McSorley Dumped as Judicial Chair. Jennings: "It's Not About Policy."

As expected, the Senate Committee on Committees this morning voted to replace Senate Judiciary Chairman Cisco McSorley with Richard Martinez of Espanola. The vote was unanimous with virtually no discussion of the change.

Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, told reporters that the change had nothing to do with the fact that Martinez is more conservative than McSorley. "If anything, the committee got more liberal with the changes made," he said, pointing to the fact that liberal Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque will replace Sen. Bernadette Sanchez on the committee. Sanchez has been opposed to some measures favored by progressives, such as the domestic partnership bill.

Another Judiciary change: Santa Fe Democrat Peter Wirth will be vice chairman of the committee. McSorley will  remain on the committee.

Jennings said the main reason for replacing McSorley was complaints about bills bottlenecking in the committee. There was a period during last year's session when Judiciary didn't meet at all, Jennings said.

Martinez thanked the committees committee for their vote. Without being specific  he said he knew that there had been some concerns about his ability to run Judiciary because of  "some of my actions in the past."

It's not clear whether he was referring to instances like his Senate floor tirade during a special session in October 2009 when he accused fellow legislators of abusing the per diem system. “There are some who come in right before lunch, sign the voucher, get their free lunch,” then leave," he said. "... I’ve been here nine years,” he said. “I’ve collected a list (of legislators who have abused per diems). It would be very embarrassing if I released this list to the media.”

I've asked for that list several times, with no luck.

Martinez said he has been frustrated because McSorley hadn't included him on decisions on organizing the committee.

Jennings told Martinez that everyone knew Martinez had been under stress. He didn't specify what stress he was under.

***

On the Senate floor moments ago both Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, who wasn't personally affected by the committee changes and Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, who was, protested that the Senate seniority rules were disregarded in the changes. Sanchez said she wasn't consulted about the change until after the decision had been made.

Is McSorley Getting the Boot from Senate Judiciary?

A version of this will be published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
Jan. 20, 2011

Social conservatives may find it easier moving bills through the state Senate to bring back the death penalty and restrict gay rights if an anticipated change in the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee comes to pass.

State Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Espanola said Wednesday that Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, had asked him to take over the top position on Judiciary, which for the past six years has been chaired by Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque — one of the most outspoken liberals in the Legislature.

McSorley, interviewed in his office Wednesday afternoon, said, “Right now I don’t know if I’m going to remain as Judiciary Committee chairman.”

Jennings said Wednesday, “I can’t respond now.” He said the decision on committee chairmanships and committee assignments will be decided today at the scheduled meeting of the Senate Committee on Committees.

Unlike the state House of Representatives, where one person — the speaker — determines who will chair and who will sit on each committee, in the Senate the Committee on Committees decides.

Both McSorley and Martinez, who has been deputy chairman of Senate Judiciary since McSorley became chairman, spoke no ill of one another.

But the two have dramatically different voting records on issues like the death penalty and gay rights. McSorley, a lawyer by profession, has been a champion of domestic partnership legislation and other bills affecting homosexuals. Martinez has been on the opposite side on these issues.

Gov. Susana  Martinez, a former Las Cruces prosecutor, has been a vocal advocate of bringing back the death penalty, which in 2009 was repealed by close votes in both chambers of the Legislature. She mentioned the issue as a priority in her State of the State address Tuesday.

While she has not stressed gay-related issues, Martinez has said she opposes a domestic partnership law and that she would sign a bill that would legally define marriage in New Mexico as the union of one man and one woman.

 Though there are more Democrats than Republicans in the Senate, Jennings was elected in 2009 by a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats.

The Roundhouse rumor mill involving possible major committee changes was even busier Wednesday than the Capitol copy machines printing newly introduced bills.

There is much “palace intrigue” in the House, spurred mainly by the aborted challenge of House Speaker Ben Lujan by Rep. Joe Cervantes, D-Las Cruces.

Many expect Rep. Andy Nunez, D-Hatch, to lose his chairmanship of the Water and Natural Resources Committee. Nunez, a conservative Democrat, was a vocal supporter of Cervantes and an outspoken critic of Lujan’s. He voted “present”  Tuesday instead of voting for Lujan or Republican Leader Tom Taylor of Farmington for speaker.

Another rumor involves Santa Fe’s Rep. Brian Egolf. According to one scenario, Egolf, a progressive Democrat who is beginning his second term, would become chairman of the House Energy Committee. Asked if it was true, Egolf replied in a text message, “Don’t know.”

Egolf denied another rumor that he was being named chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
Lujan has yet to announce any committee changes.

Roundhouse Roundup:Blue Ribbon Deja Vu

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October22, 2009

When Gov. Richardson announced this week that he wants to start a “working group” to look at tax changes before the next regular legislative session, it brought back some blue-ribbon memories to some longtime Capitol observers, myself included.

I’m talking about the 2003 Blue Ribbon Tax Commission, a 23-member panel appointed by Richardson, set up to propose sweeping reforms of the state tax system. The Blue Ribbon gang, headed by former state Rep. Jerry Sandel, labored for months to make a lengthy set of recommendations.

People in government often talk about reaching consensus. That definitely was reached in this case. Practically everyone agreed they didn’t like the commission’s final product.

The ink on the commission’s report, which was finalized only days before a planned special “tax-reform” session of the Legislature, had barely dried before it was promptly disowned by the governor.

Richardson said the panel had come up short of his goals of simplifying the tax code and providing some tax relief for working families. But he wasn’t the only one unhappy with the recommendations. Liberals didn’t like it because it didn’t include elimination of the gross-receipts tax on food (an idea eventually approved the following year) or an increase in liquor taxes. Conservatives were upset because the recommendations included a gas-tax increase, motor vehicle excise tax and registration increases, and a higher gross-receipts tax.

Richardson proposed his own tax-reform bill in the late October special session. Oh, but it was no longer a “tax-reform” bill. It was an “economic-growth package” — all 188 pages of it. Whatever its handle, that bill died a lonesome death with virtually no support from any quarter.

In his announcement this week, Richardson said between now and January, “I will convene a working group consisting of legislators, executive staff, members of the business and education communities, and other interested parties to analyze such a package.

“Already in this session there have been some intriguing proposals introduced. However, I believe these must not be injected piecemeal without serious analysis into the present budget calculation but rather should be part of a well-crafted and mapped out package in January.”

The recession-ravaged, busted-budget situation our state government is in now, of course, is far more serious than the situation back in 2003, when the economy was in better shape.
But you have to wonder — will the “working group” fare any better than the blue-ribbon commission?

Best tirade of special session: In the absence of Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, who was defeated for re-election last year, the intensity and number of good, fun, fiery floor speeches in the Legislature has dwindled to nearly nothing. But on Wednesday, Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española, engaged in a tirade that would even give Robinson a run for his money.

During a debate about a measure that would create a mechanism to allow legislators to return 10 percent of their per diem payments from the state, Martinez became passionate.

“Before we nickel and dime everyone for $15 a day, we should look at the abuse of per diems,” Martinez said.

Referring to interim committee meetings, for which lawmakers are paid per diem (currently $159 a day) to attend, Martinez said, “There are some who come in right before lunch, sign the voucher, get their free lunch,” then leave.

This goes on among both Democrats and Republicans, Martinez said. And even freshman legislators “have gotten real good at it,” he said.

Martinez even made a not-so-veiled threat: “I’ve been here nine years,” he said. “I’ve collected a list (of legislators who have abused per diems). It would be very embarrassing if I released this list to the media.”

Martinez declined my request for a copy of that list.