SENATOR DANIEL IVEY-SOTO
Daniel A. Ivey-Soto has been busy making a name for himself in the Land of Enchantment for the last two decades that he’s lived here.
Daniel won a tough election bid in State Senate District 15, which was previously held by Senator Tim Eichenberg who decided not to run for re-election. Ivey Soto defeated Republican H. Diane Snyder in the General Election.
“This fall, I met so many wonderful people in the 15th District,” Senator Ivey-Soto said. “It is an awesome responsibility to speak their concerns and represent their voices.”
The freshman senator is a former executive director of NM Clerks, LLC. When working there, he frequented the Capitol as a legislative and regulatory representative for New Mexico’s 33 county clerks. He also worked on policy development issues related to elections, property and land recordation, marriage licensing, and management of probate records. Senator Ivey-Soto also is a former state elections director, prosecutor, and school teacher. Considering this background, it should not be difficult for Ivey-Soto to transition to his new seat, smack dab in the middle of the third row on the floor of the New Mexico State Senate.
“I am used to being around the Capitol,” Senator Ivey-Soto said. “Now, it is a matter of getting used to the formalities, everyone calling me ‘Senator.’ It will take some time to adjust. As a former elections director I hope that the public will take advantage of the resources available to follow what we do here, the webcasting and reading bills online.”
“It’s important to me that they know what we do here is transparent.”
Daniel now serves as Vice Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and touts the importance of this position as being the first stop in the review process for all of Governor Susana Martinez’s appointees.
He’ll also serve on the Senate Public Affairs Committee. Ivey-Soto said that he considers Senator Howie Morales,(Catron, Grant, Socorro, District 28) as his mentor in the State Senate. The two Senators have something in common – Ivey-Soto as representative for county clerks in the state, and Senator Morales as a former county clerk.
If you are visiting the Roundhouse this 2013 Session and are a resident of Senate District 15, your senator is easy to find – you can just follow his hearty laugh right to his third-floor office.
Daniel resides in Albuquerque with his wife, Sheri Jett, an educator.
Watch a video of Senator Ivey-Soto here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUKL_f3EDnQ
Senate Majority Caucus Chair Jacob Candelaria
(Bernalillo, District 26)
Public service comes naturally to freshman Senator Jacob Candealria, who grew up in a working class neighborhood on Albuquerque’s westside.
Raised by a single mother and his grandparents, Jacob learned at an early age the value of hard work and commitment to family and community. Both his grandfather, who was honored as a national leader in the fight against gangs and drugs in our nation’s cities, and his grandmother, who ran a clinic that provided dental care to poor children, provided the senator tremendous inspiration.
A proud graduate of St. Pius X High School, Jacob went on to attend Princeton University where he earned a degree in public policy in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Jacob then turned down the opportunity of employment on Wall Street, and instead chose to return to the Land of Enchantment to work for the state he loves.
Since coming home, Jacob has worked as a leadership fellow with Think New Mexico, working on groundbreaking, education-reform legislation to address our state’s high-school dropout issues; as a program evaluator for the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee, the state agency charged with crafting the state budget; and as a policy analyst to the late Speaker of the House of Representatives Ben Lujan (D) Santa Fe, District 46.
Jacob recently stepped down from his position as Director of Equality New Mexico, a statewide equal-rights initiative. After handedly winning his Democratic primary, Jacob went unopposed in the 2012 General Election. Upon being sworn in to the New Mexico State Senate, Jacob became the first openly gay male state senator.
In the Senate, Jacob is staying true to his campaign pledge of trying to make life easier for working families. So far in 2013, he has introduced legislation that would increase the working-families’ tax credit to 15 percent of the federal tax credit, a 5 percent increase from where the credit stands currently. Senator Candelaria is also sponsoring several health care initiatives, and one bill that would expand animal abuse penalties to include negligent starvation or dehydration.
While he enjoys the fast-paced atmosphere of Santa Fe during the Legislative Session, Jacob is proud to call District 26 his home. He lives in an apartment with his dog, Fuzer.
For more information on Senator Candelaria, visit his website http://jacobcandelaria.com
Watch a video of Senator Candelaria here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5HcOwRP9cg
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