Garcia-Richard: "My vote will no longer be manipulated"

Rep. Stephanie Garcia-Richard

The House Appropriations & Finance Committee probably put the final stake in the heart of the driver's license repeal on Saturday when supporters of Rep. Paul Pacheco's House Bill 606 didn't have enough votes to pass it out of the committee.

Few lawmakers on either side of the issue thought such a bill -- which would repeal the 2003 law that allows the state to issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants -- had much of a chance in this session.

But the bill, which was pushed by Gov. Susana Martinez,  has been troubling to one freshman lawmaker, Rep. Stephanie Garcia-Richard, D-Los Alamos.

During last year's campaign, in which she unseated Republican Jim Hall, Garcia-Richard said she would vote to repeal the law.

Last week when House Republican Whip Nate Gentry led the unsuccessful effort to blast HB 606 to the House floor, Garcia joined Republicans in voting to remove the bill from the House Labor Committee, which had tabled it. But she voted with the majority of Democrats in subsequent votes. The bill stayed in House Appropriations.

Soon after the vote, Republican operative Adam Feldman tweeted, "Stephanie Garcia Richard is on Appropriations. No `procedural vote' to hide behind there."

And the next morning, the governor herself in an interview on KRSN accused Garcia-Richard of breaking her campaign promise by not voting to move the bill out of all the committees to the House floor, the Los Alamos Daily Post reported.

On Saturday Garcia-Richard voted with Republicans to give the bill a do-pass. But after the vote, she released the following statement:

“I have been deeply concerned by Gov. Martinez’s persistent actions to politicize this issue. I believed the bill deserved another opportunity to be heard in order to allow additional time for a real compromise, which is why I initially voted to blast the bill out of committee. I spent the last three days drafting amendments that would satisfy the needs of all New Mexicans, but received no support from Republican leadership in the process. After today’s vote, it is apparent that HB 606 is just another tactic used by the Republican leadership to attack vulnerable Democratic members.  For this reason, I am taking a stand and saying enough.  My vote will no longer be manipulated  or held hostage by Gov. Martinez and until she is willing to come to the table and compromise, I will vote against any attempt by Republicans to once again blast HB 606. It is my hope that the governor and House members will be able to come together and work out a compromise that can actually pass and resolve this important issue once and for all.”

It's rare when a politician admits to being vulnerable. I'm not sure how important this issue is to voters in Garcia-Richard's district is. But you can bet the Martinez political operation won't let it rest in 2014.

Roundhouse Roundup: Would You Want to Work For These Guys?

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
March. 10, 2013

There are many legislators on both sides of the aisle of whom I’m personally fond. Many who I sincerely respect. In fact, I have to admit that there are surprisingly few outright jerks in the House or Senate. Most are pretty decent folks.


But based on a couple of recent votes at the Roundhouse, there are some lawmakers who, even though I like them, I wouldn’t want to be my boss.

Listening to the debates on the bills in question, it almost seemed like some of these guys think that employers should be able to demand just about anything they want from their employees.

First there was Sen. Jacob Candelaria’s Senate Bill 371, which would prohibit prospective employers from asking job applicants for passwords to their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social-media sites.

The bill was introduced in response to a bunch of national news stories last year about employers demanding passwords to Facebook and other sites from prospective employees at job interviews.

The bill did not restrict potential employers from checking out an applicant’s Web presence. Nothing prevented any boss from not hiring some stupid job seeker who has naked pictures of himself smoking dope plastered all over his Facebook page. All the bill would do would be to make it illegal to demand passwords. I can only see two reasons why an employer would want to use your Facebook password:

1) To look at posts you have made “private” — available to only friends or family.

2) To look at your private messages.

Both reasons strike me as downright creepy.

To be fair, opponents said they worry the proposal could inhibit law-enforcement agencies and the military from performing background checks on potential recruits. But, as Candelaria pointed out, nobody in the state Public Safety Department who analyzed the bill expressed concern about that.

