NM Senate leadership battle ‘historic crossroads’ for Dems

When the Legislature convenes today, senators will decide whether to sustain a bipartisan coalition that has been the only real check on the governor’s power — or take a new direction under leadership that many believe will be friendlier to Gov. Bill Richardson and his agenda.

Supporters of keeping Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, as Senate president pro tem say their coalition, which consists largely of Republicans and conservative Democrats, is a necessary check on Richardson, especially in a year when lawmakers have to make dramatic cuts to the state budget. Supporters of replacing Jennings with Carlos Cisneros, D-Cuesta, are looking to take advantage of progressive gains in the Senate and the current left-leaning mood of the nation to move their agenda forward.

In a number of interviews conducted in the last few days, Jennings and his supporters claimed to have the edge going into today’s vote, while Cisneros and his supporters made the same claim. Most conceded that the race is close.

The entire Republican caucus is likely to back Jennings, who is attempting to override the will of his own Democratic caucus, which voted late last year to replace him with Cisneros. To be successful, Jennings needs the votes of six other Democrats, along with those of every Republican.

The vote is important primarily because the pro tem appoints members of the Senate Committees’ Committee. That committee makes assignments to other committees and decides who will lead those committees. So the pro tem has the ability to put his allies in the position of setting the agenda for the Senate.

“The determination of who will lead the Senate in the next session will determine the direction of the Senate for the next four years,” said Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, a Cisneros supporter. “It will manifest itself on the budget, on social issues, on environmental issues, right down the line.”

The budget

For example, many senators said John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, would likely continue as chairman of the Finance Committee if Jennings keeps the pro tem job, but is likely to be replaced if Cisneros wins.

Smith has been warning that the state was going to face a dire financial situation long before most of his colleagues and the governor saw it coming. That alone is enough to convince Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, to support Jennings.

“I am supporting Tim Jennings because I think that we need to keep fiscal responsibility, and we have that in Sen. Smith and Sen. Jennings …,” Papen said. “We will work with the governor, but we will not be overrun by the governor.”

Jennings said it’s now clear that the Senate has been a necessary check in recent years, and not the naysayer Richardson and others have complained about.

“Where would we be without the Senate right now? Instead of being $600 million in the hole or half a billion in the hole, we’d be twice that. The Senate has saved the state from being totally devastated, and the only thing we’ve received from that is being totally attacked,” Jennings said. “Shouldn’t somebody say, ‘You were right about that’?”

But Cisneros said the budget is going to be front-and-center regardless of who wins the leadership battle. He said the fact that lawmakers have to address a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars ensures a fiscally smart focus during the session.

“We know what we’re doing right now is not working and we have to do something to make very clear that we have a balanced budget,” he said. “We don’t have a choice.”

Working with the governor

If Cisneros is pro tem, he said he’ll try to steer the Senate to the middle. He said his good relationships with House Speaker Ben Lujan and the governor will also help.

Jennings, on the other hand, has been one of Richardson’s most vocal critics and has felt the wrath of the governor’s fury in recent years. Asked about that, Jennings said he’s glad to know one governor will be around for the entire session so the dynamic is clear. Until Richardson withdrew his nomination to be commerce secretary, the likely scenario was that Richardson would be replaced mid-way through the session by Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

Richardson withdrew because of an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into allegations of pay to play in his administration. Jennings says he doesn’t believe the governor is weakened by the investigation.

“It is kind of scary when you think about some of the charges that are out there for pay-to-play, but the governor … is innocent until proven guilty, and I will maintain that and treat him that way,” Jennings said.

“It’s real easy to tear somebody down. The governor’s done a lot of things to me as far as personal attacks, but I don’t tend to make those. That’s his shortcoming. That’s not mine. … I’m not here to make hay on his problems.”

Cisneros also said the governor remains politically strong.

“Obviously we’re all concerned about the most recent activity — his administration is being investigated and so on. … If he gets charged, then that may shift, but I don’t think, unless that happens, that it’s going to have any implication,” Cisneros said. “He’s strong, he’s determined and historically he prevails.”

The north-south dynamic

There’s one other dynamic at play in the Senate leadership battle: Jennings and many others with influential positions in the Senate are from the southern New Mexico. Papen, who as a member of the Finance Committee is one of those influential southerners, said electing Cisneros would shift the power in the Senate to the north. She pointed out that the leadership in the House already comes primarily from the northern half of the state.

“If we elect Carlos and the people that have been promised to be put into place… we would move every bit of power in this state up north, and I’m not willing to do that,” Papen said. “I think we need to be looking at the state as a whole, we need to be looking at leadership as a whole, we need to be looking at leadership that will work with the governor and the House but also will stand ground as the Senate.”

McSorley said the opposite is true — electing Cisneros would continue and possibly increase the south’s influence. He said Cisneros would do a better job of listening to Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, and the majority whip, than has past leadership, and Cisneros would pay greater attention to education, and Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, chairwoman of the Education Committee.

“This is an interesting, historic crossroads we’re at because the presidency of the Senate has been dominated for over 30 years by southern New Mexico and Albuquerque,” McSorley said. “This is the first time that we have the historic opportunity to balance that with the election of a norteño, and I’ll be proud to be part of making that change.”