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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.
An attempt to “blast” through controversial legislation led to Republicans crying foul and Gov. Susana Martinez and Speaker of the House Ben Luján issuing releases on the controversial end to a long Wednesday session that passed two important bills.
The House had just passed a controversial bill to cap film incentives at $45 million. The three-hour debate seemingly signaled the end of the day’s work in the House, as the clerk began reading messages from the Senate and about other legislative business.
But when it was done, Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch, rose for an unusual motion. Nuñez attempted to “blast” legislation to the floor, or bypass the committees. The bill would bar illegal immigrants from obtaining driver’s licenses in New Mexico and has been one of Susana Martinez’s top priorities in her first year as governor.
After Nuñez did so, House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Albuquerque, rose and motioned to recess the House until Thursday morning. Luján, D-Nambe, recognized Ken Martinez’s motion and called for a voice vote. A number of Republicans call for a roll call vote, which would record the names of those voting for and against the motion. Despite the call, Luján continued the vote on a voice vote and ruled the ayes had it and so the chamber was in recess until Thursday morning.
Luján then left the chambers even as Republicans called to appeal to the ruling of the chair, claiming that the nays had won the vote.
Martinez’s staff, on hand with video cameras to tape the push, caught the action.
In a statement afterwards the governor said, “It’s outrageous that Speaker Ben Luján broke House rules to block an up-or-down vote on the bill to repeal driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.”
“Come tomorrow morning, every House member will make a choice – either stand with Speaker Luján and support driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants,” Martinez said, “or stand with New Mexicans to overturn this dangerous law.”
For his part, Nuñez said he wasn’t giving up. He told NMPolitics.net, “It’s not over. We’ll do it again tomorrow.”
In a statement given to media outlets, Luján said that he intends to take up the motion again tomorrow and that he thought the vote was clearly in favor of adjournment. Lujan also criticized Martinez’s statement.
“It is unfortunate that Gov. Martinez chose to issue inflammatory statements to the media that questioned the motives of the House and provided an inaccurate interpretation of House rules,” Luján said.
Overshadowed by the antics at the end of the day was the fact that the House moved on two large pieces of legislation. The film incentive cap and the state budget both passed on Wednesday. The two bills will now head to the Senate while the House will likely start the day with the motion that set off all the controversy at the end of Wednesday.
This year’s session ends on March 19.
The video, first given to NMPolitics.net, is available below.
