It's Official. Sanchez Quits Senate Race

The lieutenant go vernor is out, leaving only Heather Wilson and Greg Sowards in the Republican Senate primary. Here's the official statement from the Sanchez campaign:

 Eight months ago, our campaign for the U.S. Senate began with one clear objective: to give New Mexicans the opportunity to send conservative leadership to Washington D.C.  The timing on this race was not ideal nor did we choose it. But the need for a conservative leader from New Mexico is real.

   Throughout the course of this campaign, it has become clear to me, that in order to ensure that a Republican is elected to represent New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, the G.O.P must stand united. A bitter and divisive Republican Primary would only diminish our party’s genuine opportunity to bring real change in Washington. The reality is that the path forward to success in the campaign could cause a negative primary struggle that would leave the eventual nominee bruised, bloody and broke. 

  After much prayer, counsel with my family, and discussions with supporters, I have decided to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate, and continue to serve New Mexico as your Lt. Governor. 

  I want to express my sincere thanks to those New Mexicans who joined our campaign. I am forever grateful for the support we received from grassroots leaders, tea party patriots, business owners, GOP activists and everyday citizens. They offered their efforts and their dollars and it meant the world to me. This was not my time, but I will never forget their friendship. 

I am redirecting myself today to helping our party advance the strongest slate of candidates to victory in November, from the Roundhouse to the White House. 

  I hope that you will join me in working with Governor Martinez, and all conservatives to complete the important work that we have begun in New Mexico. 

May God Bless and Keep You, and may God Bless America and New Mexico.

More details as they develop.

UPDATE 12:06 pm : Former Sanchez rival Heather Wilson responds with the first nice thing she's said about Sanchez in at least eiught months:

“Lt. Gov. John Sanchez is a fine public servant who has always put the needs of New Mexico first. He ran a good campaign that questioned the current direction of our country and emphasized the importance of this election. I consider John a friend, and I know he will continue to serve New Mexicans with honor.”

UPDATE: 1:50 pm  I just got this statement from Gov. Susana Martinez's spokesman, Scott Darnell:

The governor supports Lt. Governor Sanchez’s decision to exit the Senate race and focus on serving as Lt. Governor to help turn New Mexico around.

Once Again House Votes to Repeal Driver's License Law

Once again the state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted pass a political hot potato bill that would repeal a state law that allows the state to issue illegal immigrants driver's licenses.

Following a near four-hour debate, the House by a vote of 45-25, passed House Bill 103, sponsored by Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch. The bill is strongly supported by Gov. Susana Martinez.

The bill goes on to the Senate, which last year heavily amended a similar House bill, effectively killing it.
Wednesday’s vote showed Nuñez’s bill by a larger margin than last year. Three Democrats who voted against last year’s bill — Rep. Nick Salazar of Española, Henry “Kiki” Saavedra of Albuquerque and George Dodge of Santa Rosa — voted for HB 103.

A total of 11 Democrats joined all 34 House Republicans and independent Nuñez in backing the bill.
Santa Fe’s delegation — House Speaker Ben Luján, Luciano “Lucky” Varela, Jim Trujillo and Brian Egolf — all voted against the bill. All four are Democrats.

Elsa Lopez, an activist with Somos un Pueblo Unido, a local immigrant-rights organization, said her group wasn’t surprised by the vote. Though she’s hopeful that the Senate will once again stop the driver’s license bill, she said people in the immigrant community fear that the bill is only the first one to be aimed at immigrants. “It starts with driver’s licenses,” she said, noting that years before Arizona passed its controversial immigration bill, the state stopped issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants.

The Arizona law requires police officers to check the immigration status of individuals whom they've stopped and for whom they have "reasonable suspicion" of being in the United States illegally.

However, supporters of the bill denied this. “This is not about immigration, it’s only about public safety,” Martinez’s chief of staff told reporters shortly after the vote. He said the administration will not push a law like Arizona’s “There’s no desire to do immigration law. The governor has said in public that we’re not in the business of doing immigration law.”

Nuñez said the same thing. “The Arizona law is too harsh,” he said.

See tomorrow's New Mexican for more on this.

Lots Happening in Roundhouse Today

After many quiet days, a lot has actually happened in the Legislature today.

The House just a few minutes ago passed the budget bill, which now goes to the Senate. The vote was unanimous and the discussion was relatively brief.

From the House Dem press release:

 The House of Representatives has passed a budget for the next spending year that begins July 2012. HB2 would provide $5.642 billion in state spending, an increase of $215 million (nearly 4 percent) over this year’s budget. The spending plan leaves $41.8 million to allow for flexibility in hammering out a final budget (such as tax reductions, pension solvency, infrastructure funding, or as a hedge against weak natural gas prices).

Meanwhile, the Senate approved not one, but two of Gov. Susana Martinez's cabinet appointees -- Arthur Allison at the Indian Affairs Department and John Bemis at the Department of Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources.

