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Hello fellow political junkies!
Hope everyone’s holidays were lovely.
The legislative session begins in eight days and your legislators began prefiling legislation on Jan. 2.
Legislation aimed at modernizing the legislature has already been filed.
Two house joint resolutions were pre-filed by Rep. Matthew McQueen, a Democrat from Galisteo, that aim to make the legislative session 45 days each year, remove the restriction on how many bills can be introduced in even-numbered years and to have the legislature consider overriding gubernatorial vetoes from the previous session.
Sister legislation concerning the legislative session was pre-filed by Sen. Bill Tallman, a Democrat from Albuquerque.
McQueen’s other house joint resolution was to eliminate pocket vetoes.
Legislation is pocket vetoed when the governor does not act upon it in a timely manner.
The governor has until March 6 to approve legislation otherwise it gets pocket vetoed, and therefore dies. The governor does not have to provide an explanation for bills that are pocket vetoed.
The joint resolutions would seek to change the state constitution. This means each would need to pass with the support of a majority of each chamber before going to voters for approval.
A major topic between the 2023 session and the 2024 session is firearms and HB 27 proposes an update to the Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act to include a temporary extreme risk firearm protection order, to “allow healthcare professionals and law enforcement professionals to request petitions for extreme risk firearm protection orders; providing an expedited process for temporary orders to be issued at all times; requiring immediate relinquishment of firearms upon service of an order; allowing law enforcement agencies to destroy, sell or transfer unclaimed firearms,” the bill states.
Legislation can be pre-filed until Jan. 12.
House pre-filed legislation can be found here by tapping the Go button. Senate pre-files are indexed on nmlegis.gov.
Donald Trump and the 14th Amendment
The ongoing saga of the Republican Primary continues with two states, Colorado and Maine, disallowing former President Donald Trump from being on their states’ primary ballots citing his behavior on Jan. 6, 2021 in which he is alleged to have incited the Capitol riots. His disqualification was based on the 14th Amendment clause that disqualifies people who took an oath to support the Constitution but participated in a rebellion or insurrection against the Constitution. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate can reverse a person’s disqualification if both houses get a two-thirds vote to do so.
Trump has appealed these decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to hear oral arguments in the case on Feb. 8.
The 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause was used in New Mexico in September 2022 to remove former Otero County Commissioner and Trump ally Couy Griffin from office due to his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.
Griffin was charged knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building relating to his participation in the Capitol riot.
Griffin did not enter the Capitol Building but had climbed a temporary barrier to an area that was set up for the 2021 Inauguration Ceremony on Jan. 20.
2024 New Mexico Primary Elections
The New Mexico Primary is set for June 4. Candidate filing day is in February.
The 2024 General Election day is Nov. 5.
For more information about elections contact your local county clerk’s office which can also help you check on or update your voter registration, a process that can also be done online at NMVote.org.
Local and county meeting schedules
- Albuquerque City Council meets at 5 p.m. on the first and third Monday of each month.
- Bernalillo County Commission meets at 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.
- Doña Ana County Commission meets at 9 a.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.
- Las Cruces City Council meets at 1 p.m. on the first and third Monday of each month.
- Rio Rancho City Council meets at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.
- Sandoval County Commission meets at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.
- Santa Fe City Council meets at 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.
- Santa Fe County Commission meets at 2 p.m. on the second and last Tuesday of each month.
Contact your local county or municipality to make sure the meetings are going ahead as scheduled since meetings are sometimes changed due to the holidays.
Tips, subscriptions and more info
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