Those that attended meetings regarding House Bill 356 will recognize some of these names, but for those that did not, here is something to think about.
As the article states, Speaker W. Ken Martinez was elected to his seat as Speaker of the House because the Democratic Party is currently the majority in the House. It is the Speaker who assigns house bills to committees and it is the Speaker who decides which bills get presented to the House floor for debate and a vote. HB359 was first assigned to the Health, Government, and Indian Affairs committee. In this committee, Chair Roger Madalena (D) gave the opposing side the opportunity to speak for a total of 1 hour between Tuesday and Thursday on their opposition of HB356, yet gave the taxpayers, who were the majority attending, only 10 minutes! Thankfully, Nate Gentry (R) disagreed with the Chair, and demanded he give the committee members a voice after Madalena attempted to table the bill with no input from the committee. Alonzo Baldonado (R) seconded the motion and HB356 passed to the next committee. Yvette Herrell (R) not only supported this bill, but after Memorial 17 was presented, co-wrote HB356. Twice, Donald Bratton (R) stood up to those opposed to this bill and asked how such unfair business tactics could even be allowed to take advantage of any consumer. Rep. Bratton spoke the words our community was not allowed to speak!
These are Republican Representatives who crossed party lines to help support our State Representative Carl Trujillo (D) in an attempt to pass legislation for fairness to ALL people of our community! They, along with Rep. Trujillo, did not stand up for special interest groups but against unfair business practices that punished innocent people for something the federal government created with a law (25CFR169.12) that gives no limits to what Sovereign nations can charge for utility easements.
This is not an attempt to promote any political party, this is a plea for our community to become informed and know who we are electing to our Legislation. Remember, taxpayers in our community are almost 90% of the voting power. We have the power to help decide who is running our government – let's choose wisely regardless of party affiliation!
The link below will give you information on who leads our Round House, committee members, and representatives currently in our legislation. Primary election is June 3, 2014, and general election is on November 4, 2014. Talk to your family and friends in other New Mexico communities and tell them your experience with our Legislation!
http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/
2014 Regular Session Bill Locator
This link below will allow the taxpayer to review what bills each Representative entered for their constituents and the outcome of that bill.
http://www.nmlegis.gov/lcs/
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