Both votes were unanimous, though Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, noted before the vote on Bemis that he had disagreed with Bemis over drilling in the Galisteo Basin. Wirth left the chambers before the vote.

Now the House is discussing the controversial driver's license bill. Something tells me it won't be as easy as the budget bill.

Ds and Rs Join Hands in Bipartisan Unity ... to Stomp on Independents

In a rare display of bi-partisan unity in discussing legislation concerning elections, a House committee voted unanimously to effectively kill a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow unaffiliated voters to vote in primary elections.

Andy Nunez changing his voter registration to DTS last year

House Joint Resolution 17, sponsored by Rep. Andy Nuñez of Hatch — the only current independent legislator — would allow those registered as “declined to state” to request a Democratic or Republican ballot for the primary in June.

According to statistics on the Secretary of State’s website, as of Dec. 28, 17 percent of voters statewide are independents — which means they can’t participate in primary elections, which are paid for by the state.

In Santa Fe County, declined-to-states outnumber Republicans.

Nuñez said that 14 other states — including the early presidential primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire — allow open primaries. Viki Harrison, executive director of New Mexico Common Cause, testified in favor of the measure, saying that it would encourage participation in the electoral process.

 But both Democrats and Republicans on the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee argued that only those affiliated with a party should be allowed to chose candidates for that party. All four members present voted to table the joint resolution.

“I would do anything to get more people to vote,” committee chairwoman Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, said. Nuñez said he wasn’t surprised. “I knew where this was going when the Speaker (of the House) gave it three committee assignments,” he said.

Keller Reacts To Robinson Reemergence

State Sen. Tim Keller, who defeated incumbent Shannon Robinson in the Democratic primary in 2008, sent me a statement regarding my Sunday column about Robinson announcing he'll challenge Keller for the seat this year -- this time as a Republican:

 “It's time Shannon Robinson live in the present. Gone are the days when he and Manny Aragon ran the Senate and he could freely dole out hundreds of thousands of dollars to club teams he coached. Shannon lost, 2 to 1, in large part because of his compromised record, not because of one mailer. I think people recognize I’ve worked hard to help our district and pass meaningful legislation for our state.”

By the way, Keller told me this little irony, In 2008 Robinson attacked him for once being a ... Republican. Keller said he registered as a Republican while he was a teenager, but switch whiled he was in college.

I told you this was going to be a fun one to watch.

Some Recent Articles

Here's a bunch of links to articles I've written about (but neglected to blog about) in recent days:

* My weekend story on where various bills stand in the session is HERE

* My most recent look at lobbyist reports, in which I noted that some of the biggest recent social events for legislators have been thrown by groups associated with state universities. That's HERE

* And, turning away from the Legislature for a moment, here's an article I wrote for Saturday's paper about the Americans Elect group having enough verified petition signatures to get on the November ballot. Previous pieces I've done about Americans Elect are HERE and HERE

Roundhouse Roundup: The Return of the Bull Moose

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
Feb. 5, 2012

Baby boomers may recall an old TV Western called Branded starring Chuck Connors. In the opening segment, Jason McCord, played by Connors, is at an Old West military outpost being marched before a commanding officer. 

As McCord stands straight, square-jawed and silent, the much-shorter commanding officer violently yanks the hat off McCord's head, rips the epaulets off his shoulders and the buttons from his shirt, then finally takes McCord's sword and breaks it over his knee. McCord walks out of the fort as soldiers close the gates behind him. 

Former Sen. Shannon Robinson

"That's what the progressives did to me," former state Sen. Shannon Robinson told me in an interview last week, describing the opening of Branded. 

Nobody actually broke Robinson's sword or ripped his buttons. But in June 2008, Robinson, who had represented his southeastern Albuquerque district for 20 years, lost a bitterly fought Democratic primary to a political newcomer, Tim Keller. 

Robinson blamed his loss partly on a full-color mailer produced and distributed by the Center for Civic Policy and other progressive groups that attacked Robinson's ethics. Two other Democratic legislators who were the subjects of similar mailers also lost their primaries that year. 

So, as the theme song went, "What do you do when you're branded and you know you're a man?" 

In Robinson's case, you switch parties and run for your old seat. Late last year, Robinson changed his registration from Democrat to Republican. The person who handled the registration was none other than former state GOP Chairman Harvey Yates. 

When I asked if he was running against Keller, Robinson said, "That's the plan." Asked if he was going to have a formal announcement, he said, "I thought that's what this was." 

Robinson, a lawyer with a flair for the dramatic, perhaps was best known for his fiery floor speeches in the Senate. He usually was passionate, sometimes bombastic and never dull. 

He said one reason he's running is because of an increase in crime in District 17, which includes the area south of Central Avenue now called The International Zone, though some have less cheerfully referred to the area as "The War Zone." 

