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.

Las Soleras Super Complex in Susana's Hands Now

 Incoming Gov. Susana Martinez will have final say whether the state goes ahead with a land sale for a new "supercomplex" government office building south of the city on the Las Soleras Property.

Following a lengthy discussion, the Capitol Buildings Planning Commission today gave final apporival for  the Las Soleras project contingent.

The developer agreed to give the state the right to terminate the deal in the next 90 days -- mid February. Martinez hasn't taken a stand on the project, but said through a spokesman last week that "expensive new buildings" might not serve the public at this point.

House Speaker Ben Lujan, who chairs the commission, said allowing the new administration a month and a half to decide on the future of the project removes any appearance of "movida" that some have used to describe the land deal.

Other legislators at the meeting, including Senate President pro-Tem Tim Jennings, Senate Republican leader Stuart Ingle and House GOP leader Tom Taylor, praised General Services Secretary Art Jaramillo for putting together a deal that would save the state money.

However, all three of the lawmakers questioned the impact it would have on the office vacancy rate in Santa Fe. Jennings predicted it would take at least 10 years to fill the office space that would be vacated by the Human Services Department to move to the "supercomplex."

"The inner core of your city will do nothing but deteriorate," Jennings said. Vacancies would lead to vandalism and "more and more slums," he said.

Under the current proposal to buy the land from a partnership headed by Albuquerque developers John Mahoney and Gordon "Skip" Skarsgard, the state would pay $6 million. The state also would give the partnership 4.4 acres of state land in the Galisteo Business Park, which is in southeastern Santa Fe. The price of land in the deal is $9.11 per square foot.

The developers would build a Rail Runner train station, roads, utility lines and other amenities such as sidewalks, landscaping and bicycle trails. The state would have an option on the 20 adjacent acres in the 710-acre Las Soleras property.

The state Board of Finance will discuss the financing of the proposed land transfer tomorrow.

A Memorable Memorial

I know that not long ago I complained about the Legislature wasting too much time on useless memorials.

Still, I'm disappointed that the Senate probably won't get around to discussing Senate Memorial 2, sponsored by Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings.

Apparently Jennings has joined the "Draft Richardson" movement in terms of his reported interest in becoming CEO of the Motion Pictures Association of America.

Here's that memorial:

Senate Memorial 2

Roundhouse Roundup: The Senate's Mr. Congeniality

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 18, 2010

A legislative session is full of funny little moments that provide a couple of chuckles during long and often tedious days. One of those took place this week on the Senate floor.

Senate Democrat Leader Michael Sanchez, took the microphone Tuesday afternoon to call attention to Sen. Eric Griego who was talking with Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings at Jennings’ chair. Sanchez joked that the two men were hugging. Taking the cue, the two men proceeded to actually hug. Everyone laughed.

Yes, this is what passes for humor in the stale Legislature.

But what was truly funny was that this happened shortly after a piece by Griego titled “An Open Letter to Fellow Democrats” started popping up on the blogs (I first stumbled upon it on Democracy for New Mexico.) .

And one of the major topics of the piece was one Roswell Democrat named Tim Jennings.

There were no hugs in this letter.

“While Sen. Jennings is a nice enough guy, his political philosophy is in stark contrast to the majority of rank and file Democrats — not to mention the state party platform,” Griego wrote.

Recalling how Jennings was re-elected to his leadership post by a coalition — Jennings frequently has disputed that word — of Republicans and conservative Democrats, Griego wrote,

“What has been the practical effect of this coalition? No significant Democratic bills, other than repealing the death penalty, have passed the Republican/Democrat Coalition controlled Senate. They have worked with the Republican caucus to kill conservation, progressive taxation, consumer protection and equality legislation. Most of this legislation has died in committees set up by Senate leadership to minimize the influence of progressive members, and thus insure no legislation implementing the Democratic Party platform would ever come to fruition.”

Griego also railed against his party leadership on ethics reform. “Over the past two years the Democratic Senate leadership has bottled up, watered down, or otherwise stymied ethics and campaign finance reform bills.” (Actually, that had been going on years before Griego came to the Senate.)

A Valentine from Eric: Griego obviously isn't vying for the title of "Mr. Congeniality" in the Senate. In fact, the "open letter" wasn’t the first shot he took at the Senate Democratic leadership this week.

Over the weekend, Griego was irate about Majority Leader Sanchez’s handling of a bill pertaining to Webcasting.

