‘Different Conversation’ Sen. Peter Wirth addresses constituents after Republicans take over New Mexico House of Representatives
November 23, 2014, 5:40 pm By Justin Horwath
State Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, told constituents gathered at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse on a gray Sunday morning that before the election, he thought he’d be having a “different conversation” with them about the upcoming 60-day legislative session that starts in January.
But that was before Republicans took control of the New Mexico Legislature’s lower chamber for the first time in more than 60 years.
With a 37-33 advantage in the House for at least two years and another 4 years in the governorship, the GOP now has more power to implement the party’s legislative agenda than it has in decades.
The state Senate, where Democrats hold a 25-17 advantage, will see “a whole string of bills” previously stopped in the House when Democrats held the majority there now “screaming into the Senate,” Wirth said.
Democratic senators, Wirth said, must focus on “core Democratic issues” and by setting their own agenda and “can’t just sit here and play defense” against the House Republican agenda. He wondered “what kind of tone” the opposing party in the lower chamber will set. House Republicans, for instance, could finally clear a so-called parental notification bill that would require minors to notify parents they’re getting an abortion, he said.
While Democrats control the Senate, majority lawmakers in that chamber often undergo ideological divides on core liberal issues, with rural Democrats exhibiting streaks of independence from urban colleagues and the state Democratic Party.
House Democrats “have a whole set of rules” that will protect the minority party, he said, recalling the days when former state Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, “a master at using the rules to assist the [Republican] agenda,” would stall Democrats’ agenda with filibusters by describing Roswell public works projects in “in detail” as Democratic lawmakers sat like “stool pigeons as we’re watching Republicans run the show.”
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