Secretary of state fills in as governor

With Gov. Susana Martinez in Rome and Lt. Gov. John Sanchez also heading out of state, Secretary of State Dianna Duran is filling in as New Mexico’s chief executive.

The state’s Constitution dictates that if the governor travels outside the state, the lieutenant governor shall serve as acting governor. If both the top executives are out of New Mexico, that role falls to the secretary of state.

The secretary of state’s chief of staff, Ken Ortiz, said Duran was notified last week by the Governor’s Office that Martinez would be traveling to Rome as part of an official U.S. delegation attending Pope Francis’ installation Mass.

Duran served as acting governor Tuesday and will remain in the role today until Martinez arrives back in the state.

However, Ortiz said Duran does not intend to sign any just-approved bills — the 60-day legislative session ended Saturday — or handle other official matters while serving as acting governor.

“There’s nothing that needs to be acted upon,” he said.

While Martinez is in Rome until today, Lt. Gov. Sanchez left the state Tuesday to participate in a National Lieutenant Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C. While in the nation’s capital, Sanchez will also meet with U.S. Department of Defense officials to discuss federal spending in New Mexico, his office said Tuesday.

Next in line after the secretary of state to serve as acting governor would be Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces.

BY THE NUMBERS: For those keeping score, the total number of bills passed during this year’s legislative session was 298.

That compares with 284 bills that were approved by both the House and Senate in 2011, the last 60-day session. Gov. Martinez vetoed 98 of those bills.

Want more facts from this year’s session?

Only 23 percent of the bills filed during the session were ultimately passed by both chambers, as a total of 1,317 bills were introduced.

Of the 294 bills passed, roughly 96 percent of them — 284 of the 294 — were endorsed during the session’s final week, as legislators worked long hours to churn out bills before the session’s end.

Also, lawmakers signed off on just one proposed constitutional amendment this year — a proposal to require that school board elections be held on different dates than partisan elections. The question will be placed before voters in November 2014, if not sooner.
— This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal