissioners, and county clerks to adjust precinct boundaries as necessary. Moreover, it is an example of politicians attempting to pick and choose their voters rather than allowing voters to choose their representatives and senators. In this case, the rationale for splitting the precinct even relied on projections about growth in the precinct – not actual growth. Full veto messages for each bill can be found on the Governor’s website at:
House Map -
PRC Map -
Senate Map-
Martinez Provides Explanations for Vetoes
From the New York Post - by Michael Goodwin - The reports are not good, disturbing even. I have heard basically the same story four times in the last 10 days, and the people doing the talking are in New York and Washington and are spread across the political spectrum. The gist is this: President Obama has become a lone wolf, a stranger to his own government. He talks mostly, and sometimes only, to friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett and to David Axelrod, his political strategist. Everybody else, including members of his Cabinet, have little face time with him except for brief meetings that serve as photo ops. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner both have complained, according to people who have talked to them, that they are shut out of important decisions. The president’s workdays are said to end early, often at 4 p.m. He usually has dinner in the family residence with his wife and daughters, then retreats to a private office. One person said he takes a stack of briefing books. Others aren’t sure what he does. If the reports are accurate, and I believe they are, they paint a picture of an isolated man trapped in a collapsing presidency. While there is no indication Obama is walking the halls of the White House late at night, talking to the portraits of former presidents, as Richard Nixon did during Watergate, the reports help explain his odd public remarks. Read more
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