Sen. Cisco McSorley

After consolidating three bills into one, the Senate Rules Committee made a few more big changes to a bill designed to reform the State Investment Council.
“Blending these three bill together we finally have true reform,” said Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque.

The governor would no longer sit on the state Investment Council if a bill sponsored by Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, succeeds.
The bill is one of three in the Senate aimed at reforming at a state agency at the center of an ever-widening investment scandal with ties to New York state and California. All three bills are scheduled [...]

Sen. Cisco McSorley told supporters of New Mexico’s domestic partnership bill on Monday that the measure is only “1 or 3 votes short” of a possible vote before the full Senate.
The bill is expected to go before a joint House and Sentate committee on Tuesday. (We will be live-blogging the hearing, so be sure to [...]

New Mexico state lawmakers wanted to know Thursday why thousands of documents requested by whistleblower Frank Foy and his attorney haven’t been turned over by two agencies he says engaged in corrupt investment practices.

Gov. Bill Richardson is considering cuts to public education to close this year’s $650 million budgetary shortfall, several state lawmakers confirmed early Saturday afternoon. The news represents a change for Richardson, who has stood firm against public school cuts for weeks of negotiations with top legislative leaders. Richardson has said repeatedly that he did not want [...]

Ten New Mexico Democrats sided with Republican Senators amid mounting opposition from religious groups and a confluence of factors that worked against the bill’s passage.

State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, just told me the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on domestic partnerships this afternoon.
As of last week, the bill’s failure or passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee had come down to one vote — that of Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque. Sanchez said last week she hadn’t decided how to vote.
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Five of the six Democrats on the make-or-break committee appear to support the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act. Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, meanwhile, stands in the middle, undecided, and the likely swing vote. She’s being lobbied hard on the bill, which would extend the rights of married couples to same-sex and opposite-sex couples in a committed relationship.