So on Sunday night, he emailed a press release to reporters saying, “Sadly, the biggest obstacle to transparency in the New Mexico Senate has been the Democratic leadership."

The split between the Democratic Party’s progressive and conservative wings have been intensifying lately.

On Tuesday, 10 Senate Democrats joined the 15 Republicans to block the confirmation of political operative Neri Holguin to the state Environmental Improvement Board. Holguin had worked as campaign manager for Griego and at least two other Democrats in the Senate. (For the record, both Jennings and Sanchez voted in favor of her confirmation.)

This drift to the right by Senate Democrats is going to hurt the party in November, Griego predicted in his open letter.

“It has given our Democratic base no reason to show up in November,” he wrote. “If the talk of reform and change that brought in the overwhelming Democratic majorities at the federal and state levels was just that — talk — we are going to lose in November. And we should.”

Senate Passes Bill to Create Independent Council to Recover Lost Investments

The Senate unanimously approved Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings' SB269, which would create an independent counsel to seek to recover investments lost by the State Investment Council, Educational Retirement Board and the PERA.

Jennings stressed that the special council would not be responsible for investigating possible criminal wrongdoing. But if evidence of a crime was uncovered, it would be turned over to the state attorney general, Jennings said.

The bill includes a $400,000 appropriation, which would be paid for out of the retirement funds.

"It makes more sense that to just say adios to these dollars," Jennings said.

Sen. Dianna Duran asked Jennings whose responsibility this would be without the special council. Jennings said it would be the attorney general's office and the investment boards themselves. But there hasn't been much action by those agencies, he said.

Sen. Tim Keller said that in committees representatives of the attorney general testified they didn't have the money to pursue such investigations.

Roundhouse Roundup: Love Lust Memories

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 4, 2010

It already was obvious that it was going to be an interesting committee meeting. Three University of New Mexico regents were up for confirmation, with at least one of them — longtime political figure Jamie Koch — under fire from faculty and students, and with complaints in the news for months about the university being too politicized and about the administration being too top-heavy and overpaid.

But reporters at Monday's meeting of the Senate Rules Committee didn't really perk up their ears until the Senate president pro-tem started talking about anal sex.

It was a recent column in the university paper, The Daily Lobo, to which Sen. Tim Jennings referred. "I'm all for freedom of speech, but I don't think we need to have a letter in the student newspaper about how to do anal sex," Jennings drawled in the midst of a rambling and lengthy litany of complaints he had about UNM.

The column in question was written by 2007 Santa Fe High School grad Hunter Riley, who also worked on The New Mexican's teen page. Published last month, it provoked some controversy on campus and even got a little television coverage.

But it hasn't provoked a fraction of the uproar of an incident at UNM 41 years ago that Jennings mentioned next — the "Love-Lust" controversy.

The Days of '69: In March 1969, an English Department teaching assistant gave students in a freshman English class copies of a poem titled "Love-Lust Poem" by Lenore Kandel. As Ferrel Heady, president of UNM in 1969, recalled in his autobiography, "It dealt with a theme of sex in a variety of forms and was replete with four-letter Anglo-Saxon words."

Somehow a copy of the poem made it to the hands of then-state Sen. Harold Runnels, who headed the Legislative Finance Committee.

My former boss, Larry Calloway wrote about "Love-Lust" in a recent remembrance of the late Maralyn Budke on his blog .

Budke was director of the Legislative Finance Committee in 1969. Runnels called the committee into secret session. Wrote Calloway, "Members of the all-male committee expressed fear and loathing, some practically screaming, 'What if my own daughter saw this?' ... Before locking the doors, the committee told every woman to leave the room. Except Maralyn. 'That's when I knew I was one of the boys,' she told me, with a smile."

But "Love-Lust" didn't stay secret for long. As Heady said in a 2005 discussion of academic freedom in Mirage, a publication of the UNM Alumni Association, the reaction in the Legislature only led to more people reading the poem. "This was one of the biggest cases of hypocrisy I have ever encountered," Heady said. "Within the next few weeks, there were hundreds of copies of that poem being circulated everywhere. It was unsuitable for a freshman English class but it was suitable to be sent to people of all ages, anywhere, who wanted to read it."

