With end in sight, first-term legislators reflect on their time in office

Ranchero music swells as the singer leans towards the mic, but this isn’t a concert hall — it’s the House floor. As a part of New Mexico House of Representatives tradition, first-term legislators sing a song of their choice after the passage of their first bill.

For Rep. Elaine Sena Cortez, R-Hobbs, her tune of choice was “Volver, Volver” by Vicente Fernández, which she sang proudly Wednesday afternoon after the House unanimously passed House Bill 197, a bill that amended the Silver Alert, an Amber Alert-style statewide notice for missing elderly people.

“In my district, in District 62, I’m the first female Hispanic state representative to ever occupy the seat.” Sena Cortez said. “So when it was time to sing a song, I wanted to take it back to our roots.”

With mere days left in the legislative session that ends March 22, three first-term legislators last week reflected on their first year at the Roundhouse.

There are 23 new lawmakers this year across both chambers, though there are several legislators who have switched chambers or returned to the Roundhouse after time away.

That means that more than 25% of the members in the legislative body are in office for the first time, and only five members of the 70-member House have served since before 2015. This turnover and relative inexperience recently caught the attention of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

“This is a very young legislature in terms of experience. … These are very hard jobs,” Lujan Grisham said at an address to Albuquerque business leaders in late February.

Despite inexperience, these newbies took on high-profile bills this session. Like Rep. Michelle Abeyta, D-To’hajiilee, who went toe-to-toe with the governor and agency heads in her co-sponsorship of House Bill 5, which would create an oversight office for the Child, Youth and Families Department.

Women take the lead

Of those 23 first-term legislators, 19 are women. This year, for the first time, the Legislature has a female majority, with women holding 61 of 112 seats.

For Rep. Marianna Anaya, D-Albuquerque, seeing so many women in political office right beside her is a reflection of her life’s work. Anaya was the president for New Mexico Emerge, a group that encourages Democratic women to run for office.

Women in leadership are already making a difference at the Roundhouse, Anaya said, pointing to debates surrounding House Bill 73, which if passed by the Senate, would allow people sexually assaulted during childhood to bring charges against their assailant well into their adulthood. Currently, child sex abuse survivors have until their 24th birthday to press charges.

“It was an incredibly supportive conversation around survivors and what it means to support them,” Anaya said. “And I don’t think the tone would have been the same only a handful of years ago.”

Across the aisle, Sena Cortez agreed that being surrounded by women made her feel welcomed as a newcomer, although she might not always agree with her fellow lawmakers.

“I feel loved and empowered and it’s a special thing, but you do have to compartmentalize — you’re debating, you’re on opposite sides of the issue, you vote no on each other’s bills and that’s tough, right?” Sena Cortez said.

Sen. Angel Charley, D-Acoma, also broke barriers when she took over the seat from Republican Sen. Joshua Sanchez, who now represents District 29 in Socorro and Valencia counties. Charley is both the first woman and first Native American to represent District 30, which includes Acoma, Laguna and Zuni pueblos. More than a third of Charley’s constituents are Native American, which at 36% is more than triple New Mexico’s statewide demographic, according to Census data.

“It’s a lot of responsibility, because when you’re the first, people are watching, and you have to be very intentional about how you’re going to make decisions, how you’re going to vote, how this affects people,” Charley said.

Charley is Laguna, Navajo and Zuni which has helped guide her lawmaking this first term, she said. On March 1, the Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 41, which would establish the Turquoise Alert, a system akin to the Amber Alert that would notify the public when a Native person goes missing. Native Americans, studies show, experience heightened rates of violence which often goes underreported, an issue that activists, politicians and researchers have called the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person’s crisis.

“I was completely emotional,” Charley said. “I was thinking about so many of the people who shared their stories and what it would have meant to be able to access an alert system and have people actually believe you and not victim blame and not push off the issue.”

Sacrifices

New Mexico is the only state in the country that doesn’t pay its lawmakers, though legislators do receive per diem payments intended to cover food and lodging expenses.

That means many lawmakers are juggling day jobs and family responsibilities alongside their legislative duties.

Sena Cortez is a business owner and professor at Eastern New Mexico University and University of the Southwest. Charley works in advocacy and Anaya in communications. Though all three said their careers eased the transition into lawmaking, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been an adjustment period.

“You know, you’re learning an entire new system and quite literally, drinking from the water hose, as people say, because it’s just so much information that’s coming at you,” Charley said.

Both Charley and Sena Cortez are also mothers, to a 17-year-old and 2-year-old, respectively. Once the session is over both are excited to return to their families.

“I’m gonna sleep in, but I do have a small trip with my kid scheduled for us to spend some real time together, because it has been a sacrifice of family for me to be here,” said Charley.