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SANTA FE — The revolution at the New Mexico Capitol on Monday involved a webcam, a computer and a videostream of a legislative committee meeting.
It was the Roundhouse’s first webcast. Pretty innocuous stuff you’d think. But for some it might as well have been revolutionaries storming the Bastille.
Powerful state lawmakers wrung their hands over the possible disruptions to the lawmaking process if webcasting is allowed to continue. A couple even suggested that webcasting could become a Trojan Horse of partisanship.
“A lot of members are very concerned about that,” said House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Nambe, who chastised Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, for webcasting a meeting of the House Taxation and Revenue Committee on Monday. At its most popular the webcast drew 89 unique viewers, including one from the United Kingdom, according to an analysis of the webcast.
Arnold-Jones was asked twice during the webcast to shut it down by committee chairman Rep. Edward Sandoval, D-Albuquerque, but she refused and no one forced her to stop.
The webcasting of the committee hearing amounted to a challenge of authority in a Legislature that still does not televise its floor sessions, much less its committee meetings. A couple of weeks ago, the New Mexico state Senate took down cameras that were to be used to webcast floor sessions in the chamber. On Monday, senators voted 30-10 to reconsider that decision. It was unclear if that vote was related to the standoff Monday in the House Taxation and Revenue Committee meeting.
” This right here is brand new to us,” Sandoval acknowledged of webcasts.
Added House Minority Leader Tom Taylor, R-Farmington: “The traditions we have in the Legislature are resistant to change. The fact of the matter is any transparency that you do in a process like this dilutes the power of leadership to some degree.”
Taylor is a co-sponsor with House Majority Leader Ken Martinez of a rule that would give committee chairs the authority to shut down webcasts if they want. Taylor said he was supportive of webcasting at the Legislature. As for a committee leader who doesn’t like webcasting, Taylor said, “If he has something to hide, he can say no.”
A House legislative committee will debate that this morning. If the rule is approved by that committee, it will go to the House where two-thirds of the chamber’s members must support it for it to pass, Lujan said.
Along with getting used to something new, concerns that webcasting might be put to partisan uses seemed to scare state lawmakers.
Both Sandoval and Lujan cited partisan concerns. To reinforce the point, Lujan referred to the Web site, civicplaza.net, that hosted Arnold-Jones’ webcast Monday as “right wing.” The site is owned and operated by Cedar Creek Technologies, LLC of Placitas.
Asked if the Legislature should spend money to avoid issues of partisanship, Lujan said, “That’s something that should be considered.”
It was clear during Monday’s committee meeting that the webcast made Sandoval and Lujan uncomfortable.
“This is probably something that is the future of legislatures and government as technology progresses. However, this is something new to us,” Sandoval said as he started the meeting. “… I think when we’re looking at transparency, and that’s all well and good and we’re going to get there. … That’s what we want, but we also want to do it in an organized matter so there aren’t any disruptions.”
After Sandoval finished speaking, Arnold-Jones was also briefly addressed by Lujan, who is a member of the committee. Lujan told Arnold-Jones that it was “unfortunate” and “a little surprising that you didn’t even have the courtesy” to inform Lujan and Sandoval before the meeting that she was going to webcast it.
Arnold-Jones did little to promote the webcast other than announcing it on her own Web site, but the New Mexico Independent and other news outlets picked up the story last week and spread it far and wide.
The committee meeting was attended by a number of representatives of the media, including staffers from two television stations with cameras in hand. Dozens of people were watching on the Internet at any given time, according to Arnold-Jones.
The video quality was amateur, as the camera sat in front of Arnold-Jones on the table at which the members of the committee are seated, and the members’ comments were a little difficult to hear because of background noise.
But for those who were unable to attend the meeting in person, the webcast represented a new level of accessibility to the business of the Legislature.
Arnold-Jones, who set up the webcasting system for a few hundred dollars, plans to webcast from the meetings of three committees: tax and revenue, voters and elections and one of two capital outlay subcommittees. The tax and revenue committee is scheduled to meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1:30 p.m.
The voters and elections committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The capital outlay subcommittee is scheduled to meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:30 a.m.
You can watch Arnold-Jones’ webcasts live by clicking here. She also plans to archive them for future viewing at civicplaza.net.
Editor’s Note: NMI’s Heath Haussamen contributed to this report. A prior version of this posting incorrectly attributed a quote to Martinez that should have been attributed to Taylor.
