Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham not backing down from crime-heavy agenda as 60-day session nears

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently stopped to talk to people hanging out and camping in and around De Vargas Park in New Mexico’s capital city — just a short walk from the historic plaza and high-end jewelry shops.

According to her, she saw drug paraphernalia, alcohol and an individual with a visible gunshot wound, but not much desire for treatment.

“I can’t get them to accept help, not one person,” she recalled during an interview in the Governor’s Office.

The experience, she said, is not uncommon and underscores the challenges posed by scarce affordable housing, easy access to drugs and a stretched-thin behavioral health system.

As she readies for her final 60-day legislative session as New Mexico’s top executive, Lujan Grisham is going all-in on public safety issues.

The governor, who tangled with Democratic legislative leaders last year over crime and homelessness, is not backing away from a new showdown as she enters the homestretch of her tenure as governor.

She has held a series of crime-focused town hall meetings across the state and urged New Mexicans to contact legislators to express their support for her package of bills.

“I’m going to keep fighting for the things that I believe make New Mexico families safer,” Lujan Grisham told the Journal.

“If a governor gets intimidated or just feels like ‘I can’t win a vote, so I’m not going to do it’ and gives up, then maybe it’s time for you to think about a different job,” she added.

With the session set to begin Tuesday, Lujan Grisham said her administration currently has 27 bills dealing with crime-related issues ready to be filed. That number could increase to 30 or 35 bills in the coming weeks, she added.

In all, the governor said she expects there could be as many as 150 public safety bills filed before the session ends on March 22.

Leading legislators say they have been in talks with the Governor’s Office and share her concerns — at least to a point.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said crime and public safety issues are “on the minds of all New Mexicans.”

He said lawmakers plan to push an expedited package of bills dealing with criminal competency and expanded mental health and drug abuse treatment programs during the session’s first 30 days.

“These are complex, really tricky constitutional issues,” Wirth said. “You can’t pass laws if the infrastructure is not there to get the people the help they need.”

He also said some of the governor’s proposals are “non-starters” in the Legislature, a list that could include a plan to make it easier to hold defendants charged with certain violent crimes behind bars until trial.

Previous pre-trial detention bills have stalled at the Roundhouse amid concerns about whether they violate defendants’ constitutional rights.

But Lujan Grisham said public sentiment is behind her push for a “course correction” to the state’s approach to crime and public safety.

The governor said she has personally been chased and threatened and regularly sees theft occurring while she’s shopping, sometimes prompting members of her security detail to intervene.

She also said she has a family member addicted to fentanyl who has refused help, and a daughter-in-law was injured in a random violent attack and cannot go back to work.

“If you’re not going to get sober and get treatment, you can’t commit crimes,” she said.

A crime focus at the Roundhouse

This year’s focus on public safety bills comes after a special session last July in which the Democratic-controlled Legislature adjourned without debating most of the governor’s crime-related agenda.

Her bills that did get filed were sponsored by Republicans, who say Democrats are now championing ideas they’ve supported for years.

It also comes as at least 20 New Mexico cities saw a rise in violent crime from 2020 to 2022, with Bernalillo County’s violent crime rate roughly three times higher than the national average.

In addition, Lujan Grisham said some businesses are struggling to keep their insurance policies in place due to repeat vandalism.

The governor insisted her concerns about crime are not new but said the issue has reached crisis levels.

At least in part, Lujan Grisham blames that on a resistance from advocacy groups and Democratic legislators to most proposals dealing with stiffer criminal penalties.

“We’ve been so entrenched as a state that it’s the wrong reaction to be punitive,” the governor said.

“We stopped doing course corrections — it had to be all of one and none of the other,” she added, referring to the friction between advocates for stiffer criminal penalties and those pushing for expanded treatment and other preventive measures.

“We just keep fighting on these two extreme measures,” she said. “It’s both. You must always do both.”

Lujan Grisham said she would not veto any bills that provide more resources for treatment programs but said ongoing participation in voluntary treatment programs is often anemic.

During this year’s session, she said she will once again push bills dealing with criminal competency and involuntary commitment for repeat criminal offenders who decline treatment for mental health issues.

The governor said some changes have been made to the bills after last summer’s special session, in an attempt to address concerns and make them more streamlined.

Lujan Grisham said she also plans to ask lawmakers to pass two bills dealing with firearms — a proposed ban on so-called “ghost” guns, or homemade firearms, and a limitation on the number of rounds that large-capacity ammunition-feeding devices are permitted to carry.

She also intends to support legislation dealing with increased penalties for felons in possession of a firearm, saying those weapons often end up in the hands of juveniles.

A relationship on the rocks?

During her first six years as governor, Lujan Grisham’s top agenda items generally got a warm reception with lawmakers, with a few notable exceptions.

Overall, she described her relationship with the Legislature as a “pretty effective partnership” that has been less contentious than the executive-legislative divides in many other states.

“There should be some natural tension — and I’m alright with that,” said Lujan Grisham.

But Lujan Grisham also acknowledges that New Mexico’s most recent governors — Democrat Bill Richardson and Republicans Gary Johnson and Susana Martinez — all ended their second terms at odds with the Legislature.

Lujan Grisham said Martinez, who preceded her in office, was “not wrong” on crime issues, though she said Martinez could have done more on behavioral health and treatment programs.

“They did not give her any attention on the criminal justice side,” the current governor said.

However, just as Martinez faced resistance in passing tough-on-crime laws, Lujan Grisham has also faced pushback in her attempts to enact more punitive policies.

A coalition of more than 10 advocacy groups recently launched a billboard campaign opposing the governor’s push and calling for increased investments in health care, education and housing programs.

“While our communities want immediate solutions, we need reforms that actually work — not policies that threaten the rights and dignity of New Mexicans while doing nothing to make us safer,” said Daniel Williams, policy advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico.

For his part, Wirth said a “reset” was needed after last year’s special session. But he predicted the governor and lawmakers could find common ground as they pursue changes to the state’s system for determining criminal competency.

“There’s too much important work to be done for us not to get to a good place at the end of the day,” he said.

With the start of the session nearing, Lujan Grisham said she’s not deterred despite the resistance to some of her crime-related agenda.

She said she believes Santa Fe is currently at a key juncture in its struggle to address housing, crime and drug use, while Albuquerque is “going to take years” to fix.

“I’m hearing legislators say out loud — both parties — that it’s a crisis,” said Lujan Grisham.

“I feel very confident we’re going to get a pretty robust response,” she added.