I was a sophomore at Santa Fe Mid High at the time. I read a handwritten poem on a dog-eared sheet of notebook paper — not unlike the copy of the "real" lyrics of the song "Louie Louie" I'd seen a few years before. If anything, "Love-Lust" inspired me to keep up my grades, so I'd be sure to get accepted into UNM.

But the effect of the Legislature's ire was serious for UNM. It was as if "Love-Lust" became a symbol of everything conservative lawmakers hated about the turbulent '60s. Heady in Mirage recalled that lawmakers slashed $50,000 out of the university's budget to pay for a committee to investigate subversion and dirty words on state college campuses.

The "Love-Lust" affair was better to Runnels. As Jennings noted Monday, he rode the controversy to win a seat in Congress in 1970, where he stayed until his death in 1980.

Back to the Rules Committee: Jennings warned the UNM regents and other UNM folks at the meeting that something like the recent sex column in the Lobo could blow up. Though he said he found it offensive, Jennings didn't seem intent on waging a war over it.

Maybe the fact that the Lobo column didn't cause more screaming is a sign we've advanced as a society — or, depending on your point of view, that we've grown more decadent and immoral.

I suspect it's just that the economy and the budget situation is so dire, nobody has the inclination to get that upset about it.

Roundhouse Roundup: A Family Tradition

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 21, 2010

When Gov. Bill Richardson predicted in an interview last week that this would be a calmer, less contentious legislation session, some cynics said they bet that wouldn't last very long.

In his State of the State address Tuesday, Richardson evoked the memory of the late former Gov. Bruce King in asking lawmakers to cooperate.

"When asked what his legacy would be, (King) said, 'I guess just getting New Mexico to realize that if we were going to be successful, we were going to all work together and be one large family.' "

To which the current governor added, "I believe in this time of need, if we are to succeed, we must work together, maybe even as a family."

If you bet it would take more than two days before a family feud erupted, you lost.

The ongoing budget crisis, it seems, has some senators on edge.

On Wednesday, the second day of the session, longtime Richardson critic Sen. Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, let loose a tirade as he ripped into Richardson and his speech.

Jennings — who has been especially critical of the fact that the administration decided last year not to spend $10 million on a program to help families of the developmentally disabled — was upset that Richardson had warned against making too many budget cuts. Richardson said in the speech that "most state agencies have been cut to the bone."

To Jennings, that meant it's not OK to cut anything except programs for "the blind, elderly and disabled."

Jennings mocked Richardson's call for stronger drunken-driving laws. "Except for boats," he said.

This was an apparent reference to a Labor Day boat accident on Elephant Butte Lake involving the governor, Chief of Staff Brian Condit and Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Katherine Miller. Police didn't charge Condit, who was piloting the boat, with any alcohol-related offense. Richardson has denied any alcohol was involved.

Jennings also spoke disparagingly of Richardson's call for ethics reforms, saying the government agency most in need of ethics reform is the State Investment Council, which is under investigation by the federal government after a former state investment adviser admitted recommending investments to financially help politically connected people.

"I'm not a happy camper about what's going on," Jennings said.

We are family: A couple of senators came to Richardson's defense.

Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, said he took Richardson at his word when the governor said he wants to cooperate. "We've got to work as a family," Griego said. "I hope we don't come in here every day blasting the governor."

Likewise, Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, said the important thing is working together instead of "pointing fingers."

Cisneros, who has been a senator for 25 years, said he's seen other state budget crises, which were worked through by lawmakers and governors cooperating.

Taking the floor for a second time, Jennings said he was sorry if some senators were offended and said he's willing to work with anyone.

He added, "Some of my remarks were personal, but I think they're all true."

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen seemed surprised about the dust-up.

"It must be the snow," he said. "I hope we remain calm."

Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, might have made the understatement of the day when he said, "This is not going to be a fun session."

Smith continued: "What we lived in fear of has happened. ... I do not see (an economic) recovery to the levels we'd like in the foreseeable future."

There are 28 fun-filled — or not — days left in the session.

UPDATE: The original version of this said Condit wasn't charged at all in the Elephant Butte mishap. He actually was charged with two petty misdemeanors -- neither involving alcohol.

Open Letter From Tim Jennings

I just received this "Open Letter to the Citizens of New Mexico" from Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings. It's about the budget crisis.

Note, he's talking huge budget cuts but doesn't mention the idea of repealing the tax cuts, which I wrote about in today's Roundhouse Roundup column. That might be one of the few things that Jennings and Gov. Bill Richardson agree on.