He said the laundry where he takes his dry cleaning has been the target of three armed robberies in recent years. "The last time someone held a gun at the lady's head," Robinson said. 

"There are serious security problems that aren't being dealt with," he said. "We have to rebuild property values there. There's a lot that needs to be done." 

Robinson sometimes used to refer to himself politically as a Bull Moose, after Teddy Roosevelt's old third party. Bull Mooses, he said in a 2002 speech on the Senate floor, are united by issues related to tobacco, alcohol and outdoor sports such as shooting and boating. "Trucks and guns ... and cows. Anything having to do with cows." 

The fact that he was a driving force in passing the state law permitting the carrying of concealed handguns should make him popular with Republicans. But some in the GOP might have to overlook some things about Robinson, such as the fact that for a while, he frequently criticized the Iraq War on the Senate floor. And he was behind a peace conference that was held in Santa Fe a few years ago. ("Some of us are for that sort of thing," a prominent Republican activist told me last week when I mentioned the subject.) 

Robinson told me he missed being in the Legislature. "I always considered it an honor to serve, and I tried to conduct myself in a way to reflect that honor," he said. 

I'm not in the business of choosing sides. I like Keller, too. But the Robinson/Keller rematch should be fun to watch.

(Here's what Robinson said the progressives did to him in 2008)

Sanchez Quitting Senate Race?

Well, that's what Heath and Gwyneth are saying, relying on the word of a "source with knowledge of the situation." (Those are my favorite kind.)

Lending credence to the unnamed source is Sanchez himself, who is quoted saying, "I can tell you as of today I am a candidate for the United States Senate."

Yikes! I guess my mistake was not asking Sanchez to swear he was still in the race, like Gwyneth did.

The weird thing is that I ran into the lieutenant governor the night before last. I was leaving the Capitol and he was heading back.

We just made small talk, not a formal interview. I mentioned that his campaign hadn't been very visible since the session started. He indicated to me that he was tied down at the Roundhouse during the session but he'd be getting back on the campaign trail when the session ends.

Back in 2002, when he was a state representative running for governor, Sanchez was criticized by his Democratic opponent Bill Richardson for missing floor sessions, allegedly because of campaign events. I'd been thinking Sanchez wanted to avoid any repeat of that criticism in his Senate race.

Clifford Passes Rules Committee

UPDATE: 2:31 pm As I predicted, the Senate confirmed Tom Clifford for DFA secretary a few minutes ago. The vote was unanimous.

Tom Clifford is the latest appointee of Gov. Susana Martinez to be recommended for confirmation by the Senate Rules Committee.

I'll go out on a limb here and predict that the full Senate will confirm him by the end the day. There's been no opposition, no controversy. Clifford has been around state government for years and is well respected.

If the Senate does get around to confirming him today, he'll be the third Martinez cabinet secretary confirmed this session, following Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel and Aging & Long Term Services Secretary Reta Ward.

Still awaiting confirmation are designates Hanna Skandera, Economic Development Secretary Jon Barela,  Arthur Allison at the Department of Indian Affairs; and John Bemis at the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.

Senate Rules Recommends Marcantel

UPDATE 3:17 pm  The full Senate voted 38-1 to confirm Gregg Marcantel as Corrections secretary.

Despite the concerns of Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Linda Lopez about Corrections Secretary designate Gregg Marcantel, the panel recommended the confirmation of Marcantel for the job. Lopez was the only dissenting vote.

Gregg Marcantel with Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings
after Senate Rules Committee hearing Wednesday

Lopez  in a letter to Marcantel released to reporters on Monday, said she was concerned that Marcantel, a career law enforcement officer, had not disclosed a civil lawsuit in which he was a defendant. That suit centers on an informant who earned early release in exchange for information in a drug case; the man later pleaded guilty to raping two children. Marcantel was a detective with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department at the time

Lopez, in her letter, also said Marcantel hadn't disclosed two suspensions that took place early in his career when he was a corrections officer in Louisiana.

Marcantel told the committee that he wasn't trying to hide anything. He was dropped as a defendant in the civil suit before it was settled he said.

Baretta

As for the two suspensions, Marcantel said, he said the question on a questionnaire wasn't clear. The question asked whether there had been allegations of sexual harassment or other "workplace misconduct" against him.

The suspensions took place when he was 19 years old he said and "knew nothing more about police work than what I saw on Beretta."

He said he had disclosed those suspensions in previous background checks for law enforcement positions.

"I'm not a great guy," he told reporters after the hearing. "I'm a guy that’s got as many faults as anybody else. But I am going to tell you what I am not, I am not a liar.”

Law enforcement officials from around the state were at the hearing to testify in favor of Marcantel's appointment. These included Public Safety Secretary Gordon Eden and Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston.

Houston told the committee that dealing with confidential informants is one of the uglier sides of law enforcement. "Sometimes to get to the Devil you have to dance with demons," he said.

Marcantel still must be confirmed by the full Senate.