The measure passed the Senate by a healthy, bipartisan 28-9 margin. Still, there were nine senators, all Republicans, who are OK with employers asking prospective employees for their Facebook passwords.

And, after a House floor vote on Thursday, I’m betting there will be even more votes from people who believe bosses have a right to snoop through your private stuff.

I’m talking about House Bill 277, sponsored by Rep. Christine Trujillo, D-Albuquerque. This bill, which was voted down, would have prohibited employers from requiring their workers to attend meetings that have the main purpose of touting the employer’s opinions on religion or politics.

Under Trujillo’s bill, it would have been against the law to threaten or penalize employees for not attending such meetings or for not participating in communications regarding political or religious matters. (Political and religious organizations would have been exempted from this bill.)

Stories of bosses forcing their politics on their workers were seen widely last year. There were reports from Ohio of coal companies making their workers go to Romney rallies. Then there was another story last year about a state agency in Illinois whose workers were forced to go to a rally involving U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Should your boss be allowed to punish you if you’d rather just do your job than listen to a bunch of political jabber or religious proselytizing?

Apparently 36 members of the House think so. That includes all Republicans and four Democrats, including two from the Santa Fe area — Reps. Jim Trujillo and Carl Trujillo.

Some opponents of the bill said it would infringe on the free speech rights of the bosses.

I wonder whether they will be as concerned about free speech — the right to write Facebook messages to your friends without your prospective boss reading them — when they consider Candelaria’s social media bill.


(After this column was written, the House Labor Committee voted unanimously for a do-pass recommendation for Canderlaria's SB 371.)

UPDATE: 7:27 pm 3-12-13 I just got an email from Rep. Jim Trujillo who sent a section of the fiscal impact report  on the billas an explanation why he voted against HB 277.

From that report: "HB 277, if enacted, could face First Amendment challenges from employers asserting violations of free speech rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision."

House Passes Ethics Commission Bill

By a 64-1 vote, the House this afternoon approved a bill that would establish an independent Ethics Commission that would investigate allegations of ethical violations by legislators and other elected state officials, state workers, lobbyists and government contractors.

New Mexico is one of nine states that doesn't have an independent ethics commission.

House Bill 190, sponsored by Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, would create an 11-member commission appointed by legislative leaders, the governor and the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

The panel would oversee New Mexico laws governing campaign finances and lobbyist spending, as well as the Government Conduct Act.

If the commission finds an ethics violation, it would issue a report and that could include a public reprimand or censure of a state official or state employee. If the commission found criminal violations, the evidence would be turned over to law enforcement.

However, the executive director of New Mexico Foundation for Open Government says she has problems with certain aspects of the bill.

“We applaud Rep. Egolf’s effort, but we can’t support a proposal that allows the commission to keep almost all of its work secret — while threatening whistleblowers with fines and jail time for speaking out,” Gwyneth Doland said. “Without all the secrecy — and with more fairness — we could get behind it.”

Under the bill, anyone who discloses any confidential complaint, report, file, record or communication could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and be sentenced to up to a year in jail or a $1,000. In addition to the criminal penalties, someone who breaks confidentiality could be fined up to $25,000 in civil court.

These penalties would apply to commission members and employees as well as the person bringing the complaint.

This is better, at least from a journalist's perspective, than a previous bill the Legislature considered in 2010. Under that bill, anyone, including reporters, who disclosed confidential material could be jailed and fined. Under this bill, I couldn't go to jail, but my sources could.

Egolf said that the confidentiality part of the bill was modeled after the law that created the Judicial Standards Commission, which conducts investigations of judges in strict secrecy.

Egolf noted that he and other legislators have for several years tried to pass bills creating ethics committees.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Enlightened Facebook Testimony

Ah, the Internet is such an enlightened place ...

Recently Gov. Susana Martinez posted a link on her Facebook page to an online petition asking people to "Sign the petition if you agree that we need to end the dangerous practice of giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. We will make sure your voice is heard loud and clear in the legislature."


