Senator Tim Jennings was reelected President Pro Tempore of the Senate early this afternoon by a vote of 23-19. Jennings won all 15 Republican votes and 8 Democratic votes to retain his presidency. Senator Carlos Cisneros, the challenger, met with Jennings yesterday, asked him to withdraw from the race, and when Jennings refused, perhaps miscalculating his own support, decided he would fight it out on the floor of the Senate today in the opening moments of the session. Jennings, who has claimed all along he had enough votes to remain President, prevailed.
This means power in the Senate will remain independent of Governor Richardson, and assure equal treatment for the South: Jennings is from Roswell, Sen. John Arthur Smith, Chair of Senate Finance, is from Deming, and Sen. Mary Kay Papen is from Dona Ana County. Whether Sen. Cynthia Nava, from our own Valle del Sur, will retain her Chair of Education is unclear, since she voted to support a faction of Northern liberals closely associated with Governor Richardson.
In reality it would have been difficult for the Senate as a body, and for Democrats in particular, to explain a victory for Cisneros, inasmuch as Cisneros and many of his closest supporters have been part of what might be dubbed the "Rubber Stamp for Richardson" faction, in contrast to the independent posture associated with Jennings and his supporters. Given the lame duck status of the Governor, now beginning his seventh year as governor, and the humiliation he faced in having to withdraw from Obama's cabinet in the face of an FBI investigation over serious ethical questions, it just didn't make sense for the Senate to take power away from the very senators who correctly predicted that the governor's spending spree would get the state into financial trouble, and hand it over to a faction that appeared to be completely uncritical of the governor's agenda.
One irony in this is that the Republicans in the Senate, in supporting Jennings unanimously, may have prevented the Democrats from shooting themselves in the foot.
3 comments:
Sen Nava has done very little for the south valley, its refreshing news that their is already a great person that will be running against her. Maybe when she loses she can clean up the GISD.
Our state is facing difficult budget decisions and significant challenges, and it is critically important that the Governor and the state legislature work together to address the challenges facing the people of New Mexico. Instead the Democratic recreants and their Republican allies have usurped the State Senate leadership. This will hurt New Mexicans in the pocketbooks. The lobbyists must be served so their pet projects are protected with our tax money. There will be a stalemate in our political process unless reform-minded legislators unite to overcome this impasse. It will be an interesting session.
Nava is a Senator until 2013. She has had a no opposition for the last two elections. She continues to be the most productive and effective legislator in Dona Ana County. Fact not opinion. Jennings, Smith and Papen have voting records that do not support the south valley...against minimum wage,against open conference committees, against environment justice. Ask Mary Kay Papen how she votes on these issues. Nava is the leader of this county. She works...she does not whine.
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