Opinion: Governor's leadership weaker ahead of session

Public safety will be on the agenda in the upcoming 60-day legislative session, but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s attempts to arm twist lawmakers on the issue last year won’t serve her well as she enters the lame-duck portion of her eight years in office.

Lujan Grisham is the second consecutive Democratic governor who likely envisioned resigning early for a much loftier position in the federal government. Bill Richardson had been tabbed for commerce secretary in the Obama administration, which would have made him the first Hispanic to hold the job. That got squelched when his political action committee was caught in a pay-to-play scandal involving state investments.

It’s no secret that Lujan Grisham was under consideration for a position in the Harris administration, had the presidential election gone the other way. Now she’s stuck here for the next two years.

As governor, Lujan Grisham has the constitutional power to veto any bill passed by the Legislature. But she has lost the political power to direct the agenda for the upcoming 60-day legislative session that starts in January.

That’s in large part because she overplayed her hand last year on the public safety issue. After failing to get everything she wanted in the regular 30-day session, she called for a special session despite warnings from leaders in her own party that there was no consensus and no hope for success.

Lawmakers voted to wrap it up and go home as soon as they arrived, handing the governor an embarrassing rebuke.

As part of her campaign to pressure lawmakers, Lujan Grisham held several public meetings, including one in Las Cruces that was much larger and went much longer than had been expected. There’s no question that New Mexicans are concerned about crime in their neighborhoods and want lawmakers to take action.

I don’t think mass incarceration is the solution, especially with New Mexico’s corporate, for-profit prisons where successful rehabilitation programs mean fewer return customers.

But there are some issues that need to be addressed — bail reform and protecting communities from repeat offenders who have been found incompetent to stand trial.

My fear is that the governor’s maximum pressure campaign will only make legislators more reluctant to pass public safety legislation that is needed.

The election did very little to change the makeup of the Legislature. That was determined on filing day, months before the start of early voting, when incumbents throughout the state in both parties were given a free pass to reelection without the muss and fuss of having to deal with an opponent.

Only 15 of the 42 seats in the Senate were decided in the general election. Democrats won 17 seats and Republicans won 10 on filing day. In the House, only 33 of the 70 seats were decided in races between Republicans and Democrats on Election Day. Democrats decided last month to retain their current leaders, with Javier Martinez returning as speaker of the House and Mimi Stewart remaining as Senate president pro tem.

There’s not much time to prepare for a 60-day session, where any legislator can introduce bills on any topic they desire. The challenge is to get lawmakers focused on the most important issues.

That’s a lot easier to do with strong leadership from the Governor’s Office.

Walt Rubel is the former opinion page editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News. He lives in Las Cruces, and can be reached at:

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