During yesterday's debate in the Senate Public Affairs Committee's debate of Senate Bill 521, the immigrant driver's license compromise sponsored by Senate Republican Leader Stuart Ingle and Sen. John Arthur Smith, freshman Sen. Jacob Candelaria did just that. He read some selected comments about the issue posted on Martinez's page.

Loud and clear.

And ugly.

Candelaria was not claiming that the governor or most people who support her on this issue were racists. He was not saying that Martinez endorsed the hateful comments. (I sure don't endorse much of the bad craziness that gets posted in The New Mexican's comments section in the name of free speech and open discussion.)

His point was that the issue is divisive and stirs some dark emotions.

I took a look at the comments myself. At this writing there are more than 1,600 comments on that post. More than 15,000 people "liked" the post about the petition (which does not mean all of them  liked all the comments) and more than 2,600 who "shared" the petition (posted it on their own Facebook page.)

Most of the comments there aren't hateful. Many of those posting disagree with the governor's position (and some of those are over-the-top in blasting Martinez for it). And, as is common in Internet forums, the comments go off topic into other areas, such as gun control.

But indeed some of the comments are disturbing. I've posted some of these below.

Proceed at own risk:

"Mexicans! Hispanics, Wet backs! Watever, jes go back to yur country and continue to pull yur donkey-carts without a D.L. LOL"

"They are Illegal...that makes them criminals....send them back to THEIR country. They can get all the license from Mexico that they want."

"I say register all the Illegals take the liscense and ship them all back to where they came from, then if they want to come back let them apply the legal way, as a New Mexican I voted for her and I'll back her."

"If you are here illegally You are a Criminal! You are breaking an American Law! Any time anyone breaks a law that DOES make them a Criminal! What part of that don't you Understand??? PLEASE don't be ignorant!"

"deport them with no id kitty. Take any money they have to cover damages."

And here's some of the nastier attacks on Martinez among those comments:

"illegal its not the proper word get educated its undocumented.. no doubt about it that theirs still racism in this country..COME ON SUSAN MAKE PEOPLE SUFFER I HOPE THEY DO THE SAME TO YOUR FAMILY SOME DAY LIKE YOUR DOING IT TO ALL DIZ UNDOCUMENTED PEOPLE."

"Too bad Susana's a hypocrit, since her grandparents were "illegal" immigrants. Maybe she should go back to making coffee with her $2300 coffee maker that she just had taxpayers pay for"

"A Mexican republican governer who's against immigration ... Can't believe her people haven't disowned her yet"

Everyone feel uplifted? Have a nice day.

Fore! The Latest Round of Lobbyist Expense Reports

I reported earlier in the session that lawmakers got their annual free ski passes from the state's ski industry. Last week the golf industry joined in, giving legislators passes good for five free games of golf at various courses around the state. (The New Mexico Golf Tourism Alliance does this just about every year.)

My story on that and other lobbyist expenses -- dinners for legislators, etc. -- can be found HERE. 

Previous stories about lobbyist reports from the session can be found HERE, HERE and HERE

I've been criticized for running these stories (which I started doing several years ago.) One senator last year even implied that The New Mexican doesn't like the idea of restaurants, bars and hotels benefiting from parties, receptions and dinners for lawmakers because we always run stories about the lobbyist reports.

Not true. We don't hate golf courses and ski areas either.

It's just that we believe the public has the right to know who is picking up the tab for our decision makers. So don't expect me to stop.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: Extravagant Lifestyles

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
March. 3 2013

‘‘It’s the lifestyles of the rich and famous … who is this high-class showboat? $5.5 million for a brand-new jet airplane … three personal chefs … travels with a large entourage of bodyguards and staff to places like Europe and Las Vegas … gets front-row seats to all the best events … and isn’t bothered by speed limits … is it P-Diddy? Britney Spears? …”


No, it was then-Gov. Bill Richardson. The state Republican Party was running radio ads ripping him for his “extravagant lifestyle at taxpayer expense.”

The ads ran here in New Mexico and, for a few days, on radio stations in New Hampshire, where Richardson had traveled to plant seeds for his 2008 presidential bid. (I was there, too, to report about the governor’s trip.)

