Varela goes to hospital but is due back at session today

Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe, was expected to return to the Capitol on Saturday for the final hours of the legislative session after being taken to a hospital on Friday.

The veteran lawmaker collapsed in his Capitol office Friday morning.

“He’s absolutely fine,” House Speaker Ken Martinez, D-Grants, told members of the House later in the day.

Martinez said Varela had taken allergy medication that interacted with other medication and “knocked him out.”

According to his son, Jeff, Varela passed out for about 20 seconds. He was alert when he was taken out of the Capitol, according to a spokeswoman for the House Democratic majority, Carla Aragon.

Rep. Varela, in a statement released by the House Democratic majority office, called it “a minor episode.”

“I’m feeling much better and should be back for the final hours of the session,” the lawmaker said in the statement.

The 60-day legislative session ends at noon today, and the final days are marked by long hours in committees and on the floors of the House and Senate.

Varela, a retired state worker, has been in the House since 1987 and is an expert on the state budget. He is the deputy chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee and vice chairman of the Legislative Finance Committee.

He’s the second legislative leader to end up in the hospital this session. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, had a heart procedure — an angioplasty and a stent — on Feb. 14 in an Albuquerque hospital, and two weeks later was examined briefly at a Santa Fe hospital after feeling ill.
— This article appeared on page A3 of the Albuquerque Journal