Special session strife could signal onset of second-term schism between governor, lawmakers

SANTA FE — Just minutes after a single-day special session wrapped up at the Roundhouse last week, House Speaker Javier Martínez said there were no hard feelings between top-ranking lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

“Nothing is personal in politics,” the Albuquerque Democrat said.

But that adage could be put to the test over the next two-plus years, after the governor blasted fellow Democrats in the Legislature for failing to pass her package of crime-related bills.

Lujan Grisham, who faced little public pushback from legislative leadership during her first term in office, said lawmakers should be “embarrassed” about their inability to pass her public safety proposals.

The governor later softened her tone, saying she was hopeful her office and lawmakers could find common ground on crime issues in the run-up to next year’s 60-day legislative session.

“It’s also important to note that the impasse at the special session wasn’t about politics; it is rooted in a fundamental philosophical difference about the most effective way to combat crime and reduce homelessness,” the governor told the Journal in a statement.

She did not cite any immediate plans to call lawmakers back to Santa Fe for another special session.

But the friction between the governor and the Legislature — specifically members of her own party — could signal looming challenges at the Roundhouse for Lujan Grisham during the remainder of her four-year term that ends in 2026.

University of New Mexico political science professor Gabriel Sanchez pointed out the state’s previous governors, Bill Richardson and Susana Martinez, also saw their relationships with legislators sour during their second terms.

“Both Martinez and Richardson struggled to get policy victories in the back end of their second terms, and this challenge with the special session may point to a similar struggle for Lujan Grisham moving forward,” Sanchez said.

In addition, he said the collaboration between House and Senate Democrats to stymie the governor’s special session agenda, in particular, could foreshadow possible conflict over the next two years.

Top-ranking lawmakers were more conciliatory in their post-special session remarks, but pushed back against suggestions the governor’s agenda was rejected without close scrutiny.

House Speaker Martínez said lawmakers put in “hundreds of hours” of work going over different drafts of the governor’s bills in the weeks leading up to the special session.

“The Legislature is a deliberative body, and we are not here to pass flawed bills,” added Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, during a news conference after the special session ended.

Lujan Grisham had called on lawmakers to pass bills dealing with panhandling, certain firearm possession penalties and mandatory treatment for criminal defendants deemed to be incompetent to stand trial.

But leading Democratic legislators and some advocacy groups questioned whether the proposals would actually reduce crime rates and said they could have significant civil rights consequences if enacted.

In the end, the special session wrapped up in a matter of hours. Lawmakers passed a bill authorizing more than $100 million for wildfire recovery efforts and the expansion of a court-based mental health treatment program, but did not even debate most of the governor’s proposals.

Those bills had been filed by Republican lawmakers in the absence of Democratic support.

Meanwhile, Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis Porter said the governor would hold public safety town hall meetings in the coming days to continue her work on public safety issues. The first of those town hall meetings will be held Thursday in Las Cruces, with events to follow in Española and Albuquerque.