It wasn’t the first of such humorous attacks on Richardson for his high-rolling ways, and it wasn’t the last.

Camp Richardson didn’t find it humorous. “This is a desperate, pathetic, partisan attack filled with lies and complete fabrications,” huffed a Richardson spokesman in response to the P-Diddy ad. Indeed, Richardson didn’t really have three chefs, and Bill looked nothing like Britney.

I thought about this ad last week when the story of Gov. Susana Martinez’s kitchen renovations broke. For those who didn’t catch that story, Martinez’s General Services Department spent about $100,000 on kitchen renovations at the governor’s mansion last summer. The makeover included $16,994 for new granite countertops, $10,617 for a granite slab, $9,400 for a new stove, and — most notoriously by now — an eye-popping $2,700 for a coffeemaker.

And this for a governor who made a big deal about firing Richardson’s chefs when she took office, joking about living off her husband’s bologna sandwiches.

And making it even worse, coffeemaker-gate broke just after the story in the Albuquerque Journal about our jet-selling governor flying a couple of Republican legislators in a state plane at state expense to a political rally and federal hearing. (The rally in Roswell was to protest the possibility of adding the lesser prairie chicken to the endangered species list. The chicken also was the subject of the hearing.)

Neither story is devastating. But both are at least smudges on Martinez’s image of fighting Richardson’s excesses.

So it was only natural that Democrats would have a little fun at the governor’s expense.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez took the opportunity to poke the governor over the new coffeemaker. At the start of the Senate floor session, he presented Lt. John Sanchez with a new Mr. Coffee.

“Ours cost less than $2,700,” Sanchez later told reporters. “It was $24.”

But even funnier is a fundraising effort on the website of the anti-Martinez PAC Progress Now New Mexico .

The PAC altered the striking black-background logo from Martinez’s old “Sell the Jet!” website used during her 2010 campaign. It now reads “Sell the Coffeemaker!” Beneath that is the message: “Someone Else for Governor.” This can be yours on a black T-shirt (modeled by a Photoshopped Martinez on the site) for a $50 donation.

I said this was funny. But I suppose if you’re a member of the administration, it’s probably a “desperate, pathetic, partisan attack filled with lies and complete fabrications.”

To be fair, everyone should remember that the kitchen renovations were in the public area of the mansion, not the governor’s private quarters, where, for all we know, first gent Chuck Franco still makes bologna sandwiches for the governor. So it’s not as if this spiffy new kitchen is Martinez’s personal playground, as some of her critics have implied.

Also, as top officials of the General Services Department laid out for me last week, the kitchen and adjoining areas had fallen into fairly serious disrepair — mold, asbestos, uneven floors, etc.

The controversial coffeemaker isn’t at the same level as a $5 million jet. But still, $2,700 for a coffeemaker is pretty steep.

And turnabout is fair play.

Sen. Michael Sanchez Hospitalized Again

For the second time in less than a month, Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez was taken to the hospital Friday, aides and fellow Senate leaders said.

Toward the end of Friday’s Senate floor session, Sanchez went to the Senate Lounge to lie down after he started feeling ill, his chief of staff Lorraine Montoya-Vigil told reporters.

Senate President Pro-tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces said the doctor on duty thought he should be taken to St. Vincent Hospital for observation. He was taken to the hospital by ambulance, Papen said. The lounge area was blocked off and the Senate floor session was cut short, Papen said.

In mid February Sanchez, 62, underwent an angioplasty stent procedure on the advice of his doctor. He went back to work in the Senate the next week.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a stent is a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrow or weak arteries.

Last summer Sanchez underwent a heart-related emergency procedure after having chest pains.

UPDATE:: I just talked to Montoya-Vigil, who said she just spoke with Sanchez who said he expects to be released from the hospital soon.

Asked whether Sanchez is expected to be at Saturday's Rules Committee hearing for Education Secretary designate Hanna Skandera. "I'd be shocked if he's not," Montoya-Vigil said.