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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Dem: I Voted My District
By Phil Parker
Journal Staff Writer
The lone Democrat to vote against a domestic partnerships bill earlier this week in the Senate Judiciary Committee said he was simply doing what his constituents wanted.
“I've probably gotten more e-mails and calls about a 'yes' vote since I voted against it than I did prior to the vote,” Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española, said Tuesday.
Martinez estimated he had gotten only 10 messages in support of the bill, compared to some 800 against it.
“I've always been a strong advocate of people's civil rights,” Martinez said. “I think gay rights falls under the same category, I sure do, but that's not why I voted the way I voted. It's because my constituency sent me the message that they did not want me to vote for it. I'm here for them.”
Senate Bill 12, known as the Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act, stalled after a 5-5 committee vote on Monday. The bill would have granted the same legal benefits of marriage under New Mexico law to unmarried couples of any gender who file an application. Martinez was the only Democrat on the committee to vote “no,” but another Democrat, Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, missed the vote to take a phone call. Sanchez told reporters afterward she would have voted “no” as well, also based on her constituents' desires.
Had proponents of the bill been as vocal before the vote as after, Martinez said, “it probably would have been a different result. I'm not saying, 'Everyone come in and lobby me now.' I'm talking about my constituents, not people from Albuquerque or other parts of the state. People who actually live within my district. Those are the calls, letters and e-mails I take into consideration.” Linda Siegle, a lobbyist for the gay rights organization Equality New Mexico, said a campaign had been organized to contact key legislators in favor of the bill, but Martinez was not targeted.
“We knew he was a 'no' vote,” she said. “He told us. He said that probably two months ago.”
She said Martinez cited the same reasoning in their meeting: More people within his district wanted the bill to fail.
Siegle said the tie vote is not a setback.
“We'll work as long as it takes to pass domestic partnerships,” she said. “We're really close. If it's not this year, it'll be a year very soon in the future. We're not done with this bill.”
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