Here it is in its entirety.

OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF NEW MEXICO

Dear Fellow New Mexicans:

As New Mexico’s economy continues to worsen, every New Mexican needs to prepare for the tough economic times ahead. It is unfortunate, but New Mexico’s fiscal situation is getting worse and I think we need to be prepared. Everyone needs to understand and take note that we all must make wise economic choices individually, as a family, and in government, for which the legislature is primarily responsible.

There is no easy way out of the state’s fiscal crisis in the short run. We must open our eyes and move forward to deal with this situation in an expeditious manner. Putting our heads in the sand will not work. Making piecemeal decisions in government spending will ultimately visit us again and again, causing more pain in the future. We are short huge amounts of recurring dollars and so we must make huge recurring expenditure cuts. We need to return to the core budget and deal with the problem there, not cover a recurring problem with non-recurring dollars. Glossing over the facts or wishing it away will not work.

Recent revelation that the executive still does not have a clear understanding of what New Mexico’s prior fiscal year tax collections are, leads me to believe that the legislature is not receiving accurate information from the executive. There appears to be a need for greater shared responsibility for developing revenue projections and the proper disclosure of these estimates in a timely manner. One possible solution would be to expand the legislature’s oversight powers of the executive branch by establishing an independent accounting office to insure that the best information is available as we make the hard decisions with which we are faced.

Recently, the Department of Finance and Administration revealed that New Mexico’s fiscal crisis has worsened since the last revenue projections were released just two months ago. New Mexico’s short fall in the prior fiscal year (FY09) has probably increased by an additional $107 million to a staggering $400 to $450 million. It appears now that the FY ‘10 budget is at least $550 million short of recurring revenue and possibly could grow to $700 million or more below the current year budget. In addition, the executive will need legislative authority to draw down reserves by an additional $107 million just to close the prior year fiscal year (FY’09). This is in addition to their August estimate of $117 million for a total of $224 million. We cannot ignore this crisis, and must deal with it in a caring but prudent manor. This drastic decline in revenue means that we all must be prepared for substantial budget cuts to all of state government, including public schools and higher education.

These are tough economic times and we must pull together to solve this problem with the least amount of harm to all New Mexicans.

Senator Timothy Z. Jennings
Office of the President Pro Tem
Room 105, State Capitol Building

Enviro Group Blasts State Senate Leadership

In its newly released 2009 Legislative Scorecard, Conservation Voters New Mexico has some strong words for the leadership of the state Senate.

"It is abundantly clear that the composition of many critical Senate committees has dramatically shifted power to special interests — to those industries that advocate de-regulation and increased exploitation of natural resources.

"In the end, the House of Representatives was forced to defeat attacks on our environment launched by the Senate. Fortunately, for the most part, the House held the line and chose clean air and water over exploitation of our Land of Enchantment."

In particular CVNM singled out the Senate Conservation Committee, saying this last session that panel was filled with senators "openly hostile to environmental protection."

I spoke with Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings this afternoon. He denied trying to stack the deck at the Conservation or any other committee and called the charge. "silly."

Here's the members of the Conservation Committee and their CVNM scores from the regular session this year. (The scores are based on 13 votes on specific pieces of legislation dealing with environmental protection, wildlife, growth and health issues. The group considers 100 percent to be the best vote on conservation issues.)

* Sen. Steve Fischmann, D-Las Cruces, 100 percent
* Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española, 46 percent
* Sen. John Ryan, R-Albuquerque, 41 percent
* Sen. David Ulibarri, D-Grants, 38 percent
* Sen. Bernadette M. Sanchez, D-Albuquerque (chairwoman), 36 percent
* Sen. Clinton Harden, R-Clovis, 27 percent
* Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, 20 percent
* Sen. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, 15 percent

Download your own coppy of the CVNM 2009 Legislative Scorecard HERE and check out my story in The New Mexican HERE.

Sorry ... not much blogging today

I had to go down to Albuquerque this morning and had to hustle to get my story in for Saturday's paper. (It'll be worth reading, I promise.)

Looks like the webcasting vote was postponed. Just didn't have the time, thought there was plenty of time to yack about the big Senate/House basketball game, which is taking place as I type this. Maybe Saturday?

