I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
SANTA FE — Watch domestic partnership legislation, Gov. Bill Richardson told reporters earlier this week.
Sure enough, the battle over a proposal to establish lawful domestic partnerships in New Mexico appears as if it is heating up again.
A poll commissioned by advocates of the legislation zeroes in on two lawmakers viewed as crucial to the legislation’s fate this year — Democratic Sens. Richard Martinez and Bernadette Sanchez.
Among the findings: roughly three-fifths of registered voters in each of their legislative districts support the legislation.
The poll and the governor’s remarks signal that supporters aren’t giving up so easily on their goal of pushing the controversial bill through the Legislature this year.
The legislation would give both same-sex and opposite-sex couples in a committed relationships many of the same rights as married couples. That includes medical coverage through a partner’s health insurance plan and the right to visit a partner in a hospital. They could also take family medical leave to care for a partner who is ill, earn property rights in a partner’s pension, and have inheritance rights.
Martinez and Sanchez each have played a role in bottling up the controversial legislation in the Senate, which is why their districts were selected.
Martinez of Española joined Republicans last week to oppose the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sanchez, who was the deciding vote, walked out of the meeting right as the vote was being taken.
Sanchez’s absence left the committee divided 5-5 and motion to pass the bill out of committee failed.
Both lawmakers have cited opposition among constituents in their districts as the reason for their stance on the legislation.
The poll’s results give “the senators some reliable information to reconsider their position on the bill,” said Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, which commissioned the survey. The poll was conducted by Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc.
But neither lawmaker said Thursday that the survey had changed their minds.
Martinez said he was “sticking with his guns.”
“That poll was geared to get the answers they wanted, with all due respect to Brian Sanderoff,’ Martinez said, referring to the Research & Polling’s principal pollster. Sanderoff’s firm also conducts regular polls for the Albuquerque Journal.
The poll found that 61 percent of voters in Martinez’s legislative district supported the legislation — 37 percent strongly support and 24 percent somewhat support — compared to 38 percent who opposed it.
“They say 38 percent opposed and 61 percent want it, I don’t believe it,” Martinez said. “If you only saw the people that are lined up in my office, and the calls I get, not only in my office but at home, on my cell.”
Sanchez said much the same thing about the poll.
“The numbers in the poll don’t match the calls I’m getting,” she said.
The poll found that 63 percent of registered voters in her Albuquerque district support the legislation — 42 percent strongly support and 21 percent somewhat support — compared to 31 percent who opposed it. Five percent of registered voters didn’t know or wouldn’t answer the question.
The poll is based on random sample of about 400 registered voters in each legislative district, and has a 4.9 percent margin of error, according to a handout provided by the ACLU.
