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Get ready for challengers, educators’ union warns state lawmakers
AFT supported three challengers who won in 2008
By Trip Jennings 10/30/09 11:55 AM

[PICTURE] Reps. Heaton, Lujan and Salazar in a committee meeting during the 2009 special session.

Reps. John Heaton and Ben Lujan (with Nick Salazar) in a committee meeting during the 2009 special session.
New Mexico state lawmakers struggled to pass a mid-year state budget fix last week, but in a possible sign of how difficult things may become politically, at least one public employee union is already throwing out a seldom-used threat in New Mexico: Democratic lawmakers, we’ll work to unseat you if you cut education.

“We are making it very clear to separate those who want to use education as a slogan and those who want to do something constructive,” said Christine Trujillo, president of the American Federation of Teachers of New Mexico (AFT-NM).

Union representatives and members will grade lawmakers on how they vote on education funding during the regular legislative session in January, Trujillo said.

While AFT’s threat applies to Democratic lawmakers in general, the practical effect falls most heavily on Democratic House members, who are elected every two years and face re-election next year.
But several House Democratic lawmakers sounded unfazed by the potential challenge late last week.

“That’s their prerogative. But I think we’re the only friends that they have,” House Speaker Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said of AFT’s aggressive tone.

“You’re looking at the people that’ve been carrying their bills for 20 years,” said the chairman of the House Education Committee, Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque.

Rep. John Heaton, D-Carlsbad, said coping with such challenges comes with Democrats controlling the New Mexico Legislature.

“We have to be responsible,” Heaton said. “When you are the majority party, all of the obligations fall on your shoulders to try to do the right things. That responsibility comes with being in the majority. That’s just part of it.”

The union’s increasingly aggressive tone comes as state lawmakers and Gov. Bill Richardson prepare for what many predict will be the most difficult legislative session in decades. State lawmakers and Richardson may face a $1 billion shortfall when they meet in Santa Fe in January to write next year’s state budget.

Some state lawmakers predict that deep spending cuts and tax increases will be part of the debate in January.
New Mexico state legislators do not often have strongly supported opponents in primary elections; they are usually only opposed by members of the opposite party in general election votes. But judging by recent history, 

AFT’s threat to support challengers in a primary may not be an idle one.

The educators’ union broke with other public employee unions last year to endorse challengers running against sitting Democratic incumbents prior to the June 2008 primary. Then Rep. Dan Silva and Sens. James Taylor and Shannon Robinson lost to Eleanor Chavez, Eric Griego and Tim Keller, respectively.

“They did endorse Tim Keller and Eric Griego. They contributed and a number of their employees did get involved,” recalled Neri Holguin, who managed Keller’s and Griego’s campaigns. “I was particularly grateful for their endorsement.”

In recent days New Mexicans have caught a glimpse of how bad the state’s financial situation could become. Joe Williams, the state’s corrections chief, said two prisons would close and hundreds of non-violent inmates would go free if he had to cut $21 million, or 7.6 percent, from this agency. Meanwhile, state lawmakers and their staff jousted with the Richardson administration over whether or not the budget fix the Legislature passed last week exempted the government’s low-income health insurance program from cuts.

Among the measures the Legislature passed last week to help address this year’s $650 million shortfall was one that ordered Richardson to cut 7.6 percent of spending at dozens of agencies under his control. The governor can reach that 7.6 percent threshold by cutting deeper in some places than others, state lawmakers and legislative staff have said. In other words, he has the discretion to trim spending at one agency deeper than another as long as the 7.6 percent is cut in total.

Throughout the special legislative session, Trujillo and other AFT members often touted a poll showing a majority of New Mexicans opposing education cuts.

And sometimes they appeared to be recruiting individuals to run against incumbent lawmakers.
“’Want to announce early for one of these conservative Democrats’ seat in the House and win in Nov 2010?’” John Ingram, also of AFT-New Mexico, commented during a live blog hosted by the Independent during last week’s special legislative session.

K-12 education was largely protected from cuts during the recent special legislative session, although the legality of a fund transfer that would help cushion local school districts from cuts remains unclear.

Trujillo acknowledged that AFT is thinking ahead to guard against deep cuts in K-12 education and at colleges and universities in January despite the state’s increasingly bleak finances.

“The weekend before the special legislative session, 3,200 people showed at the Capitol,” Trujillo said. “Three thousand people got up on a Friday morning when they could have done something else. Three thousand people felt compelled to go to Santa Fe and tell legislators how serious this was. If those politicians don’t understand the depth of their concern, I don’t know what else to do.”