I got in in time to hear Senate President Pro-tem defend his letter asking for leniency for former Sen. Manny Aragon, who awaits sentencing for his fraud conviction. Jennings made it clear he did not send the letter on official state letterhead, though he did sign his name as "Sen. Tim Jennings." Aragon's deeds were a betrayal of the public trust, Jennings said, but he did some good things too.

Sen. Mary Jane Garcia joined in. She talked how emotional Aragon got years ago when a bill he supported to help children with cancer was vetoed.

"It takes a big man to shed real tears," she said of Aragon.

XXXXXXXXXX

Sen. Majority Leader Michael Sanchez dropped by the news room for one of his informal chats.

He said he has no problems with the weird sunset clause on the latest version of the campaign-contribution limits bill -- the law wouldn't go into effect until after the 2010 governor's race, then would expire right after the 2012 election. But, Sanchez said, he wouldn't try to stop anyone from amending the bill to get rid of that clause.

Sanchez said he doesn't think any ethics commission bill will pass this year. He said he has concerns about who would have authority over the ethics commission. Sanchez used the example of the state Organized Crime Commission back in the '80s. I'm not sure who he was talking about, but he said some decent public servants were smeared by that commission. Any old timers (older-timers than me!) out there who can fill me in, please use the comment feature here.

Sanchez also said he expects HB285, the death penalty repeal, to successfully clear the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is scheduled to be heard by Judiciary on Monday.

XXXXXXX

Finally, please tune into Eye on New Mexico 10 am Sunday on Channel Four. I had a good discussion with Dennis and Nicole. I think the link to the video will be HERE. I'll correct it if that's wrong.

Monday Morning

First of all, a note of condolences for Senate President Pro-tem Tim Jennings for the loss of his wife Patty Jennings who died Saturday after a long battle with cancer. (Thanks to Heath for the photo.)

In case you missed my story about lobbyist expenses, which appeared in Saturday's paper, you can find it HERE.

Finally, it looks like the Senate Rukes Committee is finally moving on some ethics bills. Watch it live HERE.

TO WARM UP FOR THE SESSION

Lorene Mills' Report from Santa Fe television this weeks features an in-depth interview with Senate President pro-tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, who is fighting to hold on to his leadership position.

Senate Democrats -- angry with him for helping Republican Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson in the general election -- nominated Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Taos for the pro-tem job.

From the transcript of the show, here's what Jennings said about the incident. You'll notice he also touches on his past clashes with Gov. Bill Richardson:


You know the Senate has been through a lot lately and I with
Sen. Aragon’s conviction or plea agreement you know there are some things out there that I think cast a shadow on the Senate and about its actions and the people in it. ... Sen. Rawson was accused and some of the things were out there said implicated that he was dishonest.

Well, anybody who has been here knows Sen. Rawson worked very hard for his constituency; he worked very hard for the people of the state. He was one of the people that is here early in the morning and he was here and he read the bills, he was probably knitpicky, when he was on Finance he was a very astute individual and he was really in tune with little details. He had a good memory and so you might call him a knit picker or a jerk or something like that I might agree with you. But to say that he was dishonest was very, very far from the truth in my opinion.

... I thought was something I needed to stand up as a leader of the Senate to say no, this member is honest. I consider him to be honest and I do and I still to this day would maintain I believe he is an honest individual. And if I see something that is wrong, you know you try to correct it and the truth is something to me that in politics is something that every political official must have and must have the ability to always speak the truth. And if you see something that is wrong, you should right it.

You should say something about it and then you shouldn’t be punished for speaking the truth and that’s probably where I would probably come into a great deal of conflict with this governor because if you dare to disagree or have an opinion different than his, he tends to keep track and get even, as he has with the Senate. And I don’t support that. I don’t think it’s wrong in this body to have different ideas. I think this is the place that should celebrate different ideas.


Here's a schedule for the show
* Sunday January 18, 6:00 a.m. for Albuquerque and Santa Fe and all of Northern New Mexico, on Channel 5, KNME-TV, the PBS station in Albuquerque.

* Sunday January 18, 11:00 a.m. for Las Cruces and the Southern part of the State, on KRWG-TV, the PBS station in Las Cruces.

*Saturday January 17, 6:00 p.m. for the entire East side of the state, on Channel 3, KENW-TV, the PBS station in Portales.

* Listeners in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and other locales can hear the Jennings interview on the radio 9:30 a.m. on Monday, January 19 on KANW-FM, 89.1 FM.