More Redistricting

I did a story on how the state House redistricting plan approved by Judge Jim Hall. You can find it HERE.


Two interesting bits of political news here.

1) Rep. Nick Salazar of Rio Arriba County, whose district was crunched into that of fellow Democrat Thomas Garcia, said he's considering not running for re-election.

2) House Speaker Ben Lujan still hasn't decided whether he'll seek re-election. He said he's still digesting the new redistricting map.

My story focused on Lujan's District 46 because the Speaker is expected to get a primary challenge this year. Most of Santa Fe's districts remain fairly similar in that they are extremely safe Democratic districts. The districts currently represented by Lucky Varela, Jim Trujillo and Brian Egolf have better than 60 percent Democratic registration. (Varela's is more than 69 percent Democratic.)

But one big change I overlooked -- as pointed out to me by not one but two local lawmakers -- is that the community of Eldorado southeast of the city no longer is in Egolf's district. Instead, Eldorado has been moved to the district currently represented by Rhonda King of Stanley.

At meetings before and during the special session last fall many residents of Eldorado spoke in favor of being kept in Egolf's district. Instead, they've apparently become eggs broken for the redistricting omelet. (So now if Eldorado residents have a problem with state government, they'll have to say, "Help me, Rhonda.")